Page 50 of Two Hearts Reunited

Ashley snorted. “Let’s go look at the upstairs first. I’m dying to see how this place is laid out.”

“Sure,” Anya agreed, grinning.

* * *

Anya strolled through the wide walkway upstairs, opening the door of every room so that Ashley could peek inside. She’d been impressed by the condition of most of the antique furnishings, which Anya had to admit, were still in excellent shape since she’d inspected everything carefully since she’d returned to Crystal Rock.

“If you don’t mind me asking, if your dad was someone who was always trying to make easy money, why didn’t he try to sell any of this furniture? And if you’re in need of money, why haven’t you sold any of it yourself, Anya?”

“Well, this place didn’t belong to my dad. My grandparents were still alive, even though they were living down in Florida. Strangely, Dad thought this place was a dump anyway, and he had no concept of the value of antiques.”

They approached the last door, which was located right above the fireplace in the living room.

Anya continued, “My grandfather died when I was going to school, and my grandmother ended up living her last few years in a nice retirement place. But she passed away when I was nineteen, and much to my surprise, this place was left to me. I’ve thought about selling some of the furnishings, but only if I ended up desperate since this place has always meant so much to me. I’ve had well-paying jobs, but my mom was deeply in debt. Somehow, I’ve managed to make enough to get through. My best memories of the past have all been here.” Anya cleared her throat. “Even Eric and I…well.”

Ashley started laughing. “I get it.”

“This is the last room. It was Grandmother’s studio. She painted. In fact, she used to teach Shanna. She always claimed that Shanna had real talent, and for a while, Shanna was interested in learning.”

When Anya opened the door, she was surprised at how neat the room was. She didn’t remember it being that way during the summer, but she hadn’t spent a whole lot of time in here. It had just been too painful. There were still some of her grandmother’s unfinished paintings hanging on the walls, and even a few of Shanna’s were still resting on some easels near the huge window overlooking the lake.

And as Anya took a good look at one of the paintings, her jaw dropped open.

“Are you alright?” Ashley asked, looking at her curiously.

Anya sighed. “Yes. I forgot how good they both were.”

“Yes, I definitely agree. Doesn’t the one you’re looking at seem kind of familiar?”

It did, but for now she was going to keep her discovery to herself. She could be wrong.

“Yes, it does. I’ve seen some that are similar at the consignment shop in the mall,” Anya admitted.

“That must be it. I’ve been in that shop several times myself,” Ashley observed.

A few minutes later, they left the room and headed downstairs to Anya’s office to see if Ashley could work out a plan to heat it through the remaining winter.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Strangely, Anya seemed to be thriving with her new responsibilities. She was working less hours, but doing the extra research needed to try and find her sister was giving balance to her life, so she was feeling less helpless, Eric realized.

Eric never knew that a relationship with a woman could be so good. It was like they completed each other. They saw each other nearly every day, and he tried as often as he could to spend the night, not wanting to abandon Brian and Ashley since he knew he was needed more than ever.

He wasn’t sure if he should tell them, but he was pretty sure that Ashley was pregnant again.

And then there’d been the unbelievable horrific events on January sixth in D.C. He couldn’t ever remember being as stunned as he’d been that day when he and Brian had stood in front of the TV watching the violence at the Capitol.

Anya had called and let him know what was happening because she’d been watching the news at home at the time. Brian and Ashley had been working in the office while Eric had been with Arielle in the living room, listening to music since she was unusually crabby and still teething.

Damn, he was dreading having to leave Anya. And now that tensions were high at home, he hated to leave the States. First, unless his orders had changed, he would report to Langley and go through a series of instructional training before making the trip back to Ramstein in Germany to prepare for both American and Afghan evacuation instructions since the deadline was August thirty-first. What worried him was that there appeared to be no official plan as of yet, but Eric and some of his fellow officers had been researching scenarios to try and be more prepared.

Despite what was happening in Washington, there was nothing that could be done by him personally, except to be incredibly concerned.

He needed to be sure that Anya was safe before he left, so he would spend as much time as he could with her. The security system that Jake had installed was top notch, and Jake had personally promised that he would do everything possible to keep her safe.

Each evening, he would try to either take her out to eat or just sit with her and watch a movie or TV. They talked very little about what was going on with her research, but he gathered she was moving quickly through the names and had several more for her private investigator to look into. Eric had yet to meet Charlie but had talked with him a few times on the phone when Anya had been busy.

About a week before he was due to leave town, he asked, “Did you ever get your security clearance?”

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