Page 25 of Just for Tonight

I can’t keep from smiling. “Kinda sorta,” I acknowledge. “You’d need the full survey before you could justify that conclusion.”

“Bad?”

“Scary bathrooms, and I haven’t even seen them all. Gold taps that are swans.”

He swallows a smile. “How about those lions?”

“New arrivals, I think.” I raise my eyebrows. “Did you see the living room?”

“Just a glimpse. It looked, um, shiny.”

“Shiny,” I agree. “Forty percent of what’s in that room is painted fake gold.”

He feigns surprise. “You mean it’s not 18 karat?”

“Using the real thing would be vulgar, evidently.”

“Ah.”

And there’s a moment here, when our gazes catch, when I feel that we are on the same proverbial page. We didn’t just both hate my father. We didn’t just both leave town as soon as possible. We’re not just both local boys made good.

Luke and I are both design snobs.

I can build on that.

“I can’t decide if the style is early Tutankhamen or late Nefertiti,” I say idly. “I get them mixed up all the time.”

Luke’s eyes are sparkling and he looks on the verge of laughter but he deadpans with admirable style. “Are the animal pelts zebra or leopard? Because zebra is early Tutankhamen and leopard is late Nefertiti.” Luke has a really low voice, which makes him sound very authoritative.

“Right. I always forget. And the pyramid finials?”

“Late,” Luke says with authority. He lifts a finger. “Early is round, like globes.”

We both grin at the same time. It’s a curious place to find common ground, but it’s a lot easier than fighting.

He leans forward. “Seriously. Tutankhamen?”

“There is a major Egyptian thing happening in there. Maybe it’s Cleopatra. Like I said, my expertise is thin in this particular design arena.”

“Hmm.” Luke looks around again, his gaze lingering on the electric fire. It looks remarkably feeble on a sunny July morning. “Quite a place.”

“I’m going to guess you’ve never been invited in before.”

“Not a once.” His brows rise in mock dismay. “Alas.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. “So, what tempted you to step into the lion’s cave now? It can’t have been the promise of meeting me again.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was Margaret’s house.”

Then I remember. “Grandma’s place. It was one of the properties you wanted to buy from our father but he wouldn’t sell.”

“Right, but I thought you might be selling off some of the holdings. I’d like to buy that one, so here I am.”

I study him, genuinely confused. “Why?”

“For Abs,” he says simply.

My younger sister is about the same age as Luke. Yes, my father’s wife and his mistress were pregnant simultaneously. If that doesn’t make you want to wash your hands, I don’t know what will. The curious thing is that Abbie and Luke were always close. Of us all, Abbie was the one who had time for Luke. “Does she want it?”