“Are you planning to have a pool at the development?” Jackson asked her. She answered, but I wasn’t listening.
Instead, I turned and gave Nick a pointed look. He grinned at me, clearly not in the least repentant about banning me from the pool.
“There’s always room to negotiate, you know, like awarding visas to visiting cats,” he said. He looked amused. It charmed me silly but I fought it off.
“Is there?” I asked. “Because if it gets that hot here, we are most definitely going to have to adjust the rules. I will die—die!—if I don’t have a pool during that kind of heat.”
“Are you being overly dramatic in an attempt to win?”
“No,” I said. “I can assure you this is not hyperbole. Need I remind you, I am from New England. We can’t handle temperatures above ninety. Everyone freaks out and loads up on the iced Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Then we’re all overcaffeinated and locked indoors, clutching our window AC units for dear life. Truly, it’s ridiculous.”
“Well, then,” he said. He pressed his lips together in an obvious attempt to not laugh. “We can’t have that. We’ll discuss.”
I gave him a sly look. “And put it in writing?”
“Of course,” he said.
I turned back to see Lexi yawning. She looked like she was fighting it off, but Jackson shook his head when he started to yawn, too.
“Stop that,” he said. Then he nudged her with an elbow, pushing her to her feet. “Come on, I’ll take you home before we both pass out.”
She looked like she’d argue but then another yawn slipped out. “All right. Morning does come early and since I’m going to have a crew tomorrow . . .” She glanced at Nick.
“Not just a crew,” he said. He stood and I rose with him. “The best crew.”
“Oh, Nicky.” Lexi stepped close and then, as if bracing herself for rejection, she threw her arms around him anyway.
I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen. Nick lifted his arms and put his hands on her upper arms as if he’d peel her off him. Instead, he slid his hands to her upper back and hugged her close. The look on his face, as if he couldn’t believe she was here and he was hugging her, about broke me. My throat got tight and my heart went sploosh, and I felt a suspicious pricking in my eyes as if the tear ducts were just firing up.
Nick cleared his throat and patted Lexi’s back. She released him with a watery smile of her own and then turned to Jackson. “Well, come on. Places to go. People to see.”
He exchanged a nod with Nick and followed her to the door. Before she disappeared, Lexi spun back around. “I’ll see you at your office tomorrow, Annabelle. Ten o’clock, okay?”
“Perfect,” I said.
“Just remember when you meet Sophie and Miguel Vasquez to leave my name out of it,” Nick said.
Lexi squinted. “You said that before, but you didn’t say why.”
“It’s for me,” I said. “Nick is trying to let me take the full credit for landing a huge account. Sophie and Miguel know he’s my landlord, so if they know that you’re his sister and that he’s paying for the work, then—”
“It looks like your landlord gave you the job instead of you earning it?” Lexi asked. Nick and I both nodded. “Well, just so we’re all clear, if your designs had been garbage, I wouldn’t have agreed to hire you even if it did mean losing Nicky’s support.”
I grinned at her. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
Lexi nodded, cast one last look at her brother, smiled, and left.
I began to gather the dessert dishes from the coffee table. Nick started to help but I shook my head. “I’ve got it.”
He ignored me and followed me into the kitchen, carrying the remaining dishes and coffee mugs. We set them in the sink. When I would have started to rinse them, he reached across me and shut off the tap.
“I can do that later,” he said. “Come on, I’ll walk you home.”
“Oh, you don’t need to,” I said. What? What had just come out of my mouth? Why? Why was I telling him no? Hadn’t I wanted to be alone with him just a few minutes ago? Yes. But now that I was, I was actually nervous. So stupid.
“Probably not,” he said. “But I’m going to anyway.”
“Do you want your wheelchair?” I asked. “I can go get it.”
He stood still as if trying to decide. Then he shook his head. “No, I think I can do this.”
We strolled through the enormous house and stepped outside into the backyard. The scent of citrus blossoms was heavy in the night air. It was chilly and very quiet. The only sound was the soft bubbling of the hot tub. I almost asked if he wanted to go in with me, but I thought that might be pushing it.
We crossed his patio and followed the path along the line of trees that circled the pool until the path broke off to my house. My back door was open just a few inches. I had fed Sir before arriving for dinner and left the door open for him if he wanted to leave. I glanced at Nick to see if he was taking all this in. If he was, he didn’t show it.
I thought about Lexi and wondered how she’d react when she discovered that he’d been keeping his stroke and subsequent issues secret from her. It had been my experience that secrets didn’t like to be held. They were like wiggly toddlers that way, and the harder you held on to them, the more of a fuss they made until they were loose.
“Are you going to tell Lexi?” I asked him.
“Tell Lexi?” he asked.
“About your . . . issues.”
“Issues?” He stopped walking and turned to face me, forcing me to stop, too. “That’s a helluva euphemism for a stroke and the residual fallout.”
“I was trying to be delicate,” I said.
“No need, I’m not that fragile. Truthfully, I don’t have any plans to tell her anything,” he said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“It’s complicated.”
“Really? Seems to me you just need to ‘break it down to its simplest construct.’ ”
A slow smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Very clever, using my own words back on me.”
I shrugged. “Just sharing some very wise advice.”
“The difference being you had a situation you wanted to change, and I don’t.”
“No?”
“No,” he said. He began walking again. “Lexi is only in Phoenix for this project, and then she’ll go back to the East Coast and on to her next job. I’m not going to bog her down with my stuff. She’s better off not getting too attached.”