Page 140 of A Heart So Haunted
“See!” I heard her screech. Emma held the phone away from her ear. “Landry thinks he’s cute, too. It’s not just me.”
“Please stop screaming,” Emma said. “I’ll be deaf by thirty-five.”
Penny started to ramble, this time at a better volume. A pre-wrapped ice cream cone dribbled over Emma’s free hand. She chased the drips with her tongue. After a second, she turned to me. “She wants to know about the Beetle. Did Sayer decide to buy it?”
“It drove good the other day, but he didn’t say. Why?”
“Mom wants to buy that hunk of metal.”
My mouth formed an O. “Aunt Cadence would roll over in her grave if she heard you say that.”
“Sure, sure.” She waved me away with a grin. I unwrapped my own ice cream cone—this one had pecan bits on the top—and examined the front yard as Penny and Emma said their goodbyes. The trim around the flower beds had been our focus the last couple of weeks. Sayer had helped me with the mulch and laying the brick—Dad had offered, but I’d refused.
“At least let me buy the mulch for you,” he’d said.
I’d let him.
As far as I knew, he was doing okay. He’d helped me get the estate affairs in better order after the new year, but I didn’t push it.
The only one we pushed was Penny. She’d taken over Emma’s lease soon after the separation. I’d asked Emma to move in with me, we’d squabbled over it a bit, Emma said it was too much, before I’d said I’d charge her rent.
I liked having someone else in the house. It didn’t feel as empty that way.
The first month had been a fever dream. I’d found myself following Emma, or Sayer, around a lot, not quite ready to be left in a quiet room for too long, mostly out of fear that my mind would make up sounds that weren’t real—that I’d convince myself I heard Hadrian moving around, even when I knew he wasn’t there.
At one point around the holidays, Emma had a come-to moment with me.
“I know you love me,” she’d said, “and I’m flattered you think I know everything, but I think it’s best if you talk to someone qualified, Lan.” She’d squished my face in her palms. “Maybe not about the house stuff. Or the ghostly-boyfriend thing. I just really,reallythink it’d be a good idea for you to talk to someone. Especially after what your mom did and—other things.”
The eating, is what she didn’t say.
At first, I’d been offended—how dare Emma tell me to go talk to a therapist? I was an adult, I could make my own choices—but days turned to a week, and when I sat and stared at my half-eaten lunch, in tears, I knew she was right. I could only carry myself so far.
Since I’d been seeing someone regularly, things had improved—thoughts still hung at the back of my mind like vultures, but I could manage them now. I was, at the very least, happy I didn’t need to wear a hoodie during hot weather anymore.
“I know we talked about this before,” Emma said as I finished off the bottom of my cone, “but I think we should get a guard dog.”
I rolled my eyes. “You have allergies.”
“To shellfish.”
“And dogs,” I said, incredulous.
“Still, you can get immunotherapy shots—”
A sound came from inside the house.
Emma’s words died.
The hairs along my nape stood at attention. The faintest of flutters rummaged through my chest. It couldn’t be.
A year, I’d waited. I’d stop by the closet and stand in it for a moment or two. Emma never said anything, and I never said I was trying. That I was checking. Then, slowly, the nights fell away. I started going to bed. I’d turn out all the lights. Weeks came and went. Eventually, I hung coats and linens in the closet. Nothing came of it.
Neither Eleanora or Ivan had gotten the listing. As of last week, I’d started searching again, but Penny had given me a good recommendation with someone she’d worked with before. She said Vinnie was a gem, and I’d known on the first meeting that he would be a good fit for Harthwait.
Now, the thoughts of selling wavered, if only barely. If the right buyer came along, I would sell, but I wasn’t in a rush.
“I think I left the broom propped in the hall,” I said. A poor excuse. If I looked her in the eye, she’d be able to tell the nervous anticipation sparkling in my expression. But I knew she already knew.
