Page 34 of The Lightkeeper

“Yeah.”

“Good or bad?” I folded my arms.

“Both?” She grimaced. “The owner was never planning on selling, but he passed away. The lawyer who was up here was sent by the estate to assess the property for the estranged son who’s going to be the new owner once everything is all settled.”

“So that’s good news then?”

“Well, the old man died.” She sighed. “It doesn’t feel right to call that good news.”

I let out a little chuckle. “Fair.”

“Rumor has it that the son will want to sell as soon as the transfer of everything happens, which should be in two to four weeks. I guess he wasn’t on good terms with his father.”

“That’s a pretty specific rumor…”

Lou blushed and then caved; she was terrible at keeping a secret. “You probably don’t know her, but Frankie and I went to school with this girl, Adele Layton, for a year in high school before her family moved to Portland. Anyway, it turns out she’s abig-deal lawyer in Boston and her firm represents the son. Since she’s familiar with the town, he sent her up here to take a look at the property and give him an update.”

“Interesting.”

She bit her thumbnail. “It could be on the market in a month, Kit. A month. I don’t know if I have enough savings?—”

“We’ll figure it out,” I said and reached for her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. “Whatever we have to do to get that inn, we’ll do it.”

I felt the weight roll off her shoulders as she sighed. “Thanks.”

I grunted and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I should get going?—”

“Are you coming to dinner on Friday?”

I tensed and quickly slid my arm back to my side so my discomfort wasn’t too obvious. “Dinner?” I pretended like I hadn’t already heard about this dinner once today.

“I invited Aurora over to Mom’s for dinner to welcome her to town. I don’t think she has many friends here, aside from me. And you.”

I choked and quickly tried to disguise it as a cough.We weren’t friends. Not even close.A friend wouldn’t have a perpetual hard-on for her. A friend wouldn’t fantasize about her perfect tits bouncing as I fucked her beautiful brains out.

I didn’t have friends.

And I definitely didn’t have… experiments. Or whatever the hell Aurora wanted to call it.

“Frankie said it was your idea,” Lou added when I didn’t respond.

I grunted. “One day, Frankie’s… embellishments are going to bite her in the ass.”

“Oh.” Her face fell. “So, you’re not coming?”

I inhaled deep, feeling my chest tighten as though a belt waslassoed around it. Everyone else at least masked their disappointment well, but Lou… Lou couldn’t lie to save her life.

Before I could think better of it, I heard myself say, “No, I’ll be there.”

That would give me three days to figure out how to be around Aurora without wanting to kiss her and hold her and fuck her until all her sunshine bled life into my shadows.If only that were actually possible…

“Great.” A smile exploded over her face. “See you Friday.”

“Yeah,” I croaked and backed toward the door.If wanting Aurora didn’t kill me first.

“Hey, Kit.”

My hand froze on the doorknob, and I looked back at my sister.

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