Page 119 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“Not that I know of.” He pulled out his phone and fired off a text. “I suppose it’s calling us in efforts to get us to return?”
“That’s plausible, but kind of silly. It needs us present somewhere on its property to speak.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Ninety-six percent.” She grinned. “For example, I know how to make spaghetti. I have the memory, but if I don’t have the ingredients, I can’t cook it. Hennessee remembers who we are,the memories it absorbs, and its own experiences, but it can’t duplicate them from nothing. We are the ingredients. Frankly, I don’t believe the house is even strong enough for long-distance communication yet.”
“Yet.” Xander’s phone pinged. “No calls,” he confirmed.
“So, either he doesn’t have a connection to the house or it doesn’t have a reason to call him.”
So, why, then, would Hennessee call Maverick? What would it need him for? It had herandXander last night.
“Oh, shit.” Lucky leaped to her feet, turning in a circle as if she were chasing her thoughts. If Xanderhadn’tbeen there, she knew it would’ve used Maverick as a specter for her. It wasn’t strong enough to dobothso it had tochoose. She stared at Hennessee House as everything came together, slotting into place like puzzle pieces. Since it couldn’t give her a specter, it tried to give her the real thing. “Holy shit.”
“What? What is it?”
It made sense. All of it. Everything. She’d been partially wrong again, seeing what she wanted and misinterpreting what she didn’t. She looked at Xander, waiting with his eyebrows raised in question.
Lucky swallowed hard. He’d hired her, given her a chance, voluntarily helped with her experiments, but she couldn’t tell Xander. Not yet. Not first.
Maverickwas her person. Being with him felt the way she always imagined it would. There wasn’t anyone else she wanted to share her discoveries with more than him.
“It’s too early to tell. I need time to process and plan, butholy shit.” She hugged him and planted a kiss in the middle of his forehead. “Don’t bother me for the next several hours.”
36
When Maverick opened his door, he breathed Lucky’s name again as if the very sight of her stole all the air in his lungs.
A more enthusiastic “Lucky?!” and rapid footsteps sounded from behind him. Rebel, wearing a darling dalmatian-print pajama set, pushed past her dad and hugged Lucky first.
“Hey, Shortcake.” She laughed, truly delighted to see her. “Thank you for my cookies and the beautiful letter.”
“Xander let you come over?”
“Uhh, well, no. Not exactly.” She looked at Maverick, who was watching them with an expression she’d never seen before on his face. “I needed help with something.”
Rebel grabbed Lucky’s hand, tugging her inside. “Do you want to see my room? I showed Georgia but you didn’t get to see last time.”
“We redecorated. She picked out everything herself,” Maverick explained. “Sweetheart, I think Lucky is here for a reason. She might not be staying long.”
Lucky said, “I promise you can show me your room before I go. I wanted to talk to your dad about Hennessee House.” She’d waited for Xander to leave before she packed her supplies. Then after sunset, she waited in her car around the corner from the house for the first unknown call to confirm her theory.
“Everything okay?” Maverick stood at her side, hand finding its usual spot on her lower back. “Did something happen?”
Lucky knew not all couples shared their work or even their hobbies with each other, but it seemed to be true for them. He wasn’t as passionate about the supernatural as she was and that was more than okay. As long as he always cared enough to listen, she’d be happy.
“I cracked the code,” she said. “And I have you to thank for it.”
Maverick and Rebel sat together on the couch while Lucky set up her laptop on the opposite side of the coffee table. After typing up all her thoughts and evidence, she spent the afternoon creating hopefully easy-to-follow visual slides. “It’s been a while since I did a presentation. I think I’m a little nervous.”
“Take your time,” he encouraged.
“I need a hard line. Push back on everything,” she instructed him. “I need someone I trust to be my skeptic.”
He grinned. “That’s a tall order, but I’ll do my best.”
Rebel said, “I’ll help too. I’m really good at solving logic puzzles at school. My teamalwayswins.”
