Four stories, two-wrap-around porches, and giant maple trees everywhere, the lake house is a secluded majestic place. I feel a little badly that I blindfolded Garrison and he didn’t get to see the outside. Because it truly is beautiful.
It’s also huge.
Big enough that I have my own bedroom, and for this occasion—hiding a boy—I’m very appreciative of the size.
Garrison massages his calves. “I’m good, Willow.” His voice is a whisper too. “Honestly, don’t worry about me. You should go hang with your family. I’m cool to chill.”
I wish we could be in each other’s company for longer, and I hesitate to just abandon him here. “I’ll bring up some snacks.” My eyes flit to the en-suite bathroom. “If you use the bathroom when I’m not here just remember—”
“Not to flush,” he finishes with a smile. “Got it. This isn’t my first time being stashed away.”
I pale. “Oh yeah. Of course. You’ve snuck into girls’ bedrooms before.” Duh, Willow. He was super popular before he met me.
“No. I mean, yes, I’ve done that. But not like this.” He shakes his head. Eyes cinching. “I was referring to Superheroes & Scones. Although it was a stupid analogy. The place wasn’t exactly packed with people when I was camping out there.”
Worry pulls my face, remembering everyone I’m deceiving here.
He holds up a hand. “I promise, Willow. I’m not going to make a sound.”
“I know. I believe you,” I say softly. “I just want you to be comfortable.” I don’t want him to feel like a criminal I’m trying to hide away. Even though…that’s exactly what I’m doing, isn’t it? Hiding him.
He’s not a bad person.
A tender smile touches his eyes. “Believe me, I’m the most comfortable I’ve been in a long time.”
His words hoist my spirits, and we both quiet when the porch door creaks open. He nods me on with his chin. Silently saying, go be with your family.
What does it say about me, if I really just want to stay right here?
My feet, heavy like cement blocks, shuffle towards the door.
Rain slams on the deck, the pitch-black night creating an eerie feeling in the living room. The perfect atmosphere for a slumber party—which Rose Calloway has turned into a séance. Leather furniture is pushed against wide, floor-length windows to open up the space.
I cross my legs on a red bear-patterned rug and try to enjoy the evening. It’s hard with the storm outside and my brain all the way back in my room.
My mind is on a 24/7 news cycle of Garrison Abbey. It’s just…I haven’t had much opportunity to check up on him. At least, not as much as I’d like. And I’m trying to stay in the moment and enjoy these gatherings. Many people would kill to play light-as-a-feather, stiff-as-aboard with the Calloway sisters.
I did just that.
The game ended with Ryke (who we were lifting) crashing down on Rose. Now we all sit in a circle, candles lit in the middle. It’d be scarier if we were trying to contact a demon or something. But Rose and her sisters just want to talk to their Old Aunt Margot, so it seems harmless.
That’s what I’m telling myself.
A storm rages, thunder booming. It’d tag the mood as dramatic and frightening.
New eulogy: that Willow Moore, what a chicken—afraid of some raindrops. Hugging my arms around my body, I watch the candles flicker.
Coconut howls from the kitchen, paws padding along the floorboards. Daisy goes rigid, and her head whips around the living room quickly. Like she’s trying to mentally scan each nook and cranny.
I frown, worried that the dark, storm, and tiny bumps and bangs aren’t good for her PTSD.
Ryke pulls Daisy closer to him, his lips beside her ear, whispering. She seems to relax a little at his words.
My lip nearly lifts, happy that she has someone like Ryke who cares. The thought makes me glance up towards the balconies.
Garrison.
I hope he’s okay.
“Aunt Margot it is,” Rose declares, pulling the attention back to herself. I think, maybe purposefully. That’s just the kind of sister Rose is. She knows when to command the spotlight when others want to dip out of it. “Let’s all hold hands.” She extends her palm to me, and I take it.
Lily, Loren, Connor, Ryke, and Daisy complete the circle. The babies, Maximoff and Jane, are safe in their cribs upstairs.
“Close your eyes,” Rose instructs.
My eyelids shut, darkness cocooning me.
