Page 10 of Solid Foundation
I blinked a few times and handed it to Jake hesitantly. “It’s a letter between lovers.”
“So?” He took the paper from me and frowned at it.
“Between two men.”
His gaze snapped up to me. “So?” he repeated, a little sharper.
“So… I don’t know. It’s nice. I wonder if that’s what the rest of these are.” I looked through a few more. They all started and ended with the same words.Dearest Nathan… Yours, Freddie. “Who’s Nathan?”
“How should I know?” He thrust the letter back at me. “It’s none of our business anyway.”
“I don’t know… I just thought he might be someone from Port Grandlin.”
With a snort, he shook his head. “Nineteen twenty-one? That’s over a hundred years ago. Nathan is probably in a retirement home if he’s even around anymore.”
I hummed and nodded. “You’re right. Can I keep these?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
“I didn’t know if you wanted to take them to the historical society or the library or someone. Maybe the new homeowner.”
“Is that what you want me to do?”
I shook my head, second-guessing myself. “I’ll figure out what to do with them.” I wasn’t about to admit to Jake that I wanted to read them, to understand the story behind them. What had happened to the pair?
“Have it your way.” He stepped back and held up his hands in surrender.
I carefully placed the letter back into the box and tried to fit the lid on top. “A little light evening reading.”
“Whatever you say.” His eye roll told me he didn’t actually care much about what I was going to do with the letters.
“What’s next?” I looked around the room. “Should we finish the tour?”
“This way,” Jake said, leaving the room.
I hurriedly tucked the box under my arm and followed him through the rest of the upstairs and back down to the entryway. “Anything else?”
A crooked smirk crossed his lips. “Not unless you want to see the foundation?”
“Pass.” I patted the box. “I’ve got some reading I’m itching to get to. See you tomorrow morning for day one?”
He nodded once, looking pained—probably at the idea of being stuck with me for the next six-to-eight weeks. “Bright and early.”
“Perfect.”
We went our separate ways, him sliding into the big pickup truck and me getting into the rental car, placing the poorsplintered box in the passenger seat. By the time I got it to the rental place, I was more than ready to read the rest of the letters, preferably with a glass of wine by my side.
When I walked through the door, Sterling was sitting on the couch of the place the studio had rented for us, intensely watching a competitor’s reality home decorating show and taking notes furiously. “Hey,” he said without looking up.
“Still studying?”
He paused the show and nodded at me, finally making eye contact. “I just want this to be my best possible performance, you know? Wait, what’s that?” He nodded at the box.
“I’ll tell you in a minute.” I sighed softly and put the box on the coffee table between us. “But first… you know I hired you because I already like your work, right?”
“Not just because I’m a pretty face?” He blinked his big blue eyes at me a few times and laughed.
“If you’re fishing for compliments, you can stop right there. You know I like them tall, dark and broody.”
