"I hope that's not true," Clay said. "It's just an email. Read it. Take a day to think about it, and we'll talk after that."
Clay didn't give him the pleasure of hanging up first.
As he stared at his phone, his finger hovered over the mail icon, but he decided not to do that now. He had to meet Kaia, and whatever was in that email could wait.
Grabbing his keys, he headed out the door, happy to find the courtyard empty on a Monday morning. The quiet was a welcome break from the raucous and tempting sounds of laughter and music that he'd had to shut out most of Sunday evening. Thankfully, his fellow tenants now seemed to be at work.
Kaia was leaning against his car wearing a short sundress that showed off her tanned and lightly freckled shoulders, sexy curves, and shapely legs, and his heart skipped a beat. When she flashed him a smile that lit up her brown eyes, she felt warm and alive, like a tantalizing fire he just had to get close to. But he couldn't get close, he reminded himself, feeling somewhat desperate at that thought. He couldn't open himself up like that. It was just too damn painful and not worth it.
"Hi," she said. "You're right on time."
"I always am," he said gruffly, clearing his throat at the end of his sentence.
"Me, too. I have a hard time with people who are late. And an even harder time not expressing my irritation."
He appreciated her candor. "I can believe that. You like to say what you think."
"It gets me into trouble sometimes." She walked around to the passenger side of his car as they got inside. "You seem to be very skilled at keeping your thoughts to yourself," she added as she fastened her seat belt.
"Words can be taken out of context, easily misconstrued, or slanted," he said, then immediately stopped, feeling like he'd just revealed too much. Judging by her thoughtful expression, he definitely had.
Looking away, he started the car and pulled out of the lot, thankful she didn't press him on his cryptic answer.
"I looked up Reina Chapman and her older sister Anita," Kaia said instead, pulling out her phone. "I took some notes."
"What did you learn?"
"As you mentioned, there wasn't a lot on Reina, but Anita had more press." Glancing down at her phone, Kaia continued. "Anita was married and divorced twice. She had two children, one with each spouse, Ella and Vincent. Anita died at the age of seventy-two ten years ago. Her obituary listed her survivors, her children, her grandchildren, and also her sister, Reina, her brother-in-law, James, and two nieces, whom I assume to be Reina's children, but there were no names listed."
"You got more than I did."
"Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out whether Reina was still alive. But I did track down one of Anita's children, Ella Morena. She's listed as the owner of an antiques shop in San Diego. We might be able to track Reina down through her."
"I'm impressed. Maybe you should have been a detective like your brother."
"I do like the challenge of a good puzzle." Kaia turned in her seat. "What if we could not only find the red door for Walter, but we could also find Reina?"
"Slow down," he said, seeing the passionate enthusiasm in her eyes. "You're getting too far ahead."
"Am I? He's trying to find a message from a lost love."
"You're writing a love story based on a few words from a man who doesn't always make sense," he said, feeling a need to anchor her more closely to reality. "A lot of this could be a fantasy in his mind."
"I don't think he made it up."
"We still need to go slow. Let's find out if the bookstore really was the Starlight Lounge, and we'll take it from there. Reina might no longer be alive. And that might be difficult for Walter to hear."
"That's true. But living with uncertainty is worse than knowing what happened, even if what happened was bad. I find the most stressful times of my life are when I'm not sure which way to go or what's going to happen. Once I make a decision, or one is made for me, it's easier to deal with the facts, with what's real."
Her words echoed inside his head, hitting harder than expected. She was right and uncertainty was where he'd spent the past several months. Maybe he needed to make some decisions, too. Walter wasn't the only one who needed to get beyond the past and move forward.
"But I know that I need to be careful," Kaia continued. "Because this is Walter's story, and I have to respect that. I'll put the brakes on temporarily, but you should know that I do like to go fast."
He couldn't help but laugh. "Are you always this honest?"
"Pretty much," she said with a shrug.
He liked her candid self-awareness and also her willingness to admit she could push too hard or move too fast. Those were rare qualities. Most of the people in his life had an appalling lack of self-awareness.
