Page 50 of Fluffed and Folded

“He really hated the guy,” Tristan elaborated.

“Oh, yeah,” Steve nodded.

“Enough to kill him?”

That gave Steve pause. “Yeah,” he said at last. “But I can tell you for certain it wasn’t my boss.”

“How do you know?”

Steve laughed, this time with full amusement. “Because Asher was better connected than you think. As soon as he won the bet, he hadmyboss barred from ever entering the US again.” He chuckled to himself and downed the rest of his drink.

CHAPTER 28

“Ilove this,” Darby declared. Eli had spent the morning showing her around his uncle’s farm.

“Which part?” Eli asked as they stood beside their last stop, the goat pen. The goats had already been fed, milked, and watered, but that didn’t stop them from attempting to climb the pen’s enclosure in search of treats. Knowing them as he did, Eli had come loaded with treats, which he allowed Darby to distribute, much to her delight. (And the delight of the greedy goats.)

“All of it,” she declared, in rapturous enchantment. In truth, it was almost sensory overload. The uncle only had a few acres, but he’d made good use of them with goats, bunnies, bees, flowers, and vegetables. Eli explained that it had always been his uncle’s dream to be off the grid and self-contained. Finding that impossible, especially because he had to work a fulltime job before he retired, he instead dabbled in multiple areas that he found the most profitable and rewarding. Not even learning that the rabbits were raised for meat tamped her joy and enthusiasm.

Eli gave her a benign smile, taking vicarious enjoyment through her pleasure.

“You think I’m an idiot,” she said, tamping down her smile to a manageable level.

“No way,” Eli disagreed. “The farm has been my favorite place, my whole life. I love to bring people here.”

By “people,” Darby wondered if he meant women, and then immediately banished the thought for the undue jealousy it brought. Eli was not hers; he could see whomever he wanted, and he was certainly free to bring these nameless, faceless others to this little country oasis. Just because she felt oddly possessive of the farm now didn’t mean she was allowed to be oddly possessive ofhim. “Why do you live in the city?”

“The golden question lately,” he said. He rested his arms on the fence rail and faced the barn. “It’s a shorter commute, for one thing.”

“It’s Washington DC, it’s almost the law that you have a long commute,” she returned.

He tossed her a smile. “Is my landlady trying to evict me?”

That thought brought sudden and immense panic. Somehow she hadn’t realized that if Eli left, he’d be leavingher. He was her first and only friend in a decade. She couldn’t lose him. On the other hand, she had no right to be possessive, she reminded herself again, no right at all. “I want you to be happy,” she said, which was true.

He faced the barn again with a sigh. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who you are, to figure out what’s best.”

“Tell me about it,” she agreed, now also resting against the fence. The goats herded around them and bleated, desperate for more treats. She reached through the fence to pet one but, after realizing the hand contained no food, the goat butted her away with an irritated bleat.I think I just got rejected by a goat.

“I think that’s what our twenties are supposed to be about,” Eli said.

“I thought that was what being a kid was supposed to be about,” Darby returned.

“Who says we’re not still kids?”

“My late husband.”

He grimaced.

She bumped his shoulder. “Too soon?”

“Did it never bother you, the age disparity?” he asked, tone tentative.

“Truth?”

He nodded.

“It honestly never occurred to me. I knew Ham was older when we met. I had no idea how much older, until we were married. By then, he was just Ham.” She shrugged. “Can I ask you a question?”

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