Chapter 52
Payson
The days since he handed me that folder, he has given me pieces of information as he promised when I’m ready, but not before, and somehow he always knows when that is.
We talk on the porch every evening and it has become the best part of my day.
Every day we walk to his favorite spot overlooking the canyon and cook in the kitchen with the same tension that hasn’t gone anywhere.
It’s just grown. I find myself watching him far more than I ever anticipated I would again.
The little things he does that he doesn’t think I see.
Like how he is with Duke, patient and easygoing, reminding me once again that he would be a wonderful father to some lucky child.
The thought pains me, knowing some woman out there will enjoy all the things in life with him when I go back to the city.
I see the way he looks at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention, like he has been waiting a long time to see me again and is still shocked to see me standing in his kitchen.
He’s mostly the same man I fell in love with but different in ways I love even more.
The things that were always good about him are more solid now, settling into their void forever.
I know I could be happy here, with him, and it surprises me to feel that way again.
I’m in the living room with a design program pulled up on my laptop, working on the project I left unfinished when I got in the car to head here.
I can faintly hear Ledgar’s conversation with Griffith from the kitchen.
I don’t try to listen but I hear the way his tone changes before he ends the call.
He comes around the corner and leans in the doorway, watching me work.
“Griffith found something,” he says. “He’s sending it here.
Said it was an envelope addressed to you.
” I look at him over my laptop. He uncrosses his arms, pushing off the frame and walks over to sit on the couch next to me.
“What kind of envelope?” I question.
“He’s not sure. Just said your name was on the front. It was with Jarrell’s things.” I look back at the design I was finishing, saving it before I close my laptop and call it a night.