Chapter Thirteen Nico
Chapter Thirteen
Nico
When we get home Magda is waiting on the porch.
‘Sorry,’ I call, hurrying towards her. ‘I can’t believe I forgot.
’ The two of us take it in turns to watch Phoebe on town meeting days.
I’m a fan of this arrangement because it means I get out of fifty per cent of them, which is the maximum I’m allowed to miss without getting major grief from my neighbours.
Magda only shrugs, her alligator smile growing wider and wider as her eyes move between Lee and me.
‘It’s no problem,’ she says, bending down to fuss Taco. ‘I hear you were giving your guest a tour of the town. Apparently you looked very cosy.’
‘Who did you hear that from?’
Magda digs into the pocket of her dress and pulls out her phone, which is buzzing even as she holds it up. Notification after notification scrolls past on her screen.
The latest one shows a small preview of a photograph that was clearly taken about ten minutes ago when Lee and I were walking down the street.
This fucking town.
‘What did you think of Roseport, Lee?’ Magda asks, following Phoebe up the steps to the front door.
‘I thought it was charming,’ Lee says, and I know she means it. I watched her today, and the way she looked around – delighted and a little wistful – made something ache in my chest.
‘That’s good,’ Magda nods. She darts another look at me. ‘So did you two have a chance to talk? Will Lee be staying for a while?’
‘Actually—’ I begin, ready to shut Magda down as quickly as possible, but I’m surprised when Lee cuts me off.
‘That’s something that Nico and I need to discuss. In private?’
‘That’s a great idea,’ Magda agrees. ‘Why don’t you two walk down to the pond? It’s so pretty this time of year.’
Lee doesn’t blink. ‘Excellent.’ She turns to me. ‘Shall we go?’
‘I—’ I start, but she’s tilting her chin, that stubborn posture that I recognise. ‘Sure,’ I sigh, resigned to my fate.
‘Lead the way,’ Lee says, and so I do.
We wander in silence down the footpath that winds through the woodland at the back of the house.
The air is full of birdsong, and Lee looks around with obvious appreciation.
The afternoon light splinters through the canopy of leaves overhead, touching her hair, and I automatically reach for a camera that isn’t there.
Finally, we emerge into the clearing by the pond.
‘Wow,’ Lee whispers. The banks of the large pond are thick with bullrushes, lined with red and gold trees; the iridescent flash of a blue dragonfly zips across the surface of the water.
A single rowing boat is tethered to the wooden boardwalk that crosses the widest part of the pond, looking particularly picturesque.
‘I know,’ I agree. I point to the trees on the other side of the water. ‘That’s the woodland that backs onto the inn. It’s actually faster to walk there than it is to drive around.’
‘It’s beautiful,’ Lee says, as I lead her out onto the boardwalk and gesture for her to have a seat.
She perches on the edge of the wooden planks next to me, our legs dangling over the water, and for a moment we sit in the quiet.
I wish I could say it’s restful. It should be restful, but I’ve spent the whole day feeling like I was going to climb out of my skin. Having Lee here – in my home, in my town – has me on edge, and I have no fucking clue what’s going on with me.
It started yesterday, the second she fell into my arms, and it’s only been getting worse: the way my heart keeps beating hard when I look at her, the way I find myself wanting to put my hands on her, just to brush a strand of hair away from her face, or to rest my palm on the small of her back.
I don’t understand why it feels like she fits here. Why it seemed right to have her sitting at our dining table, or to watch Rita draw her out of her shell over ice cream. She absolutely shouldn’t belong here.
Take her ridiculous outfit for one thing.
She’s wearing a simple – and obviously expensive – cream dress with a long, light jacket over it in the same colour and without a single wrinkle in it.
She’s sitting on the ground like it doesn’t matter, like she’s so perfect and untouchable that the dirt wouldn’t dare.
She’s also forgone her usual deadly stilettos in favour of a pair of brown knee-length boots, still impossibly high heeled and made of some sort of buttery suede. They have gold zips that travel up the inside of her calves, and I’ve spent the whole fucking day imagining sliding those down. Slowly.
Now, Lee pushes her oversized tortoiseshell sunglasses up onto the top of her head and turns to look at me. Her expression is determined.
‘Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?’
‘What do you mean?’
She keeps her eyes pinned to mine, clearly not buying it.
I sigh, and switch my gaze away from her and back out to the scene in front of us. ‘It’s not your problem, Lee.’
