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RIDGE
I’d just sat down on the deck after a long day spent working on my new house when I heard footsteps behind me. “Tryst! I wasn’t expecting you,” I said when he walked through the patio door. “How’d you get in?”
“The garage was open.”
“Seriously? Shit. Let me go close it.” It wasn’t the first time my brain had short-circuited in the last week.
“I did already.”
“What brings you here? I didn’t know you were coming to town. I hope I’m not the reason you came all the way up here.”
“Only one of the reasons.”
“Look—”
He shook his head. “Ask me if I’d like a glass of wine first.”
I chuckled. “You got it. Red or white?”
“I left a bottle on the table you can open.”
There wasn’t much in my house yet, except a small refrigerator, a folding table, and a couple of chairs. There wasn’t even a functional bathroom. The construction guys had a porta-potty by the garage I used.
I pulled the wine key out of my back pocket and opened the bottle of rosé Tryst had brought with him. I recognized it as soon as I walked in. It was made by Demetrius, the name of the winery as well as the estate Alex and her husband owned.
“One of my favorites,” I said, bringing a glass out to Tryst. “Thank you.”
“I stopped to see my niece on my way here.”
“Yeah?”
“She told me a very interesting story. Two actually. The first was something she learned only yesterday from her mother—about my brother and Stanley Cooley.”
“Any relation to the district attorney?”
Tryst nodded. “His father.”
I shookmy head when Tryst finished telling me what Alex’s mom had told her, but before I could react, he brought up the situation between Sera’s mother and my father.
“Have you spoken with him yet?” he asked.
“I still think it’s best to wait until my parents are home.”
“I disagree. It stands between Seraphina and you.”
“There’s more standing between us.” I hadn’t seen or spoken to Sera since we returned to London. “Is this the second story, Tryst? Are you finally going to tell me what you think happened?”
“I can’t tell you, because I don’t know.”
“Maybe it’s as simple as Leah deciding my father didn’t pay enough for the Reeve place. I know my dad, and I’m sure he was more than fair.”
Tryst shook his head. “There’s more to it.”
“But you don’t know what?”
“Call your father.”
It was after four here, which meant nine in the morning in Australia. I couldn’t use the time of day as an excuse.
