Whiskey Beach (43 page)

“But you stood by and let what you’d done ruin Eli’s life.”

“I couldn’t stop it, or change it, though I was sorry, sincerely, that someone who’d been betrayed as I had would lose so much more. But in the end, I didn’t ruin his life. Lindsay did. She ruined his, mine, Justin’s. Even dead, she ruined us all. Now my children will be scarred.”

Her voice wavered a little, then strengthened again. “Even when my lawyer makes a deal with the prosecutor I have every confidence he’ll make, they’ll be scarred. You’ll have your balance, your chance for a future. I’ll have two children who’ll be shattered by what their father’s done out of selfishness, and what their mother did out of desperation. You’re free, and though I may not be punished to the extent you feel just, I’ll never be free.”

Eli leaned across the table. “Whatever she did, or planned to do, she didn’t deserve to die for it.”

“You’re kinder than I. But we can take it back to its roots. Your ancestor committed murder out of greed, cast off his own sister, for the same reasons. Without that, we wouldn’t be here. I’m really just a piece of all of it.”

“Believing that may help you get through the next few weeks.” Eli got to his feet.

Once more, Abra put a hand over his as she rose. “For the sake of your children, I hope your lawyer is as good as you believe.”

“Thank you. I really wish both of you all the best.”

He had to walk out, get out. “Jesus Christ” was all he could say when Abra gripped his hands.

“Some people are twisted, in ways that don’t show. In ways they themselves don’t see or understand. It may be circumstances that twisted her, Eli, but she’ll never really see it.”

“I could get her off,” he stated. “I could get her off with five years, and she’d only do two.”

“Then I’m glad you’re not a defense attorney anymore.”

“So am I.” His hand tightened on hers as Wolfe walked down the hall.

“Landon.”

“Detective.”

“I was wrong, but you looked good for it.”

As Wolfe kept walking, Eli turned. “And that’s it? That’s it from you?”

Wolfe glanced back. “Yeah, that’s it.”

“He’s embarrassed,” Abra commented, and only smiled when Eli sent her a baffled stare. “He’s an asshole, but he’s also embarrassed. Forget him, and remember karma comes around.”

“I don’t know about karma, but I’ll start working on forgetting him.”

“Good. Let’s buy some flowers for Hester and go tell your family this most excellent news. Then we’ll go home, and see what happens next.”

He had some ideas about that.

He waited a few days, letting it all sink in for both of them. He had his life back, and didn’t need the media reports about Eden Suskind’s arrest for Lindsay’s murder, or Justin Suskind’s for Duncan’s, to tell him just that.

He had his life back, but not the life he’d had once, and he was glad of it.

He made plans, some with Abra—they’d throw Bluff House open for a major party for the Fourth of July. He showed her the very preliminary plans for installing an elevator so his grandmother could come home and live comfortably.

And some plans he didn’t share with her—yet.

So he waited, walked his dog, wrote, spent time with the woman he loved and began to look at Bluff House in a whole new light.

He chose an evening with soft breezes, and the promise of sunset, the anticipation of a full moon.

Doing his part, he dealt with the dinner dishes while she sat at the island working on her schedule for the upcoming week.

“I think, if I fiddle a little, I could add Zumba in the fall. It’s popular for a reason, and I can get certified.”

“I bet you could.”

“Yoga’s always going to be my core, but I like adding in some other choices, keeping it fresh.” Rising, she pinned her new schedule to the board.

“Speaking of keeping it fresh, I want to show you something on the third floor.”

“In the passage? Are you thinking about trying out Pirate and Wench?”

“Maybe, but there’s something else first.”

“You know it’s too bad we can’t throw that floor open for our big bash in July,” she said as she walked with him. “It’s too complicated, and too full of things right now, but boy, we could rock it.”

“Maybe someday.”

“I always like somedays.”

“Funny, I’ve realized I do, too. It’s taken a while.”

He guided her into the old servants’ quarters where a bucket held a bottle of champagne.

“Are we celebrating?”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

“I’m also fond of celebrations. You have blueprints up here.” She moved to the table he’d uncovered, studied them. “Eli! You’ve started on plans for your office. Oh, this is great. It’s going to be fabulous for you. You’re adding an outside entrance to the terrace? It’s a great idea. You can go in and out, from right in there, sit out and contemplate. You didn’t tell me!”

