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Ready to start her first full day, she grabbed her tablet and went down for coffee. It amazed her how still and quiet the house was, and how filled with light.
The dark had beendark.
No street noises, no dog barking in a neighbor’s yard. Just the roll and thrash of water against rock, depending on where she was in the house.
She stood now, looking out over another blanket of sparkling snow. The wall of green woods had snow draped on branches. And something moved in its shadows, she realized as her heart tripped up to her throat.
Then a deer stepped out, its coat dark and shaggy for the season, its steps slow and dainty. Delighted, Sonya watched it stand in the sunlight, scent the air, before it slipped back into shadows and vanished like a ghost.
Maybe she’d use some of Collin’s canvases, some of his paints andbrushes. Inspiration lay everywhere. Why not amuse herself trying a few landscapes?
Not her passion, no. Her mother had been right about that. But it might be fun when she could make the time.
Work came before fun, and she had plenty of that ahead of her.
Setting up her office, number one. She might be living rent-free for the next three months, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need to work.
She had one job to complete—and she needed to generate more.
At some point she should go through the storage areas and see exactly what was what. And she’d need to go into town, become familiar, make some contacts.
She didn’t mind living alone, but she’d never been a hermit.
After she settled in, settled down, she’d have the Doyles over for dinner. That seemed the gracious thing to do—with the added benefit of finding out more about the house, its history, who’d lived there.
Who’d died there.
With a second cup of coffee, she scrambled up some eggs, and hearing her mother’s voice in her head, sat at the island rather than eating standing up.
She checked her email, as relieved as pleased to find her website had generated a new inquiry for a quote.
A caterer, just starting up. A web design to include menu, prices, service area, and so on.
“I love a start-up, so let’s hit it.”
She answered on the spot, posing a list of questions that would help her, and the potential client, make some decisions. Added a few careful suggestions to test the waters.
That done, she dealt with the dishes, then went up to take the shower she’d been too tired for the night before.
Hot water flowed generously from the rain showerhead in a shower double the size of hers in the duplex.
“I miss shower sex.” She lifted her face to the water. “I miss sex altogether. Oh well, priorities.”
And it wasn’t like she had a lot of candidates for shower sex anyway.
It made her smile to remember her conversation with Cleo whenCleo had demanded three words to describe Trey Doyle, then John Dee.
Patient, personable, and hot for Trey.
Cheerful, married, and gay for John Dee.
She started to imagine shower sex with Trey, then shoved that aside. That way, she decided, lay madness.
Plus, he probably already had someone (or someones) in his life. And though she missed sex, she didn’t miss relationships. Not yet. And she didn’t feel ready for sex without the relationship end.
So scratch that entirely for now.
She stepped out of the shower, reached for a towel. And frowned at the bathroom door.
