Page 110 of Talulah's Back in Town

“Why?” he asked. “Are you planning to take it to Seattle with you?”

“No. It would never fit in my apartment, even if I could get it to the tenth floor. It’s just...sentimental—what I associate with her the most. I couldn’t bear to let it go.”

“That’s a big keep for someone you said you weren’t very close to.”

“It’s strange, but...the more I live in her house, the stronger the kinship I feel. I found a bunch of journals under the bed and started reading the earliest one. It’s interesting and is helping me get to know who she really was—not just the stern face she turned to the world.”

“Debbie might like to read them, too. She might also want the piano?”

“She already has a piano. She plays and plans to give her children lessons.”

“If you need to store it someplace, I can bring it over here, cover it so it doesn’t get damaged and stick it in one of the barns.”

She leaned against the wall in the music room. She’d sold the two chairs and side table that’d been next to the piano, where Phoebe’s students had waited for the previous appointment to end, so it looked oddly bare. “Thanks, but I’m considering offering it to whoever buys the house. I can’t see it going anywhere—it belongs here.”

“The next owner might not agree,” he pointed out. “It’s possible they’d want to do something else with that room—maybe knock out a wall or two and open the place up.”

“That’s what I’d do if I bought it, but I’ll be sad if I have to get rid of the piano.”

“There’s no rush, I guess. You can make arrangements to sell it or store it if and when it comes to that. At least everything else will be handled.”

She shoved off the wall and headed through the living room and dining room to the kitchen. “It looks weird having so much of her stuff gone. But at least you can move around easier in this place now.” She started to make herself a sandwich. She’d been so busy and had had so many people come through the house she hadn’t taken the time to eat. “Ellen stopped by earlier,” she told him, changing the subject.

“To check out the sale?”

“To tell me something.”

“What was it?” he asked curiously.

Talulah cut up an onion for her chicken salad sandwich. “She found a teddy bear behind the barn this morning.”

“A what?”

“You heard that right,” she said and explained what Ellen had told her and how she’d determined it had to belong to Averil’s son.

“But even if Averilwasattempting to spy on you, why would she bring Mitch?”

“Who knows? Maybe she was picking him up from whoever was babysitting while she was out last night.”

“That could explain the car Ellen saw in your drive. But why would Averil take Mitch to the barn?”

“I’m guessing she came by to make sure I was home, and when I didn’t answer the door, she started to get suspicious and snoop around.”

“Bottom line—you think she knows about us.”

“She has to at least suspect, doesn’t she?”

“It’s possible. But what led her to the barn?”

“I don’t know. Something did.”

“Have you heard from her today?” he asked.

“No.”

“Are you still going to dinner at the Gerharts’ tomorrow?”

She carried her sandwich into the dining room. “I guess so. We have to address the fact that I’m still seeing you at some point.”

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