Moving On (Ghost Of The Past Book 1)

by Trisha Grace

  Kate’s brows rose.

  Tyler was much friendlier that morning, but she certainly didn’t expect him to do anything for her.

  “Thanks,” she said as Tyler joined the group. “Hope it wasn’t too troublesome.”

  “Evelyn, you can leave your bag by the couch.” Marianne placed a hand on Evelyn’s back and led her into the kitchen.

  Grinning at Kate, Tyler pointed to the security pad right beside the door. “The code is your cell phone number. You have ten beeps to key in the code. If you don’t key it in, don’t complete it, or key in the wrong code, the alarm will go off.”

  Tyler continued to explain the system as they strolled toward the kitchen. “Complete the code anytime to cut off the alarm, but a call will come in within the next minute to ask for another code, which is my cell phone number. If you say it wrong or don’t know the code, a patrol car will be dispatched to the house within five minutes. All the windows and doors of the house are wired as well. Once we enter the same security code into the pad, the alarm will ring if any of the windows open.”

  “Thanks for doing this, but won’t it be troublesome if we want to open the window in the morning?”

  “Marianne’s always up before dawn. She’ll switch off the alarm once she’s up.”

  Tyler pulled out a chair and waited for her to sit before taking the seat next to her. “There’s more. There should be a small red button with a plastic cover by your bed. You can simply lift the cover and press it. Same routine: someone will call within one minute, and you either give them the password or they’ll send the police. There’s a security pad by the stairs of each floor. So if any of them gets triggered accidentally, any one of us can turn it off easily.”

  “What if someone who knows the passwords to the alarm creeps into her room without her knowing?” Evelyn asked, staring right at Tyler.

  Instead of answering Evelyn, Tyler got out of his seat and jogged out of the kitchen.

  Kate kicked Evelyn under the table and scowled at her. “Stop it,” she mouthed.

  “He personally fixed up the system and even got some additional security items for Kate,” Marianne interjected as she placed the food on the table.

  Kate looked up, waiting for Marianne to elaborate, but Tyler was already back in the kitchen with a paper bag. He returned to his seat and took out a box from the bag.

  With his eyes on Kate, he said, “This is mainly used for travel, but your friend seemed concerned, so I thought you could use this.”

  She took the box from his hand and turned it around, searching for the instructions. But he took it from her and slid it across the table to Evelyn.

  “You can attach it to the door or window,” Tyler paused as his lips curled. “When someone tries to open either, the alarm will ring. The alarm will be triggered as long as the door or window is opened from the outside. Once it’s set up, no one from the outside can switch it off. I’ll teach you how to use it later.”

  Covering her mouth with her fingers, Kate tried to hide her smile. “Don’t you think this is too much?”

  “It isn’t too much,” Evelyn said. “Make sure you use them. Anything else?” Evelyn placed the box down and leaned forward, staring at the bag that Tyler was holding.

  Without taking his eyes off Kate, Tyler continued as he pulled more items out of the bag. “Pepper spray, you can put it by your bed in case someone slips into your room. And torchlights, put one by the headboard of the bed, one in the drawer of your desk, and one in the bathroom. If I remembered correctly, black out tends to occur whenever a storm comes in.”

  “I feel as if I’m being prepared for war. But thanks, it’s very thoughtful.” Kate shot Evelyn a glare, warning her to back off.

  “Let’s eat, then,” Evelyn announced. “And Marianne, thanks for preparing dinner.”

  “Yes. Thanks, Marianne,” Kate echoed while Tyler returned all the things into the bag.

  “Is there a piano here?” Evelyn asked as she took a mouth of the mashed potatoes. “Mm, this is so good. Is there cheese in it?”

  “You play?” Tyler looked at Kate.

  Kate shot out her leg again, kicking Evelyn under the table. “Just a little.”

  Evelyn didn’t even wince. “Gosh, this is really good,” she said, taking another spoonful of it. “She practices every day for at least an hour. You’re going to stop playing for the whole year?”

  “I can go home and play the piano whenever I want. It’s no big deal.”

