“How long could it take?” Conner asked.
“I’d hate to speculate. The judge is a hanging judge and won’t tolerate a lot of paper delays, that’s in our favor. Just sit tight and let’s hope for the best. Our biggest problem is going to be jury selection.”
“Why?” Conner wanted to know.
“Because aside from a little legal gambling, this guy is squeaky clean.”
“I thought there were tax issues....”
“Because he’s rich. And he’s been exonerated. But we’re on it—we have top-notch jury consultants.”
Brie was more forthcoming over scrambled eggs. “The reality is, there have been high-profile cases that have taken years to get to trial. This guy of yours, he’s not a big Mafia boss or anything. He must have some interesting underworld connections to get your store burned down and threaten you, but still, he’s a fairly ordinary citizen. Well-known, but not well-known as a criminal. I wouldn’t expect it to be that protracted.”
“What about your defendant?” Conner asked. “The ra**st?”
“Hah. Went straight to trial, no bail. He started out with a public defender, then scored a decent pro bono attorney, but he was nailed before they even got started. Even so, the defense had important evidence thrown out or rendered inadmissible, like the fact that I was the A.D.A. who prosecuted him and failed to convict, making him not only a random serial ra**st but acting out revenge on an officer of the court. But in the end, they slipped up and that information got in. What I think, Conner, is that it might not get started before June, but I bet your testimony will be done and you’ll be reunited with your family and ready to start over by the end of summer, at the latest.”
He was quiet for a long moment. “And then where are we going to go?”
“Is going home out of the question? Because once this is over—”
“When it’s over, he’ll forget I testified against him? You stayed here after your trial,” he pointed out.
She let a small huff of laughter escape. “The ra**st is a pervert and animal. He wasn’t connected. And this town? My brother, Jack, and the guys around here? Mike, Paul, the Riordans, to name a few? If he even poked his head out from behind a tree, he’d be so dead, so fast. This is a place that takes care of their own, Conner. And it’s not just a place of great loyalty, but of incredible strength and prowess. I think every last one of them is military-trained and at least a marksman if not a decorated sniper. I’m afraid your guy is a little more complicated than that. But still, this is probably one of the safest places I know, just based on the skills of the local population.”
“Hmm,” he said, thinking. “I have an army marksman ribbon…”
“You know what’s wrong with that idea. Right?” Brie asked. When he didn’t answer immediately, she did. “If some stranger wanders into town and looks at you funny, you could get spooked. You could run into him after dark and shoot him just because you’re spooked. I’d rather you rely on us—Mike and I. Please, anyone suspicious turns up, call Mike.”
“I wish I were the one protecting Katie,” he said.
“And the problem with that is that you protecting Katie brings her and the little boys into specific relief, making all four of you stand out. Conner, just build kitchens and bathrooms for a couple of months. Huh? You and Katie and the kids will be together again soon. Right now, having you here and Katie on the other side of the country just makes sense.”
After breakfast Conner drove to Ferndale, a beautiful little Victorian town full of bed-and-breakfasts and shops. He sat on a bench on the main street and had a conversation with Katie, who was at the YMCA with the boys in a town very far away. Conner resisted the urge to tell her about his conversations with the D.A. and Brie. All that was important to him was hearing the happiness in her voice. She liked her job, she had friends, she thought maybe she had a crush on her boss who had taken her to dinner, and the boys were having so much fun at their new school. Andy was a little too shy and Mitch a little too not.
“Sounds like you’re getting along fine,” he said.
“Are you so disappointed that I’m not sobbing myself to sleep every night?” she asked him. “I do miss you, Danny.”
“Names,” he reminded her.
“I’m sure we’re fine. I do miss you. The boys miss you and love talking to you. I’d put them on right now, but they’re tumbling. They were on the trampoline and now they’re on the mats. Are you getting along all right? Having fun, like you promised you’d try to?”
“Well…there is this girl....”
She choked. “Girl?”
“Woman,” he corrected. “Woman. I met her at work and she’s nice. Pretty. Funny.”