“Aunt Margot,” Rose begins the séance. “We’re calling you, Aunt Margot.” Rain hammers violently, the wind picking up. Goosebumps dot my arms. “We miss your beautiful, lost soul. Please come to us.”
Lo chuckles, and it’s practically contagious.
My lips threaten to rise, but I smooth them down.
Rose continues like Lo didn’t ruin anything. “Fight through the barrier of the afterlife so that we may speak with you.”
Craaaaaaacccck!
I jump, my eyes shooting open.
Lily lets out a terrified, muffled squeal, her head hidden beneath a quilt.
“What the fuck was that?” Ryke asks. He glances out the floor-length window, maybe worried the lake house took damage from the storm.
“It’s electrostatic discharge,” Connor tells him. “Also known as lightning.”
Lights flicker on and off until a bulb cracks and they all blink out. I think we might have just lost power. A chill snakes down my spine. Could this maybe not have happened during a séance? Coincidence, right?
“Ohmygod,” Lily slurs in a panicked whisper.
“Old Aunt Margot?” Daisy calls out, the only one with her eyes still shut. “Can you hear us?” If I was just listening to her, I’d think she was having fun. Zero percent fear. But it’s hard not to notice how her collarbones protrude like she’s holding in a breath. Her knuckles whiten, gripped to her knees.
Whhhaaaaap!
Lily screams at the new noise, the one coming from upstairs. Oh God, no.
I shoot to my feet, my focus drilling on the staircase. I swear the sound originated from my bedroom, and maybe I’m just being overly paranoid, here, but Garrison is alone and there’s a vicious thunderstorm outside.
Horrible images of tree limbs skewering windows and impaling his body ravage my mind. Gruesome Final Destination worthy fears that most likely aren’t coming true, but it takes all of my energy not to run upstairs right now.
“What was that noise?” Lily asks. “Connor?”
Connor Cobalt stares at the ceiling. “An object fell.”
“By a ghost?”
Unless the ghost’s name is Garrison Abbey…it’s no ghost.
Thuuuump! is accompanied by a long, sharp groan.
Garrison.
I don’t even take account of the shocked, horrified faces around me. My ears ring, my focus tunneling as footsteps pad along the floorboards upstairs.
“Moffy.” Lily bolts towards the staircase, towards her son’s room, baby monitor in her clutch.
They think there’s an intruder. Oh God. I mobilize, springing into action.
“Lily wait—” Lo runs after his wife, just as I sprint in the opposite direction. Footsteps gather behind me.
I’m being followed by Rose and Connor, but I don’t stop. Not even as I hurriedly ascend another staircase on the west side of the lake house. Racing towards my bedroom and the source of the noise.
Without power, the second-floor hallway is encased in darkness. But even in the pitch-black, I know where I’m going. My pulse hammers in my ears. Please be okay.
Please be okay.
I land at my bedroom and turn the knob. Locked.
A glow from a cellphone flashlight abruptly illuminates the door—and me.
I squint from the sudden brightness. Connor holds up his cell from his six-foot-four height, and the glow bears down on me like I’m under the brightest spotlight.
Cover blown.
I don’t care.
I only care about him.
I bang my palm against the wooden door. “Are you okay?” My voice cracks in worry.
“Is he in there?” Connor asks like he already knows who’s on the other side. How? I instantly shake off my shock. I’ve been living with Connor Cobalt. He’s perceptive.
Too much sometimes.
My mouth dries. Rose and Connor stand side-by-side, watching me.
“He didn’t have anywhere else to go,” I confess quickly, my chest concaving in heavy, petrified breaths. “I made sure to blindfold him here. I promise, he has no idea where this place is.”
I’ve wrecked everything. They’re never going to trust me again.
Rose raises her chin and takes my wrist, her touch more consoling than rough. She pulls me close to her, away from the door.
Connor reaches up to the top of the doorframe, a small key resting on the ledge. He uses it to unlock the door, and when he pushes it open, he points his flashlight cell at the room.
My stomach lurches.
