There's something about the way he does it without pageantry, like it is second nature, a thing he does.
"Thank you for getting my door," I say, stepping up beside him on the sidewalk.
"I'll always get your door, Mallory."
The declaration makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but I don't have time to dwell in the feeling. We have an audience fifteen feet away.
"Mr. Boylan?" I say, walking up the driveway with Hugo. "I'm Mallory Hawkins, the woman who responded to your listing." We stop a few feet from the man standing in the same place, hands still tucked in his pockets. Gesturing beside me, I say, "This is?—"
"Simon De la Vega," David Boylan wheezes the words, a touch of disbelief and horror. He stumbles back as if he's been punched.
Hugo inhales audibly. "Hugo. Simon's son." The words are a rumble, sheets of pain covering a heap of emotions.
David shakes his head rapidly back-and-forth. "You said you wanted to buy a coin." His panicked eyes find mine. "You...you." The sentencedies.
I feel bad. The police were right. This man is not a killer.
"We are here for the coin, Mr. Boylan. And anything else you can tell me about my dad."
The screen door flies open. Out steps the maker of casseroles, follower of crochet patterns. Paula Boylan. "What's going on out here?" she demands, stepping up to her husband's side.
"Olive Township found me," he mutters.
Daggers form in Paula's gaze, and she sends them our way. "David had nothing to do with what happened there. He's innocent, and you need to leave."
I curl a hand around my midsection, pressing my dress to my body, accentuating my baby bump. For good measure, I lean into my stomach, making it appear bigger than it is. Maybe it's low, using my bump this way, but I want to show David and Paula we aren't a threat. And really, there isn't much that's less threatening than a pregnant woman.
They both see my pregnancy. They both visibly soften. I push my shoulder into Hugo's rigid arm, snake my hand around his elbow and tighten my grip. Hugo looks down at me, and I watch his eyes take in the roundness of my tummy, on display. He softens, too.
Do babies soothe the savage beast? Bring healing to those who need it?
David looks at Hugo with kindness now, no fear. "I told the police everything I know. Everything that took place."
Hugo nods. "I understand that, but I was so young when it all happened. The events get confused in my mind. Sometimes I don't know what's real, or what I imagined in my nine-year-old brain."
"Iced tea," Paula says suddenly, clapping her hands together. "Why don't you two come on around back, and David will meet you out there. I'll be along shortly with drinks." She smiles graciously. "Perhaps there's more to talk about than we thought."
David looks apprehensive, but he doesn't argue.
Paula disappears inside the house, and David looks at us helplessly.
"I can invent an emergency, if you'd like," Hugo says. "We can go."
After a moment's consideration, David says no. "Your dad was always very nice to me. If there's some way I can help you, I think I should."
"I appreciate that," Hugo responds. "We'll meet you around back."
David disappears into the house. Hugo presses a hand to the small of my back, guiding me along the stone pavers laid out to make a walkway.
The way his hand feels on me, even in a place as well-meaning as the small of my back, has my stomach flipping. I'm blaming the hormones once again, because the alternative is a path I can't begin to travel.
We round the white-sided home, finding David fluffing Grecian blue outdoor pillows on a matching outdoor couch. As we get closer, he says, "Blue is Paula's favorite color. I told her it clashes with everything in thisbackyard, but she told me to close my eyes and picture it matching."
"I like the way she thinks," I say, because I'm not sure how else to respond.
Paula comes from the house balancing a large serving tray in one hand and a plastic pitcher in the other.
To have something to do, I meet her halfway and take the tray off her hands. In mere minutes she has managed to amass a tray of lemon cookies with lemon curd, miniature brownies, and butter crackers with a cheese ball.
