Page 16 of The Seven Rings
“If you were efficient along with everything else, you’d be perfect. Anybody who wants perfect is stupid. I’m not stupid.”
She lifted her wineglass, sipped. “And somehow, strangely romantic. In any case, we had a damn good day.”
“One door-slamming incident’s all she managed.”
“Oh, she shook the walls a little on the third floor.” Cleo waved it off like a gnat. “Weak sauce.”
“She’ll never be stronger than the two of you.” Because he believed it absolutely, Trey lifted his beer in a toast. “Meaner, but not stronger. You’re doing more to squeeze her out every day. Sitting here like this, having a good meal, dogs—and cat—in the yard. It counts.”
“Going through Collin’s office counts, too,” Owen decided. “Needs to be done. He loved that desk—who wouldn’t? Solid mahogany, custom-made for one of the Pooles—can’t remember right off, butlate eighteen hundreds, near the turn of the century. Pristine condition.”
He started to take a drink, then set down his beer. “You’re keeping it, right? In the office.”
“Are you worried because it likely weighs a metric ton and we want you to move it?”
“I am,” Trey said immediately. “My back and I are definitely worried about that.”
“There’s that, but mostly, come on, man, it’s freaking magnificent. It suits the room, the purpose.”
Genuinely amused now at his passion, Cleo arched her eyebrows. “Then you’ll be pleased I feel the same. I fell for it at first sight. Now I have two magnificent desks. And this one, you don’t have to muscle up or down stairs.”
“Good. That’s good.” But he kept those green eyes on her amber ones. “And the cabinet in there. Jacobean.”
“Also staying.”
With that, he relaxed enough for another swig of beer. “That’s the right choice.”
“Look at that, will you?” Trey nodded toward the yard where the dogs, after a break to flop awhile, were up and running again. “I just saw the cat jump on Mookie’s back.”
“Hitching a ride,” Owen said with a grin. “And Mooks’s as into it as she is.”
Cleo let out a roll of laughter as she watched. “JustHow about a ride, big guy. And he’s giving her one.”
Chapter Three
They lingered awhile over lemon bars and cappuccino, then settled in the dining room.
Between Owen and the Poole family book Deuce had made for Collin, they identified some.
“I can’t be sure on a bunch of these. Most of them are from before I was born. Clarice or Connor are better bets. Maybe Mike,” Owen added, as he considered his cousins. “Maybe, but I’d try Clarice first. She’s more into all this.”
“I could invite her over to look through them. But there are more boxes, so it wouldn’t be quick work.”
“Better you give me a box or two, and I take them to her. She’ll get to them. It’ll pull her right in.”
“No rush. I’m going to get another box,” Sonya decided. “If we can go through those. I’ll use one box for the ones we know, one for ones we’d like to frame and put up but don’t know, and you take that to her. Third box for what we don’t plan to use.”
“Poole efficient,” Trey commented.
“Can’t help it.”
“Give me one. I’ll have my parents look through.”
“That’d be great. I’d love to have names for all of them eventually, but we can start this way. I’ll go grab another box.”
When Sonya went to the office to grab another box from where she’d stacked them on the desk, one sat apart. And she recognized the photo lying on top of the box as one of Johanna.
“All right, Clover, this one next.”
