He looked like a young man again, not old before his time. His eyes were brighter, too, though they would always have that shadow. The look of someone who had seen pure evil at very close range, and survived it. It might grow fainter with time, but it would always be there. She saw the same look in the mirror every day.
“Look at you,” she said. “You look great. Have you started classes again?”
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m meeting with professors, getting caught up. Nate left yesterday. It feels so strange to be back. It’s all so familiar, just like it was before, but I feel like I’ve been to another planet and lived an entire lifetime there. But everyone here is the exactly the same as they were before I left.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly right,” she said. “I feel the same way.”
“And it’s weird, having a bodyguard. Are you sure this is necessary? I mean, I’m really far away from all that stuff happening in Shaw’s Crossing, right?”
She shook her head. “I insist,” she said. “It’ll just be for a while.”
“I wanted to check up on you,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s smart to stay in that town at all. Isn’t it sort of like living in the middle of a bullseye?”
“Maybe, but this is home now. And I’m done being shoved around.”
“God, I hear you,” Josh said fervently. “So that’s your new apartment?”
“Yeah. It’s nice. The upstairs of a townhouse, right next to Demi’s. I’ll show it to you.” She picked up the laptop, turned the screen around and strolled through the apartment, from the front room all the way back to the big bedroom.
“Cool painting,” Josh commented. “Will you take some photos of it and send them to me?”
“Sure thing, Joshie. Soon as we sign off.”
When she set down the laptop again, Josh was grinning at her. “Um, Lu? I get that you’re keeping it simple to showcase the artwork. But you do know that you’re going to need furniture, right? A couch, a rug? Maybe a TV?”
“Yeah, I know. But I tried shopping for some stuff a few days ago, and I got overwhelmed. Had to go sit down and eat a couple of brownies just to get myself functioning again. I’ll just wait until I figure out what I want.”
“Ask Nate what he thinks,” Josh suggested. “He’ll have an opinion. He certainly has plenty of them with me.”
Elisa picked up the laptop and turned it so he could see the bay window, and the plant in front of it. “Hey, look. I’ve got a fern. See? That’s domestic, right?”
Josh snorted. “Whatever. Hey, I have good news. I’ve been talking to Eric ever since I helped decrypt the videos, and he wants me to work on a special project at Erebus in San Francisco over the summer!”
Her eyes burned with tears to see him looking so happy. “That’s fabulous!”
“It’s epic! All the engineering students I know would kill even for an unpaid internship at Erebus, and I’ll have an actual paying job!”
“You deserve it, Joshie,” she told him. “Erebus will be lucky to have you.”
“You do know you’re not supposed to call me Joshie anymore, right? Not since I was, what, maybe five years old? We’ve been through this, Lu. Many times.”
“Tough shit,” she told him. “You’re my precious baby brother, and you always will be, even when we’re both oldsters yelling at each other’s hearing aids.”
The doorbell buzzed again. She and Josh locked eyes. His smile had vanished.
“Who’s that?” he mouthed, barely making a sound.
She leaned closer and whispered into the mic. “I’ll check the peephole.”
“Turn the camera around so I can see the door.”
She obliged him, spinning the laptop to face the entrance, and rose up, padding silently on bare feet to the door. She peeked out.
Nate. Her heart leaped, and galloped. She threw open the door and hurled herself at him. His arms circled around hers, squeezing hard. Oh yes.
She dragged him through the door, beaming. “Come on in,” she said. “I was just talking to Joshie on the computer. Come and say hello. You’re his idol.”
“Don’t embarrass me, Lu,” Josh called out from the computer screen. “Hey, Nate. It’s about time you got there.”
A smile flashed across Nate’s face as he walked into the room and crouched down in front of the screen. “Hey, Josh. I’m here now, so rest easy. How’s things?”
“All good, man.” Josh’s face had a huge smile. “I’m glad you’re finally there. I about had a heart attack when I heard the doorbell.”
“We’re all going to be like that for quite a while,” he said. “It’s hard to shake.”
“I was just telling Lu that I’ll be working at Eric’s company this summer!”
“That’s awesome,” Nate said. “They’re very lucky.”
“I certainly hope so. I’ll try to keep up,” Josh said. “So, uh, I guess you guys must have some stuff to catch up on, so I’ll call you back later. And hey, Nate?”
“Yeah?”
“You will look out for her, right? All the time?”
“I’m not taking my eyes off her for one second,” Nate said. “If she’ll let me.”
“Hey, Lu?” Josh’s voice hardened. “Let him.”
“Thank you for your input, Joshie,” she called.
Josh’s image froze, and then winked off.
For a few moments, they couldn’t look away from each other.
“Wow,” Nate said softly. “You look fucking gorgeous.”
Elisa looked down at herself, hair tangled, paint-stained overalls, her paint-spotted bare feet, and laughed out loud. “Why thank you, sir,” she said primly. “You look pretty appetizing yourself.”
Nate turned to her new painting, examined it for a few minutes, and looked back at her, eyes wide. “You’ve released the beast,” he said. “God help us all.”
She laughed. “Thanks, I guess. Eric and Demi just got back and came over to say hi, and Eric really likes it. He already wants to buy it, for God’s sake. Plus five more like it, for the lobby of the Erebus building. That would be one hell of a job. And he has no idea what I’ll produce.”
“Are you’re afraid he’ll be disappointed?”
Elisa shrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first.”
“Are you by any chance talking about that shitbag, Alan Herzog? The one who panned your show?”
“Yeah, I guess. Him, and various other dissenting opinions. It’s hard to forget what he said.” Though now that she thought about it, that humiliation seemed very small and far away now. Mortal danger put the small shit into perspective very fast.
“News flash,” he said. “Alan Herzog was on Erasma’s tape. Mace told me while I was with Josh, on the plane to Boston. Herzog liked diddling underaged girls, too.”
She gasped. “Holy shit! No way!”
Nate nodded. “So he’s disgraced and ruined. He was staying at a beach home he owns on Rhode Island, not far from Boston, so I went to see him.”