He opened the window and stepped through into her living room. She followed, seeing him look around at the antiques she’d inherited from her parents and the finds she’d picked up at flea markets. They’d been here before, but they’d been too busy for him to take in the surroundings.
“You have good taste.”
“Coming from you, that’s a big compliment.”
He reached for her, and folded her close. She leaned into him, and they swayed together in the middle of the Oriental rug that she’d found at a garage sale.
“This is hard,” she said in a strained voice.
“For a lot of reasons. First of all, things are happening so fast that we can’t really absorb them.”
She wanted to ask how everything was going to come out. Although she didn’t voice the question, she heard his answer.
The way we want it to.
Which means what?
We’ll figure it out.
It wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear. But she’d just met him a couple of days ago. What was he supposed to say, that they were going to get married and settle down like a normal couple?
He probably knew what she was thinking, and she silently cursed the relationship that had them joined at the mind hip.
“We’d better get the cards and get out of here,” he said.
“Wait. There’s something else.” Rachel went to the closet where she kept the things from her parents’ house and retrieved the album. After setting it on the dresser, she flipped rapidly to the page with the picture where she was standing with her mother in front of the clinic.
“Have you ever seen this place?” she asked Jake.
He studied the picture. “I don’t know. Why?”
“I think it’s important.”
He didn’t bother to ask why as he continued to stare at the photo. “That’s you?”
“Yes.”
“You were a cute little kid. How old were you there?”
She took in her appearance. “I look like I’m about three.”
“I don’t remember much from that age.”
“Neither do I.” She sighed. “I’d like to read the name on the sign, but the letters are blocked by that branch.”
“Take the picture with you.”
She slipped the photo out of the mountings and slid it into her purse.
“We’d better finish our business here.”
Nodding, she led him to the stairs, but he held her back so that he went first.
When he reached the ground floor, he hesitated for a moment before proceeding her down the stairs.
In the shop, she looked around. The place was as she’d left it, with the overturned chair and the bloodstain still in the middle of the floor–a vivid reminder of their narrow escape.
She shivered as she looked at the blood and the other evidence of their fight with the intruder. The only comment that came to mind was, “You said someone was going to clean it up.”
