Page 16 of A Heart So Haunted
“Shoot yeah.” Sounded more likeshootchyeah. She led the way back into the hall. “Why do you think I’m still in business? Your aunt gave me so much stuff, my profit margin’s through the roof.” She wagged her pointer finger to the ceiling. “Saved me by ahairsometimes. Stetson ain’t what it used to be.”
We were at the mouth of the hallway by now. “I don’t remember it being much better when I was little.”
“’Fore the Kenneths decided to take their money from town, it did.”
My spine locked at the last name. I started for the front of the store. Sunlight broke through the spotless panes, creating a dry heat.
“They left?” I asked, gentle. I hovered by the tea towel stand.
“About five years ago now? Back right after you left for USC.”
Every fiber in my body begged me to press for more. To squeeze the last ounce of gossip, of possibility from Meredith’s chest. But I couldn’t—not when I couldn’t offer the same vulnerability, no matter her quiet knowledge of my mother.
Because of course they left.
Right after everything. Because why would they stay when rumors floated? Why would they subject their son to defamation of the mostminuscule, purposeless kind?
Because of you, my thoughts snarled.
Meredith slipped behind the register. When her back faced me, I took a paperclip from the cup on the checkout counter, twisted it, and clutched it in my palm. Waiting. Hoping for it to break skin. For my thundering heart to drip down, down, down.
“I have a question.”
Meredith licked a pen and wrote something down on a receipt paper. “Mm?”
“Harthwait. What do you think of it?”
She chuckled. “Don’t tell me you scared of that place, Landry. Can’t focus on fixing it if you’re worried about every shadow.”
I rolled my eyes. “Tell Sayer that.”
“Poor boy. His knees knocked if lightning hit too close. He helping you?”
“For a few weeks.” The guilt for both himandEmma taking off work to help me lurked over my shoulder. How much money were they losing because of me? Would their bosses look poorly on them because of it?
“Good. Always liked that boy, you know. Sweet kid.” She patted a hand over her heart.
That shred of guilt ballooned.
I gave a weak sigh. “I don’t know, it’s just—don’t you think it’s weird how Aunt Cadence never let me stay the night? And you know how people talk about the old places in town.”
Her eyebrows rose, indignant. “Just because it’s on the registry doesn’t mean it’s haunted. Besides, who do you take me for? I’d tell you all those plants Cadence had would surely start talking before any ghosts popped out of the closet.”
I thought of the now shriveled garden patch at the back of the property. She had a point.
I leaned my elbows on the counter. “Why do you think Mom wouldn’t let me stay the night, then?” I lifted my chin like an audacious teenager, eyes squinted.
Meredith leveled me with a steady gaze. So steady that it shook something within my resolve. “Honey, I’m gonna be honest with you once, real good, okay?”
My lungs stilled.
“Your momma didn’t want you with Cadence, period. And that’s all there is to it,” Meredith said. “She wants somethin’ just to keep it from other people. Greed, coveting specifically, can make people ugly.”
I unfolded the paperclip from my palm and twisted it back to its original form. It didn’t look quite right. A little crooked around the top, a smidge bent at the end.
“Did Aunt Cadence tell you that?” I pinched the paperclip.
“She didn’t have to.”
