"The furnishings were included with the house and I was instructed to pack your things and ship them to you. You should be receiving them UPS no later than noon today."
"So you went down to Detroit?"
"Yesterday morning, Mrs. Black," Kristen confirmed.
"Did you see him?"
"He let me in the house, but said he was late and needed to get across town before noon."
"And the other assignment he's involved in, where would that be?"
Kristen paused to look it up. "That would be on the west side of the city. As far as I know he is using private resources to fund the project, but if I guess I would say it had to be a house by the people he called in the help fix it up."
"He's paying for everything out of his pocket?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes, Mrs. Black and if I may note, he seemed..." her voice faltered as if unsure how to describe Ethan. "I'm not sure how to say this, but he seemed different."
"How is different?"
"Excited."
Lynne almost dropped the phone. Ethan Black didn't get excited about anything. "Are you sure about this?"
"Well, I'm not expert on emotions, especially when it comes to Mr. Black who usually never says two words to me, but he was so talkative, hurried, and flushed. It was so different. He almost reminded me of James."
That was different. The brothers were like night and day. James took nothing serious and Ethan took everything serious. He was agitated and huffed a lot, but looking excited about anything was just not in his nature.
"Thank you, Kristen," she said and hung up the phone not even giving the girl any time to say anything else.
The door downstairs opened then closed and Lynne jumped out the bed so fast she almost twisted her ankle getting down the stairs.
She located her husband in the kitchen making his own sandwich.
Even though he was clean shaven, Ethan looked haggard. His hair needed cutting and he wore work clothes and not the usual suits. This wasn't what caught her attention though. He hadn't noticed her yet, and she was able to see the unguarded look of...happiness in his eyes.
She started to sweat feeling nervous and caught. Did he know about the lovers? The many gifts she had bought for them? The homes she had them living in with her husbands money? "Good morning, Ethan," she said lovingly.