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“True,” I agreed. “And the wall in front that the barn door is set into makes everything separate.”

“I mean, unlike us, with half wall, half fence, your wall goes all the way around you. The flower garden is inside, the front and back yards are inside, all your trees, your pool, your tiny cabana, all inside the walls.”

“Tiny cabana?” I teased her.

“Oh please. We have a pool, a pool house, a cabana—it’s huge. You’d be living inside a square. Now, it’s a really nice square, the grounds and the three-thousand-square-foot cottage, but still—basically a box.”

“I can’t tell if you want us there or not,” I said, chuckling.

“Of course I want you there, but I need to be honest.”

“Do you have a tennis court?”

“No. Graeme believes that tennis, racquetball, squash, golf, all these things should be done outside the home with friends, family, or business colleagues.”

I smiled at her.

“Do not ask me the difference between squash and racquetball either. I have no idea. Also, Wade and Avery play soccer in a cop league, as well as baseball.”

“Does Stone play a sport?”

“Tennis is his game.”

“And you?”

“I run. You and I could run together. I understand you’re very fast. That would be fun for me. None of the boys, even Graeme, can keep up with me. They’re sprinters. They have no long haul in them.”

“I would love to run with you.”

“Good.”

We were both quiet a moment.

“I would like to point out the walls again, they would make some people claustrophobic.”

“Deacon would find that very appealing.”

“I agree. And the true friends he has, none of whom you’ve met as, weirdly, they’re all overseas at the moment, they will visit and move back most assuredly, and will have to stay with you for a bit. He loves being a host, loves it when people visit, but really, the whole big-wall-between-his-mate-and-the-world thing is going to make him giddy.”

I was thinking that it certainly would.

“I mean, you can’t stay in your darling little house, it’s not safe enough. That’s been proven more than once at this point.”

“Quite true.”

“And you were sad there without him, so moving is a no-brainer.”

“We both knew my place wasn’t a long-term solution.”

“Well, listen. During the day, when you’re both out, you can set the alarm in the cottage before you leave, but at night there’s security on the grounds. And if you knew about the floodlights and how often the guards walk the perimeter… I mean, my daughter is in the house, and so are Graeme’s children. He’s absolutely terrifying about all our security. If the city would allow him to put a thirty-foot wall around the whole property, he’d be elated.”

“What was the point of the wall around the cottage?”

“I think simply to give complete privacy, which, at times, Graeme and Stone’s grandfather insists on. Their grandmother does not, so I suspect that’s why they stay at the house with us. Plus, of course, they love the kids.”

“Of course they do.”

She smiled at me. “The cottage is cleaned weekly by staff, but no one’s ever lived there.”