Forging Splendor
Page 4
Agatha though… she was relaxing to be around and her personality just made her features go from pretty to striking.
Ethan didn’t know what he was going to do about her, but he knew he needed to get the blonde woman out of his home as soon as possible. If he didn’t, he knew that she’d manage to work her way into his heart. The thought was equal parts disturbing and enticing.
Who knew such a pleasant, unassuming woman could be so dangerous?
~
Being invisible was harder than I expected, but Rosa helped. I ran into her only two days after arriving and was promptly informed that, “The niño’s lunch break always starts at 11. He likes to eat early, sí?”
Yeah, it turned out that I didn’t know him as well as I thought I did. This may go without saying, but perception is very different from reality. I was beginning to feel okay about that, though.
The thing was, I had all these memories of him from when I worked for JJ, but who he was when he was with her was not who he was with everyone else. Which was good, because Ethan had never been happy around her and was generally pretty peaceful around everyone else. That was something else Rosa informed me of. I had only seen him with JJ, looking for JJ, or angry with me because I had showed up on his door like a stray kitten looking for a home.
Rosa also kept me company as I slowly unearthed the office. She was a proper housekeeper in all respects, including knowing everything that went on within the gates, even when she wasn’t there. Heck, she probably knew more about Ethan’s business than he did. Anytime I had a question, which was a lot, I took it to her and she answered it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world!
“Rosa?”
“Kitchen!” she called out, her accent elongating the ‘i’ so that it sounded like she was in the ‘kee-tchen’. I loved the way she talked and she regularly thickened her accent to make me smile.
“Hey!” I said with a grin. “Do you know when Ethan was supposed to deliver those pieces to the vineyard?” I held up the note, just in case she needed to see it to remember. I’d just found it and had a minor heart attack when I realized that the mini-show was supposed to happen two days before.
“Last week. He did it already but got distracted and forgot to update his notes.” She winked at me before continuing, still scrubbing the stovetop as she spoke. “And he has all but three pieces finished for the May exhibit. They want an update, sí?”
I snorted. “If I didn’t know you so well, I would swear you were psychic. Instead I think you should change careers and become a Private Eye. Actually, why aren’t you his assistant? You can do this job in your sleep.”
Her smile turned sad. “The niño, he needs to talk to people. He hides too well. I want him to see and be seen. Besides, I am too old to be that one’s assistant.”
That made me laugh. “You aren’t too old, hun. What you are is too bossy! He would fire you just to avoid your sharp tongue when he doesn’t give you something on time. Then he’d regret it because you’d stop cooking for him.”
She just shrugged and went back to her task. The next day there was another tray of enchiladas and a note that said, “Eat more. You’re too skinny.” It was signed ‘Boss Lady’ and made me laugh for about 5 straight minutes.
I was also discovering more and more about Ethan as I continued with my project. I had known him when he was a husband in a bad marriage, but there were so many more facets to him. For one, he was meticulous in his shipping instructions and demanded to be on site if his art was shipped in more than two pieces, just to make sure it was put together correctly and the client was happy. It made him look like a perfectionist or a diva artist, but in reality, it was so he could be sure that he wasn’t disappointing the client and that no one was injured if the piece wasn’t put together correctly. Some of his works were very, very heavy and needed to be pieced together precisely to prevent disaster.
For another, he was an investor in a number of businesses in the area, but always a silent one, helping without asking for recognition. I seriously suspected that Rosa was feeding him names of people to reach out to, but couldn’t prove it.
I’d also found an entire book devoted to clients, each page detailing what they had ordered, it’s placement, material, the methods used to craft it, and what the client thought. Some clients had been struck out, mostly due to overly demanding personalities, but some were because they repeatedly damaged the statues. It was astounding; the amount of detail and care that went into each book, the cross-references to other pages… it must have taken him hours to complete each entry!
It was during one of these excavation missions that I discovered just what happened to his last PA. She got married! She had met and married a doctor who decided to be a part of Doctors without Borders. They were currently living in a small village in Africa, treating malaria and any other illness that came their way. Oh, and Ethan had auctioned off several of his pieces to buy medicine and mosquito nets for them to give away.
He was so caring but so isolated. In fact, almost every piece of correspondence indicated that he rarely left the compound he’d built.
It made me wonder, just what was he hiding from? Himself or something else?
~
“Geo,” Ethan greeted as his half-brother found him in the kitchen. “How was the drive?”
Geo grinned. “Man, you have got to get a bike! It is the only way to drive the coast.” He had just gotten a motorcycle and Ethan was constantly asking him if it was worth it. The answer was always a resounding ‘yes’, but Ethan still worried over it. Geo wasn’t exactly known for avoiding dangerous situations. “So how is the new PA working out for you?”
Ethan forced his mind to switch gears, stumbling over his words a bit as he did. “Um, she didn’t. She told me she was a spy for Neil so I sent her home. Well, I tried to. She quit Montgomery and Sons and is looking for a new job right now, but she should be gone soon enough.”
