Page 14 of Legacy of Smoke
“How about the small bedroom under the stairs? It’s got its own bathroom.” She swallowed.
“Sounds good. He won’t hear us banging away all night long there. And he leaves early for work on weekdays, so he won’t bother you in your she-cave.”
“It’s a studio, not a cave.” For the first time since we’d arrived, her smile was genuine. And I should be damned to hell and back, but it was as pretty as Poppy’s. Sprout was a lucky guy. I envied him for a minute. Which meant one thing, change the fucking subject.
“How many thousand square feet is this place?” I studied the modernist stairs. They curved in a graceful arc of clean wooden lines, forming a perfect circle down to the bottom level. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the banister was all one piece of wood, the joints were flawless. “Who made this?”
“I know, right? Fucking showoff. I’ve only found two seams.”
Well, that wouldn’t fly. It had to have at least five. I studied the grain pattern. “One.”
“That’s my guy. See honey? He’s legit. Best damn woodworker I know.”
“You men and that staircase. At least you’re not sliding down it like that guy from Hagerstown.”
That was another change. Hagerstown used to be a feeder chapter, not a full-fledged Destroyers club. It would take some getting used to seeing old faces and new colors on their backs.
“Boots is harmless.”
Danielle gave him a glare that could peel paint. “He tried to blow up the fire pit.”
“How was I supposed to know that was a blasting cap?” Sprout broke off the conversation with Danielle to warn me, “Parties get a little crazy around here.”
No shit they would. I wandered into a coke dealer’s wet dream. White couches, abstract art, sculpture… And the view.
Damn.
The sun was long past set but the moon was full. A thousand smells hit me as I stood on the back deck. It spanned the entire width of the house and was at least fifteen feet deep. I leaned on the railing and inhaled. Water, leaves, smoke from wood fires, meadow grass, and a million subtle textures of nature and the season hit me all at once. “I could die here.”
Sprout took a spot next to me. “Nice, isn’t it?”
“Have you ever seen that many stars?” Their multitude spread from horizon to horizon. Although, in the east, the lights from Harrisburg muddied the sky.
“It’s like you’ve never seen them before. Come on, man. Snap out of it.” He slapped my arm.
I shook my head. “No. I haven’t. And if I had? I’d forgotten. I don’t remember this.” Only with Sprout could I be so brutally honest. “They took that from me.” He took it from me.
“You’re going to make me give you a hug, ain’t ya?”
“Naw. Just let me look for a bit.” Just in case.
“I got a boat house down there. Picked up a sweet Malibu tow boat last Spring. Maybe if the weather stays nice, we’ll do some wake boarding this weekend. You down?”
“I’ll break my fucking neck.”
“I’ll teach ya. It’ll be fun.”
“Famous last words,” I quipped.
He laughed. Then he pointed out the property boundaries. “Sold that little spur to Poppy a year ago. That’s where she wants to build.”
“Does it ever flood?”
“Naw, the reservoir flows out the other end. We’re good here. If anything goes south, we’d be sitting on a house on a steep hill instead of a lake.”
The natural lay of the land confirmed his description. “I don’t remember the lake being this big.”
“That’s because Danielle’s bitch of a grandmother closed the beach and renovated the dam. We had to go almost a quarter mile south. Over there.” He pointed, and I finally recognized the low bluffs we used to dive from as teenagers.
