Page 21 of The Fire Line

“He’ll check her every twenty minutes until somebody physically removes him from the barn.”

“I’m starting to suspect he considers vigilance a personality.”

“He considers it a job. Especially with Rain.”

Jay looked at her in question.

“She was Eleanor’s mare,” Elise explained. “Nell’s.”

The nickname caught him. Eleanor was the name in his notes and on release forms, the name Harris had gone still hearing in the interview room. Nell belonged to somebody’s sister.

“What was she like?”

Elise’s hands slowed over the pastry. “Opinionated. Funny when she wasn’t trying to be. She could talk Harris into things the rest of us wouldn’t bother asking him to do.” A small smile passed across her face. “Rain was the same with her. Stubborn with everybody else, perfect the second Nell got in the saddle.”

“He still rides her?”

“Sometimes. Mostly he takes care of her.”

There was enough distinction in the answer that Jay understood it.

“She’s one of the pieces he has left,” Elise said.

Outside, Harris emerged from the equipment shed carrying wire cutters and headed back toward the trough. Apparently the broken wire had not been permitted to remain broken for even an hour.

“He’s still working.”

“Yeah. He’ll keep going until somebody makes him stop, then he’ll be up at five tomorrow.”

“Evan said nobody was allowed to do anything before noon.”

“Evan has been trying to impose that rule since they were teenagers. Harris gets quieter when he’s disobeying you. That’s how you know.”

Jay smiled.

“Mom might manage to keep him at the party tonight,” Elise said. “He has a harder time saying no to her on her birthday.”

“He says no to everybody.”

“He says no first. That isn’t always where he ends up.”

That tracked uncomfortably well with Jay’s experience.

Elise inspected the edge of the crust. “He’ll stay. He just likes pretending he’s been taken hostage.”

“Does he actually enjoy parties?”

“More tolerance than enjoyment. He used to be better at them.” Some of the ease left her voice. “Claire likes dancing. She could usually get him onto a floor by ignoring the first six times he said no.”

Of course Claire had danced with Harris. They had been married for twelve years. Presumably they had also eaten meals, shared beds, spent holidays together, and done hundreds of other things Jay had absolutely no need to reconstruct.

The knife went through the peach harder than necessary.

Elise glanced at the cutting board. “You’re taking that out on the fruit.”

“The knife’s dull.”

“Right.”