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Whether there was a house still there underneath the overgrown rose bush and the rows of bushy, half-dead trees remained to the seen. The buttercup exterior was snaked with dying vines and the yard looked like something out of The Thing.
"That's..." She blinked, but she knew it was the right place. Her grandmother's prized white picket fence falling apart, her welcoming scarlet door worn, the knocker missing.
"This is the place." Luke nodded, then pulled alongside the rickety fence and popped the car into park. "Mom's waiting for you inside. You ready?"
Well, that was the question of the century, wasn't it?
As ready as I'll ever be.
And with that, she hopped out of the car, grabbed her bag, and sprinted up the cobblestone steps before whatever was living in the grass had a chance to follow her inside.
Chapter Two
Eleven Years Ago
“You really don’t have to do this, you know.” Julie’s muffled voice sounded on the other side of her bedroom door, and Chase rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day.
“Believe me, I know.”
“It’s stupid.”
“Yeah. But not to your mom,” he answered. Mrs. Hamden had been talking about Julie’s prom since the second Amy had left for hers two years before. She should have known, though, even then, that Julie wouldn’t make things nearly so easy as Amy had.
Amy with her perfect quarterback of a boyfriend and her sky blue Cinderella gown had been everything her mother might have hoped for. Julie on the other hand…
Mrs. Hamden had been grumbling for days about how Julie had insisted on making her own dress, and worse yet, she still hadn’t gotten herself a date. Things had been on red-alert levels of desperation when he’d come over for dinner one night and Mrs. Hamden suddenly had the brilliant idea of fixing them up.
For Chase it had been no big deal. A night with Julie would be fun. But ever since the matter had been decided, Julie insisted on reminding him he didn’t have to go. No, really, he didn’t.
“Okay, I’m coming out now. If you laugh, I’m going to punch you.”
“Okay.”
The door creaked open and the girl who stepped out was not, in fact, Julie Hamden.
Julie Hamden had wild honey-colored hair and ill-fitting retro clothes. Julie Hamden was a girl, his best friend’s kid sister.
But the woman in front of him wore a sleek form-fitting red gown that flared out just above her ankles, her golden hair tumbling over her shoulders to accentuate the off-the shoulder cut of her sleeves.
Chase swallowed hard. “You made that dress?”
She nodded. “First dress I ever made.”
“Good job.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, and his heart pounded in his chest.
“You really don’t have to do this,” she said again.
But it was too late. And for the first time?
He knew he should have listened.
Present Day
If she'd thought the inside of the house would be any better than the outside, she was quickly corrected. Aside from a small space inside the foyer, there were only walking paths cleared from one room to the next. Other than that, junk littered the place from floor to ceiling.
Boxes, old stuffed animals, gardening equipment that had clearly never been used--it was all there. And god only knew what else she couldn't see.
