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With her hales in place, Cilla took a good look at the ly black-and-white dog with an enormous box of a head on a ss, and hoped to have one eventually But this was one odd-looking creature, with bulbous eyes bulging out of, and little pointed devil ears stuck on top of, that oversized head A short, skinny whip of a tail ticked at his behind
As for theThe faded, frayed-at-the-heed to be about six feet, four inches of lanky, long-legged lasses, and the jeans had a horizontal tear in one knee A day or two’s worth of stubble prickled over his cheeks and jaw in a look she’d always found too studied to be hip Still, it fit with the abundance of brown streaky hair that curled messily over his ears
She distrusted a ined he’d paid for the golden boy tan in a flash parlor Hadn’t she left this type out in LA? While those elements added up tosrip on the ha out rotted boards, if necessary
She didn’t have to see his eyes to know they were taking a good look, too
He stopped at the base of the porch steps while the dog cli snuffle-at her boots "Hey," he said, and the smile ratcheted up another notch "Can I help you?"
She cocked her head "With what?"
"With whatever you’ve got inas you’re holding a pretty big hammer there, and this is private property" He hooked his thumbs in his front pockets as he continued in that sainia drawl "You don’t look much like a vandal"
"Are you a cop?"
The srin "I don’t look anyin your way, but if you’re thinking about bashing out so them up on eBay, I have to ask you to reconsider"
Because it was heavy, she lifted the haht it down, then rested the head on the porch But she sensed him brace "EBay?"
"More trouble than it’s worth Who’s going to believe you’re selling a genuine hunk of Janet Hardy’s house anyway? So, why don’t you load it up? I’ll close up behind you, and no harm, no foul"
"Are you the custodian?"
"No Soives a half a damn about the place, but you can’t just come around and beat on it"
Fascinated, Cilla shoved her safety goggles to the top of her head "If nobody gives a half a damn, why do you?"
"Can’t seem to help myself And maybe I adehaht, but, seriously, you need to load it up now Janet Hardy’s faood wind, but-" He broke off, sliding his sunglassesdown his nose, peering over the the," he said "Chalk it up to only getting a s of coffee in before I noticed your truck here, and the open gate and such Cilla McGowan Took randreen, she noted, with the sun bringing out the riht on both Who are you?"
"Ford Ford Sawyer And the dog licking your boots is Spock We live across the road" He jerked a thuaze up and over to the ra old Victorian on a pretty knoll across the way "You aren’t going to try to brain me with that if I come up on the porch?"
"Probably not If you tell , and didn’t happen to see me here all day yesterday, or notice Buddy the pluo"
"I was still in the Caymans yesterday Had myself a little vacation I expect Iout of bed a half hour ago Took my first cup of coffee out on the front veranda That’s when I saw the truck, the gate Okay?"
Seemed reasonable, Cilla decided And maybe he’d come by the tan and sun streaks naturally She leaned the haives a half a da out for it"
"No problem" He walked up until he stood on the step just below her As they were eye level, and she hit five-nine, she decided her esti to do with the hammer?"
"Rotten boards The porch needs to be rebuilt Can’t rebuild until you demo"
"New porch, Buddy the plumber-who seems to know his stuff, by the way-assorted subcontractors Sounds like you’re planning to fix the place up"
"I a back Want a job?"
"Got one, and I haven’t found tools to besat, cocked his big box of a head and held up a paw
"Cute" Cilla obliged by leaning down, giving the paw a shake while Spock’s bulging eyes gleaed kind It’ll be nice to look over here and see this place the way I i to sell?"
"No I’ to live For now"
"Well, it’s a pretty spot Or could be Your daddy’s Gavin McGowan, right?"
"Yes Do you know hih school I aced it in the end, but not without a lot of sweat and pain Mr McGowan et on bashing your boards I work at hoive a holler"
"Thanks," she said without any intention of following through She fit her goggles back in place, picked up the haain trotting beside hiave in to impulse "Hey! Who names their kid after a car?"
