Chapter 1Rain hammered at the windowpanes, the sunlight not making it through the heavy clouds. Archibald Jaeger remembered a time when the days were bright, and there wouldn’t be a drop of rain for weeks. It was a lifetime ago. He hadn’t lived a lifetime, not even half of his, he hoped. But when days and nights bled together, and seasons no longer differed from each other, the year became endless.
The old-fashioned brass bell chimed above the door as Edie crossed the threshold with a huff and a shake of her shock-green umbrella. Her gaze landed on him, and she narrowed her eyes. “If that’s polyester, I might have to ask you to leave.”
Archie glanced down at his vest and dress pants. Ginger, the tailor had called the color. Archie would say sand or maybe beige, but the word beige tended
