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Moving into Leo's bedroom, she found him already awake and playing with a bunch of trucks in the middle of his bed. She smiled at his sleepy eyes and messy brown hair, feeling an enormous wave of love for her little boy. Sometimes, he reminded her of Kevin, but he was a mix of both of them, and she was happy about that.
After getting him up and dressed, she fed him a quick breakfast and then they headed off to preschool. Leo was always happy to go to school, so there were no sad goodbyes, just a quick hug before he ran off to play with his friends. Sometimes, she secretly wished he was a little sorrier to see her go, but that was selfish. It was better that he was independent, because she really needed the preschool daycare to work well. It made her life a lot easier.
When she got to the café, the restaurant was packed. Friday morning had brought more tourists in for eggs and pancakes. She jumped into work, not giving the rest of her life a second thought until the rush finally slowed down around ten. She was taking her first deep breath in an hour when Decker walked in and slid onto a stool at the counter. For some inexplicable reason, her heart jumped at the sight of him. His brown hair was damp, as if he'd recently taken a shower, his face cleanly shaven, a glow to his skin.
He smiled when he saw her, and that gave her heart another jump.
"Hi," she said. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, thanks. I ate early this morning. I don't have a printer, so I wrote up the bid." He pushed a piece of paper across the table.
"Oh, great," she said, picking it up. She perused the line items, her stomach clenching a little at the various price points. It wasn't going to be cheap to fix the house up, but as she turned the page over, she realized Decker had thrown in a discount at the end. "You're giving me fifteen percent off?"
"I always do that for friends."
"Well, I appreciate that. Even though we're not really friends. We met two days ago."
"I consider anyone I sing with to be a friend," he said lightly.
"I wanted to thank you again for that. You took off so fast last night, I didn't have a chance."
"No thanks necessary, and I wanted time to work on the bid. I know you probably need to go over this with your parents, but if you can let me know as soon as possible, that would be great."
"I'll call them today," she replied.
"I've laid out a few options if you want to go a cheaper route. You could leave the downstairs guest bathroom as is and just do some paint. The kitchen isn't in terrible shape, either, if you want to skip new cabinets and just do some refinishing. Anyway, you can think about it. In the meantime, I know I'm not on the payroll yet, but I'd like to do some cleanup at the house."
"Really?" she asked in surprise. "Why would you want to do that?"
He shrugged. "It needs to be done, and I have time."
"There are lots of other things you can do in Whisper Lake. You can hike, go for a sail, walk around town. You could take a bike ride. There's a great path that runs along the water, and it's a beautiful day."
"Joel and I are going on a bike ride later this afternoon."
"Right. He said something about that. That's good. You and Joel should spend time together."
"Well, until then, I might as well be productive. I can leave personal items for you to review at a later date."
"Sure, go for it." She tilted her head, giving him a thoughtful look. "Did you have any more thoughts about what I told you last night? That Eleanor owned the house you and your father stayed in?"
"I have thought about it," he admitted. "To be honest, I'm a little more curious to look around her house."
Now, she knew why he was so interested in sifting through Eleanor's things when yesterday he'd suggested she hire a junk company and be done with it all. "Do you think there's a clue there?"
"Probably not," he said with a wry smile. "I'm not sure I would even know if I somehow stumbled upon a clue. But I think Eleanor was the woman arguing with my dad. I remembered him calling her Ellie. Which sounds like a nickname for Eleanor."
"I would think so. There are photos of Eleanor in her house. You should be able to confirm she's the woman who was talking to your dad. You could solve at least one mystery."
"I'm not sure there is a mystery," he said slowly. "I don't even know why I'm intrigued by these particular memories. I'm not someone who thinks about things that happened a long time ago."
"It's because you're back in Whisper Lake. And I don't think it's a bad thing to look back."
"Well, whether or not I find clues, I can give you a little help—no charge."
"All right. I'll call my parents and talk to them about the job. I'll let you know what they decide."
"Then we'll talk later."
