“Good morning.” I tipped my head toward the other side of the sectional. “There’s coffee inside.”
“Morning.” He curled up in the corner with the blanket covering him from the neck down. It wasn’t that cold, but he looked like he needed a cozy moment. “I’ll get some in a bit.”
For a while, we just looked out at the water and didn't say anything.
Until Joshua finally broke the silence. "This is an amazing view."
I drank my coffee and nodded. "Yeah, it’s my favorite spot in the house. On foggy mornings, you feel like you’re floating in the clouds."
He nodded and kept looking.
When my mug was empty, I went inside, and he followed without me asking, still dragging the blanket with him. Like last night, he sat at the counter while I pulled out the canister of flour and the buttermilk then got the griddle going.
Joshua watched me move around the kitchen as if it was fascinating to him. "You weren't kidding about the pancakes."
I stopped and raised an eyebrow with a firm expression. "I never kid about pancakes."
The corner of his mouth moved like he might actually be amused.
We chatted about breakfast foods and the weather while I cooked, and then we ate quietly. I had so many questions for Joshua, and he probably had some for me too, but everything felt delicate and I didn’t want to pressure him if he wasn’t ready to open up to me.
“Oh, does Gerald run twenty-four-seven?” He popped the last bite into his mouth and then sat back.
“No, he runs once or twice a day, but if the power goes out, his schedule goes wonky, and it usually takes a few days to resync.” I refilled my coffee and blew on the steam rising from it. “Why do you ask?”
Joshua shrugged. “He was going up in the hallway at like 3AM. I was awake, so it didn’t bother me, but I was surprised that you’d have it run when you were trying to sleep.”
“You were awake at three?” That was after I was pumping in the kitchen. "Did you feel sick again?"
"No, nothing like that." He ran his finger through a pool of syrup on his plate and slipped it into his mouth to suck it clean. "I woke up to pee and then was up for a while. Honestly, the noise is probably what put me back to sleep. It was nice to have Gerald keeping me company."
I filed that away but didn't comment on it.
After the plates were cleared and I’d loaded the dishwasher, I checked the clock on the microwave. "Artie'll be here around nine."
Joshua looked out the window and sighed. "Okay."
"You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to."
"I know." He was quiet for a second as he contemplated the situation. "I'm not gonna do it again. Not right now, anyway."
It wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of his own survival, but it was honest, and I appreciated honesty. I wanted to ask what had gotten him over that guardrail in the first place, but it wasn’t my business. Not yet, anyway. "I've got some work to get through this morning." I had a few meetings, but I could cancel them if Joshua needed me. “I’ll be in my room, but you can come get me if you need anything.”
He glanced toward the side of the house my bedroom was on even though it was hidden by a wall. “You work from home?”
“Yep.” I reached for my phone when it buzzed but didn’t look at it. I knew it was my assistant asking some random question or another. "I'm an architect. Got my own company. Mostly retail and commercial renovations, but I’ve got a few meetings to take online. I should be done by noon."
He glanced down at the logo on the shirt he was wearing, my company shirt, and pointed to it. "Sticks and Stones Studio?"
"That's me." I got up and put my coffee cup in the sink. "I mostly work from home, but I get out to job sites a few times a week."
"Huh." He turned the hem of the shirt over in his fingers, still looking at the logo. "I did some construction work for a while. Mostly reclaiming old bricks and barn wood from demo sites, but it was cool."
“That is cool.” I could see it. He wasn’t huge, but he had tight muscles on his slim frame, and working with his hands was probably a good endorphin release. "There’s good money in that."
"Really good money." Something in his face loosened a little when he talked about it, like it actually brought up a good memory. "I liked it too. Working with my hands and being outside was good. Made me feel like I was doing something useful."
"Why’d you stop doing it?" It wasn’t my business, but I couldn’t resist asking.
