Page 76 of Manors & Mischief

I’ll probably pay for that, but it feels good to have him on the other side of my gate when it clinks shut. The audacity of that man. It’s like I’m being targeted. Or he’s on a freaking power trip, and I’m used as the example for everyone else.

My phone rings, and when I peer down, I spot Mrs. Lachey’s name. No doubt Devon called her, but the tears come then and I can’t answer. I stand on my porch, hot trails meandering down my cheeks. He’ll fine me for sure now. I’ll have to add it to my account, like he said, and if I lose out on all of these first day sales, it could ruin me for real this time.

Quickly, I pull up the social media page I started for Sleepy Hollow Manor and make a quick post about the Bed and Breakfast hosting the Haunted House tonight. Then I wait on the porch all night, directing people away from the manor.

Away, away.

Definitely not the first night I envisioned.

27

DEVON

Ember hasn’t answered her phone all night. The longer time stretches at the B&B, the more worry courses through me. What if she got sick of it all and left? She wouldn’t do that, I tell myself, but at the same time, this was such a blow, and I couldn’t even stay and be there for her. I half expected her to show up to help once the last time slot should’ve arrived at the manor, but nothing.

“You should go check on her,” Bea says as she catches me checking around.

“We’ve got the rest of this, Dev,” Rose agrees. “Cleanup is almost done. Go make sure she’s okay.”

A few minutes later, I’m pulling up to the manor. My stomach clenches. Ember is on the porch swing in nothing but a long sleeve shirt. The evening air has brought quite the punch to it. As I enter the gate and walk up the steps, I realize she’s sleeping. She looks peaceful, but her eyes twitch, and I can imagine she’s having nightmares about what happened tonight.

My first footstep on the porch creaks the floorboards underneath it, and her eyes fly open. Confusion flickers across her face first. When she settles on me, the tension doesn’t ease like it has been for the last week or so. Her face is pale and drawn like she couldn’t even escape what’s going on in her dreams.

“Hey.” I take my jacket off and hand it to her, but she stands, making her way to the front door rubbing her arms.

“I must have fallen asleep outside waiting for people to come just so I could send them away.”

“Everyone was very understanding.”

Inside, the manor is exactly like we left it. The music is still going. The cider we had out in cups is still sitting there, probably gone bad by now. She turns off the music first, then methodically goes through the house, turning off her flickering candles and lights, but leaving the booths as they are. I stand behind her as she grabs a tray for the cider and starts placing the cups on it.

“Mom said you wouldn’t answer the phone for her.”

“I was too busy screaming into the void about why it feels like I’m the one being picked on, but then I determined that it’s actually all my fault. A real businesswoman would’ve checked the town’s regulations. She would’ve realized before she spent almost all of her money on the place that she couldn’t do what she wanted with it.”

My heart breaks to hear her talk like that because if anything, Ember is a smart businesswoman. I’m the grunt work guy. She’s the brains. I’ve told her this so many times. “That’s not true. Nichols is on a power trip. He’s making up these rules that sort of fit into the law that’s already there, even though what’s written was never intended to be interpreted this way. Mom wants us to take this to a public vote, and we know we would win. Everyone who stopped by the bed and breakfast tonight thought the whole ordeal was beyond ridiculous, Ember. They’re all behind you.”

For a moment, she seems to perk up, but it doesn’t last long. “I should’ve realized, Devon. After the first time he gave me a hard time, you would’ve thought I learned my lesson, but no, I was too busy with my head in the sky and playing house with you that I completely lost my mind. I’ll have to refund the tickets and probably pay a fine, but even that is the least of my worries. I’ve made an enemy out of the man who can determine my future.”

Her comment about playing house hits me square in the stomach. It wasn’t the emotional gut punch I wanted tonight since it has such a negative spin, the exact opposite of what I thought we were both headed toward.

Ember and I just click. We’re like halves of a whole. In the short amount of time I’ve known her, we can agree on almost everything. We’re compatible in so many ways.

I push those thoughts aside because tonight is definitely not about my ego.

“We can fight this.”

She turns toward me, all of the ciders on the tray, and I spot her lip trembling. “Every time. It’s going to be like this every time. I’m already exhausted. Not only did we work our ass off just to make tonight work, but I’ll have to ask permission to do what I want with my own house every time now. That doesn’t even sound appealing. It sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through that shouldn’t be there. I don’t know what I did to this guy, but I’m already over it. How is anyone supposed to afford the upkeep of Sleepy Hollow Manor while not doing anything with it?”

She rolls her eyes. “I guess if you’re independently wealthy, you could. You could just live in it and not have to worry about making money. I’m just so damn tired of it. I would’ve been better off staying at home. At least then, the manor was still a dream. I was still hopeful. This just feels like a kick to the gut.”

She maneuvers around me without another word. I spy a tear escaping down her cheek from the side. She walks quickly toward the kitchen, and I’m right behind her as she dumps the tray in the sink, the cider spilling out into the stainless steel.

I grip her hip, moving up behind her. “What happened tonight wasn’t right. I understand why you’re feeling all these things.”

She wiggles out of my grasp, and I peer down at my empty hands. Lonely, discarded. Cast aside.

“I might just have to give up the manor, Devon.” She gives me a watery smile that doesn’t last long. “Know anyone who wants it? It’ll be cheap.”