Page 220 of It Happened on the Lake

After all, his one night with Beth hadn’t been the first time he’d stepped over that blurry line of a secretive tryst, but he hoped to God it was the last.

Now, it seemed, they’d been found out.

Recorded, for God’s sake.

Today he would end their affair.

And if he ever did end up selling this place, he’d offer her the listing.It’s the least I can do, he thought, draining his beer and leaving his empty on the cluttered kitchen counter.

He headed outside to his car and continued hauling boxes inside.

It was time for a fresh start.

But first, he reminded himself as he carried in the final box and kicked the door shut behind him, he had to deal with Harper.

Chapter 55

“Wow. This is like sooo cool.” Dawn stood in the foyer of the house and gazed at the split staircase, eyeing the way the steps ran up either side of the vestibule.

Harper was surprised to see her daughter. “I thought you were coming later.”

“I know.” Dawn lifted a shoulder. “Change of plans. Again. Grandpa wasn’t home. I buzzed to be let into the penthouse, but no one responded. But it all worked out, I guess, because I’m kinda in a hurry. Gina wants to get back to Eugene earlier—something about when the movie is playing earlier, so I can’t stay long. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Harper felt a jab of disappointment that the visit would be short but also more than a little relief. Right now she wasn’t certain the island was safe and she wasn’t ready to explain about the dolls with their weird messages or the dead cat or the knowledge that an intruder had broken in. “I was thinking we could go to dinner,” she said, locking the door.

“Next time, I guess. I should have just come up here myself, but Gina needed a ride and I have a car.”

“My car.”

“You’ve got the Volvo,” Dawn said. “And it suits you better!”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment.”

“It means you’re older. That’s all.” Dawn dropped her oversized purse on the marble floor before climbing up one side of the curved staircase. At the landing she paused to stare at the chandelier with its glittering bulbs and teardrop crystals. “Oooh, this is like thirties retro, right?”

“Probably.” Harper craned her neck to look up at her daughter. “Maybe older. I think the house was built in the teens. I can’t remember, but Gram’s notes about the house are somewhere. I just haven’t found them yet.” Truth was, she hadn’t looked. “Hey,” she called up the stairs. “Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?”

“Nah. I’m good. Stopped at Mickey D’s on the way up.” Dawn leaned over the carved railing. “I feel like Juliet in the balcony scene up here,” she said, and Harper was reminded that her daughter was now into Shakespeare, had been taking a class on The Bard. “Tell me again,” Dawn said, “why I haven’t been here before.”

“We lived in California. Remember?”

“I know, but why didn’t you and Dad move here?”

“Uh, maybe it was because we had jobs there and you were going to school.”

“And you hadn’t really inherited it yet, right?” Dawn started down the opposite side of the staircase, her Doc Martens ringing on the wooden steps, her fingers trailing along the railing. “And now you’re moving in? Wow.” She skipped over the last step and, grinning, picked up her bag again. “Awesome!”

“If I stay here.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Dawn turned her doe-like eyes on her mother in wonder. “I mean this is almost like a castle.”

“Or a haunted house.”

“Even better. And I love those beasts hulking on the posts by the gate. They’re beyond gnarly.”

“The gargoyles?”

“Yeah!”

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