“Well, my God, a girl,” Katie said and burst into hysterical laughter.
“And this is so goddamn funny?” he asked indignantly.
“Because it’s just what you need and I never thought you’d have the guts. Oh, go for it!”
“She doesn’t like me that much yet,” he said. “Which is probably just as well. I’d end up just leaving her high and dry with no explanation,” he returned almost angrily.
“Now, calm down, that isn’t what’s going to happen at all. Not only will there be an explanation when you finally do your thing, there will probably be newspaper accounts and TV coverage. By the time all this is resolved, you’ll be able to tell her everything and bring her along with the happy party that includes me and two tumbling-soccer-T-ball players! Even if it makes more sense for her to let you go, it’s still a very good idea to enjoy yourself a little right now. You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“Because if I could just hook up, you wouldn’t have to be stuck with me?” he asked her.
“Oh, my God, you can be such a drama mama. I have never been stuck with you—it’s been quite the opposite and you know it. Nothing would make me happier than to hear you’d given it up to some pretty, funny small-town woman. I’m on board with that. I just wish it would go as well with the dentist.”
“Are you getting involved?” Conner asked.
“Oh, no. It’s very professional,” she assured him. “I wasn’t the only employee he took to dinner. He also invited the office manager and his sister. It’s just friendly. But I think he’s the kind of guy I like. Stable and reliable. He loves children.”
“Don’t leave him alone with the boys!”
She chuckled again. God, how he missed her laugh. “Ah, I don’t think I’m going to be asking my boss to babysit.”
When they hung up he spent two minutes feeling ridiculous and twenty minutes remembering how level she had always made his life. And then he saw a shop owner putting out flats of flowers across the street. It had been a very long time since he’d taken a girl flowers.
Leslie had bought a flat of peonies and a bunch of starters of Hearts and Flowers ground cover, which were sitting on her front porch. She had just begun to till the ground in front of the porch when one of her neighbors stopped by to say hello. Mrs. Hutchkins had lived in the neighborhood for thirty years and had been widowed for only two. She was a spry seventy-six who reminded Leslie of her mother, and she walked a little white Shih Tzu named Puff.
While Leslie leaned on the hoe and visited, the last thing she expected was Conner, pulling in front of her house in his big truck. He jumped out. Smiling again. Funny, when she’d first met him, one of the things that had had an impact on her was how serious he usually was. He’d seemed almost brooding. Either that or he was smiling inappropriately, like when she said she felt like crap. Now every time she saw him he was grinning like a fool.
“I know I wasn’t invited to the planting,” he said as he came around to the rear of his truck. He wore a cap over his short, thick, unruly brown hair, and he touched the bill with a nod to Mrs. Hutchkins. “Ma’am,” he said politely.
“Young man,” Mrs. Hutchkins returned. “I’ll talk with you later, Leslie. Come along, Puff,” she said, moving down the street toward her house.
Leslie went to the back of Conner’s truck just as he lowered the hatch. The bed of the truck was filled with flats of flowers. “God above,” she said. “What have you done?”
He pulled off his hat and scratched his head. “I might’ve gotten a little carried away.”
She rolled her eyes. The truck was full of blossoming blue, yellow, red, purple, lavender, white.
“Daisies, wildflowers, peonies, lavender, garlic, bachelor buttons, poppies, lantana in three colors,” he said. “I didn’t get any roses or tomatoes. Roses and tomatoes are trouble.”
“Are you some kind of landscape expert or something?”
He let a huff of laughter loose. “Not before this morning.”
“I’m not mad at you anymore,” she reassured him. “I’m over it. I was a little insulted, but then I started to think—I have my reasons for being offended that you would think I was fooling around with a married man and maybe you have your reasons for springing to that conclusion.”
“Something like that,” he said.
“Who’s going to plant all this stuff?”
“I figured you and I would do it. And I was hoping it would take most of the day.”
