Page 114 of The Woman By the Lake

He dove in and kissed my neck, then rubbed his stubble on me.

Gooseflesh covered my skin.

Riggs got back to work.

I brought him a glass of water.

Then I got to work on lunch.

After we ate, I went to work on watering the flowers.

And we continued easing into it.

TWENTY-FOUR

We’ll See

Nadia

I was setting the dining room table at Riggs’s house.

Abigail had broken the seal on it, and I’d kept that open considering the view, the fact I loved Riggs’s gorgeous, round table with its intricately carved pedestal and beautifully veined marble top, and that, even though it was huge and seated twelve, we could sit on a curve and see each other in order to talk.

But mostly, so Riggs could sit with his legs under it and eat comfortably.

It was Friday evening and the last three days had been blissfully uneventful.

First, no “hauntings.”

Second, no break-ins.

Riggs had fixed the cabin’s back door, installed the storm doors and the cameras (and mounted my new flag, which I was right, it looked great out front), and I had a program on my laptop where I could see what was happening on all sides of my house and into the area by where the stables used to be. These feeds were sent immediately to a cloud so we could review them if needed.

Or provide them as evidence.

Riggs then got stuck into a commission he was supposed to be doing during his down time. Sometimes, I hung with him while he did that, due to the fact his workshop was less a workshop and more a man cave, and I liked being out there with him.

Sure, there were lots of tools and work benches and sawhorses and equipment around.

But there was also a beat-up couch, an even more beat-up recliner, a massive flat screen TV, a game console, and to my hilarity, a lot of posters of scantily clad women on the walls. Not so scantily it was gross Ledger would see them, but the sheer number of them was impressive.

He had a shiny motorcycle, heavy on the chrome, parked in there, and two ATVs.

I had started journalling (admittedly, this was mostly about Riggs), so I did it in there with him, finding copious times to study him while he worked. Enjoying the vibe he gave off, the feel of the creative space he entered, the intensity of his focus, and watching the piece he was working on take shape (an intricate arbor made of iron that was going to be installed outside the local fancy hotel with the award-winning spa, the Pinetop Lodge, so people could get married under it).

Since I couldn’t read around him, sometimes I went back to the cabin to do that, and I’d broken the seal on the hammock (which was heavenly).

Then there were my daily trips to spend time with Gia (yes, we were making progress, no, we weren’t making Hutch’s usual progress, yes, he was going to let me have her anyway because he said she moped when I wasn’t around, which, of course, meant my baby needed to come to her new home as soon as possible, this being set at Monday).

I also shared more honestly with friends about how things were going, and yes, this included telling Maribeth all about Riggs (she was beside herself with glee I was “moving on” from Trevor, “finally”—she was more excited when I texted her a picture of Riggs).

As for Riggs and me, we gave up my porch loveseat that was temporarily unavailable to us in order to sit in front of his fire in his living room, and I endured his gentle probing about my mom, my grandfather, and some about Maribeth and Susan and other friends. In fact, my entire life in Chicago.

I knew this was all a lead-up so he’d have the history and know the players when I finally laid the big stuff on him. But he made it safe, and I liked talking about my life.

Though, I tried to ignore how he’d sometimes seem to retreat and get broody when I talked about all I had when I was home. And I did that because it indicated to me, he didn’t like the idea that I’d be returning.

It might not be that, but it wouldn’t be easing into anything at this early juncture in our relationship if I demanded, even carefully, to know his thoughts about that, so I let it be.

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