Page 80 of The House on Prytania
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll check with Beau and set up a time that works for you.”
“I’ll let you know. I’m traveling for the rest of this week, but I’ll be back late Friday. I had the option of traveling Saturday morning, but I wanted to be here just in case you needed me. Since you told me about Michael, I’ll be honest and tell you that the thought of you joining him and his aunt and uncle at their beach house is more than a little concerning.”
My heart constricted. “You’re very sweet to think of me. But Jolene and Sarah will be with me. Power in numbers, right?” I gave him a weak grin.
“Yeah. But just in case, please make sure you have my number on speed dial and that you have a strong cell and Wi-Fi signal. I’ll stay up all night to make sure you’re all right.”
I tried not to hear the echo of Beau’s words. “Thank you. I don’t think there’s any danger, but it’s nice to know that someone’s looking out for me.”
“That’s what friends are for.” He smiled at me, but it definitely wasn’t the usual kind of smile between friends, and I felt a warm flush bloom in my chest. “Not to mention that I’m pretty sure your mom and dad would develop unique forms of torture for me if anything happened to you.”
I sat back. “I don’t need your protection, Cooper. I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.”
“I know. It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you. But even Wonder Woman needs her magical bracelets from time to time.”
“Are you calling yourself a bracelet?” I asked, leaning forward slightly.
“Get a room,” a clean-faced Sarah said as she joined us in the living room and plopped herself down on a chair. “There are children present.”
As if we’d just been caught doing something inappropriate in front of a child, we both sat back. “We were just talking,” I said.
Sarah looked at me over her phone and rolled her eyes. “Have you seen the pictures from the cemetery yet? I sent them all to you.”
“No. I don’t think I got them.” I moved to the edge of my seat. “Why?”
She sighed heavily. “Well, I sent them. I’ll resend them all later, but right now you need to see this one.” She began scrolling through her photos. “It’s one where I’m standing in front of the mausoleum but looking at you. I think I was answering your question about the little girl who brought me there.” She handed me her phone.
“A little girl?” Cooper slid closer to me on the sofa and leaned over to get a better look.
“She’s not in the picture,” Sarah said, “but there’s definitely a large white orb right next to me. I think that’s her.”
I zoomed in on the picture, the figure in the close-up looking less like an amorphous white blob and more like the hazy outline of a little girl with a large bow in her hair. I flicked left and right to the pictures before and after that one to see if it could be a speck of dirt or dust on the lens, but that one picture was the only one with the orb.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s creepy enough to be on one of those ‘caught on film’ paranormal TV shows.”
“Welcome to my world,” Sarah said.
“I should send it to Beau. See what he thinks. He might have a better idea of who the little girl is.”
My sister smiled smugly. “Already did. You’re slowing down in your old age, Nola. You have to be pretty fast to keep up with the younger generation.”
Cooper laughed loudly until I turned to glare at him, and even then he continued to chuckle.
“I don’t know what you’re laughing about, Cooper. You’re older than I am.”
He responded with a raised eyebrow and a crooked grin that made him look just like the boy I’d once known and loved what seemed like a million years ago.
My phone buzzed with a text. I looked at it, expecting it to be from Beau, but was surprised to see Michael’s name on the screen. “I need to respond. Excuse me for a second.”
I stood in the hallway outside the bathroom and looked at the screen.
Are you free Friday? He ended the sentence with a bicycle emoji.
Sure. When?
8am Audubon Pk bring ur wheelsThe bicycle emoji was followed by a thumbs-up emoji.
See you then.I followed that with a smiley emoji. It felt weird using emojis with anyone besides my siblings and Melanie—my brother and sister because they were the age when they considered emojis cute, and Melanie because she had a hard time reading texts without her glasses, so emojis were a useful shorthand.
