Page 44 of A Heart So Haunted
I sat forward with a smile. “Nope.”
“And you know this how?”
“I, my dear friend, just have a suspicion.” On a normal job, I wouldn’t dare touch something that required a permit. But I wasn’t technically removing it. Just uncovering.
Sayer wiped a speckle of dipping sauce from the table. “I’ll take your word for it. Need me to help? Like, tonight?”
I started to gather our paper plates, then squished them into the to-go bag that still sat tall in the center of the table. “I should be fine, but I might change my mind. Haven’t decided yet. Don’t know if you’ve earned a gold star yet.” Sayer had made a competition in grade school about who could collect the most gold stars in a school year. The ambition wasn’t yet lost to him when it became a running joke.
He clutched his chest. “So demanding.” He took another swig from his bottle. “Where’s Emma?”
“No clue. Out, I think.” The forced indifference in my words leaned more chilled.
“For the night?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.” She’d texted me one word, “out.” My only response had been a thumbs-up.
Sayer nodded and stood from the table. “And you two didn’t fight about Ivan magically showing up today?”
“She told you?” I cradled the takeout bag.
“Didn’t have to. I read minds, remember?”
“Maybe you earned your gold star after all.”
We moved to the kitchen, but I felt his gaze following me, waiting for elaboration. So I gave him the CliffsNotes version, where I admitted I may have flown off the handle, and that was why Emma had vanished for the night.
Which left me alone for a few more hours. Likely until late in the night.
“I can see why you’d be upset.” He leaned on the island. “But I think jumping down her throat might not have been the best approach.”
I bristled. “I know. I said that. But I just—don’t like her acting like it’s her house. It’s mine. I make the decisions. Aunt Cadence left it to me.”It’s all I’ve got right now, my heart whispered.
“So …” his tone shifted, tentative, like I might bite. “Ivan Kenneth. Takingthislisting. The same guy who said you’d only dated him for clout and you were a stage-five clinger after you broke up? Really?” Sayer reared back like he smelled something putrid. His glasses flashed with reflected light. “Everyone’s gonna just”—he swiped a hand over his head—“act like that never happened?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, leaned against the counter, and crossed my arms over my chest. Tightened my sweatshirt against me.
“He’s the best realtor in town,” I whispered. “Emma said they have great reviews. What am I supposed to do? Turn him away because of something that happened eight years ago and make Emma look bad for even bringing them here? Or, even better, give the listing to Eleanora?” I covered my face with my hands. “If she takes it, I’m going tohaveto hire a contractor. The load-bearing wall will have to go, not to mention there’s an outlet there, so I’d have to get an electrician, too.”
He took a measured inhale. “Lan, you can tell her you won’t do the changes.”
“And I can guarantee you, she wouldn’t take it. Then I’d have to find a new realtor anyway. Did you look at the houses she’d sold? They’d all been gutted on the inside and updated. Antiquely modern, and I just …” My hands slid down my face until I cupped my neck. The visions of this house, stripped of all the character, its originality, and replaced with a grayed color scheme and open floor plan, no door arches, refinished floors, made my stomach sink. Maybe it was my own inhibitions that made it even harder to accept, because if I changed this house completely, that meant the last shreds of Aunt Denny would be gone, too. “Not to mention the money it would take to do it.”
Sayer shivered. “I guess you’re right.”
“I wish I wasn’t.”
He sighed. “But—does Emma know about what he said?”
“Everyone knows, Sayer. Everyone knows he said I was trying to sleep with him because Mom needed a job at his parents’ firm.” Among other things that I refused to revisit. “And you wanna know what I’ve been told by everyone when I’ve brought it up? That we were ‘emotional young people who let emotions run too high.’ That I was probably on my period and made some pass at him and got my feelings hurt, or hoped that by letting him use my homework that he’d stick around a bit longer. So yeah, people think I was a clinger. Despite the pictures of us, they still don’t think we dated.”
“But you weren’t a clinger,” he urged. He rubbed both palms against his temples. “Hewasn’t nice.”
I straightened. “He was plenty nice.” All I could picture was Emma’s exasperation earlier, the way she stared at me as if I were delusional.
“Don’t defend him.” Sayer stiffened with a glare.
“I’m not.” I don’t know what made me say it. But sometimes, when Sayer attacked Ivan, if felt like an attack on me. Because I’d picked him willingly, I’d pined, I’d rolled over like a dog, and by saying Ivan was a bad person, Sayer was inadvertently telling me I had poor judgment. It only emphasized the quiet, underhandedcomments Ivan had whispered while I still foolishly defended him to Sayer.
