Page 152 of The Seven Rings
“Yoda’s house?”
“Ah.” He had to think about it. “Inside the turret. How long for those?” he asked Cleo when she slid the baking sheet of potatoes drizzled with butter, sprinkled with spices, in the oven.
“This size? About a half hour.”
“I’ll handle the chops.”
“I’ll set us up.” Rising, Trey pulled Sonya in, held her close. “Thank you. This means a lot, not just to my dad, but the whole family.”
He drew her back, tapped her chin with his finger. “Sign it.”
After dinner in the garden, they enjoyed cookies on the front lawn as the first stars began to twinkle over the sea.
“It never gets old. The view, the sound. I’ll miss sitting here when winter drops down.” Sonya leaned around Trey. “Where’s your mark on this, Owen?”
“You’re sitting on it. Or it’s underneath the seat where you’re sitting.”
“Why not where people can easily see it?”
“Then it wouldn’t be mysterious. Trey had this brand made for me one Christmas. My initials—sign documents, you end up signing your initials everywhere. He took that and had it replicated inside the shape of Maine on a woodworking brand. Pretty cool.”
“That is cool.”
“I’m a cool guy,” Trey said.
“Obviously. Speaking of Christmas—”
“Not yet.”
Laughing, Sonya patted Trey’s thigh. “Only that I need to get down there and go through Collin’s decorations. It looks like enough to decorate the village.”
“That’s a fact.”
“Since my mother has the same addiction, I’m used to it.”
“Before you get any ideas,” Owen said lazily, “Collin hired a crew.”
“Then we’ll do that. But we want our hand in, too. Right, Cleo?”
“Hundred percent. But before Christmas comes my favorite holiday.”
“Halloween. Plenty down in storage for that, as well.”
“And considering all, the manor needs to dress for Samhain. We should be able to handle that ourselves.
“It’s really cooling off now,” she added with a little shiver, “and this southern girl’s heading for the warm.”
“You’re right about the cooling off. I’m for inside, and I want to check the closet again.”
“We might as well all go.”
Cleo shot Owen a look of approval. “There’s that positive. Four of us, four times the positive.”
“I know you check every day, Cleo,” Sonya said as they started in. “And I looked after I saw Deuce and Collin. I don’t know how positive I am, except I’m positive I want it to be there.”
“Wishes don’t come true unless you wish.”
When they went in, started for the stairs, Mookie and Yoda raced up ahead like runners off the mark. The cat slinked between Cleo and Owen and bounded after while Jones restrained himself, staying at Owen’s heel, and heard the hum before they reached the landing.
