“We could sit up there and look out over this room. I’ve spent a lot of time up there, and the view is good.”
She could tell that that’s where he wanted to go, and more importantly, she felt that he hadn’t shared this place with anyone else. To the left was a staircase and Sophie hurried to it. “Race you up the stairs,” she said and started running.
She’d only meant to tease him, but the next moment she heard him thundering across the floor. She wasn’t prepared for when he picked her up in his arms and ran with her up the stairs.
“I win,” he said when they reached the landing. As he stood there holding her he didn’t seem to have any intention of putting her down.
“You cheated,” Sophie said, looking up at him. She couldn’t help thinking that she didn’t mind if he never set her down. She had to resist the temptation to snuggle her head into his shoulder. “I must be heavy,” she managed to say.
“Not at all.” He was looking into her eyes. In the run he’d lost his hat and she could see his eyes more clearly. “I don’t know how I missed seeing you all those years ago. You’re so very pretty. And small. But—” He looked down at her body. “So perfectly formed. You’re like a pocket Venus.”
“A what?” she asked.
But he knew she’d heard him. Reluctantly, he set her down, then stood there, staring at her.
He was doing a great deal for her ego! “So where’s the basket?”
Reede smiled. “Left it downstairs. Come through here.” He took her hand and led her past a bedroom and a bath, then into another bedroom.
Sophie couldn’t help frowning. Into a bedroom already?! She pulled her hand out of his and turned back toward the door. But Reede went to the far end of the room and opened what looked to be a closet door, then disappeared inside and she heard scraping sounds.
Curious, Sophie went to see where he’d gone. At the back of the closet, which still contained a lot of old clothing, was a little panel. It wasn’t really a door, as it had no hinges and didn’t reach the floor. Reede had pulled it out of the wall, set it to one side, and seemed to have disappeared into the hole.
Sophie looked inside to see an area about eight feet by three. It was very dark, but then Reede opened the little doors and light came in from the living room below. She stepped into the space to crouch next to him.
“It’s shorter than I remember,” he said.
She smiled but didn’t state the obvious, that he was now taller. It was very intimate in the little space and she liked being so near him. She also liked that she’d been wrong when she’d thought he’d been leading them to a bed.
“Not claustrophobic?” he asked. Above them they could hear the rain, and it made the space seem even cozier.
“No,” she answered
.
“When I was a kid my friend Tommy and I used to eat meals up here,” he said, his eyes looking at her in question.
“I’d love to,” she said, knowing that was what he was asking.
“Stay here and I’ll get the basket.” He started to leave and got one leg through to the closet when he turned back. She couldn’t see all of his face, but his eyes seemed to be serious. “Since it’s just the two of us, maybe we should remove our masks.”
“And ruin the fantasy?” Sophie said. “I was just thinking that I’m sorry the hat’s gone.”
Reede’s smile was so warm, so . . . happy, that Sophie again felt her face turning red. “Go on, get the food,” she said and he left.
She started to sit on the floor but then she went back into the bedroom and got four pillows and a quilt that she tossed through the opening and made a sort of couch. When she sat down she saw why Reede liked the place so much. Through the doors was a lovely view down into the living room. She smiled at their pans placed around with the rain dripping into them. For all that the roof leaked and the house was quite dirty, it looked to be in good shape.
“Hello!” Reede called from the floor below and Sophie waved to him. She watched him check on the buckets. The rain was coming down steadily but the containers didn’t seem to be filling rapidly.
“See this?” Reede asked as he went to the far side of the room. There was an old iron ladder bolted to the wall and she saw that it went all the way up to the exposed rafters. “When I was a kid I used to climb out of where you are, walk across that beam, and come down this way.”
As Sophie looked where he was pointing, she drew in her breath. That was a very dangerous walk. It would be bad for an adult, and she didn’t want to think about a child up there. “I hope your friend’s parents stopped you from doing it,” she said sternly.
“They never knew about it,” he said. He climbed up the ladder about halfway, then halted. “I’ve always wanted to try something.”
She didn’t know what it was about his tone that upset her, but something did. She remembered the framed photo of him that Kim had hung on their apartment wall. It was a newspaper shot of a man being lowered down a cable into a turbulent ocean to rescue people whose boat had sunk. “My idiot brother!” Kim had said of the photo, but there was so much pride in her voice that everyone knew she was pleased by his heroism.
Sophie watched Reede unfasten something from his belt. She hadn’t noticed that there was a whip coiled at his side. “You’re Zorro!” she said.