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That being the case, I didn’t waste time on preliminaries.

“Were you and Astrid having an affair?”

He froze. I could see him trying to read my face, weighing how much to tell, wondering how the hell I’d figured it out.

“You’re taking too long to answer,” I said. “So, yes.”

Dax swallowed. “Caz—”

I rubbed my forehead. “Look, she was a grown woman. You’re a grown man. I’m not going to judge. Not at this point.”

“It happened because of you. Because of what happened to you,” he said quickly. “We were both so—”

“Okay,thatI don’t want to hear,” I interrupted. “I don’t want to know the gory details.”

He flushed. “It wasn’tgory. It was the most beautiful, important thing that ever happened to me. Astrid was—she was—”

“She was my sister and this is the part I don’t want to hear. Really. I hope you supported and comforted each other. I really do. But I don’t need or want to know.”

“Okay. Then…”

“Did Malcolm know?”

He didn’t hesitate. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Astrid thought that—our age difference and the fact that you and I were friends—might be a bridge too far for him. She didn’t want you to know, either. That was one reason she didn’t believe me coming to visit you was a good idea.”

He watched me as I thought that over. There had probably been a time when I’d have been pretty upset by this development, but so much had happened to me in the past year—was still happening to me—that I simply didn’t have the bandwidth.

I said, “Raleigh showed me—”

“Raleigh? You saw Raleigh?”

“Yeah. He drove me home last night. I had a blow-out near the woods.” I watched to see if this was actually news to him. Not that I thought Dax had raced out after me and cut across country in order to shoot my tire out. Not that he couldn’t have. He knew the area and he was a decent shot. But what was in it for him? Still, the news that someone had caused that blow-out left me feeling paranoid.

“Well? What happened with Raleigh? How did that go?”

I shrugged. “We talked a little. To be continued.”

Dax tipped his head to the side, studied me. “It seems like you’re leaving a lot out of this story.”

“I’ll save it for when we have lunch. Anyway, he showed me a copy of the note Astrid left.”

Dax paled. “Did she—what did she—”

“He thought the note was intended for me.”

“I thought it was left for George.”

That had hurt him. I could see it in his eyes. I shook my head. “I think it was intended for you.”

He stared at me, then pinched the bridge of his nose, hard. When he could meet my gaze again, he asked, “Do you—?”

“No. I’ll see if I can persuade Raleigh to make a copy for you, but you’ve got to be honest with me now.”

“Iambeing honest!” he said indignantly.