The moment stretches between us. She’s just going to wait me out.
‘It’s nothing,’ I say finally, reluctantly. ‘It’s this stupid thing with my dad’s will. There’s been a complication with executing it.’
‘Is that still going on?’ Lee frowns. ‘Hasn’t it been—’
‘Almost eighteen months, yes. Turns out things are convoluted when you’re dealing with a six-hundred-year-old estate and an egomaniac who wanted to make his whole family jump through hoops.’ The words are bitter and I can’t help it. My father was not a good man.
‘I’m sorry,’ Lee says quietly.
‘Apparently my father wasn’t going to let a little thing like being dead stop him from trying to fuck around with my life.’ I run a hand across my jaw. ‘He left me money in his will, a good chunk of it, surprisingly. Only it’s bound up in a trust.’
‘A trust?’ Lee looks puzzled.
‘I guess it was important that he make it clear how much he disapproved of my rootless lifestyle and wild-child antics,’ I say, quoting directly from the letter I received, the one burned into my brain no matter how much I try to forget about it.
‘So there are a bunch of stipulations to gain access to the money. A kind of morality clause. I am to be assessed,’ I bite out, ‘by a lawyer, the trustee, and should I be found wanting then the trust will be dissolved and the money absorbed by the estate. I’m sure you can guess which way the new duke will be hoping the assessment goes. ’
Lee’s eyes widen.
‘If it was just me,’ I continue quickly, ‘I wouldn’t give a shit about that asshole’s money.
We’ve already been through this once when he cut me off because I wouldn’t go to university like he had planned.
He loved to try and use money to control me and I never let him. But it’s not just me anymore.’
‘Phoebe,’ Lee says with understanding.
I hum in agreement. ‘I can’t do my job the way I used to.
’ It’s hard not to wince at that, but I force my face to remain as neutral as my tone.
No one needs to know how much that admission hurts.
‘I have to be here, with her, and photography isn’t compatible with that.
For now I’m doing some construction work on the inn, but I should be wrapping that up in the next couple of weeks. ’
‘You—’ Lee looks more dazed by this revelation than anything else. ‘You’ve been working on the inn? I didn’t know you could even…’ She makes a gesture with her hands that I think is supposed to symbolise hammering an imaginary nail. It’s adorable.
I grin. ‘You didn’t know I had a contracting licence?’
She shakes her head, eyes round. ‘You mean you can… build things?’ she asks. ‘With… your hands?’
The slightly breathless way she says it has all the blood running unexpectedly to my groin and I shift in my seat. ‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘That’s kind of how it works.’
When she continues to look at me, I keep my tone light, not wanting to let her know I’m affected.
‘You forget that I didn’t go to university.
It was a lot of years before photography paid the bills and I took on all sorts of jobs, including working on a lot of building sites.
I got trained up in a bunch of different skills – it was a practical choice, meant wherever I was in the world I knew I could always find work. ’
‘I suppose I didn’t really think about it,’ she frowns.
I’m reminded of this morning when I learned she started university early.
I hadn’t paid attention back then. Hearing about how lonely she’d been as a kid made me feel like a piece of shit.
I know she’s always struggled with big crowds, and I remember her tagging along after us sometimes when we were home, but I don’t think Jack and I spared her much of a thought.
Now I shrug. ‘Why would you? Anyway, you don’t require a state-level licence in Maine, just a local one, so that was easy enough.
When I got here I needed a steady job and Magda desperately needed work doing on the inn.
It was another leap of faith for her, but I do good work, and obviously I’m not charging her anything like she’d have to pay someone else. I owe her a lot.
‘I’ve got a decent amount of cash set aside,’ I add quickly, and I don’t love how much I want Lee to know I’m a financially responsible adult, but the woman is an accountant.
‘Mostly because I’ve never spent money on anything but travelling – I had no house, no furniture, not much more than I could carry in a backpack, so my savings are in a good state, but they won’t last for ever.
I want to buy the house from Magda, to work to extend it.
After everything she’s been through Phoebe needs strong roots, stability. I can give her that.’
I tap my fingers against the side of the boardwalk, frustration bubbling in my veins. Lee stays quiet.
‘Plus, she’s special.’ My words are heated now. ‘She’s so bright. Like I-can-hardly-keep-up-with-her bright. My friend Mei is her teacher, and she’s mentioned the possibility of Phoebe skipping a grade, just like you did. Phoebe doesn’t want to leave her friends, but it’s an option.’