  “If you say so.” Evelyn shrugged and pointed to the mashed potatoes. “Try it.”

  “I’m sure there’s place for a piano in the house,” Marianne said.

  “No, there’s no need. She’s just trying to be annoying.” Kate took a spoonful of the mashed potatoes. “This is good.”

  “I cook every night. You’re welcome to join us.” Marianne turned to Evelyn. “You, too.”

  Evelyn grinned and nodded.

  “Do you have a torchlight? I’m sure you’ll need one,” Kate said to Marianne.

  “I do, dear. Thanks. But I think he got one for me just to make sure that you don’t give yours away,” she jested.

  “Ignore her,” Tyler jumped in before Marianne or Evelyn could continue. “She’s still irritated with me for getting her to cook for so many people without help.”

  “This,” Evelyn’s finger drew a circle in the air, “is so many people?”

  “For Tyler, two is plenty,” Marianne replied.

  Kate chuckled. “I’m sorry for the trouble. I’ll make Eve wash the dishes later.”

  Evelyn groaned. “I thought I was a guest.”

  “You can help me while Ty and Kate set up the alarm stuff. Then you can test it out for yourself to see if they work.”

  Evelyn thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

  For the rest of dinner, Evelyn was preoccupied with Marianne’s food and that gave Kate a break from her incessant nagging about her safety.

  After dinner, Kate and Tyler headed upstairs to fix the alarms.

  “Thanks for doing this,” she said as Tyler set up the alarm for the window.

  “Not a problem. This way, if Peter Parker tries to get in,” Tyler flashed a wide grin as he slid the window up and an ear-piercing alarm rang, “you’ll know.”

  She covered her ears and recoiled from the blaring alarm.

  Tyler cut it off and said, “You can set this up before going to bed.” He picked up the bag on the table and went around the room, placing the torchlights into different drawers around the room and the bottle of pepper spray into the drawer closest to her bed.

  “You know, I can just lock the door.” She smiled sheepishly. “There really wasn’t a need to get all this.”

  “Your friend’s giving you a hard time, right? Now that all these measures are in place, you should be able to get a breather,” he replied nonchalantly.

  Tyler disappeared into the bathroom, then reappeared moments later.

  “By the way, we’re only on the second floor. I bet I can climb my way up even without whatever help Peter Parker has,” she said.

  “Please don’t try.”

  She shook her head and turned away.

  “What?”

  “You sound like Eve. And speaking of her, I’m sorry for the way she was behaving. She thinks I’m too trusting, so she behaves all crazy to make sure that I’ll be safe.”

  “Let’s go back before she thinks I’ve kidnapped you.”

  When they returned to the kitchen, Kate announced, “My room is ready for inspection.”

  “I heard the alarm from here. It’s fine.”

  “Really? You’re not going to inspect the room?” She was astonished. She’d thought Evelyn would fight her all the way, but she seemed to be wrong about many things that day. “If you say so.”

  Once Evelyn had cleared her dish-washing duties, she thanked Marianne for dinner and left.

  “I’m going to head back to my room. You kids need anything else?” Maria
nne asked.

  “No,” she answered while Tyler shook his head. “Oh, we were thinking you could give us a tour of the other wing.”

  Marianne arched a brow. “It’s mainly more guest rooms, a store room for some necessary cleaning items, and the laundry room.”

  “Great. Can you show me where the laundry room is?” Kate hopped to her feet.

  “Whatever for?”

  “So that I can do my laundry,” she answered matter-of-factly.

  “Don’t be silly. We have maid service here. They come every day; they’ll help with your laundry,” Marianne said.

  “But …”

  “It’s no trouble. Trust me. If you go down and do your own laundry, you’ll end up affecting their workflow and cause more problems for them. There should be a basket in your bathroom; throw everything that you need to wash inside.”

  Kate pursed her lips; she was so used to doing her own chores.

  Since her parents’ accident, she had ended up taking over her mother’s role. Her grandmother still cooked for her, but her grandparents were old so she had to do many of the chores on her own.

