bed and another pile of colorful pillows in the center of the room. It looked too big for one person, Gib thought nervously. Would some man talk her into bringing him home to share it? Would her farmer fiancé fly out for weekend trysts?
What difference did it make?
“The plasterers and cabinet maker all worked on the apartment downstairs,” Mariah went on. “It was finished this spring and it’s wonderful. I’ll ask Rhys to show you,” she said to Chloe.
“Rhys? Who’s that?” Gib wanted to know.
“My neighbor,” Mariah said. She pointed downstairs.
“We bought into the building at the same time. He’s done a great job with his place. He has the bottom two floors. Seems a waste when he’s single and hardly home enough to enjoy it.” She shook her head. “He’s a fireman. Goes all over the world putting out blazes. Oil wells, natural disasters, things like that.”
Gib watched Chloe’s eyes get bigger and bigger. He wished Mariah would confine herself to the relevant details.
“What days do they pick up trash?” he asked. “What about recyclables? Is someone checking that all this plastering gets done? Chloe won’t be responsible for it.”
“I’ve made a list.” Manah gestured toward some papers on the butcher block. “I’ve got it all written down, when everything is supposed to happen. It’s not a big deal.”
Gib snorted. Easy for her to say. She was going to be in the Hamptons. It would be Chloe who would be here. What if they were all axe murderers and rapists?
Well, he could hardly ask that. Not in so many words.
Chloe apparently had none of the same qualms. She picked up the list and smiled beatifically at Mariah. “No problem. Sounds like fun. And—” she looked at Gib, eyes shining “—I’ll get to have a real New York experience.”
Mariah chuckled. “That’s for sure.”
“She has a job,” Gib reminded them. “She can’t be here all the time.”
“Oh, she won’t have to be. Rhys can let them in.”
“I thought he was all over the world. Never home long enough to enjoy it, didn’t you say?” And now he was going to let people into the apartment. He had a key?
Mariah waved her hands. “Oh, you know how it is. When he’s gone, he’s anywhere. When he’s home, he’s downstairs. He’ll be home for the next six weeks. I’m sure you’ll meet him in the next few days,” she said to Chloe, and confided, “He’s a hunk.”
Gib’s teeth came together. “She’s engaged,” he said through them.
Mariah’s eager smile faded for a moment, then brightened again. “Well,” she said cheerfully to Chloe, “no harm in looking, is there?”
They shared a conspiratorial giggle. Gib drummed his fingers on the butcher block. When Chloe looked his way, he gave her a black scowl. She frowned right back at him.
What was that for? he wondered. He was only protecting the rights of her fiancé.
“I’m not sure he should have a key,” Gib began.
But Chloe cut in. “I think this is very nice of you,” she said to Mariah, just as if he weren’t there at all. “And I’ll be happy to let plasterers in or cabinet makers or whoever. I’m sure I’ll be very happy here.”
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