Remy snorted.
“—and I’m sure your absence has been noticed and they’ve posted about it. It’s just that we haven’t been able tofindtheir postings yet. Your detective team is made up of a lobsterwoman and a sculptor.” She shot Remy a stern look. “We’ll continue looking. Any day now something will turn up.”
“If one of you will loan me a computer,” he said, “I’ll look for clues, too.”
“I doubt my laptop is up to your standards,” Remy murmured.
“You can borrow mine.” Leigh winked at him. “Remy, can I speak with you privately for a minute?”
Reluctantly, Remy agreed and the next thing she knew Leigh had taken hold of her elbow and was steering her through her house. Leigh didn’t let go until she’d ushered her into the studio.
Leigh was stoic, always. Except for this present moment. She glared at Remy from beneath the brim of her baseball cap. “Be kind to him! He’s hurt.”
“He’s exasperating.”
“He’s recovering.”
“He’s wily.”
“He’s defenseless.”
“He’s spoiled.”
Leigh shook her head, circled the studio, and returned to face Remy. “Tomorrow’s Friday. If I’m very careful, I think I can drive him to my house without causing him too much pain. I’ll keep him over the weekend.”
Resistance pressed upward within Remy, immediate and strangely strong. “That won’t be necessary. I don’t want him to impose on you.”
“He won’t.”
“I don’t think he’s well enough to make the trip.”
“I just heard you tell him he’d be well enough to make the trip to Maureen’s in three days. If so, he can make the trip to my house in one day. I live much closer.”
Remy straightened her posture. “Jonah and I drive each other crazy, but we have a routine. He’s accustomed to things here. He’ll stay here this weekend.”
Leigh surveyed her. “Ah. So you’ve finally realized that God tipped an angel into the ocean outside your cottage?”
“Please stop with the angel nonsense. He’s nothing but an underwhelming, generic man.”
“There’s nothing generic about him.” Leigh peered down her nose at Remy from her superior height. “He’s the freshly ground Arabica of men. The twenty-one-year-aged rum of men. He’s quick-witted and humorous and so dazzling to look at I feel like I need to wear sunglasses.”
“I disagree with”—Remy made an emphatic circle in the air—“allof that.”
“Then why are you insisting on keeping him with you this weekend?”
She honestly didn’t know. She only knew that she wasn’t sending him to Leigh’s house.Shewas the one who’d rescued him.Shewas the primary good Samaritan here.Sheneeded to be the one who reunited him with his wife (and kids?).
Also . . . fine. Maybe she did harbor one cubic inch of protectiveness toward him.
“I’m insisting on keeping him with me,” she lied, “for the reward money his wealthy wife will surely provide.”
The next morning, Remy found Jonah sitting in her living room, doodling. “I’m heading off to see Wendell. Sure you’re fine here alone for a while?”
He looked up from the sketch pad. “I’m sure.”
This was the first time she’d left him alone here and was feeling strangely hesitant. “You’ll refrain from going into cardiac arrest until I get back?”
He looked right into her eyes and gave her a small, slow smile. “I will postpone cardiac arrest until you get back.”