She put a hand on her hip. “You’re getting a little obvious. Are you flirting with me?”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I’m not a good flirt. I brought my own gear. Shovel, spade, aerator. I also brought mulch and fertilizer. I assumed you weren’t prepared for me to show up with, ah, stock.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at him. “What makes you think I want to spend the whole day with you?”
“I thought if I brought enough pretty flora, I’d grow on you.”
“Conner…” She shook her head.
“Leslie…” He just smiled at her.
“All right, you can do the hard part. Make the ground ready.”
“See, I haven’t lost my touch after all.” And he hefted a big flat of daisies out of his truck and followed her.
Several hours later Conner found himself making Leslie smile a lot, making her laugh, making her think he was a regular prince with his hard work on the yard and his flowers. It was just like riding a bike. They broke for lunch and Leslie fed him a sandwich, though she barely nibbled. When he saw the difference in their lunch plates he asked, “Are you getting enough to eat?”
“I’m a little thinner than is usual for me,” she said. “Divorce diet. I’ve been working on keeping it off. Eating right, yoga and all that.”
“You can take on quite a bit more weight before you’re too fat,” he said.
She frowned. “I don’t know whether to say thank-you or ask you to leave.”
“Are you worrying about your hips? Because a little something to grab on to looks good on a woman.”
“Let me guess—you missed the class on flattery,” she said.
“Seriously, Les. You don’t want to be too thin. Eat. I’ll keep bringing flowers for you to plant even if you grow a butt.”
“Stop being such a guy, Conner,” she said.
“Well, I could try, if that’s what you want....”
But that wasn’t what she wanted at all. Watching him flex his shoulders and arms while digging, watching him crouch so that his hard thighs were emphasized, it was all so much fun. And when he caught her looking, more fun. Leslie loved having him underfoot.
It took a long time to place all those flowers. By the time the afternoon sun was sinking in the west, most of Leslie’s yard was flush with color. Flowers lined her front and back porches, her walk, her fence in the backyard, bobbed in a ring around the trees in the yard and the mailbox. And the two of them were filthy.
“I’d hate to speculate. The judge is a hanging judge and won’t tolerate a lot of paper delays, that’s in our favor. Just sit tight and let’s hope for the best. Our biggest problem is going to be jury selection.”
“Why?” Conner wanted to know.
“Because aside from a little legal gambling, this guy is squeaky clean.”
“I thought there were tax issues....”
“Because he’s rich. And he’s been exonerated. But we’re on it—we have top-notch jury consultants.”
Brie was more forthcoming over scrambled eggs. “The reality is, there have been high-profile cases that have taken years to get to trial. This guy of yours, he’s not a big Mafia boss or anything. He must have some interesting underworld connections to get your store burned down and threaten you, but still, he’s a fairly ordinary citizen. Well-known, but not well-known as a criminal. I wouldn’t expect it to be that protracted.”
“What about your defendant?” Conner asked. “The ra**st?”
“Hah. Went straight to trial, no bail. He started out with a public defender, then scored a decent pro bono attorney, but he was nailed before they even got started. Even so, the defense had important evidence thrown out or rendered inadmissible, like the fact that I was the A.D.A. who prosecuted him and failed to convict, making him not only a random serial ra**st but acting out revenge on an officer of the court. But in the end, they slipped up and that information got in. What I think, Conner, is that it might not get started before June, but I bet your testimony will be done and you’ll be reunited with your family and ready to start over by the end of summer, at the latest.”
He was quiet for a long moment. “And then where are we going to go?”
“Is going home out of the question? Because once this is over—”
“When it’s over, he’ll forget I testified against him? You stayed here after your trial,” he pointed out.
She let a small huff of laughter escape. “The ra**st is a pervert and animal. He wasn’t connected. And this town? My brother, Jack, and the guys around here? Mike, Paul, the Riordans, to name a few? If he even poked his head out from behind a tree, he’d be so dead, so fast. This is a place that takes care of their own, Conner. And it’s not just a place of great loyalty, but of incredible strength and prowess. I think every last one of them is military-trained and at least a marksman if not a decorated sniper. I’m afraid your guy is a little more complicated than that. But still, this is probably one of the safest places I know, just based on the skills of the local population.”
