I shifted. “A B-Boy?”
He shrugged again, smiling slightly. “You know, a break boy. Some people like to call it break dancing.” He moved his arms in a little worm motion.
Candy slapped his arm. “Shut up! No you weren’t. You’re just trying to get one over on us again.”
His eyes twinkled. “Oh, but I was. We lived in San Diego for a while. Some kids at my high school were into it, so I decided to learn some moves. Turned out I was pretty good at it.”
“Prove it.” Candy already had her phone out.
He shook his head. “It’s been a long time. I haven’t done some of those moves since I was in high school.”
Candy clapped her hands together. “Show us, show us, show us,” she chanted.
Cooper glanced at me, and I shrugged. “I have no objections.”
“Just one move.” He moved the coffee table out of the way. “This is called a freeze. An airchair to be precise.” He raised himself up into a handstand then lowered his body into a horizontal position. He bent one arm until his body weight rested entirely there and raised his legs and other arm into the air.
I blinked in shock. The strength a person had to have to do this perplexed me. This man was strong. I had no doubts. And he had personality and character. He was practically the eighth wonder of the world.
Candy cheered, and I joined her. Cooper held the move for a moment and then, in controlled motions, lowered himself back to his feet and held his hands in the air. “A B-Boy. We used to show off our moves downtown and get a crowd around us. Those were some fun times.”
“I’m way impressed,” Candy said, putting her phone down. Then she looked at me. “Okay, Tara. Fess up. What’s your secret? We shared ours.”
My face burned. Tell them, tell them. This would be the perfect opportunity to open up about my past.
But I couldn’t.
What would they do if I dropped that bombshell?
My name almost ended up listed on a sex offender’s registry.
I could have written a book called How to Lose Friends and Defluence People.
I sucked in a deep breath. “Not sure what’s to tell. I’m divorced.” Lame, Tara. Lame.
Her head tilted again. “I know. What else? Something good.”
I licked my lips. What could I say? The words were on the tip of my tongue, but they couldn’t seem to get past the barrier that was my conscience…or was it my pride? I didn’t know.
Instead I blurted, “In college, I won a mud-wrestling tournament one time.”
“You mud wrestled.” Candy stared at me.
“Only once.”
“And you won?” She continued to stare.
“I think it was mostly because I simply wanted to get it over with.” I’d attended a Christian university, and they’d staged a fundraiser to help starving kids in Africa. One person from each dorm hallway was chosen by their peers to participate. Guess who everyone on my floor picked? Me, of course. I was the resident assistant on my hallway and, as a generally prissy girl, I was the natural choice.
Candy’s eyes sparkled with more gleam than a Ring Pop. “So if I staged a mud-wrestling tournament, would you participate?”
I shook my head. “No way. Once was enough for me.”
“What do you have to lose?” she challenged.
My self-respect? No, I’d already lost that. “Nothing,” I admitted.
She nodded, a suspicious twinkle in her eyes. “Good to know. I’m glad you shared that, Tahiti. See, sharing secrets can be fun.” She yawned and stretched. “All this ghost hunting has me tired. Is it okay if I crash here tonight?”
I had to admit, the thought of someone else being here with me brought an immense sense of relief. I couldn’t let her know that, though. “I guess.”
She nodded toward the hallway. “Spare bedroom’s mine. I’ll catch you in the morning.”
As she disappeared, Cooper stood and we faced each other. “I guess I should run too.”
I looked up at him, my breath quickening as I realized we were standing just a little too close to claim “friends only” status. Still, I didn’t step back. “A B-Boy, huh? That one surprised me.”
Cooper’s gaze tantalized me as he looked down at me. “I’m more than a dad, you know.” His voice sounded low, serious. Dare I say...sexy?
“I hadn’t noticed.” I winced. I hadn’t noticed? Really, Tara?
Some of the sparkle left his eyes, and he brushed his finger across my cheek. “You’re a tough nut to crack, Tara.”
“Nut is probably appropriate.”
He laughed and hooked his arm around my neck, pulling me toward him in a friendly hug. Except were friendly hugs supposed to make tingles surge through you? To make your heart rate speed? Definitely not.
We stepped back and were face to face. I wondered what it would be like to have the freedom to reach up and kiss him. I wondered what it would be like to feel his lips against mine, to experience that intimacy again.
His gaze captured mine and seemed to draw me into the depths of his soul. Our faces inched closer.
At once, the heartache of Peter flooded back to me. The burden of disappointing people lassoed my heart, pulling it downward. The crush of rejection hit me with more force than a slap.
I stepped back, hooking a hair behind my ear before looking up apologetically at Cooper. “Thanks for everything.” My voice sounded hoarse, strained.
He stared at me another moment, layers of depth in his eyes. Finally, he nodded and stepped back, his hands shoved into his pockets. “Yeah. I’ll catch you later.”
He left, and I covered my face with my hands. Had I just ruined something that could have been beautiful? Or was I already ruined for life? Hope and despair collided inside me. Despair won.
As always.
Chapter 26
I’d just lain down in bed when I heard the door handle to my room jiggle. Fear—an emotion that was becoming all-too familiar—seized me, gripping each of my muscles.
