Page 83 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Her feral kitty was fully awake and enraged—hissing, growling, and yowling to be set free. The carrier rocked and skidded across the floor.
“Just one minute! One more minute!” Lucky darted to the kitchen to lock the kitty door. He wasn’t supposed to go outside for at least twelve hours. Doctor’s orders. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” With quick fingers, she unlatched the top opening and pulled it back. He was going to eat her alive for this.
Gengar leaped out of the carrier and ran straight into the sitting room. He continued growling and glaring at her from under the couch.
“We had to get you checked out! What if you needed medication?” He didn’t, thankfully. “She said you were incredible, never seen an outside cat like you before.”
Gengar was approximately six to eight years old with noidentifiable illnesses or physical ailments. The doctor even seemed confused by his clean bill of health.
“And you’re registered now. That means we’re officially family. I’m responsible for you.”
Gengar continued staring at her.
“Okay, I’ll leave you alone.” She sighed. “I’ll be in the suite if you find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Lucky sprinkled extra treats on top of his dry food and grabbed a couple of the Squeeze Up treats he loved before heading upstairs. After her bath and dinner she waited around for Maverick’s nighttime check-in because that’s what her life had been reduced to—waiting for something spooky worth documenting or for him to call. Preferably both would happen at the same time.
She’d been so surprised when he asked her to meet his family. Not because she never expected him to—it just seemed so…final. He’d said he never brought anyone he dated around Rebel before and she assumed that rule extended to the rest of his family.
He was sure about her. And she didn’t have anything to give him in return.
Maverick would probably never meet her family. She didn’t have anyone else worth introducing him to. She didn’t haveanyother parts of her life to share. She had…her work. That was it. Yes, it was deeply important to her, but how could that possibly be enough?
In a perfect world, she’d have the family she always wanted. A mom who loved her unconditionally. A brother who never stopped understanding her. A dad who hadn’t died and maybe still, a stepdad who wanted to be there for her. There’d be dailymessages and weekly calls and postcards from all the places she traveled while investigating and big family dinners when she came home. She’d be a good daughter and little sister. Thoughtful, caring, and supportive.
But that wasn’t what she got.
Her family never recovered from her dad’s death. Her mom remarried, but it didn’t do anything to stop how mean she became. That really was the best word for it. She wasn’t evil or a narcissist. She was hurting and refused to talk about it. All that pain turned inward and made her mean, especially to Lucky, who was already the black sheep of their extended family by that point.
Lucky understood, in a way, more so now that she was older. But parents were supposed to protect their kids, not hurt them. She didn’t know how to heal from that yet. She might not ever. So, she didn’t talk or even think about her mom, and although her heart might always want to love her mom, hearts didn’t always know best.
Her brother was a different story.
He didn’t have ESP and believed she didn’t either. She was lying, being weird for attention. He’d stopped talking to her after they graduated high school. The last time he called was to tell her Grandpa died. She could at least count on him for big news like that.
Lucky hadn’t seen him in years—did they even still look alike? Where did he live now? Was he married? Did he have kids? When she met Maverick’s family, they’d ask about hers and she’d have nothing to tell them except lies. Her phone finally rang and she crawled out of her accidental nest of blankets. “Hi.”
Maverick hesitated. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t sound like it. What happened?”
“I’m a little congested.” Not a lie. Not the whole truth. “I’ll be fine.”
Maverick managed to hold every bit of her attention, keeping her barely concealed sadness at bay, until they said good night. And then, right as she was falling asleep, she thought about her family again. Her mom and her brother.
•••
Lucky had the best, most restorative sleeps of her life inside of Hennessee House. No tossing. No turning. Never woke up in the middle of the night.
Until now.
She gasped awake, sitting up in bed with one hand clutching her blankets and the other on her chest. Cold air clung to her clammy skin—her window was open. She did not do that. She never slept with the windows open out of fear of someone crawling through it.
Yes, she was on the second floor. Old habits stemming from years of being a woman living alone in a first-floor apartment died hard.
Tossing her blankets to the side, she walked to the window and firmly shut it.
