Chapter Thirteen
The next few days passed uneventfully. Things were quiet at work as the centennial auction steadily approached, no further repair personnel were inflicted upon Midnight Cottage, and the household adjusted to its new occupant.
Todd Billion worked the late shift bartending, and upon returning home was in the habit of pacing the back deck while holding long phone conversations in Ilocano.
This latter detail was relayed to David with a great deal of admiration from Meredith, who likewise stayed up until all hours and appeared all too impressed by Todd’s linguistic abilities.
David decided it would be prudent to have a quiet word with him in the same way he had with Brian.
“Trust me,” said Todd, “that won’t be a problem. I’ve got no intention of stepping on your toes here.”
“Stepping on—oh, no, no, no,” said David hastily. “Whatever gave you that impression?”
Todd stared for a long moment. “You…you are fucking with me, right? You know what, never mind. Whatever situation you guys have going on, or don’t have going on, none of my business. Besides, I’m ace anyway, so—” He shrugged.
“Right,” said David, finding himself quite rattled. “Of course.”
#84: However such a misapprehension came about, Meredith is certainly to blame.
—
On Saturday morning, David went out for an early house viewing. The ramshackle Victorian left him unimpressed, for reasons entirely unrelated to its outrageously high asking price, and he returned to Midnight Cottage to find Florian climbing back into his truck.
He raised a hand in greeting. “Hey, Dave.”
“David, actually,” he corrected automatically.
“Er, good morning. I was just about to make some tea—coffee, I mean, if you’d care to stay a bit longer.
” Coffee, he was sure, would be Florian’s drink of choice.
Naturally, as the future son-in-law of Maitland Cartier, he was to be afforded every courtesy.
Beyond that, though, David had to admit a certain fascination with Florian, and was curious to witness how an extended interaction between him and Meredith would play out.
“Thanks, but I gotta be on my way,” said Florian through the open window. He flicked on his lighter, lit a cigarette, and, with it, gestured his farewell. “See you around.”
Yes, David liked him. Florian seemed the sort of person he could become friends with, Adalynn or no Adalynn.
Perhaps they would become friends. It was certainly far more plausible than David being friends with his polar-opposite brother, though he supposed he and Meredith were friends after a fashion.
Why, exactly, he couldn’t say, especially as he entered the living room to find Meredith crouching in the corner with towel, broom, and dustpan, trying to clean up the remains of a coffee mug that had been quite full at the time of its demise, and making an awful mess of it.
“Good God, what have you done now?”
Meredith started at the sound of his voice, flinching and dropping a piece of broken ceramic glazed in dark sea green.
“That’s your favorite cup, too,” David observed.
“It was,” he said mournfully.
“Though how you got pieces of it all the way back there, I can’t imagine.”
#85: He manages to destroy things in the unlikeliest of ways.
“Oh, you know me,” said Meredith vaguely, “always making a mess of things. Like you said, not much going on up here, is there?” He punctuated the statement with a tap to his temple.
“Go on.” David shooed him out of the way. “Let me.” Before you make it even worse—but he refrained from saying that part aloud. He didn’t quite like the way Meredith had spoken of himself the other night, or just now, for that matter.
By the time David returned with paper towels, Meredith was coaxing Bianca out from beneath the sofa.
When she emerged, he promptly caught her up and cradled her against his chest, kissing the top of her head.
“There, you’re all right,” he murmured. “The crash frightened you, didn’t it, precious? But it’s all over now.”
David sighed and set to work wiping up the last of the spilled coffee.
“Sorry, David. I know I’m hopeless, really.”
“Well, never mind that now.” Again that little jab of unease made David seek a new topic. “I ran into your brother on his way out, by the way. What brought him around today?”
Meredith dropped onto the window seat and folded himself up in the corner, pulling his knees to his chest. “He wants me to do a portrait of Adalynn as his wedding gift to her.”
“You’re a surrealist.”
“Yeah, I tried telling him that, only…” Meredith concluded with a shrug.
It was a nice idea, David supposed, for Florian to offer the chance, even if the style might leave something to be desired. As long as said portrait was unveiled to the recipient after the wedding, when David no longer had a stake in the proceedings.
“Only we’re not to tell her he stopped by,” said Meredith. “It’s meant to be a surprise.”
“By the way, when is—”
The knock at the door both interrupted and answered David’s question.
