The Obsession(157)
“You’re . . . You’re going to West Virginia.”
“It’s unlikely anyone’s obsessed with Bowes’s daughter, has been killing in a way that mimics Bowes, and hasn’t had contact with him.”
She braced herself. “Should I go?”
“It may come to that, Naomi, but no. Let me make the first pass. If we get to the point that we believe you talking to him could help, can you do it?”
“It’s something I’ve thought about, asked myself. Yes. I can go back, I can see him. I can do that to save myself, and any other women this pseudo Bowes might target. Mason, it hasn’t been fear of Bowesor not primarily thatkeeping me from going back. It’s been the need to deny it. Maybe I had to keep denying it, in my way, until I could accept, fully. I let it define me in too many ways. I’m not going to let it define me anymore. I told Jenny and Kevin last night, and it’s okay.”
“It’s a hell of a good step toward defining yourself. You made the first one buying the house. You shifted your lines then, Naomi. You’ve kept shifting them, and making your own. You did what you needed to do until you could.”
“Xander loves me.”
“I noticed.”
“You would. I’m adjusting to having a man who loves me, and enough to wait until I’m ready to shift the lines. Last night I was able to tell him I loved him. As desperately as I wanted normal, I never believed I’d have someone who knew everything about me and loved me. Someone who could get past the blocks so I could love him. It feels . . . miraculous.”
“He’s who I’d pick for you, if I had a vote.”
“Even though you don’t, it means a lot. He’s moving in. Not just staying here, but moving in. God.” With a hand pressed to her heart, she blew out a breath. “It’s huge for me.”
“How do you feel about it?”
A shrink question as much as a brother’s, she thought. But even that was okay.
“Nervous. Not scared, just nervous. And happy. And baffled as apparently we’re now building a three-car garage.”
“The uncles are going to go nuts.”
“I know it. I’m going to wait until they meet him. They should meet him first. Probably. Mason, get this finished before they come. Get this finished.”
“I’m working on it.”
Twenty-nine
Within a day Xander moved everything he wanted into the house on the bluff. The books presented the biggest challenge. The library wouldn’t hold all of them.
“I never imagined this house would be too small for anything.”
He shrugged, studying the shelves, now filled with books. And the tubs on the floor, still full of them.
“You don’t want all your books in one place anyway. We should scatter some around.”
“There are too many to scatter.”
“Don’t even think about saying I should get rid of some.”
“Wouldn’t think of it.”
Maybe she hadjust for an instantand had just as quickly rejected the idea.
“I just don’t know where to put them. They don’t deserve to be stuck in tubs either. How will I know what’s in there I want to read?”
“Kevin could do another wall of books.”
“I’d love a wall of books,” she considered. “But I don’t know where.”
“Basement. You’re putting in a darkroom down there, right?”
“Yeah, sooner or later.”
“I could use some office space. Don’t need much, but somewhere for a desk and some files.”
“You don’t want an office in the basement.”
“Works for me,” he countered. “You’re out of my way, I’m out of yours, and there’s a hell of a lot of space down there. Plenty for a wall of books. They’re okay in tubs until. I’ll spring for the office and the wall, whatever goes with it.”
Which included, to his mind, doors leading out to the yard. But he didn’t see the point of front-loading that on.
“I’ve got money, Naomi. Investing it here instead of another rentalI’ve been looking at thatmakes more sense right now. Plus I just got another rental since Jimmy’s moving into the apartment over the garage. Gangly guy with the pitiful goatee deal? He works for me.”
“Yes, I met him. You . . . You’ve already rented it.”
“Jimmy graduates from trade school in June, wants his own place. And I like having someone over the garage. It’s a good deal on both sides as it comes mostly furnished. You don’t want the crap I had in there.”
“But don’t you?”
“I want the books. They’re nonnegotiable,” he said, idly picking up a worn paperback copy of The Illustrated Man. “Did you ever read this?”