Page 7 of Crazy Thing

“Aunt Rainbow, can I use your computer inside? I’d like to get started on some research,” I mumble, stepping away from the crowd.

She smiles softly and comes over to pat my arm. “Of course, dear. You’ll be our little secretary.”

As I’m passing by Darius on my way into Aunt Rainbow’s and Uncle Jimmy’s small house, I feel an electricity that makes my hair stand on end…

He doesn’t exist, Ziggy!!

Except I can feel his proximity in every fiber of my being.

Oh, hell. Ireallyneed to stay away from that man.

4

DARIUS

Mason sets down his empty beer bottle, shooting me a skeptical glance from across the table. “So what’s the plan, Darius?”

“Yeah, we know you spent your whole day looking into this situation.” Felix stuffs a pretzel into his face. “What can we do? What information did you find?”

After this morning’s frustrating gathering at the waterfall, Felix quickly returned to work where our brother-in-law, Mason, was handling the medical clinic’s caseload. As for me, I headed to my office and immediately reached out to my lawyer.

But I couldn’t just sit around, waiting for Frank to get back to me with a solution. So I set everything else aside for the day to focus all my energy on coming up with a plan for dealing with this Edison situation.

After a few hours, I found myself going in circles, and by the end of the work day, I was about ready to lose my mind. Even still, saving this waterfall is all I could focus on.

Late in the afternoon, my brothers called, trying to convince me to join them at the local basketball court. A lotof the time, it helps to step away from the problem for a moment and come back to it later with fresh eyes. And my brothers know that shooting some hoops has always been my favorite way to clear my head.

But today, I told them to go on without me. Today, I just wanted to shut out the world and hunker down at my desk and pour my attention into fixing this mess.

Idideventually come down here to join them at The North Node Tavern, though. It’s the old-fashioned bar Nolan took over from our grandfather when he retired six or seven years ago. But the main reason I’m here tonight is to check on the renovations.

Nolanfinallyagreed to let me partner with him on renovating this place. So I recently wrote a six-figure check to a local construction company and hired them to bring this dingy bar into the twenty-first century. Ever since the construction started, I like to swing by every now and then to see how things are coming along. So, I may be hanging out at a bar but technically, I’m still on the clock.

In any case, that’s the story of how I ended up here with my sweaty-ass brothers. We have a couple of the hightop tables pushed together, and the conversation so far has centered around the waterfall situation.

“Nothing conclusive yet,” I tell the guys with a shrug. “I’ve been looking into land usage restrictions. I’ve also been researching historical land use in the county. Anything that might give us some ground to block the sale altogether.” I push my half-empty bottle aside and grab a French fry from Archer’s plate. The bastard smacks my wrist. “Ouch!”

“Get your own,” he mumbles.

He’s right. I probably should grab a meal. I haven’t made the time to eat anything all day, and we’re already on ourthird round of drinks here. I need my mind to be sharp for this.

This situation has really gotten under my skin. I can’t figure out why I feel so strongly about it. Maybe it’s because of how passionate the rest of the town is over this mess. Maybe it’s because of how close the land is to my parents’s ranch. Or maybe it’s my own history down at the waterfall.No, it’s notthat.It can’t bethat.

The bottom line is, I really,reallydon’t want Edison The Asshole to get his hands on that land.

Nolan sets down a tray of beer refills and drags over a chair from a nearby table. “Well, the falls are definitely historical. We should look further into that.”

“I don’t know about any of that nerdy realtor stuff, but I was thinking we should make up some rumors about the waterfall being haunted,” Ronan grins. Like the genius he is. “No one will wanna go swimming in a pond where some dead ghost lady is going to reach up and pull you under.”He wiggles his fingers in the air while making what I assume are supposed to be spooky noises.

Wow. “This is why you’ll never be able to live down the dumb jock stereotypes.” Nolan slaps the back of Ronan’s head. Immediately, they’re bickering. I swear, they’ve been bickering for the last 27 years.

Those two are grumpy and sunshine—identical twin edition.

Nolan is the serious single dad who’s dedicated to running this bar and keeping a roof over his daughter, Stella’s, head. Meanwhile, Ronan is the hopeless goofball who plays professional hockey for a living when he isn’t busy driving the rest of us crazy.

Mason chuckles. “Okay, I’m not sure your ghost stories are going to deter Edison and his buddies.”

“Maybe we should go with something that’s at least true,” Archer suggests. “Like how the land is overrun with thousands of those tiny ass frogs every summer.”

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