“I was home most of the morning.”
“It was early. Maybe when you were out at the grocery store.”
“But I didn’t see any cake.” I frowned. I wasn’t sure how I felt about such a gesture. I had no interest in a friendship with Sofie Rhodes, but we weren’t exactly at war, either—we’d had one uncomfortable conversation and that was that. Why would she bring a peace offering? Then I thought about the police visiting her home and sighed. Maybe she thought we were at war.
“Henry was here,” Cal said.
“Henry went to work early yesterday,” I said, but then I paused. My days generally looked the same and tended to blend together so quickly. Was it yesterday Henry only had the black coffee for breakfast and refused my offer of eggs, or was that the day before?
“I don’t know what to tell you. Sofie asked him to pass it on to you and he…” Calvin paused, then cleared his throat. “Lizzie, she says he threw it at her.”
“What?” I said in disbelief, then immediately added, “There’s no way that’s true.”
“Jürgen said it gave her quite the fright. And he said Henry has been walking past the houses where the German families live. Sofie has seen him a number of times.”
“Please tell me you aren’t buying this. My brother wouldn’t hurt a fly. I didn’t see any mess from this supposed cake and you know as well as I do it makes perfect sense for him to walk that way to work.”
I turned and glanced toward my front porch and a sudden memory flared. Some of the pavers had been wet when I came home from the grocery store. I just figured it was from when I watered the young red buckeye the night before, but what if—
No. I shook my head, frowning. My brother wouldn’t throw something at a perfect stranger, even under these conditions. “We don’t know these people, Cal. We certainly can’t take their word over Henry’s.”
“Sweetheart. I really need to get to the bottom of what happened,” Cal said quietly, but firmly.
“So we’ll talk to him,” I said impatiently. “He’ll tell you she’s making the whole thing up.”
“I’ll have a chat with him tonight and straighten this out.”
“We can do it together,” I suggested. Calvin shook his head, and as the last of the water poured onto my vegetables, he reached down to take the empty watering can from my hands.
“This is one of those conversations that will be better man-to-man.”
“But—”
“Sweetheart,” Cal said, and he dropped his voice. “I don’t want Henry to feel like we’re ganging up on him. Please, let me do this alone.”
“How did it go?” I asked, as Calvin came into my bedroom later that night. He quietly closed the door and sat on the end of my bed.
I was sitting up in my nightgown, an untouched magazine on my lap. Calvin had invited Henry out onto the porch for a beer after dinner and I’d been waiting anxiously ever since.
“He said Sofie Rhodes is lying. There was no cake.”
“See?” I said, triumphant. “I told you.”
“And he does walk past the German homes, but you were right. It’s just on his way to and from work. Sofie Rhodes has only been here for a few weeks and I’m sure it’s easy to misread situations when she’s navigating a strange country in her second language. I’m still confused about the cake story, but Henry was adamant, and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“So are you comforted?” I asked.
“I’m still concerned about that dream he had,” Calvin said hesitantly. He flicked a glance at me. “I’m horrified that the police went to the Rhodes house. I did try to ask Henry how he feels about that dream now, but he seemed so uncomfortable, I dropped it. I suppose he’s embarrassed.”
“That was weeks ago, anyway,” I said. “He’s been so much calmer ever since.”
“It’s just…he does seem different, doesn’t he? He’s distracted. For all of Henry’s challenges over the years, he’s never seemed that way to me before.”
Distracted. That was the perfect word. Even when Henry was looking right at me, it seemed like his mind was somewhere else.
I had plans to see Becca the next morning. She and Kevin had purchased a new house a few blocks away—a great big two-story place on a huge, empty lot—and they were keen to put in a garden.
“I’ll do it for you,” I offered when she called. I was excited about a new project—already thinking about how it might come together.