“I like the way you smell.” He ran his hand up her leg. Emily shivered again. It had been a while since they’d made love in anything more than a perfunctory way. “But you’re right.” He sniffed his sleeve. “I smell of cigar smoke. And lousy Chinese food. I need a shower. But first, tell me more about your new client?”

Emily was surprised. Frank often asked about the stuff she was decluttering, but he rarely wanted to know about the person behind the clutter. “Mrs. Murphy? Poor dear. Her husband died a year ago and she still hasn’t been able to throw away any of his things. She’s even got the newspaper he was reading the day he died. But get this. Turns out he’d been renting a storage unit that she knew nothing about until the bill came.”

Frank chuckled. “Don’t get any ideas. I like my stuff where I can hang out with it.”

“It did make me wonder. When you drop dead, am I going to discover that you’ve rented a bunch of storage units for everything you don’t dare bring home?”

“Emily, come on. There’s nothing I don’t dare bring home. And what makes you think I’ll be the first to croak?”

“If I go first,” Emily said, “at least you can be sure I won’t leave you a mess to deal with. Not even my corpse. You know I want to be cremated, right? Incinerate and scatter me anywhere.”

“Do we need to talk about this right now?” It was another one of those topics that Frank didn’t want to discuss and she wanted decided. He’d be in denial right up to the bitter end. Knowing how attached he was to corporeal things, Emily wouldn’t be surprised if he’d opt to have himself stuffed, mounted, and posed permanently in his Z4. Wearing . . . ? She tried to imagine how he saw himself dressed for the hereafter. Corporate attorney? Yard sale denizen? Baseball fan?

“Stop trying not to laugh,” he said. He stood slowly and she slid off his lap. “So how much of a mess did her husband leave her with?”

“I won’t know until I check out the unit. That’s what I promised to do tomorrow.”

“Ah, right, tomorrow.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You know, you don’t need to make up excuses not to go to our games. I thought you liked them. Makes no difference to me if you’d rather take a pass.”