It was like living with a bottle of champagne that had been shaken around before someone had popped the cork. She was almost always upbeat and positive, she rarely whined and she saw the funny side of almost everything.
He’d learned that just because she was in a room with him, didn’t mean she needed or wanted conversation.
Often she was away in her own world, thinking or drawing.
Her drawings were everywhere, left on every available surface of his cottage. Some were of jewelry, intricate in the detail, others were landscapes.
The scope of her talent never ceased to amaze him.
He stared at the garden room.
It was the first time he’d known her to close a door.
Had her parents called? Richard?
He still couldn’t believe the guy hadn’t once called to see how she was. If nothing else, it would have given her the chance to hang up on him.
He respected that closed door for two hours after dark and then picked up a bottle of wine and two glasses.
Opening the door, he saw her curled up on the window seat staring into the darkness. “Sky?”
“Hi.” She turned her head and he saw the dark shadows under her eyes.
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” He flicked on a lamp with his free hand and then set the bottle and glasses down. “What’s wrong?”
“Why should anything be wrong?”
“Because you’re like a bottle of soda that’s been left with the cap off. You’ve lost your fizz.”
She stirred. “It’s nothing.”
He wondered how it was that after only a short time together he knew she wasn’t telling the truth. “I thought we agreed never to lie to each other.”
“All right, it’s something, but it’s a stupid something.”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
It shouldn’t bother him that she wouldn’t tell him, but it did.
“Is it about your parents?”
“No.” There was something small and fragile about her. Because she was so energetic and bouncy she normally seemed bigger than she was, but curled up on his window seat she just seemed vulnerable.
“So what’s wrong?” He poured wine into both glasses and handed her one. “Is it about Emily being pregnant?”
“You know about that?”
“Ryan told me. I’m not supposed to mention it, but there was no way Emily wouldn’t have told you so I guessed that instruction didn’t include you. Are you worrying about her?”
“A bit.” She sipped her wine and he studied her face, looking for clues.
“Shall we invite them over? It would give you a chance to talk to each other.”
“She has Ryan. Things are different.”
Something in her tone caught his attention. “Different how?”