  “If you don’t want to cause them any trouble, then let them do their jobs,” Marianne continued as if she’d sensed her hesitation.

  “You’re right. I’ll do as you say.”

  When Marianne disappeared through the connecting walkway to the other wing of the house, Kate said, “So she’s the only one staying on the other side of the house?”

  “Don’t worry about her. No one’s dumb enough to mess with her.”

  “But criminals aren’t usually the ones with the highest intelligence. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be committing crimes in the first place.”

  Tyler looked up at her and narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess, your favorite TV show is Criminal Minds?”

  “And CSI, and Bones, and all the other crime shows you can find.”

  “You should stop watching them, at least while you’re here. I won’t be entertaining you if you can’t sleep due to some TV show.”

  “You know, your personality goes downhill with the sun,” she retorted.

  Tyler grimaced. “I’m sorry about last night. I was—”

  “Angry. I would’ve been, too. It’s fine.” Just as Kate finished her sentence, the doorbell rang. Kate met Tyler’s gaze. “No one is allowed in after eight, right? I haven’t had time to read the fine print.”

  Tyler stood, went toward the window nearest to the door, and pushed the blinds aside. “Mr. Sawyer.”

  “Right. He’s supposed to be here, too.”

  Tyler strolled over and punched in Kate’s number on the security pad before opening the door.

  “Good evening, Mr. Hayes. Sorry for being so late; I was swamped with work. Is Miss West here?”

  Tyler stepped aside for Mr. Sawyer to enter, but he didn’t bother to reply.

  Seeing that Tyler had no intention of answering the question, Kate answered, “Marianne is in the other wing of the house. We’re staying upstairs. There’s another guest room upstairs and some on the other wing where Marianne is.”

  Mr. Sawyer looked over his shoulder at Tyler, then turned back to Kate. “I think I’ll join Miss West. Will you take me there?”

  Kate got to her feet. “I can take you to the other wing, but I don’t know which room Marianne is in or where the guest rooms are.”

  Without a word, Tyler moved forward and started trotting through the walkway to the other side of the house. Kate and Mr. Sawyer followed.

  “You only brought one luggage, too?” Kate asked as she noticed the luggage he was dragging along.

  Mr. Sawyer laughed. “No, this just contains the files I need to go through for work. I haven’t had time to pack, so I just grabbed two sets of clothes and the essential items.”

  “Essential items being the files?”

  Mr. Sawyer sighed and nodded. “Yes. Sadly, they are my essential items.”

  Kate empathized; she knew how it was to be overwhelmed with work. “Why did you ring the doorbell? Don’t you have the keys?”

  “I only had two sets in my possession. I gave one to Mr. Hayes and one to Miss West.”

  Tyler kept his back to them even as he spoke. “You can ask Marianne where the spare keys are.”

  Mr. Sawyer gave Kate an apologetic look; a look that Kate immediately understood.

  The late Mr. Hayes had an eccentric character. He didn’t trust many people and was often quiet and deep in his own thoughts. Mr. Sawyer must have thought that the young Mr. Hayes had inherited those traits.

  But Tyler wasn’t a horrible person.

  He had spent an entire day fixing up the security system for her and even got her all the gadgets to help her with her Evelyn issue. “Based on my observations, Mr. Hayes becomes grumpier as the day ends. He’ll be better in the morning.”

  Tyler continued walking, completely ignoring them. Once he knocked on Marianne’s door, he left Mr. Sawyer by the door and headed back to the other side of the house.

  She said her goodnights and, seeing that Tyler had already turned the corner, hastened her steps to catch up. It was completely dark outside except for the dim, silvery moon rays, and she wasn’t interested in moving around the house on her own.

  “Oh!” Kate stumbled a few steps back as she turned and knocked right into Tyler.

  He immediately reached out, holding her shoulders to stable her.

  “Were you so frightened that you’d to run back to your room?” Tyler laughed when he saw the grimace on her face.

  “I’d to run because you didn’t bother to wait, Mr. Hayes.”

