Page 79 of Betrayal

“Does Hunter know about Helen?”Kate sipped her tea like a woman who’d found the Holy Grail.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“This is a friendlyvisit.”Niall’s hands were raised in surrender.

“Phone dead?”Hunter leaned against the door jamb.He guessed Anna had provided the detail he lived above the office, with a hard-to-find entrance at the side of the building.She’d been gone seventy-two hours, but who was counting?

“How’d you guess?”

“Come in.”

His guest surveyed the comfortable living arrangement.“Nice.You’ve got one of my bowls.”

Niall Quinn made straight for the sideboard under the window.His bowl formed from the burl of a tree was centred, framed by the park’s huge figs visible through the picture window.The bowl’s multiple brown shades were accentuated by the pile of oranges and lemons sitting in it.

“Anna gave it to me for my birthday.”

“She didn’t mention it was for your birthday.”Niall swung around.

So, Niall had known Hunter had one of his bowls, and like any artist, was pleased at its prominent position.

“It wasn’t.It was her way of getting me to tell her when my birthday was.”The memory of her teasing the date from him held a sad sweetness.

“She’s honestly devious or deviously honest.Not sure of the right description except honest and loyal are her defining character traits.”

“Ouch.”Hunter gestured toward a sofa.“You did say friendly?”

“Whisht lad, I’m still smiling.”Niall exaggerated the Irish lilt he’d picked up while undertaking an apprenticeship of sorts with a well-respected cabinet-maker in Ireland.

“Beer.”

“Please.”Niall settled in a corner of the sofa.

Hunter snagged two bottles of Peroni from the fridge, topped them, then handed one to the quiet carpenter before taking the opposite sofa.

“Thanks again for providing the venue for my exhibition.”Niall held the bottle loosely by the neck, seemingly relaxed.