He turned, walked backward "My mama has a considerable and somewhat unusual sense of humor She clai up the s of his Ford Cutlass one chilly spring night It may be true"
"If not, it should be See you around"
"More than likely"
FASCINATING DEVELOPMENTS, Ford mused as he took a fresh cup of coffee onto the veranda for his postponeddrink of water with the ice blue eyes, beating the living crap out of the old veranda
That hammer was probably damn heavy Girl had someraced after invisible cats in the yard, "ht across the road" Wasn’t that a kick in the ass? Ford recalled his own sister had all but worshipped Katie Lawrence, the kid Cilla had played for five? six? seven years? Who the hell knew? He re with her Katie doll and wearing her Katie backpack proudly
As Alice tended to hoard everything, he suspected she still had the Our Family and Katie meoing toher face in who he’d just copped as a neighbor
The long-running show had been too tame for him back in the day He’d preferred the action of The Transforht Rider He remembered after a bitter battle with Alice over God knehat, he’d exacted his revenge by stripping Katie naked, gagging her with duct tape and tying her to a tree, guarded by his arht hell for it, but it had been worth it
It see the adult, live-action version of Katie switch sledgeha her naked
He had a daht, since he’d moved in across the road He’d seen two caretakers coo, the second in just under six months And not once had he seen any of Janet Hardy’s fa the almost two years he’d lived in New York, he’d lived in the area the whole of his life, and seen none of the through a tili down porches and He paused when he recognized the black pickup turning into the drive across the road as belonging to his friend Matt Brewster, a local carpenter When a second truck pulled in barely thirty seconds later, Ford decided to get himself another cup of coffee, maybe a bowl of cereal, and take his breakfast out on the veranda so he could watch the goings-on
He should be working, Ford told himself an hour later Vacation was over and done, and he had a deadline But it was so da out here Another truck joined the first two, and he recognized that one as well Brian Morrow, former top jock and wide receiver, and the third in the prettytriu company Frorounds with Brian, watched her gesture, then consult the thick notebook she carried
He had to ad, he supposed, that had her eating up the ground so efficiently while appearing to take her tihtly packed in that y fra the hter, narrowed his eyes and pictured her with the haain "Shorter handle," he "
He went inside, grabbed a sketch pad and pencils and, inspired, dug out his binoculars Back on the veranda, he focused on Cilla through the glasses, studying the shape of her face, the line of her jaw, her build She had a fascinating, sexy mouth, he an the first sketch, he rolled around scenarios, dis them almost as soon as he considered
It would coht The concept often caie, Nadine No, no, no Cass Sient, intense, solitary, even lonely Attractive He looked through the glasses again "Oh yeah, attractive"
The rough clothes didn’t disguise that, but they played it down He continued to sketch, full body, close-up face, profile Then stopped to tap his pencil and consider Glasses ht be a clich, but they were shorthand for so
He sketched theular lenses "There you are, Cass Or should I say, Dr Murphy?"
He flipped a page over, began again Safari shirt, khakis, boots, wide-brimmed hat Out of the lab or classrooain, and his mind raced as he sketched out who and what his newly minted Cass would beco over it Silver ars, the wild swirl of hair with the circlet of rank crowning the head Jeweled belt? he wondered Maybe The ancient weapon- double-headed haripped by the hand of the blood descendant of the warrior goddess
And yeah, he needed a na? Celt?
Celtic It fit
He held up the pad, and found hi to kick solanced back across the road The trucks were gone now, and while Cilla was nowhere in sight, the front door of the farhbor," Ford said, and, rising, went inside to call his agent
SURREAL WAS the best way to describe Cilla’s view on finding herself sitting on the pretty patio of her father’s tidy brick colonial, sipping iced sun tea fussily served by her stepmother The scene simply didn’t fit in with any previous phase of her life As a child, her visits east had been few and far between Work truame
He’d come to her now and then, Cilla remembered And taken her to the zoo or to Disneyland But at least during the heyday of her series, there’d always been paparazzi, or kids swar photos Work truht, whether you wanted it to or not
Then, of course, her father and Patty had their own daughter, Angie, their own home, their own lives on the other side of the country Which, Cilla mused, equated to the other side of the world
She’d never fit into that world
Isn’t that what her father had tried to tell her? A long way, and not just the
"Our favorite sitting spot," Patty answered with a smile that tried too hard "It’s a little chilly yet, I know"
"It feels good" Cilla racked her brain What did she say to this sweet, motherly woman with her pleasant face, dark bob of hair and nervous eyes? "I, ah, bet the gardens will be great in a week or then everything starts to pop"
She scanned the bed, the shrubs and vines, the trim swath of lawn that would fill with pockets of shade when the redcherry leafed out "You’ve put a lot of work into it"
"Oh, I putter" Patty flicked her fingers over her short, dark bob, twisted the little silver hoop in her ear "It’s Gavin who’s the gardener in the house"
"Oh" Cilla shifted her gaze to her father "Really?"
"I like playing in the dirt Guess I never grew out of it"
"His grandfather was a farh the blood"
Had she known that? Why hadn’t she known that? "Here, in Virginia?"
Patty’s eyes widened in surprise, then slid toward Gavin "Urandfather’s farm"
"I- What? The Little Farrandfather sold it when I was just a boy I do re scolded for it My father didn’t want to far at the time-had mostly scattered off So, well, he sold it Janet was here, fil on location Barn Dance"
"I know that part of the story She fell in love with the farht it on the spot"
"More or less on the spot," Gavin said with a so-I swear-and he and Grandain for the next six, seven years, till she had a stroke"
"It was McGowan land"