Desperation in Death (In Death #55)(70)

“Aug,” Bella said, beaming. “Wing Das, Aug. Wing Das!”

“Yeah, well, thanks, but we’ve got to work.”

“Aw!” She gave Roarke a side-eye with a flirtatious smile. “Wing, Ork.” Then patted his cheek.

“You’re hard to resist, darling, but I have to go with Dallas.”

“Aw.”

“Why don’t you show them how you can slide?”

“Whee!” She scrambled down. “See, see, see!” And ran to the little slide.

Eve thought of the dream she’d had where the child she’d been discovered the thrill of a slide.

Bella wouldn’t dream such dreams, she thought. Because she lived them.

She watched Bella climb the steps to the smallest slide, settle her butt, lift her hands high, and squeal all the way down. Laughing her crazy laugh, she raced around to do it all again.

“She’s a pistol, that girl. I won’t let anything happen to her, believe me. The kid stole my heart inside five minutes.”

“Are you from New York, Mr. Fuller?”

“Me, no. I’m from nowhere, really. But my son lives here, and I’m trying to make up for some lost time. You can’t get it back, but you can try to make up for it. Landed a bonus with Bella. She sure brings the sun to a cloudy day.

“Come say goodbye, Bella. Dallas and Roarke have to go to work. Good luck,” he added. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I know it’s something. So good luck.”

When they finally got away, Eve nodded. “He’s solid. Good choice. I figured if they ever went for somebody to help out there, it’d be some fresh-faced girl the kid would run all over and back again.”

“If they’d gone with fresh-faced, I believe she’d have had martial arts training and a security background.”

“You’re right. They’re careful. Now they’ll have two cops living on premises, a security system you designed, and this August guy in addition to the security team when Mavis has a gig.”

“Still you worry a bit.”

“Only because she does shit like she’s doing now.”

When they approached the gates, she paused, looked through them. “They’ve got actual grass now, and some of those flowery things Peabody’s been dying to put in. A couple trees.”

“Considerable work done on the backyard as well, and the interior. Still a work in progress, but progress is moving right along. Even a bit ahead of schedule, though that may change.”

He pressed the intercom, entered a code. “We’re at the gate. We walked.”

“Two seconds!” Mavis’s voice came through clear.

The gates opened, and once again taking Eve’s hand, Roarke walked through.

“They’ll want you to see some of that progress, before or after. Pressed for time, I know, but take a moment or two. Their hearts are in this place, and it shows already.”

“I don’t know how this is going to go, so I can’t promise. But I can say it all looks great, amazing, mag, whatever.”

“There’s a start.”

Mavis came out, stood on the porch as they walked up the drive. “You’re a little early, but they’re on their way. I promise. You can take a look around some, right? The kitchens are basically done. They’re both abso-mag.”

“Relax,” Eve ordered. “I gave my word.”

“I know, I know. I still got jitteries.”

She pulled Eve inside. “Looking good, right?”

Eve saw mostly empty space, a lot of tarps, tools neatly organized, workbenches, some strips of paint on a wall.

And light, a lot of light.

“This part’s not much different from when you saw it last, but come back. Okay, they’ve gutted the powder room, and started—what’s it—stripping down and repairing the molding and stuff in I think it’ll be like a music room maybe. Or a sitting-type room or reading-type room. I keep changing my mind.

“But back here! Ta-de-da-de-dah!”

Color. It saturated. The light poured through the glass wall in the rear and saturated the saturation.

The counters, enough acreage of them to feed a battalion of starving soldiers, softened the bold—a little—in a creamy, lightly blue-grained white. The tiles behind them formed a crazed but visually stunning patchwork of colors. Eve couldn’t think of any left out, with the reds, blues, greens, yellows. Orange and pink and everything else.

The cabinets above them picked up the theme, with some glass fronted to break it up.

It should’ve been too much, Eve thought, and yet it was just right. It was Mavis.

The walls picked up the faint blue graining in the counters, and woodwork gleamed, rich and natural. Light fixtures dripped with teardrops in all the colors.

They’d gone down to the original wood on the floors, and it worked.

Somehow it all worked.

Add the eating space to one side, the lounging space on the other, where sofas and chairs already lived, and it was somehow perfect.

“Okay, wow.”

Mavis bounced on her toes. “Do you mean it, or is that covering ‘Holy shit, what’s she done?’”

“No, I mean it. It’s completely you. It’s stupid happy.”

“I am stupid happy.” Sobbing with it, she threw her arms around Eve. “With hormones! I love it so much. We can’t stay here yet. Too much for Bella to get into, and too much left to be done. But when we get the screen installed in the lounge, we’re having a vid night and snuggling on the couch. Oh, my studio. You should—”