She spun around.

“They’re just preliminary. I wanted some of it down, and to find out what could be done before I showed you.”

“Well, preliminary or not, it’s a good reason to pop a cork.”

“That’s not why.”

“You have more.”

“Yeah, it’s a lot more. See, the architect left this space here unnamed. This area we’re standing in, the bath over there. I asked him to just draw it up, basically, and leave it blank.”

“More plans.” She turned a circle, then another. “There’s so much you could do with it.”

“No, not really, but you could.”

“I could?”

“You could have your studio.”

“My— Oh, Eli, that’s so good of you, so sweet, but—”

“Hear me out. Your clients or students—whatever—would have the entrance here, off the terrace. It’s three floors up, but hell, if they’re coming to exercise, the climb’s part of it. If you’re doing the senior yoga deal or whatever, there’s the elevator. And there’s this area here. You could have your massage therapy room. I’m working here, north wing, private, so none of this interferes with me. I asked Gran what she thought, and she thought it was great, so you’ve got the go-ahead there.”

“You’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

“I have, and it’s all been about you. About us. About Bluff House. About, well, somedays. What do you think?”

“Eli.” Overwhelmed, she wandered the space, could see it, just see it. “You’re handing me one of my dreams, but—”

“You could reciprocate, and give me mine.”

He dug in his pocket, pulled out a ring.

“It’s not the one I gave Lindsay. I didn’t want to give you that ring, so I asked Gran if I could have another. It’s old, and one she especially loves, and wanted it to go to you, someone she especially loves. I could have bought you one, but I wanted you to have something that’s been handed down. Symbolic. You’re big on symbols.”

“Oh God. Oh my God.” She could only stare at the perfect square-cut emerald.

“I didn’t want to give you a diamond. Too conventional. And this, anyway, this reminded me of you. Your eyes.”

“Eli.” She rubbed the heel of her hand between her breasts as if to keep her heart beating. “I just . . . I haven’t gone here. I haven’t thought of this.”

“So think of it now.”

“I thought we’d talk about me moving in, officially living together. Taking that next step.”

“We can do that. If that’s all I can get for now, we can do that. I know it’s fast, and I know we’ve got big mistakes behind us. But they’re behind us. I want to marry you, Abra. I want to start a real life with you, a family with you, to share a home with you.”

He swore he could all but feel the ring burn in his hand like a flame, like life. “I look at you, and I see all the somedays, all the possibilities of them. I don’t want to wait to start, but I will. I’ll wait, but you have to know you not only helped me come back, to really see the life I wanted and could have, but you’re the life I want.”

Her heart didn’t stop beating, but it filled. She stared at him as the windows behind him washed pink and gold with the setting sun. And she thought, There’s love. There it is. Take the gift.

“I love you, Eli. I trust my own heart, I learned to do that. I think love is the most powerful and most important thing in the universe, and you have mine. I want yours. We can make the life we both want. I believe that. We can make that life together.”

“But you want to wait.”

“Hell no.” She laughed, all but flew to him. “Oh God! Here you are. The love of my life.”

With her arms tight around him, she found his mouth with hers, sank and sank and sank into the first kiss of the new promise.

He swayed with her, holding on. “It would’ve killed me to wait.”

“Some happy you just have to grab.” She held out her hand. “Make it official.” When he slid the ring on her finger, she put her arms around him again, held her left hand up to the sunset light. “It’s beautiful and warm.”

“Like you.”

“I love that it’s old, that it’s been passed down through your family. I love that I’m your family. When did you ask Hester for this?”

“When we took her flowers, after going in to see Eden Suskind. I couldn’t ask you, didn’t want to ask you, until that was over. It’s new now, for both of us. Take the space, Abra, take me, let’s just take it all.”

“All is exactly what we’ll take.” She pressed her lips to his, soft, long, loving. “And then we’ll make more.”

The ring on her hand caught the last rays of the sun, flashed, as it had for Landon women for generations.

Then it gleamed in the quieter light, as it once did in an iron chest washed up from the wrecked
Calypso
with its canny captain, onto the shores of Whiskey Beach.