Chapter 16
While they waited for their meals, Shaun took a pad and pen from his shirt pocket then began questioning Ryan. “I get that you don’t want to tell me who beat you up, and for the moment I’ll honor it. Let’s start from the beginning. I gather the man was your lover.”
“He was.”
“For how long?”
“Umm, a bit over seven months. No. I take that back. We met seven months ago but we didn’t become lovers until right before I moved into his house, which was in the middle of June.” Ryan stared down at the table. “I was there before then, because he let me use a room in the house for my studio. The trade-off was, I’d landscape his back yard. At least that’s what I thought at first.”
“Studio?”
Ryan nodded. “I’m an artist.”
Shaun snapped his fingers. “That’s where I saw you. Well, not yo
