Page 110 of Vanish From Sight
“Sorry. I should have called first.”
“No. It’s okay, I was just… painting.”
“I see.” He pointed to her face.
She wiped it again which apparently only made it worse, asNoah smirked. Callie shifted awkwardly from one foot to the next. “Come on in,” she said, moving to one side. As he passed, she noticed flowers at his side.
“Who’s the lucky girl?”
“Oh, uh. A housewarming gift,” he said, handing them to her. They were beautiful, familiar, but very odd.
“Strange. I always thought florists wrapped them.” She was noting the soil dangling from the ends.
“That’s exactly what I said.”
Callie set them down, smiling. “They look familiar.”
“I would hope so. Getting them out of that hanging basket was a bitch, but Simon, your neighbor, eventually gave me a hand.”
She smiled as Noah wiped mud from his hands on a rag.
“Hope he didn’t screw you over.”
“Forty bucks, but what can you do at this hour with all the stores closed?”
Callie laughed as she sifted through a cupboard for a vase. Noah’s gaze roamed the room. “You eaten?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she said, setting the flowers in the vase.
“You up for going out?”
“Uh. Not exactly in the mood for dashing around, after today.”
“I hear you. Just I know a good Chinese place.”
She nodded. “We can order in.”
“Okay.”
Forty minutes later,with the Chinese food laid out on the table, Callie poured a little more wine. “You don’t drink, right?”
“As of a day ago, I would have said no. I’ll have some.”
“You sure?”
He nodded and she poured a glass. “So, this is the new place you were talking about. For some reason I thought you were referring to the housing development over in Fawn Valley.”
“Not on my wages. No, this place does the job.”
“It’s nice. Though I thought it was a new build.”
“It is,” she said, serving up some of the Chinese onto a plate.
“So, why paint it?”
She sat down, a smile forming, then shrugged. “You’re going to think it’s odd.”
“Fire away.”
