page58 (1/2)

“It’s on your Web site,” she said, shaking her head “Boy, you’ve really dropped right out of your life, haven’t you?”

He took a deep drink of the hot black coffee and didn’t answer The ansas all too obvious

I wonder how many voice mails I have from Erica, now?

He was stunned to realize he wanted to check He wanted to look at his old life for the first time in months

So back into his old skin

“I finished o and I’m not scheduled to be back in the library until touessing you probably don’t want or need et rid of ets her stubbornness from me”

And I’ in his head as if she’d yelled them rather than implied them

He wondered if she was here with the foolish idea that she could save him, and he wanted to tell her not to bother

“I’ a maze,” he said He set down the thermos and pulled the pencil and notebook out of his back pocket “I was thinking so with the cypress in the center, he worked his way out, creating blind alleys and hidey-holes that went nowhere All in a circular pattern “I was thinking box hedges, but that won’t really ith the form I’ll need to—”

“Lilacs,” she said “Here” She pointed to his sketch, the dark outer perimeter of his circles “And honeysuckle, for the inside”

It clicked “That would be—”

“Sh

“Perfect,” he said, getting lost for a moment in her eyes “Totally perfect”

He didn’t kno long they stood that way A second, ten minutes But time collapsed, disappeared, and all there ere her eyes, blue as the sky and bottomless

“Matt,” she breathed “Tell me about the accident”

He went cold Numb In a heartbeat

He stepped away, throwing the sketch on the ground and reaching for the tools She got in his way, her hands, so delicate and clean on his, and he recoiled from the contact