  Tyler frowned. “Ty, you call me Ty.”

  “Mr. Sawyer calls you Mr. Hayes.”

  “You’re not Mr. Sawyer, and I was waiting for you.”

  Kate didn’t understand the reason behind his sudden seriousness, but she stopped her teasing anyway. “Why do you hate Mr. Sawyer so much, Ty?”

  He started walking again, this time slower, probably so she didn’t have to hurry just to catch up with him.

  “I don’t hate him.”

  “Then why didn’t you reply when he asked you about Marianne?”

  Tyler shrugged indifferently. “I didn’t feel like answering.”

  “That’s a horrible answer. Even if you didn’t feel like it, you should have. It was rude and would’ve been awkward if I weren’t there.”

  “Life will be tiring if you have to do everything you should.”

  Kate scowled at him. “Next time when someone asks you a question, I’m not going to reply. I’ll sit back and watch how you deal with it.”

  “I won’t care, but you won’t be able to stand it.”

  “Challenge accepted,” she said and laughed as he grinned.

  Chapter Six

  “What’s with the alarm?” Ryan asked the moment Tyler entered the kitchen, the boisterous crowd already seated around the table.

  He shrugged and settled onto an empty seat. He was already used to seeing all the guys in his house. All of them had their own place, but everyone always gathered at his. They weren’t there for him, though; they were all there for Marianne’s food.

  Ryan didn’t bother to wait for his reply. Using his fingers, he picked up a strip of bacon and stuffed it into his mouth.

  “We have forks here,” Marianne said with a swat to Ryan’s head.

  Joseph was seated across from him, chatting with Dan, while Joanne moved over to sit next to him.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  He didn’t bother to reply. He stood and reached over for the pot of coffee placed in the middle of the table.

  “What’s that?” Joanne asked as he poured his coffee. She reached over and pulled out the chain, holding the rings in her hand.

  Tyler wanted to stop her, but he was holding a pot of hot coffee in one hand, his cup in another, and he didn’t want to make a mess.

  He exhaled heavily through his nose as Joanne leaned in to take a closer look.

&n
bsp; He could never stand her overwhelming perfume. It was so artificially sweet that it hurt his nose to breathe while seated beside her. He turned away from her and took a breath of fresh air.

  “Are those for me?” Joanne shrieked the moment she saw the rings. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

  Putting everything down, he yanked the chain from her hands. “Don’t touch it. It isn’t for you.”

  He hated people touching his things without his permission. Actually, he hated people touching his things, period.

  He let the rings hang free outside his shirt. The long chain that held his parents’ rings swung freely right below his chest. “And you need to stop introducing yourself as my fiancée.”

  Joanne’s brows furrowed and she pouted her lips. “Why? We’ve been dating forever; it’s time we move on.”

  A sudden stillness took over the kitchen.

  Subtlety wasn’t prevalent in the group.

  Everyone was clearly surprised that he’d brought that up, and all of them didn’t bothered to hide their stares.

  The guys had told him, more than once, to stop Joanne before she started believing her own made-up story, but he hadn’t bothered. He was certain that Joanne wasn’t insane.

  He never led her on.

  His indifference toward her was obvious to everyone, so how could she think otherwise?

  He pushed his chair away from Joanne, putting some space between them. Her overpowering perfume was giving him a headache.

  Staring right at her, he continued. “We were never dating. I never corrected you because I thought it was only a habit that meant nothing.”

  Joanne leaned forward and tried to circle her arms around his, but Tyler rose from his chair and turned from the table, bumping right into Kate.

  Ryan and Joseph shared a brow raise while Dan stretched across the table to grab his sister’s arm. “Enough, Anne.”

  “Are you running to your room?” Kate teased and smiled at him.

  The urge to leave the kitchen mellowed away. “Morning. How was your sleep?”

  “I’m pleased to announce that Peter Parker didn’t visit me,” she said as she leaned to the side to look at the crowd. “I thought last night was so-many-people.”

  “They don’t count,” Marianne said. “They’re always around, sort of like furniture or clutter in the house.”