Garrison sits on the edge of the quilted bed, a lamp shattered on the floor. Blood. I see blood. Spattered on the floor and trickling down the bottom of his heel. Garrison inspects his bare foot, a piece of glass lodged in the sole.
“Are you okay?” I ask and try to rush to his side.
Rose clasps my hand and tugs me back. “You’re not wearing shoes either, Willow.”
My stomach somersaults, but I stay put. Garrison avoids my gaze. Even with his head hung, I can see guilt caressing every inch of his frame. It’s okay, I want scream and shout. He didn’t mean to step on the glass. It’s not his fault this secret is spilled.
Hair falls over his eyes. “I tried to turn the lamp back on. I ended up knocking it over, and I…” He winces and attempts to remove the shard of glass in near darkness.
“Don’t,” Connor warns. “Rose, can you get a first-aid kit and check on Jane?”
Rose is already heading to the door. “I’ll be right back.”
The room tenses now that it’s just Garrison, Connor, and me. I scan the floor, wondering if I can Indiana Jones my way to Garrison without stepping on glass. Probably…not.
“One of you start explaining,” Connor says casually, shoulder propped next to the doorframe and arms crossed.
Garrison mutters, “I hid in the trunk.”
“He gave me his phone,” I add quickly. “This entire time. He hasn’t had it.” I rummage through the pocket of my overalls—thank goodness they’re deep. I hold up his cell. “See?” He can’t contact anyone and leak the location of the lake house. I go further and explain how I snuck him into my room, while they thought I was talking to my mom.
Rose returns with the first-aid kit, her nearly one-year-old daughter in her arms, and a pair of shoes are on her feet. “I want to talk to Daisy and Lily,” Rose says to her husband. Her piercing yellow-green eyes flit to me.
I’ve wrecked everything. “I’m so sorry, Rose—”
“I understand what it means to be loyal. But you shouldn’t have kept this from us. If you wanted to bring your boyfriend along, we could’ve worked something out.”
Boyfriend. Color drains from my face.
“Friend,” I clarify. Don’t look at Garrison.
“Would it make it better if we were dating?” Garrison asks.
My heart does a weird thump thump in my chest. Is he…no…I don’t know. My face is numb.
Connor says, “It would make it exponentially worse.”
Garrison’s lips shut and his head falls again. I just want to hug him. And it’s a weird feeling because I’ve never really yearned to touch anyone.
He’s not alone in this. It was both of our choice to sneak him here. Guilt swims through me all the same. I waver uneasily by the doorframe. “Can I explain…I want to apologize to Daisy too…?” Don’t cry, Willow. I push back tears and emotion. But I feel horrible for causing her distress. For her thinking there was an intruder in the house, something that I know ramps up her panic.
This was supposed to be a safe place.
Thankfully, Rose nods. “Follow me.”
We leave and find Lily and Daisy in Maximoff’s room. Lily bends over the crib with a rattle, softly talking to the giggling baby. Daisy lies on the ground, her white husky curled up against her. She strokes her fur in long waves.
Rose shuts the door behind me, and Lily asks, “Is everyone okay?”
“Mostly,” Rose says, then plants her gaze on me.
“I’m so sorry,” I begin, water pooling in my eyes. Daisy lifts her head off Coconut’s fur, confusion pleating her brows. And I just burst forth like a geyser. The truth flooding the bedroom floor.
I can’t stop.
Not until I’ve outlined, in detail, how I smuggled Garrison to the lake house. Why he needed a place to stay in the first place, which means divulging the truth about him flunking out of Faust. By the time I finish the story, my eyes have glued to the ground, unable to stare them in the eyes.
“And I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” I add quickly. “Especially you, Daisy. So if you’d like Garrison and me to leave the lake house, I understand—”
“What, no,” Daisy cuts me off abruptly. “I don’t want that.”
My heart thrashes, and I risk a glance. Daisy’s on her feet, light touching her green eyes. She…she doesn’t seem mad?
“You’re not mad?”
She shakes her head. “You snuck a boy into a trunk of a car.”
“Classic Gryffindor,” Lily says under her breath.
