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Riley started chuckling. “Yeah, it sounds like a feminine entity is cohabiting with you. I’m leaning more toward a mother figure.”
“So am I.”
Riley glanced around the kitchen, walked over, and ran her hand across one of the new cabinet doors that I’d built and installed. Then she went to the sink and looked out the picture window above it.
“The cypress trees look like an absolute dream, with the sunlight streaming down through their branches. It’s glowing out there,” she said.
I gave her a moment to continue enjoying what she was seeing while thinking that she looked like an absolute dream and was making the inside of my home glow. Then I told her that after I showed her the bedrooms and bathrooms, I’d take her to the patio out back that I’d been working on.
Riley looked over her shoulder at me. “I saw your huge patio and love that you built it over the water. Once again—Superman carpenter.”
I mirrored her smile and then toured her around the rest of my home. She was just as complimentary of it as she’d been about everything else.
When she and I began crossing the raised walkway to the patio, she stopped and pointed at the fire pit to the left of us. “I just noticed that over there. You have some of everything out here, don’t you?” she asked.
“Necessities for me.”
“It is so peaceful here. Just the sound of your windchime by your back door, the birds singing, and the water lapping at the shore.”
“It’s peaceful at night, too. It looks and feels different, though, after the sun goes down. Clouds of fog regularly roll in, and the night creatures come out, making all of their sounds.”
“The whippoorwills, crickets, tree frogs, and coyotes?”
“And owls. There’s a pair of them that hang around here.”
“I love to hear them hoot. It’s haunting, but in a good way. Let’s go see your patio now.”
“After you, ma’am,” I said, holding my arm out for Riley to walk ahead of me.
“One of the things that you used to call me. It was either ma’am, mia bella, or princess. You called me ‘mia bella’ at Nana’s Kitchen.”
“It just came out. Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
I kept my eyes on Riley as she walked across the walkway in her rhinestone flip-flops. I couldn’t help but notice the sway of her hips in her fitted, turquoise summer dress with little seashells, nor how her black hair moved back and forth across her waistline. Riley had always worn it long. She used to like for me to brush it as much as I enjoyed doing it. On occasion, she’d also have me braid it.
“Oh my gosh!” she said when we reached the patio. “You’ve got a heavy-duty outdoor table, six chairs with comfy-looking cushions on them, a mini fridge, a storage bench, big fans in each corner of the ceiling, globe string lights hung up, and plenty of citronella candles to ward off the mosquitoes. Your home and all of this out here is your refuge.”
“If I didn’t have to leave, I never would.”
Riley slowly looked over my face. “Would you mind if we sat at the table?”
“Not a bit.”
“I’d like to talk to you. Well, about something other than what we’ve been talking about.”
After pulling out a chair for her, she thanked me, sat down, and then I took the chair beside her.
“I’m going to try my hardest to say what I came here to say to you without crying, but I can’t guarantee that I won’t cry,” she continued. Tears were already forming in her eyes.
“Listen, we don’t have to discuss what happened with Chad.”
“I do. I want to apologize for putting part of the blame on you. None of it was your fault. I was just so angry about the whole situation and lashed out.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t. I appreciate your understanding, though.”
