Stone sets his fork down. Emotions war in his eyes when he answers, “I didn’t tell him.”
My brain short-circuits. “What?”
“I have a brother named Pane. A sister named Natalie. But that’s all the pieces I have. The blanks aren’t filled in more than that,” he growls. Scratches his cheek. “Sorry. Pane asked how the construction’s going. I said great and kept it short. I don’trememberhow much he had to do with picking the building materials, and I didn’t want to get into it.”
“Why not?”
His brows lift in surprise. “Because I’m changing it. All of it. And I didn’t want to tell him I can’t remember anything, because I assume he won’t let me touch the plans if he knows I can’t recall who I am. Besides, I don’t need him trusting my judgment.”
“You don’t?” The words slip out before I can stop them. “I mean, I can understand that. You’ll probably remember any minute now, anyway.”
“Yeah,” he mumbles, jaw working. “The plans as they are now don’t feel right. And for the sake of this town, I need to make them perfect.”
My mouth drops. I have no idea what to say other than, “Oh, okay.”
He stabs the macaroni with his fork. “I don’t even know who I’m working with on the site. Who’s the construction manager?”
A slow smile spreads across my face. “I know who your construction manager is.”
“Great. Because we’re gonna need him to start breaking up concrete. First thing tomorrow.”
I shouldn’t be happy about this. I should be worried, terrified, feeling that all this is wrong. But I don’t.
This is macaroni-and-cheese goodness, not the fallout I expected.
Which means today is thebest day ever.
“I have bad news,” Cristina says when she calls me later.
After lunch, Stone and I returned to the construction site. He tried to get into his computer, but no luck. So instead, he made lists of building materials with the intention of heading to Mystic Meadows Hardware to order everything.
He’s finished the list and is now playing fetch with Hercules, who is a quick learner.
“Go long!” Stone yells as he tosses the tennis ball we found in the office.
“Baaaaaaa!”
The lambicorn barrels toward the ball. Stone glances over at me and grins. “He’s just getting down the basics right now. Don’t worry, in a few days he’ll be a pro.”
I nearly die laughing.
“Co, are you here?” Cristina says, sounding impatient.
“Yes. Sorry. I’m here. You were saying something about bad news?”
“Well”—the sound muffles as if she’s moving the phone from one ear to the other—“that lunaria bloom? I can’t find anything about it.”
“Maybe we don’t need it.”
“Great! His memory’s returned?”
“Not exactly.”
“Coco,” she warns.
I ignore her foreboding tone of voice. “You remember how I had such a hard time with Stone? How he was so awful?”
“Remember? I saw it firsthand when he yelled at you.”