Daisy continues, “You blindfolded him and took his phone just so that we”—she twirls her finger between her sisters—“could stay safe. Why would we be mad about that?”
I wipe at the corners of my eyes. “Because I should have told all of you.”
“You’re not the first person here to keep secrets,” Lily says, rocking on the balls of her feet. “You fit right in.”
Rose sends Lily a look. “Yes, but let’s not make secrets a regular occurrence.”
“Agreed,” Lily nods.
Pressure lifts off my chest. “So Garrison can stay?” I ask.
Daisy plops on the edge of the bed. “He just spent twelve hours in a duffel bag.” Her eyes ping to Rose. “You can’t kick him out now.”
Rose scoffs. “Why are you directing that to me? I agree wholeheartedly. He’s earned his spot here.”
Lily frowns like she’s lost in thought. “How did he survive in that duffel bag anyway?” Before I can answer, she swings her head to me. “He must really like you.”
Daisy crosses her legs and puts her chin to her fist. “Yes, let’s talk about the one-and-only Garrison Abbey.”
Oh no. “We’re just friends,” I reiterate. I feel like I’m probably going to be doing this for a while.
Lily squints. “You’re going to prom with Declan, right?”
“Who’s Declan?” Rose wonders accusingly, like she’s a little perturbed she hasn’t been told all the details. I like that she wants to hear about my life.
“He’s a boy,” I answer. “He’s a regular customer at Superheroes & Scones.”
Lily smiles, knowing about him since he frequents the shop so much.
“And he asked me to prom,” I explain. “I said yes.” Declan is nice. I met him at the comic book store. He was looking for classic Star Trek comics. We carry more Star Wars, so I had to go in the back to hunt for the issues.
He talks more than me. I just kind of listen.
“You don’t seem excited about it,” Rose notices.
“I am,” I nod. “It’s just…I’m nervous because we only really hang out at Superheroes & Scones. I don’t have any classes with him at Dalton.”
I’ve never actually been around Declan at school. I guess he could try to find me in the halls, but he never has before. I don’t know what that means. “It’s also the first time any boy has ever asked me out,” I tell them. “I’ve never even been on a c
offee date, so there are more nerves than excitement. That’s all.”
“It’ll be spectacular,” Daisy tells me assuredly. “And we’ll help you get ready.”
“Of course,” Rose says like that’s a known quantity in my prom prep.
Lily is still frowning. “Does Garrison know about Declan?”
“Yep,” I say. “I told him. He said that Declan sounded like a starship trooper nerd.”
Star Trek, I corrected him.
Aren’t those the same thing? He feigned confusion. He’s been working at Superheroes & Scones too long to get them mixed up.
All the Calloway sisters exchange a look that I can’t decipher. Maybe they’re thinking Garrison is jealous or that he’s flirting. I’ve questioned it before, but I know the truth—we’re just friends.
28 BACK THEN – May
Whatever Nowhere-ville
GARRISON ABBEY
Age 18
Guilt has been hammering me ever since Willow left the room. No…it’s been that way since the lamp crash. No, since I was born. Maybe I came out of the womb with this sour, bitter feeling rumbling around inside me. Shame swims through my bloodstream, and it’s going to stay that way until I bleed out.
Ryke sweeps up the broken glass, Loren lights candles around the bedroom, and Connor sits next to me with a first-aid kit.
“I can do that,” I say when I see the tweezers in Connor’s hand.
He passes them over. “You need stitches, and the nearest hospital is more than two hours away.”
Let me bleed out, is my first thought.
The second: I’m not going to the hospital. I can’t. There’s no way I’m making this worse for Willow. The hospital will blow up this situation to catastrophic levels. I’ve already obliterated enough.
Ryke sweeps harder, pissed off. I’m not an idiot. He’s angry at me for scaring his girlfriend. The one with PTSD.
I can’t breathe.
I just grind my teeth back and forth, eyes clouding and burning. Connor’s gaze sears every inch of me. “Can you stop watching me?” I snap.
Wherever You Are (Bad Reputation Duet Book 2) Page 24