I was almost afraid to ask. "Why would you need tools?"
"Because, a lot of what's wrong can be fixed in five minutes."
I highly doubted that. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, the leaky faucets, the loose doorknobs, the flickering lights. If Derek gave a rat's ass about you, he would've fixed those already."
"Wait." I stared up at him."You'renot planning to fix them, are you?"
"Hell yeah, I'm gonna fix them."
I felt my eyes grow nearly misty. And yet, there was no way I could accept such an offer. "I can't let you do that."
"Why not?"
"It just doesn't seem right."
"Yeah? Well, too bad."
I blinked. "What?"
"I said,too bad. I'm doing it, anyway."
In spite of everything, I had to laugh. "Too bad?Again?You say that a lot, you know."
"Nah." At last, he gave me the ghost of a smile. "Only with you."
We went back and forth a few more times before I finally gave in. For whatever reason, Joel seemed determined to do it, and I couldn’t bring myself to argue beyond a certain point. Like the car thing, it felt like a gift I couldn’t refuse.
The onlyrealconcession I wheedled out of him was that we'd put any repairs off until the next morning so we could enjoy the day together without anything hanging over our heads.
I didn't have to work, and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day – sunny and warm, with a light breeze coming off the water. It was the perfect kind of day to enjoy everything that the estate had to offer.
So that's what we did. We sunbathed on the narrow strip of beach just below my house. We pulled out the canoe and paddled along the shore line. We swam in the lake and made love afterwards in the boathouse below.
By sunset, I felt like a different person – blissful and carefree like I hadn't been in years. As for Joel, he seemed different too, like someone who was only just recalling what it was like to be happy.
Late that night, we fell into bed, warm from the shower and sated from sex.
The next morning, we hit the storage place to retrieve his tools. But inside Joel's storage unit, it wasn't the tools that claimed my attention. It was something infinitely more interesting.
Chapter 55
It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. The colors were perfection. The composition made me feel like I was part of it. The scene was so enchanting that I couldn’t look away.
I called out to Joel, "Who did this? Do you know?"
He was outside the cluttered storage unit, rummaging around in the trunk of his car. "Who did what?"
"This painting. I checked for a signature, but I didn't see any."
I was still staring at it. If I had to classify its style, I'd say it was realism – except the reality was somehow more beautiful, like the painter was seeing things the way theyshouldbe, rather than the way they were.
Joel still hadn't answered my question. I turned to look and was surprised to see him standing directly behind me.
He gave the painting a cursory glance. "Why?"
"Why do I want to know?" Again, I turned to look. "Because it's beautiful."