“Hmm,” he said, thinking. “I have an army marksman ribbon…”
“You know what’s wrong with that idea. Right?” Brie asked. When he didn’t answer immediately, she did. “If some stranger wanders into town and looks at you funny, you could get spooked. You could run into him after dark and shoot him just because you’re spooked. I’d rather you rely on us—Mike and I. Please, anyone suspicious turns up, call Mike.”
“I wish I were the one protecting Katie,” he said.
“And the problem with that is that you protecting Katie brings her and the little boys into specific relief, making all four of you stand out. Conner, just build kitchens and bathrooms for a couple of months. Huh? You and Katie and the kids will be together again soon. Right now, having you here and Katie on the other side of the country just makes sense.”
After breakfast Conner drove to Ferndale, a beautiful little Victorian town full of bed-and-breakfasts and shops. He sat on a bench on the main street and had a conversation with Katie, who was at the YMCA with the boys in a town very far away. Conner resisted the urge to tell her about his conversations with the D.A. and Brie. All that was important to him was hearing the happiness in her voice. She liked her job, she had friends, she thought maybe she had a crush on her boss who had taken her to dinner, and the boys were having so much fun at their new school. Andy was a little too shy and Mitch a little too not.
“Sounds like you’re getting along fine,” he said.
“Are you so disappointed that I’m not sobbing myself to sleep every night?” she asked him. “I do miss you, Danny.”
“Names,” he reminded her.
“I’m sure we’re fine. I do miss you. The boys miss you and love talking to you. I’d put them on right now, but they’re tumbling. They were on the trampoline and now they’re on the mats. Are you getting along all right? Having fun, like you promised you’d try to?”
“Well…there is this girl....”
She choked. “Girl?”
“Woman,” he corrected. “Woman. I met her at work and she’s nice. Pretty. Funny.”
“Well, my God, a girl,” Katie said and burst into hysterical laughter.
“And this is so goddamn funny?” he asked indignantly.
“Because it’s just what you need and I never thought you’d have the guts. Oh, go for it!”
“She doesn’t like me that much yet,” he said. “Which is probably just as well. I’d end up just leaving her high and dry with no explanation,” he returned almost angrily.
“Now, calm down, that isn’t what’s going to happen at all. Not only will there be an explanation when you finally do your thing, there will probably be newspaper accounts and TV coverage. By the time all this is resolved, you’ll be able to tell her everything and bring her along with the happy party that includes me and two tumbling-soccer-T-ball players! Even if it makes more sense for her to let you go, it’s still a very good idea to enjoy yourself a little right now. You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“Because if I could just hook up, you wouldn’t have to be stuck with me?” he asked her.
“Oh, my God, you can be such a drama mama. I have never been stuck with you—it’s been quite the opposite and you know it. Nothing would make me happier than to hear you’d given it up to some pretty, funny small-town woman. I’m on board with that. I just wish it would go as well with the dentist.”
“Are you getting involved?” Conner asked.
“Oh, no. It’s very professional,” she assured him. “I wasn’t the only employee he took to dinner. He also invited the office manager and his sister. It’s just friendly. But I think he’s the kind of guy I like. Stable and reliable. He loves children.”
“Don’t leave him alone with the boys!”
She chuckled again. God, how he missed her laugh. “Ah, I don’t think I’m going to be asking my boss to babysit.”
When they hung up he spent two minutes feeling ridiculous and twenty minutes remembering how level she had always made his life. And then he saw a shop owner putting out flats of flowers across the street. It had been a very long time since he’d taken a girl flowers.
Leslie had bought a flat of peonies and a bunch of starters of Hearts and Flowers ground cover, which were sitting on her front porch. She had just begun to till the ground in front of the porch when one of her neighbors stopped by to say hello. Mrs. Hutchkins had lived in the neighborhood for thirty years and had been widowed for only two. She was a spry seventy-six who reminded Leslie of her mother, and she walked a little white Shih Tzu named Puff.
