Page 176 of The Woman By the Lake

“All right, kid,” he muttered.

And thank fuck that was done.

Ledger munched toast.

Riggs warmed up his coffee.

And when it was time to take his son to school, he shouted up the stairs, “Don’t drag that suitcase down! I’ll do it when I get back!”

“Can I take you back to Chicago with me so you can teach Carter how mountain men do it?” Maribeth shouted back.

“Carter carries your suitcase!” Nadia started shouting with them.

“Yeah, but he expects payback, knowwhatImean?” That was Maribeth.

“I do too. Just sayin’!” Riggs finished it.

“Riggs!” Nadia yelled. “Stop it!”

He was chuckling as he walked to where his son was hanging, waiting for him at the door, and when he got to his kid, Ledger said, “See? You say things are weird with what’s going on at Nadia’s, but still, you’re laughing. More happy.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Riggs grinned at him. “Get in the truck, genius.”

Ledger raced out the door.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Family Activity

Riggs

Early that afternoon, in his workshop, Riggs stepped away from the arbor he was building to clean up because Nadia would be back soon.

But he stopped to take a beat and give his work a critical eye.

He’d thought it’d skew dark, considering all the shit that was hitting him while he made it. And dark wouldn’t work for the prominent feature of a wedding venue.

It hadn’t gone dark.

Not even close.

It had become something he made while Nadia was hanging on the couch in his workshop with him, and while Nadia and he were finding their ways to each other.

So.

“Damn,” he muttered and moved to a workbench to open up his sketch pad and start drafting different arches, because he wasn’t going to sell that one.

No fucking way.

He was going to install it at the trailhead that led to Nadia’s cabin.

This meant he was way off schedule for the arbor for Pinetop, and he was going to have to bust his ass to make the date he gave them for installation.

A new design idea was coming to him when Gia got up off her belly, took a stance, and barked twice at the barn doors.

Riggs put his pencil down and watched her turn, lock eyes with him, circle back around and resume her stance, attention to the doors.

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