Page 8 of The Progressions

“Great,” I said when we were done, feeling very pleased. It was too late to text Iva and let her know about this triumph, but she would be thrilled to hear in the morning. “I’ll have the cleaners come and then—”

“I’ll move in tomorrow,” he stated.

“Your rental period doesn’t start for three more days. There are rules—”

“All right. Let me know when I can show up,” he said, and walked out into the night.

“There are specific hours that we allow trucks and I’ll cordon off part of the lot because it’s a tight fit for anything over sixteen feet. You’ll need to give forty-eight hours’ notice of your move-in date to make sure that there are no conflicts. So how about you let me know when you want to show up?” I suggested to the closing door. “Does that work for you? Great, we’re all set.” I sighed. “Good grief.” Who had raised this man? I got my stufftogether and closed the laptop, taking it with me this time (just in case). I also walked through the door and then nearly threw the computer up into the air.

“Sweet Jesus! You scared me,” I told Tyler Hennessy. “What are you doing, lurking out here in the dark?”

“I’m not lurking. It’s dark.”

“Yes, as I just said. And?” I prompted.

“You’re going to be in the parking lot at night, alone,” he stated, and as I moved toward my car, he went along right behind me.

Maybe somebody human had actually raised him. I appreciated the gesture, although we didn’t have much crime here besides when the snowblower had disappeared. “Thank you,” I said, when we arrived at my door. “And also, welcome to the neighborhood.”

“Yeah. What are you doing now?”

“Uh, me?” Right, me. “I’m going home. How about you?”

He looked up at the sky, which must have been hard to see since the lights were out in this parking lot and he still wore those stupid sunglasses. “I guess I’ll go to the hotel. Shay came back yesterday and we were up late last night.”

Based on my experience with the two of them, I had a good guess about what they were doing—and I didn’t understand why he seemed hesitant about going back to do it more. “Don’t you want to see her?”

“She flew out again this morning.”

Oh. Maybe he was lonely, and then something did occur to me. “I can show you something cool,” I offered.

It was difficult to read his expression, but he nodded. “Ok.”

I would have to get up early in the morning, but for right now, I also didn’t want to go to bed. Maybe I was excited by the idea that on my first day in charge, I’d gotten a Woodsmen player as a tenant. Maybe I was just excited to be with a Woodsmen player in general. It was pretty easy to get starstruck when I thought of Tyler Hennessy as the person I’d seen at Fan Day, signing his autograph and surrounded by an adoring throng. This was the guy who’d been scoring touchdowns on national television while thousands of people in the stands cheered or booed. He really was a star.

The place I had in mind was kind of far from here and I watched to make sure he was behind me. Every time I checked, I did see the yellow SUV but it was getting pretty far back, so I slowed down a lot to let him catch up. The car was bright even in the darkness of this late hour and it was hard to miss, just like his hat on the first day I’d met him. He and his girlfriend had been flamboyant in those outfits, totally over the top. It made sense for Shay Galton because her whole job depended on attracting attention, but did he need it, too? I wondered how she’d do up here and if she could become accustomed to the idea of a place so small and boring, like both of them seemed to believe.

I carefully traversed the gravel road that led down to the narrow parking lot, where I got out and waited for him to join me. The driver’s door of the yellow car opened and he got out too, looking around.

“Where the hell are we? I lost my phone signal a few miles ago.”

“That’s Lake Michigan,” I explained. “Come on.” I gestured at him to follow, and then walked off on the path through the trees. The lake was quiet tonight, just gently rolling onto the shore with quiet splashes, and the moon made a path across the expanse of water. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It’s big. I didn’t think it would be like that.”

“You’re used to the ocean,” I pointed out. “It’s not that big, but it’s no pond.”

“For a while, I lived near a different lake,” he said. “You could always see the other side.”

“In Georgia?”

He looked at me suspiciously. “How did you know that?”

“Because I can read,” I answered. “I know about all the Woodsmen players because I love the team.”

“Yeah, you came to Fan Day,” he remembered. “Kasia.”

“K-A-S-I-A,” I reminded him. “My mom was Polish. It’s a nickname for Katarzyna.”

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