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* * *

On Thursday,there was a knock on my office door. My heart lifted, and I considered shoveling my coffee in the trash before I called out.Blake.

I didn’t, and it was a good thing because it wasn’t Blake. It was Lila.

“Hi,” I said, surprised and not a little disappointed. Then I was upset with myself for feeling that way. At least I hadn’t binned my coffee.

“Hi,” Lila said.

We exchanged a few stilted pleasantries where, in between talking about the running path and how the town had finally fixed up the area I’d fallen in, I tried and failed to read her face to know what she was thinking—did she know about me and Blake? Did she know I knew they weren’t married? Did she think I thought I’d been with a married man? That last thought made me sick, but I suspected Lila wouldn’t jump to that conclusion first.

Finally, Lila smiled. “I’m on my way down to meet Reese and your sister for food and events. By next week, we’ll have reached the part of the schedule where I’m meant to tour the east wing.”

“Right, the construction zone.”

“Yes. The plan is to get a sense of whether we should recommend continuing the work of the previous contractors, or to scrap and begin again, considering all the income potential of the space.

Suddenly, I understood why she was here. “Griffin’s name was on this part, wasn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes. And unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to get hold of him. I didn’t want to bother you with this, but I’m wondering if you might know when he’ll be back?”

“Lila, I don’t even know where he is,” I sighed, taking a long sip of my coffee. I said a second prayer above I hadn’t tossed it.

Lila looked surprised. Slightly concerned even.

“My brother Griffin is a bit of an enigma,” I said. “As you might have guessed.”

“Yes. Eli explained to me that he’s not on the payroll. He’s got a share of the ownership, but he’s not actually employed here.

“Right.”

“It’s… interesting.”

“It’s weird. But it works. Griffin comes in when we need him and disappears when we don’t. I suspect he’s not back because he doesn’t really care about the potential of the east wing, or profitability. He only cares about the actual nuts and bolts of putting it back together again.”

Lila quirked a brow.

I realized I liked her, but I was angry with her too. Even though Blake’s situation was his own choice, it was because of her. I wondered if she’d fought him on it. If she ever opened windows for him to leave.

But of course they’d talked about it. They were grown adults. Really, I had no reason to be upset with her. I only wanted someone else to blame, because Blake not wanting to change their circumstances was the worst part of it all.

Luckily, she didn’t see all this pass over my face. “Griffin is kind of a savant, isn’t he?”

I smiled, thinking of my brother. He was definitely the oddest one of all of us. Quiet. Withdrawn. But fiercely protective of us all, too. A beast.

“One of the golf club lawnmowers broke down once when we were kids, and before Mom called in the repair guys, Griff asked if he could look at it. He ended up taking apart the engine completely—like right down to screws all lined up neatly on the ground. He was nine years old.”

“Did he fix it?”

“In only a couple of hours. Dad wanted to write the local paper to brag about it, but Griff wouldn’t let him.”

Lila smiled. “I’m sorry I won’t get to work with him. But I was hoping you’d come with me to do the tour next week, seeing as you and Blake—”

I stiffened. If she didn’t know what was going on between me and Blake, she suspected something was up.

“Seeing as you’re not working together anymore,” she finished. “Construction review is our penultimate week; the final week after that is select staff interviews and closeout, then we’re gone.”

I swallowed. I knew the schedule, but I hadn’t looked at it recently. I’d been ignoring it, hoping it might go away.