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“It’s your warm smile, no one can turn that away,” he scoffs. “Don’t act like black clothes and blue hair make you a monster.”
“Since when have you been so mushy?"
He rolls his eyes before answering. “Love,” he sighs dramatically. “Something about it makes me all sappy.”
“Well, it looks good on you,” I say softly. “I’d go crazy without you guys.”
“Of course, you would,” he winks at me before returning his gaze back to the road.
I brush his comment off so I can voice what else has been bothering me lately.
“Do you really think the other two will be happy on the farm?” I ask, fiddling with nonexistent lint on my shirt so I don’t have to look at him.
“I think if they didn’t like it they would tell you. But if we are truly going to make it our own, I think we need to start fresh,” he tells me. “This place holds some awful memories and it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than cleansing to make it livable.”
“What do you mean?” I question. Honestly, I know what he’s saying but I don’t know if I’m alright with it.
“Burn it all to the ground and build our place. There’s too much bad juju in those walls. I know that ghosts seek us out, but evil stains both of the houses on that land,” he says solemnly.
He is dead serious.
Could we do that?
We had all agreed on a fresh start. I’m the only one with any kind of emotional attachment.
Yet, the more I think about it…the more I’m seeing his point. A house didn’t keep Pandora here.
“I can get behind that. Maybe we should do an estate sale first? There’s still some good furniture there and it could help with buying replacements,” I counter. “We’ll hire someone to demolish it as well, there are too many trees and I’m not going to be responsible for a full on forest fire.”
“I’m down with that. I’m sure that Eli and Lucien would be okay with it, too, but we can ask them first,” he says.
“Oh, or we can even take stuff to a consignment place. If we do that, then we don’t have to mess with people coming to the house,” I tell him, liking that idea better, especially with whoever was trying to move in before we arrived. Thankfully, the squatter hasn’t come back.
“Yeah, that I like better. Don’t want to invite people to see what we have. Never know what crazies would stop by,” he jokes.
At least I think he’s joking.
“Once we get the other two on board, I’ll make some calls. Just talking about it makes me feel a little lighter,” I confess.
“What else can I do to help with that?” he questions. “I’ve noticed you’re struggling a lot lately. Moments of silence and worried expressions.”
“Be you, that’s perfect,” I promise. “There’s not much else until we figure this out.”
I watch as a smile spreads across his lips but he keeps his eyes on the road.
He makes a turn and on the right, there is a cluster of shops, “Do you think one of those is it?” I ask him as I lean forward a bit to try and catch the sign before we pass.
“I’ll turn in and we can check. I don’t see anything else past them anyway,” he tells me as he signals that he’s turning again.
We are wordless as we read the little vinyl on the store windows and once we get to the last one, we find it. Hunter’s Paradise display was complete with a bloody deer with arrows impaling it.
If that isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.
“That’s an interesting window display,” Jayce comments as if he’s reading my mind.
“It’s not something you see every day,” I say offhandedly, still unsure what to think of it. A bad feeling settles in my stomach and I worry that we’re getting a bit too close to the truth.
“We don’t have to go in. If you want to wait for Lucien and Eli, I’m game for that,” he offers. His green eyes study me closely and I can’t even hide my worry.