“But,” Geo started then frowned. “So, did you clean that trash heap you call an office? ‘Cause that place is pristine, E!”
Ethan frowned and made his way toward the office.
When he looked into the room he was shocked. Geo had been right, it was pristine. Even before Ethan’s last PA had married, the room had never looked so clean! Nancy had been a wonderful woman, but she wasn’t always able to keep up with his workload and it had only gotten worse when she started dating her husband.
Ethan frowned though. It was odd that she’d cleaned the place up for him. Instead of investigating further, though, he moved back toward the kitchen. They’d agreed to have lunch together earlier and he tried to keep a strict schedule, especially when it involved food, otherwise he was likely to forget to eat at all.
Plus, Rosa had fixed it for them and it wouldn’t do to insult her cooking by eating it later than intended.
Ethan picked his taco up and contemplated what he’d seen. It wasn’t like he went in there often, but after thinking about it, he realized that it was the first time he’d looked at his office in three weeks.
“I was wondering why you were responding so easily to my messages. I see you had some help,” Geo said, breaking the silence
E wasn’t going to rise to the bait. “What I want to know is how did she managed to do that much without my knowing? I mean, I get the cleaning part, but how did she know where to put everything?”
“Dude, she does this for a living. And, clearly you don’t go in there enough.”
“Shut up! I was busy prepping for the exhibit in two weeks. You know how hard it is for me to split my attention. But you were right, things were going way too smoothly. I was just too wrapped up to really notice.” But he wasn’t too wrapped up to miss her presence at church every Sunday and on the one Wednesday he’d managed to get away for the mid-week study. And, if he were honest with himself, he’d noticed her going in and out of the house everyday too, but he hadn’t wanted to really think about her.
It. He hadn’t wanted to think about it.
“First, remind me to text Rosa and ask her to marry me again–“
“She’s married, idiot,” Ethan cut in.
“Second, who is your mysterious PA? You never said.” Geo’s eyes were twinkling, and Ethan had the strange impression that he knew the answer already.
Ethan stiffened for a moment before relaxing. “You remember JJ’s old PA? Agatha?”
“The blonde mouse? The one who kept trying to reign the witch in a little and was being kept around for party planning discounts?”
“How do you know all this stuff? You hardly ever came around when she was here!” Ethan grumped. He was getting a bit annoyed that he was always the last to know things, even if it was his fault for being uninterested.
“Man, you’re my best friend and my half-brother,” Geo told him. “I have my ways and I keep tabs on you whenever I think I need to. I got your back. Plus it was way too easy to find gossip about your ex and anyone around her. She was begging for a divorce before she forced your hand.”
He shook his head. Geo was one who believed in being well informed in all things. He had more private investigators on retainer than most politicians.
Ethan watched Geo, carefully analyzing every minute expression, not that there were many. The man had learned how to hide his emotions from a very young age, though he usually let his guard down around Ethan. Growing up with Neil for a father meant that you either got strong or stayed weak. There wasn’t an in between and Ethan thanked God every day that he wasn’t raised by the man.
He cleared his throat and returned to the topic at hand. “She’s not staying. I don’t care how organized that office is, I’m not letting her stay. She already started looking for a new job and will probably be leaving any day now.”
Geo shook his head. “Man, I doubt she’s even remembered to start looking for somewhere else. I’ve seen your office. I’ve seen you in your office. For such a careful person you have a tendency to knock into any stack of papers you see and you always put them back wrong. And that’s if you put them back at all. Your file cabinets always end up full of random things and all the paperwork that was supposed to be in them was spread out all over the floor last time I was here! I’m just lucky that I got you going with those task management apps. Otherwise, I doubt she could have done half that much with whatever weird rules you gave her.”
“There were no weird rules,” Ethan started to say, but Geo’s raised brow stopped him. “Okay, I told her I didn’t want to see her. At all. I didn’t think she’d start sneaking into the main house to do work, like some weird office ninja. And, while I have no idea why she did it, I’m grateful that she did.”
Geo snorted. “Man, she has to do stuff! It’s in her DNA. Probably saw it on day one and decided to get it done before she left.”
They sat quietly for a while. Geo was letting Ethan figure things out. He liked to sit back and act like the wise old sensei, making the student think through all aspects, rarely giving more than a little push. Ethan had always appreciated that, as he worked through problems better when he had silence. He’d never been great at the ‘talk it through’ tactic.
Finally, Ethan sighed. “I suppose I should go ask her to stay on.”
“Yep. But you might want to wait ‘til she gets back.”
“What? Where’d she go?” Ethan felt ready to bolt, which probably told Geo everything he needed to know.
“Probably to town to get groceries. She was leaving when I came in. Don’t worry, man! She’ll be back.”
And if he read Geo’s expression right, his brother didn’t think she’d leave. Not that he wanted her to. Well, not now at least. She was actually perfect for the job, and had been honest enough about why it been given to her. He might as well give her a chance. After all, he had cost her a job.