Then Candy appeared through the crack in the doorway, a big grin on her face as she strode across the room and plopped in bed beside me. A bag crinkled in her hands and orange powder covered her fingers. When had she brought her stuff inside? With the ghost hunting equipment maybe? That would have meant that she had intentions of spending the night from the start. I wouldn’t complain, not given the circumstances.
“So you and Cooper. When did that happen?”
I pulled myself up to sitting position. “When did what happen?”
“When did you guys become an item?” She popped a cheeseball into her mouth. Where had those come from? And how could she eat those and stay so skinny?
“We’re not.”
“Could have fooled me.”
I sat up straighter, honestly curious. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh, come on. I saw you guys. You can’t keep your eyes off of each other. You shared these secret looks all night, that whole communicating-without-saying-a-word thing. If you’re not a couple, you should be.” She licked her fingers, but the orange wouldn’t go away.
I looked down at my hands, laced together in my lap. “I haven’t dated since my divorce. Cooper’s the first person who’s even ever stirred up any interest.”
“Playing it safe never won anybody any awards.”
“I don’t want any awards. I’ve got those, and they mean nothing.” I did have them. Teen of the Year for the entire state of Florida. Young Leader to Look Out For. Teens Making a Difference.
“This has got to be about more than your divorce, Tara. I know divorce is terrible, but it happens to a lot of people. They get over it.”
“You wouldn’t understand.” People didn’t understand what it was like to be in my shoes. They couldn’t.
“Try me.”
I stared at her a moment. What would she say? She seemed like one of those people who accepted everyone...but was she? “Someone spread some lies about me.”
“And?”
>
“And it was terrible. People believed them.”
“Your reputation is really important to you, isn’t it? But your reputation isn’t everything. There’s more to life, you know. You just have to be right with yourself.”
“When you’re supposed to be an example to other people then your reputation is everything. I don’t do things for shock value. I don’t even like attention. But I did like being looked up to, and that all disappeared. Everything I worked for was gone, just like that.”
“I think it’s time you stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on with life.”
I opened my mouth but shut it again. I couldn’t argue with Candy. I really couldn’t. She was right. I did need to get over everything and move on. But my failures had consumed my thoughts so deeply that they became a part of me—an inescapable part of me. How did I change that?
“Are you kicking me out of the house now for offending you?”
I shook my head. “No. I want you to tell the truth around me, even if it’s not what I want to hear.”
She stood and patted my shoulder. I didn’t bother to look to see if orange fingerprints now stained the white fabric. “You’re a pretty cool girl, Tara. Thanks for the talk.”
“No, thank you for the talk.”
“I’m going to go to bed now.” She froze as a creak sounded in the hallway. With wide eyes, she looked back at me. “Did you hear that?”
I nodded, my breathing shallow. “Yeah, I heard that.”
“What was it?”
“The house settling?”
Another creak sent shivers over my skin. I hated this house. I truly did. Everything happening here was pushing me to the edge. Of all the things I thought might do me in, a haunted house wasn’t one of them.
Suddenly, everything went quiet. I glanced at the alarm clock and blinked. Where were the numbers?
“What’s going on?” Candy whispered. She scrambled back in bed beside me. I didn’t even care about the chain of evidence she left, convicting her of crimes against health food.
“I think we just lost electricity.”
That’s when we heard glass shatter. And shatter. And shatter some more. Gaga began barking frantically, her little body taut and on high alert.
“Is someone breaking in?” Candy’s eyes widened even more. I never thought I’d see her look frightened of anything, but seeing her fear only increased mine.
Were those windows breaking? Was someone inside the home? And what about the power? Had the entire neighborhood lost electricity or just us?
Candy pulled the covers up to her chin. I realized I was doing the same thing.
“Call Cooper,” she whispered.
“Not the police?”
“Cooper can get here faster.”
I was about to argue when Gaga went eerily still, like she was afraid, too.
I didn’t argue. I grabbed my cellphone and dialed his number. I had no idea what time it was. I knew I’d be waking him up. As Gaga continued to growl, any guilt evaporated. There was a time for manners, and a time to fight for your life. Right now, as my throat thickened with fear, I had to fight to survive.
“Hello?” Cooper’s voice was sharp, no-nonsense.
“Cooper—”
“What’s wrong?”
“The power is out and something’s going on out in the living room.”
He didn’t hesitate. “I’ll be right there. Meet me at the front door.”
The mere thought of leaving this room caused me to tremble, to cower like a scared puppy dog. “I don’t know if I can.”
“Take Candy with you and meet me there. You can do that, Tara.” His voice didn’t hold any doubt, only strength and confidence.
I could do it. Cooper said so. “Okay.”
I hung up. Cool and collected Candy stared at me, her fear putting her into a stupor. “Well?” she asked.
“He said to meet him at the front door.”
Her eyes widened even more, if that was possible. Any thought I had of Candy being behind all of this as either a practical joke or as a publicity stunt disappeared. “That means we have to get out of bed. We have to go out there with...with...whatever it is that made that noise.”
