“Comes in handy sometimes.” Sam grinned. “It was nice to meet you, but I better get to work. I’ll tell Mr. Simons you stopped by.”
“It was nice to meet you too, Sam,” Marie said. “Kids, what do you say for the gum?”
“Thanks, Mr. Sam!” they said in unison.
“Any time.” He waved goodbye as the family headed down the drive, and then turned to approach the front doors.
Where Ed was still hiding!
Like a shot, he raced for the living room and turned on the radio. It was another standing model, but the inside had been replaced with a digital jukebox. Last Ed had used it, he’d been listening to ’70s music, and “Crocodile Rock” blared just as Sam announced himself.
“Eddie? Clocking in for the day.”
“Oh, Sam.” Ed feigned surprise when Sam appeared at the entry into the living room. “I didn’t hear you drive up.”
“Wow, you’re a bad liar,” Sam said, setting his bag against the wall and moving to join Ed. “You’re welcome, by the way. I got the impression you weren’t the ‘play nice with the neighbors’ type.”
So much for performing his own misdirection. “Like you said, I prefer my privacy.”
“That wouldn’t have anything to do with them being a detective and a reporter, would it?” Sam draped an arm casually atop the radio.
“Would you want that pairing as your neighbors?”
“Not really,” Sam said with a laugh.
“You’re very good with children.”
“It’s easy to be good with them when you can give them back to their parents.”
Now Ed laughed, completely disarmed around Sam, which was a rare experience.
“You might not be a good liar, Eddie, but you do have good taste in music,” Sam said, tapping his fingers to the beat of Elton John giving way to the Beatles. “Since we won’t be taking a stroll with the Neu-Ryans any time soon, shall we talk taxes?”
Taxes, numbers, probability, and projections—that Sam found easy.
People were complicated.
Planning a heist with a detective and a reporter next door was insane.
Funny how the Cramers never mentioned that. Maybe they didn’t know, or maybe they had known and threw Sam into the lion’s den anyway.
He tried not to let it get to him, especially not in front of Ed, who he was desperately trying to read for signs that he was not what he seemed. Sam hadn’t actually noticed him listening in to his conversation outside, but he’d heard the way the music blasted suddenly in the living room and took a guess.
Ed was avoiding his neighbors. There had to be a reason besides sensitivity to the sun—if that was even true—or being antisocial. He was friendly enough with Sam.
Diving into his second day of work, however, turned up nothing. Ed had an obscene amount of money, but it was all inherited or growing interest. He had no need to acquire his possessions illegally. Sam wanted to believe there might be mafia ties or drugs involved, but Ed’s only source of income was investments. Nothing shady, other than poor record keeping, which only hurt Ed, not the banks.
The only other possibility, if the Cramers’ intel was to be believed, was some sort of John Wick scenario, but Ed was so not the type. His inability to take care of his affairs properly kept coming across as endearing. The only bad things about him were his disorganization and terrible sense of fashion.
Today it was a suit vest over a button-down shirt, like he should have been wearing a blazer and working in an office, but instead, he was reading in the upstairs parlor with his feet up, which were currently encased in bunny slippers.
“Please tell me those were gifts,” Sam said, emerging from the library.
“No. Why? They’re comfortable!”
“I’m sure they are.”
Ed grew flustered and dropped his feet to the floor. “What are you holding?”
“I was cleaning the library and found this with the nonfiction.” Sam held out Dante’s Inferno, which had definitely been entertaining to find in nonfiction.
“I was going to properly reshelve it later.”
“Eddie,” Sam scolded, reminding himself of his strictest teachers—before he dropped out—“we went over this. Keep doing that and you’ll be back to square one the moment my contract is over. Now, come with me.” He grabbed Ed’s hand, pulling him out of the chair to wobble after him.
“Where are we going?”
“Teach a man to fish,” Sam said and dragged Ed to the library. “Now, put it where it belongs.”
“I’m not a child,” Ed huffed, wrenching his arm from Sam’s grasp.
“And yet.”
A moment of tense electricity passed between them, but Sam had been warring against Mim and Gerry’s stubbornness for years. Just because this was a con didn’t mean he didn’t take his job seriously.
Finally, with another huff, Ed snatched the book from Sam’s hands and shelved it in the fiction section under D, since they’d agreed that titles made more sense than authors.
After a pause, Sam plucked the book off the shelf to reshelve it over a spot. Maybe because he was still grinning, Ed started grinning too, and the next thing Sam knew, they were laughing.
“What about this one?” Ed accused, picking up a book Sam had set aside. “It’s out of place too.”
“That’s because I was going to ask you if I could borrow it.”
“You like Greek mythology?”
“There’s something about the fantastical that grabs my attention.” It was one of the few subjects in school Sam had enjoyed besides math, and math he’d improved upon after dropping out, though his credentials alluded to a college education rather than his GED.
“What’s your favorite myth?”
“Hades and Persephone, no contest.”
“Kidnapping and forced marriage?” Ed scoffed.
“I prefer the modern retelling, where it’s a love story about two very different people striving against all odds to be together.”
Ed blinked, like he wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Can you… tell it to me?”
“Aren’t you afraid of my darkness, dear?” Sam quoted, watching Ed’s eyes widen. “And Persephone said, ‘No. You haven’t seen mine yet.’”
The library was a whole guest bedroom in size, but it felt like a closet suddenly, as if all the shelves were closing in to push them together.
Sam stepped back. He had to be more careful. Flirtations were one thing, but he couldn’t allow more. “A full retelling would take time. I should get back to work.”
“O-of course. Maybe as a celebration someday, after your two weeks are up. I was always partial to Psyche and Eros myself.”
Oh, he did not make this easy.
“In the meantime, take it.” He handed Sam the book.
“Thanks. I’ll bring it right back. I just want to page through it off the clock.”
“No. Take it. Keep it. I prefer celestial bodies over godly ones. Call it a gift.”
He made this impossible.
“There really isn’t anything indecent about you, is there?”
“I-I-I… w-well….” Ed startled, and no wonder, because Sam hadn’t meant to say that.