Genevieve entered, followed by a short, slender woman of about the same age with auburn hair in a tasteful upsweep.
She wore a denim jacket over a ruffled floral sundress, and her handbag, though designer, was a smaller and less ostentatious affair than Genevieve’s.
Immediately, David decided he liked her.
“Hey, guys,” said Genevieve. “This is Adalynn, Florian’s fiancée.” To Adalynn, she introduced, “My cousin Meredith and his friend Dave.”
“David Carew,” he said, offering his hand. “Wonderful to meet you.” Not wanting to come on too strong at this juncture, he avoided mentioning his workplace.
Adalynn returned a surprisingly firm handshake. “Nice to meet you both.”
“Might I offer you a cup of tea? Coffee? It’s no trouble.”
“Thanks, Dave, but we’ve got to get going,” said Genevieve briskly. “We need to get this over with—no offense, Mere, but you’ve really been dragging your ass here—and find a new bridal shower venue ASAP.”
“Oh?” David inquired. “You’ve not had it yet?” From his admittedly vague ideas of wedding proceedings, he’d had the impression that a bridal shower only a month before was cutting it a bit close.
“We had to push it back a few times,” Adalynn explained, “but I want my grandmother there, and it’s been difficult for her to get away until now. You know how it can be with diplomatic posts.” At David’s questioning look, she elaborated, “She’s ambassador to Florida, you know.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” David cursed himself. Foolish, foolish, overlooking a crucial detail like that. (Behind him came the faintest clink of metal on ceramic, rather like someone surreptitiously secreting a handful of jewelry in the saucer beneath the nearby potted geranium.)
“I rented out the event center at the botanical garden,” said Genevieve, “but there was a mishap at the Alchemists’ Guild convention this week, and it seems the place has burned to the ground. And the worst part is that nobody bothered notifying me until this morning.”
David would have hated to be the unfortunate employee responsible for making that phone call.
“It’s not a big deal. In fact,” Adalynn teased, “I think you’re more invested in this shower than I am.”
“It is a big deal!” said Genevieve. “I should’ve had Florian call them up. He really would’ve let them have it.”
Adalynn frowned. “Oh, I hardly think that’s necessary.”
“Why not have it here?” suggested David.
Genevieve looked around doubtfully. “Here?”
“Why not?” Though he’d extended the offer without thinking, doing a favor for Adalynn Cartier was worth any inconvenience.
(Surely it would warrant at least a casual mention to her father as well.) “There’s plenty of space in the garden, we could rearrange the deck to make room for a few tables, and as long as the weather holds—”
“It is supposed to be nice out next Saturday,” said Genevieve thoughtfully.
“I really couldn’t impose,” protested Adalynn. “We don’t even know each other.”
“Nonsense,” said David. “You’re my roommate’s sister-in-law, or near enough. We’re practically family.”
“It would solve a lot of problems,” said Genevieve. Already in planning mode, she continued, half to herself, “We’d have to bring in some chairs and a couple of extra tables, but between Jayceon and your brother—yeah, it could work.”
Adalynn gazed around the room; already her face had lit up with a glowing smile.
“This is such a cute little cottage, and I’m sure the garden is just as nice.
If it’s really all right with everyone…” She cast a glance toward Meredith, who’d been suspiciously silent for some time.
In fact, David realized, he hadn’t even given Adalynn his usual greeting.
“What do you say, Mere?” prompted Genevieve.
Meredith sat upright, hands folded in his lap and covered by his sleeves in a way that made him appear ludicrously childlike. “As you like.”
“Great,” said Genevieve, clapping her hands. “Now let’s get a move on.”
—
David had a mercifully quiet two hours to browse real estate listings and tidy up his room, at which point he took a break to make himself lunch. He was slicing tomatoes for a salad when Meredith came bounding in through the front door, causing Bianca to yap in excitement.
“How did it go?” asked David.
“Wonderful,” said Meredith in a dreamy tone, retrieving his rings and bracelets from the potted geranium. (David decided it best not to inquire.) “Adalynn’s lovely. Not sure what she sees in Florian, but I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.”
“Now don’t you go saying anything of the sort to her,” warned David, pointing his paring knife in Meredith’s direction for emphasis—and then, as the memory of Tuesday night flashed in his mind, hastily lowered it. “We need this wedding to go off without a hitch, remember that.”
Heedless, Meredith went on, “And she’s picked out the most gorgeous bridesmaid dresses.”