“I think I can figure it out.” She glanced up at him and caught sight of the oval windows through the door of the den. “Oh, Alec.” She walked into the living room and over to the windows. It was still light enough outside so that the designs and their colors were vivid. “They’re beautiful.”
He stood next to her. “Your husband was fascinated by them, too.”
“Was he?” She pointed to the one in the center. “Why did she make this one clear?”
“She didn’t. I broke it a couple of weeks ago. I threw a glass at it.”
She looked at him. “I didn’t think you were the violent type.”
“I’m not, ordinarily.”
“Were you aiming at someone?”
“At God, I think.” He laughed, and she touched his arm.
“Tom’s trying to put it back together for me.” He started toward the kitchen and she followed him. “Want some iced tea?”
“Please.”
He took the pitcher of iced tea out of the refrigerator and got two of the green tumblers from the cabinet over the sink. “So, how’s Olivia doing?” he asked as he poured. “I really haven’t spoken to you since the day we went to Norfolk.”
She took the tumbler of iced tea from his hand and leaned back against the counter. “Olivia’s a little mixed up.” She looked down at her glass, and her eyelashes lay dark and thick against her cheeks. “A lot’s happened since the last time we spoke, besides the fact that I’ve become the least popular physician in the entire Outer Banks.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“But the other day I got a job offer. The medical director of Emerson Memorial called to offer me a position in their trauma unit up there.”
“Really?” Alec set his tea on the counter, a little disconcerted. “Will you take it?”
“I don’t know. I like it here, and I’ll like it even better if I begin to feel trusted as a physician again. But there’s more.” She sipped her tea, looking at Alec over the rim of her glass. Her eyes were the same green as the tumbler. “Paul returned from his trip a changed man,” she said. “He’s being very attentive.”
Alec’s smile froze into place. “That’s great, Olivia. Is he over…old what’s-her-name?”
“I don’t think he’s completely through with her, but he’s really trying. The thing is, he says the Outer Banks make him think of her, so he wants us to leave here.”
“Ah. So the job in Norfolk would be ideal.” He picked up his tea and started walking toward the den. “I thought it was just a matter of time,” he said. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know if they’d made love. “Have you told him about the baby?”
“Not yet.”
They were back in the den, back above Annie’s old tools, and the scent of them was almost too much for him. “That would do it, Olivia,” he said. “Paul’s such a romantic. If you told him…”
“I can’t yet.”
“He’s going to figure it out soon enough, don’t you think?”
She glanced down at the pink and white stripes of her dress where they hung loosely across her stomach. “Is it that obvious?”
“Not at all to look at you. But…I’m assuming…he’s your husband…” He felt himself flush, and Olivia smiled.
“I’m not letting him get that close to me yet.”
“Ah, I see.” He moved her totebag from the chair to the table. “Well, have a seat.”
The phone rang just as she sat down, and Alec picked it up on the desk. There was an emergency at the animal hospital, the operator told him. A dog with a burr in its eye.
He hung up and explained the situation to Olivia, smiling. “You’re the one who talked me into going back to work,” he said. “Take your time with this.” He gestured toward the tools. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, so don’t feel as though you have to wait. Lacey’s here if you need anything.”
He went upstairs to tell Lacey he was going. She was sitting on her bed, books and papers spread out in front of her and nerve-jangling music blaring from her radio. “I have an emergency at the hospital,” he said. “Olivia’s still here looking through Mom’s stained glass stuff. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”
“She just got here, Lace. I’ll call if I’m going to be really late.”
He left her room before she could offer anymore objections and walked down the stairs. He stopped in the doorway of the den, but Olivia was deep in concentration. A sheet of graph paper lay on her lap, and she bent over it, her lower lip caught pensively between her teeth and a pair of Annie’s scissors in her hand. He left without disturbing her.
Outside, the damp, salty air enveloped him. It covered Olivia’s Volvo with a faint mist, glistening in the pink light of the sunset, and he ran one hand down the warm, slick side of the car as he walked out to the street and his Bronco.
Lacey appeared in the doorway of the den. Olivia looked up from the tool case and was struck by how much older she looked than fourteen. “Hi, Lacey,” she said. “How are you?”
“Okay.” Lacey slipped into the den and pulled her father’s chair from his desk to the work table. She sat down, hugging her knees, her bare feet up on the chair. It was difficult to look at her hair and keep a straight face. “What are you working on?” she asked.
