He called her cell but was sent to voice mail. He wandered about the empty house, saw that she’d made the bed with freshly washed sheets, and he stretched out on it. It was late and he knew he should shower and go to bed, but he didn’t want to. Besides, he didn’t want to wash Gemma off his skin.
He lay there, looking at the ceiling and thinking about her, especially about how she made him feel. That he’d talked to her about Jean, been honest with her and she’d not judged him, had been good. There were so many things he liked about Gemma, how calm she was, how . . . He grinned. How beautiful her body was.
He indulged himself in memory of their time together in bed. He liked the strength of her, the—
He broke off when his cell buzzed. It was his father.
“I hear you were out fighting crime today,” Peregrine Frazier said. “What was it? Kids?”
Colin wasn’t about to discuss a case with his father. His solution to every crime in Edilean was for Colin to turn it over to the Williamsburg police, and go back to selling cars.
“Dad,” Colin said seriously. “I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah? What’s going on?”
“Is Mom there? Will she hear you?”
“No, I’m alone,” his father said as he looked across the room at his wife. She moved to sit on the ottoman near him and put her head beside the phone.
“How upset do you think Mom will be to hear that I’ve broken up with Jean?”
“Well,” Peregrine said slowly while waving at his wife to stop dancing about the room. “Your mother has always liked Jean. In fact, we all love her, but . . .”
“But what?”
“Neither your mother nor I could see her living in Edilean.”
Alea Frazier was mouthing “Gemma! Gemma!” to her husband.
“Look, son, I wouldn’t be too down about this. Breakups happen. I remember one time when I was in college, and I—”
Alea looked at him in threat.
Grinny cleared his throat. “I played golf with Henry Shaw today and he said you were at Sara and Mike’s yesterday.”
“No secret in that.”
“He also told me that pretty little Gemma was so angry at you about something that she wouldn’t speak to you.”
Alea looked at her husband in horror, as that was news she hadn’t heard. She made a grab for the phone, but her husband kept it out of her reach.
Grinny got out of his chair and turned his back on her. “What I mean to say, Colin, is that it isn’t good to mistreat an employee so she gets angry at you. I think you should—”
“We made up,” Colin said.
“Made up? What does that mean?”
“Dad, you aren’t that old. Gemma and I made up,” he said emphatically.
Grinny turned to his wife and gave a thumbs-up. “I’m glad to hear it. Henry said Gemma put on a sort of boxing exhibition. Did she?”
“Oh yeah,” Colin said in a way that let his father know how good she’d looked.
“Sorry I missed that,” Grinny said, and Alea frowned at him. She pointed to her ring finger on her left hand. Grinny looked at her in disbelief, then turned away. “So you and Gemma are now on good terms?”
“We’re friends,” Colin said, “and that’s all you’re going to get out of me. Have you seen her in the last hour or so?”
“No,” Grinny said. “She isn’t with you?”