Page 38 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Lucky’s focus had split clean down the middle. She wanted to give every ounce of brainpower to Hennessee House’s list of ex-caretakers, and yet, her gaze kept sliding to him. Why couldn’t he see how fantastic this find was? That list provided direct evidence of Hennessee exerting its will. It had led them all there on purpose—a conscious pattern of behavior.
“We should head down. Rebel hasn’t eaten yet.” Without waiting, Maverick descended the stairs ahead of them.
“Is he okay?” Worry infiltrated Lucky’s tone, mortifying her to the bone, but she had to ask.
“He’ll be fine.” Stephen gave her a weak smile. “Let’s go.”
Maverick volunteered to cook again—another round of Rebel’s favorite pancakes. They settled around the dining room table like a big, happy production family with the shadow of Lucky’s discovery looming over them.
“I wanted to avoid looping Xander in.” Stephen sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t think I have a choice now.”
“Xander, Xander, Xander,” Lucky sang. “He’s quite popular.”
“He built this team. Handpicked everyone here except me,” Chase said.
“Why not you? The man clearly has taste.” She gestured around the table. “There’s no way he’d overlook you without regretting it.”
Chase’s face reddened. “Because technically my wife did. Therese has editedBARDsince the beginning and asked Mav to personally request me for this shoot so I can get more title credits under my belt. All he did was agree.”
Xander must’ve been deeply invested in this project, then. Lucky asked, “Did he use to live here?”
“Sort of.” Stephen winced, clearly uncomfortable. “It’s complicated.”
“If you’d listened tome, he’d already be here,” Georgia said.
Half in the conversation, half out, Lucky stared at Maverick, waiting for him to notice. He sat directly across from her focusing on his plate with a distracted expression. Every few seconds, he pushed the food around as if he remembered he was supposed to be eating but couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Most people could sense when they were being watched—a fairly common sensory phenomenon. It’d been one of her first investigations. One by one, she’d asked “innocent” and “random” questions to members of her nanny support clique to secretlycompare the reports of their experiences. A chill. A pressure cloud. A prickling on the back of their heads. An undefinable awareness explained away by “I just know.”
For Lucky, it was always a deep itch under her skin. If she was being stared at by someone she hadn’t read yet, the itching intensified. She hadn’t discovered exactly how those two things were related but she had a long-standing note to figure it out someday.
Maverick either felt nothing or was deliberately avoiding acknowledging her. Granted, trying to catch someone’s eye while wearing sunglasses wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world. So, she “accidentally” dropped her napkin. She retrieved it quickly, peeking under the table as she did. Once upright, she tapped his foot with hers to get his attention. She had it instantly.
No looking around. No checking under the table. He knew it’d been her. Or maybe hoped it was.
She mouthed,Are you okay?
He nodded with a fake smile that didn’t have a hope in hell of reaching his eyes.
She lowered her glasses long enough to glare at him.Don’t bullshit me.
That worked—he tried to hide his sudden smile behind his hand, quietly clearing his throat.
Pleased with herself, she mimed a phone to her ear and subtly pointed from herself to him.Can we talk?
He understood perfectly and nodded.Later.
Lucky’s attention suddenly snapped back to the conversation. “Did you just sayillusions?”
“Yeah,” Stephen confirmed, frowning at her.
“Illusions? Not hallucinations?”
“My apologies,” Stephen began. “We have our own terminology here.”
“Illusionsare changes the house makes to itself,” Georgia said. “Like if it wanted to right now, it could create a face in the wall.” She pointed to a section behind her. “It would warp the wood, change the grain pattern, and move the flowers in the wallpaper. Some of us would see it like a magic eye illusion. The rest wouldn’t see it at all because those don’t work for everyone.”
Chase spoke next. “There’s alsoscents, which you’ve experienced. Those are tailor-made specifically for each person. No one else will smell your…smell.” He laughed.
