“Including the hospital.”
“Good.I’ll brief you Monday.And Graham —”
“Yeah.”
“Buy her something nice for the house.”
Caleb hung up.Graham stood at the railing for another moment, looking at the inlet.Then he put his hand over the inside breast pocket of his jacket and took in a deep breath.
Today was the day.
He’d known it was the day when he’d signed the closing paperwork at ten this morning and his hand hadn’t shaken on the line.He’d known it again at noon when Maren had brought him a sandwich at the title office and made a joke about the inspector’s tie.He’d known it for nine days, really.He’d been waiting for a moment that felt right, and what he’d figured out somewhere between the title office and the porch was that waiting for a moment was a way of stalling.
The right moment was the one he chose to make right.
He turned around and walked back toward the house.
* * *
She was still in the kitchen.
She had a notebook on the counter and was sketching the cabinet layout in pencil — not the spiral notebook from the Bird of Paradise, a new one, smaller, the kind you bought at a hardware store for three dollars and used until you lost it.She looked up when he came through the screen door.
“Cabinets,” she said.“Deeper than the rental.The big pasta pot will fit on the bottom shelf with room left over.”
“Come out on the porch.”
“I’m almost —”
“Maren.Come out on the porch.”
Something in his voice landed.She set the pencil down and followed him.
She stood at the railing beside him and looked at the water.
“Who called?”
“Caleb.”
“Work?”
“He wants me to stay on with the team.Different role.Logistics and coordination, based here.Supporting Ethan’s operation at the marina.”
“What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
She looked at him.“You already decided.”
“I decided three weeks ago.I decided when you turned onto Inlet Drive and slowed the car in front of a house with a FOR SALE sign and looked at it the way you look at patients who need you.”
“I wasn’t looking at the house the way I look at patients.”
“How were you looking at it?”
“Like it was mine.”
“Ours.”