CHAPTER 4: GETTING WHAT YOU WANT
HE WAS LOOKING for someone. Where was she? Was she a she? He couldn’t remember anymore…
He saw someone just ahead that looked right, but when he touched her, she wasn’t right. She wasn’t the one that he was looking for. Almost, but not quite.
He tried again. Still the wrong person. So he tried again. And again. And again.
Each time, the person wasn’t who he was looking for. What was worse was he had started to forget what he was doing. Why was he searching, anyway? For who? He still didn’t know. And why did he need them?
He could almost remember.
Then it slipped away.
No, she slipped away. Was slipping away! He could see her, sliding between the people in the rapidly growing crowd.
He moved faster, trying to reach her, but people kept getting in the way. She never seemed to touch them, but he did. And that’s when they started attacking him. They held him back, hitting him and kicking him.
They pulled him down…
down…
down…
It was dark. So dark.
Why was it dark?
He’d been doing something, but now all he could think of was the cold. He was cold.
So cold. So alone. Why was he alone?
He screamed. Something had stabbed him. It happened again. And again. The stabbing moved closer and closer to his heart. He tried to run but he was trapped! His arms and legs were chained down and his head felt glued to the floor. He couldn’t move!
Something gold shifted at the edge of his vision. He reached for it, or tried to, aching for what he couldn’t touch. For light. Before he could grasp it, the blade found his heart.
He curled in anguish and tried to pull it out, but every tug seemed to drive it farther in. He lay on the ground, feeling liquid seep out of him and let the darkness swallow him up. But he wouldn’t forget the gold…
…the gold…
If only he’d been able to touch it…
Ethan gasped and sat up. His first impulse drove him to check his chest for anything, but there was nothing besides scars and flesh. No blade, no blood, no wound. It was a tiny bit of relief.
“That one was different,” he mumbled as he fell back into bed. He felt uneasy, like he had lost something important, but knew it was a remnant of the dream.
Unlike most people, Ethan remembered almost every dream he’d ever had. In fact, they were often the impetus for his artwork, particularly when he was younger. He often set out to craft things that would defeat the monsters that haunted him. It had grown more important as he aged and his bad dreams had increased, something that started around the time he turned 18. It had been an unsettling year and things had only gotten a little bit better as he got older.
I miss the times when the monsters had scales and claws instead of sharp tongues and cameras.
It was odd but he recognized the last half of his nightmare as one that hit him when he felt particularly lonely. Being alone and in the dark before being murdered and left to die without hope was something that he’d started dreaming about when he’d left for college. Too many reruns of Criminal Minds had made him a bit paranoid for a bit. It had never involved something golden before though. Then again, he’d never had a dream where he was trying to find someone and couldn’t.
“Why couldn’t it have been sea monsters? Sea monsters are far easier to deal with.” He snorted at his own reasoning but got up and readied for the day anyway. It was time to hunt down his new PA and inform her of the good news.
She officially had a job.
~
I was just finishing a workout when someone knocked on my front door.
“That’s not good,” I muttered as I wiped my face off. I was already feeling a bit off from a weird dream the night before, something about being buried alive under file folders, so I wanted to avoid answering the door with sweat pouring down my head. A lady has her sta
ndards, after all.
My heart dropped into my shoes when I saw just who had knocked.
“Morning Ethan. How can I help you?” I asked serenely while screaming, Don’t kick me out! Please don’t kick me out! in my head. The dichotomy would have normally made me laugh, but it really wasn’t that funny of a situation. Also, did you know that you could deafen yourself with your own thoughts? I’ve been deafened by silence many times, but rarely do my own thoughts make me wish I had a volume control.
“Morning. Sorry for interrupting.” His voice sounded deeper than usual, which was quite the achievement considering it was already quite low. Still, it gave me the impression that he was a bit tired. “I was wondering if we could talk.”
I blinked. “Um, sure. Do you mind if we do it outside? I’m a bit overheated.”
He smirked at me before nodding and stepping back to make room for me on the front porch. Oh, yeah, I had a porch! Seriously, best guesthouse ever! It was probably my favorite spot because of the swing and rocking chairs. I’ve always been a sucker for rocking chairs.
After taking a seat, I stared at Ethan, who had settled against the railing and looked very uncomfortable. That was tough, though. I wasn’t going to start the conversation. For one, he was the person who showed up to talk and for another, I was afraid I’d start to ramble because I was so nervous.
“So,” he began. “I saw the office.”
It was only by the grace of God that I managed to avoid wincing, and even then was a near thing.
“Oh?” I responded in my most detached voice. The slight squeak at the end made me realize I should probably practice my ‘detached’ voice more frequently. I seemed to be rusty.
“And Geo tells me that my efficiency is up quite a bit.” He paused again, but continued on when I did nothing more than hum. “May I ask, why you spent the last three weeks working for free?”