Page 15 of The Seven Rings
“I needed busy today. And ending with the photos, and the plans for them? As Cleo so elegantly put it, it turns what Dobbs pulled last night on its ass.”
“You know what one of the apparently endless things I find most appealing about you is?”
“Oh, do tell.”
He ran a hand down the tail of her hair that reminded him of rich maple syrup.
“You always bounce back. Whatever gets tossed at you, you bounce back from it and keep going.”
“And here I thought it was my elevated sense of style and winning personality.”
“Those make the list.”
In that moment, something in the way he looked at her had her heart trembling.
Owen burst in from the deck. “Take-out containers won’t do it for her. She wants bowls and shit.”
And the moment struck him, he looked from one to the other as he pulled out serving bowls. “What?”
“Just admiring the lady.”
With the moment broken, Sonya shot out a smile. “You’ll want serving spoons. And since it’s Cleo, she’ll want some hot sauce.”
And since she knew Cleo, Sonya added cloth napkins.
While they sat on the deck in the warm evening breeze and enjoyed the feast, Sonya and Cleo filled them in on the day.
“So after I worked and Cleo created her magnificent and dreamy watercolor, we decided to tackle Collin’s office.”
“So I hear.” Owen bit into his lobster roll.
“Sonya took the desktop, I took the file drawers. Your uncle was an organized and efficient soul.”
“He was an artist, sure, but also a businessman. Pooles, by and large, tend to be organized and efficient.”
“He didn’t break that rule. Every appliance in the house, all the electronics, the water heaters, the furnaces, all filed with date of purchase, manuals. If there’d been any maintenance or repairs, it’s in there.”
“That’s just SOP.”
On a laugh, Sonya shook her head at Owen. “Cleo doesn’t keep any of that.”
“Why do I need a manual when I’m going to call somebody tofix something anyway? And if somebody fixed it, then it’s fixed. But knowing Sonya, I kept all that.”
“The computer files. Correspondence. I printed out emails I thought someone might want a record of, or just for sentiment. He had a file on me. You’re not surprised,” she said to Trey. “Did you know?”
“Figured. I knew from my father he’d kept track of you. Being he was efficient, he’d have kept a file. Does it bother you?”
“No. It gave me the feeling if I’d needed it, really needed it, he’d have stepped in to help. He added little notes here and there, and that felt… sweet. He also had a file of his annual donations, and I want to continue those. Is there a way to make them in his name?”
Touched, Trey put a hand over hers. “We can arrange that, sure.”
“Great. And all that led us to the photographs, which is where you came in.”
“I like the office,” Cleo added. “I put off using it because I didn’t know if it would feel right. But spending the time in there today, it did. And I’m better off not mixing office stuff with art. I tend to get scattered that way.”
“Really?”
Cleo gave Owen the hard eye. “Amusing.”