Ghosts. Spirits. Demons. Intruders. Serial killers. All of those possibilities raced through my mind. “I know.” We stared at each other, each perfectly understanding the other’s thoughts. The bed felt safe. Getting out of bed, leaving this room, might mean confronting something or someone we were unprepared to face.
Gaga barked, her tiny body rigid. What was wrong with this house? Why did every night feel like a bad horror movie was about to take place? I didn’t want to be the stupid heroine who went upstairs when a madman was chasing her. I didn’t want to be that person, but I had a feeling I was.
Pounding sounded outside.
Cooper. He was fast, and I wasn’t complaining.
“We have to let him in,” I whispered. I grabbed the gun from my nightstand and then Candy’s wrist. “Come on.”
Together we scrambled to the door like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb. We were both stumbling and tripping and breathless. My hand shook as I undid the locks. My heart raced. My breathing was shallow.
“Hurry!” Candy whispered behind me.
“I’m trying.” Why wouldn’t my fingers do what I wanted them to do as fast as I wanted them to do it?
“Tara?” Cooper’s concerned voice drifted through the wood door.
“One minute.” The deadbolt finally unlatched, and I jerked the door open. Cooper pulled me into a hug. Even as his arms went around me, I felt his gaze looking beyond me to this house of horrors.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded into his chest. “We’re fine. Just scared.”
I stepped back, and Candy raised her arms in the air. “Don’t I get a hug too?”
Without flinching, he pulled her into a side hug. He didn’t look awkward or uncomfortable—just compassionate and concerned. He rubbed her arm before stepping forward, his eyes serious. Then he saw my gun and stepped back. “Whoa, where did you get that?”
“I filed an application to carry it.”
He eased it out of my hands, which was probably a good thing since I was trembling uncontrollably. “Why don’t you let me hold that for a moment?”
I nodded, almost relieved.
“You two stay here. I’m going to check out the house for you.”
“Be careful,” I mumbled.
He walked toward the kitchen and stopped in his tracks. “What...?”
“What is it?” Ectoplasma? Butcher knives? A dead body?
He looked down at the floor. “All of your glasses have been shattered, Tara. There are pieces of them all over the kitchen floor. It looks like someone was angry.”
My fear squeezed harder. Why would someone do that?
“Maybe we upset the spirits on our ghost hunt,” Candy mumbled.
My thoughts bounced back and forth. What if she was right? No, that was crazy. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think.
Cooper paused in the doorway, his gaze stern on both of us. “Let me check out things outside. Stay there.”
As he disappeared, Candy and I clung to each other and huddled in the corner. In the midst of our distress, Candy blurted, “You two are so a couple.”
I ignored her. “I hope Cooper’s okay.”
“He’s a former Army Ranger.”
I held my breath, waiting to hear a sudden movement, a moan, some signal that something had happened to Cooper. I waited to see Philip Whitehurst appear from the basement, holding the missing murder weapon or a supernatural being streak through the walls and into the living room. “I hate this, Candy. I hate living in fear.”
“Fear is a body’s natural defense mechanism. It signals that we may need to defend ourselves, get out of danger’s way.”
I cast a skeptical glance at my friend for her textbook answer. “Okay, Freud.”
“It’s true, though.”
“Fear is a part of our basic human existence.” Candy’s shaky voice belied her bravado. “It’s normal, especially when danger lurks.”
Silence fell again, heavy and electrified.
“Do you think Cooper is okay?” I whispered.
As soon as the question left my mouth, the lights begin blinking on the DVD player. I let out a sigh of relief.
The backdoor opened again and Cooper emerged from the kitchen, scowling. Glass crunched beneath his feet. “Something’s wrong with the power meter outside. I found some screws on the ground.”
Shivers raced up my spine. “So, someone did this?”
“Given the broken glasses in the kitchen, I’d say yes.” Cooper’s firm gaze confirmed I was right. “The power meter is fixed now, and I’ve reset the alarm.”
I looked at the wood floor. That creaky wooden floor that’s given me a thousand nightmares. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to get a grip. I had to say something, because I could feel Cooper’s gaze on me.
“Thanks for your help,” was all I could manage.
He squeezed my arm, and I could feel warmth at his closeness. But I still couldn’t look up. I was afraid he’d see my fear.
“Look, I don’t usually do this, but why don’t the two of you stay at my place tonight? Just to be safe,” Cooper said. “You can have my bed. I’ll camp out in Austin’s room.”
Candy and I glanced at each other. I could see from the bright look in her eyes that she was feeling what I was—total relief. We’d be able to get out of this house. Maybe get some sleep.
“Okay,” we answered at the same time.
~*~
It took every ounce of my being not to dart as quickly as possible to Cooper’s house. To not sprint as if the grass beneath my feet was on fire. To hide my terror in knowing that someone was bent on tormenting me.
But first I’d waited until the police left. Cooper had insisted we call them. The crew had come out and dusted for prints and promised to get back with us. As soon as they left, I herded everyone out of the house and over to Cooper’s place. Just being out of that house brought me a certain sense of relief.
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