Chapter 10: Tuesday

I woke at dawn with his arm across my waist and the message still lit in my head.

Tuesday still on? Bring the survey.

I didn't wake him.

I lay still, watching the grey light move across the quilt, and counted what I knew.

Donata had texted him.

She had asked him to bring a land survey.

I turned my head.

Ottavio slept on his stomach with one scarred hand open on the pillow. He looked younger asleep.

I wanted to be wrong.

By the time he woke I had coffee made and my face arranged.

"Morning," he said, from the bed.

"Morning."

He watched me for a moment.

"I said I'd tell you something today."

"You did."

"It has to wait until Tuesday night. I can't explain it before then."

He reached for my hand and kissed the inside of my wrist.

"Will you trust me for two days?"

I held his gaze, and it didn't waver.

"Yes," I said.

I did not mean it.

For two days I worked.

The auditor arrived Monday, a stern woman in a grey suit.

She set up in the second-floor conference room and asked for coffee and nothing else.

My lawyer filed a notice with the county on the hill house lease.

On Monday night, Ottavio came to the cottage and we didn't talk at all.

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