While Leslie leaned on the hoe and visited, the last thing she expected was Conner, pulling in front of her house in his big truck. He jumped out. Smiling again. Funny, when she’d first met him, one of the things that had had an impact on her was how serious he usually was. He’d seemed almost brooding. Either that or he was smiling inappropriately, like when she said she felt like crap. Now every time she saw him he was grinning like a fool.
“I know I wasn’t invited to the planting,” he said as he came around to the rear of his truck. He wore a cap over his short, thick, unruly brown hair, and he touched the bill with a nod to Mrs. Hutchkins. “Ma’am,” he said politely.
“Young man,” Mrs. Hutchkins returned. “I’ll talk with you later, Leslie. Come along, Puff,” she said, moving down the street toward her house.
Leslie went to the back of Conner’s truck just as he lowered the hatch. The bed of the truck was filled with flats of flowers. “God above,” she said. “What have you done?”
He pulled off his hat and scratched his head. “I might’ve gotten a little carried away.”
She rolled her eyes. The truck was full of blossoming blue, yellow, red, purple, lavender, white.
“Daisies, wildflowers, peonies, lavender, garlic, bachelor buttons, poppies, lantana in three colors,” he said. “I didn’t get any roses or tomatoes. Roses and tomatoes are trouble.”
“Are you some kind of landscape expert or something?”
He let a huff of laughter loose. “Not before this morning.”
“I’m not mad at you anymore,” she reassured him. “I’m over it. I was a little insulted, but then I started to think—I have my reasons for being offended that you would think I was fooling around with a married man and maybe you have your reasons for springing to that conclusion.”
“Something like that,” he said.
“Who’s going to plant all this stuff?”
“I figured you and I would do it. And I was hoping it would take most of the day.”
She put a hand on her hip. “You’re getting a little obvious. Are you flirting with me?”
“Absolutely not,” he said. “I’m not a good flirt. I brought my own gear. Shovel, spade, aerator. I also brought mulch and fertilizer. I assumed you weren’t prepared for me to show up with, ah, stock.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at him. “What makes you think I want to spend the whole day with you?”
“I thought if I brought enough pretty flora, I’d grow on you.”
“Conner…” She shook her head.
“Leslie…” He just smiled at her.
“All right, you can do the hard part. Make the ground ready.”
“See, I haven’t lost my touch after all.” And he hefted a big flat of daisies out of his truck and followed her.
Several hours later Conner found himself making Leslie smile a lot, making her laugh, making her think he was a regular prince with his hard work on the yard and his flowers. It was just like riding a bike. They broke for lunch and Leslie fed him a sandwich, though she barely nibbled. When he saw the difference in their lunch plates he asked, “Are you getting enough to eat?”
“I’m a little thinner than is usual for me,” she said. “Divorce diet. I’ve been working on keeping it off. Eating right, yoga and all that.”
“You can take on quite a bit more weight before you’re too fat,” he said.
She frowned. “I don’t know whether to say thank-you or ask you to leave.”
“Are you worrying about your hips? Because a little something to grab on to looks good on a woman.”
“Let me guess—you missed the class on flattery,” she said.
“Seriously, Les. You don’t want to be too thin. Eat. I’ll keep bringing flowers for you to plant even if you grow a butt.”
“Stop being such a guy, Conner,” she said.
“Well, I could try, if that’s what you want....”
But that wasn’t what she wanted at all. Watching him flex his shoulders and arms while digging, watching him crouch so that his hard thighs were emphasized, it was all so much fun. And when he caught her looking, more fun. Leslie loved having him underfoot.
It took a long time to place all those flowers. By the time the afternoon sun was sinking in the west, most of Leslie’s yard was flush with color. Flowers lined her front and back porches, her walk, her fence in the backyard, bobbed in a ring around the trees in the yard and the mailbox. And the two of them were filthy.
