“Yes.Maybe.Technology is changing all the time.Although...maybe...”She got up.“Give me your server information.I have an idea.”
Emberly followed Nimue into the house, where she opened her computer and pointed Nimue to her stored information.
“Can I take this upstairs?”
“To your lair?”
“To the hub.”Nimue winked.Emberly shooed her away.
She filled a water pitcher and made more lemonade, was turning to bring it outside when Stein came in, covered in sweat and sawdust, his blond hair peeking out of his hat.
“I’ll give you everything I own for a glass of that.”
She smiled.“Wow.That’s quite an offer.”She pulled down a glass and filled it.
“Not really.My bank account is nearly deflated.I’m going to have to cash in some index funds.”
He’d pulled on his shirt and now stood at the counter, drinking.Admittedly, Emberly didn’t think Steinbeck could fit into this world.Not her world, really, but...
“I should have the gazebo done by tonight,” he said.“I guess all those months helping Doyle and Jack at the inn finally paid off.Your sister did a great job on the remodel.”
He was probably noticing the white wood-tiled floors, the granite island, the clean shiplap walls, the way her house seemed at once simple and yet relaxing.
“I love it here.Nim was always way more creative than me.”
“Hardly.”He slid onto a high-top chair.“You’re plenty creative.You’ve tricked me more than once with your disguises.”He smiled, so much tease in it that it only added to his devastating charm.“Ashley.And I keep thinking about the wedding.You were a server at the family dinner, weren’t you?”
Her mouth opened.Closed.“You remember that?”
“I remember a waitress who nearly ran me down.”
“I thought for sure you’d recognize me.”
He took a drink, his blue eyes on her.“I should have.You’re not easy to forget.”
“Were you trying?”
“Maybe.”He held her eyes.“Not successfully.”He got up.“And not anymore.”
And her words from Lisbon just over a week ago stirred inside her, when he’d asked her what kind of different life they might work in.
“A life where...when I look at you, I don’t see my mistakes.The things I’ve done.And where you don’t look at me and see...regret.And anger.”
Maybe he remembered them too, because he stepped over to her.“That was then.This is now.”He set down his lemonade.“I don’t regret anything, Emberly.”
“Even Krakow?”
“Especially Krakow.”His fingers traced her cheek.“Truth is, Krakow changed my life.I learned more about God, and myself, after that than I ever had...”
She couldn’t think with the heat that tremored under her skin at his touch, so she caught his hand.“Like what?”
His gaze landed on her mouth for a moment before he stepped back.“Like in my darkest moment, God showed up.I woke up in the hospital in Germany, doped up on morphine, the world hazy, and the first thing I saw was my parents, hanging out beside my bed.And through the glass, the entire rest of my family, who’d boarded planes to make sure I was okay.Ironically, it was one of my happiest moments.”He sat on the stool.“Because I knew that despite the trauma, and whatever would happen ahead of me, I had...my team.”
Her throat tightened.She exhaled and leaned on the island.“I guess I never had that kind of team.It was always just Nim and me.My mom loved her dad.He was this professor from Nigeria.My mom always said he was a prince.”She laughed.“She was happy with him.I remember that.”
“And your dad?”
“A rogue Scot.”
