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“Yeah.” I found I was a bit breathless. With a slow inhale and exhale, the clenching in my chest started to subside. “I just—it was nothing.”
Not nothing, really, but nothing that affected us right now. That scene had been real more than a year ago. An addition Dad and I had been working on had collapsed on him—he’d ended up in the emergency room. We couldn’t have proven it, but I knew how careful he was with his materials and measurements. It hadn’t been a mistake but a magical attack.
He was all healed up and back at work now, of course. I just hadn’t done much work with him since that day. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the knowledge that he’d been hurt because of me and my relationship with Rose always made me hesitate.
Rose was still studying me. “Are you sure? It seems like something’s—I don’t know—off in the atmosphere around here these days. If you’ve noticed anything specific we should be worried about…?”
I shook my head. It’d only been a random flashback, presumably brought on by my restlessness this morning. And by the claustrophobic vibe to this whole building. I glanced around us, feeling the closeness of the walls even more than usual.
“Have you ever thought about renovating this place to modernize it a little?” I asked abruptly. “We could knock down a few walls, open up the downstairs so the air and light travel better. Nicer to have a few big living-slash-sitting-slash-whatever rooms than however many cramped ones, right?”
Rose took in the space around us with an expression as if it’d never occurred to her that changing the layout of the house was even possible. She opened her mouth and paused, knitting her brow.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “It’s hard to imagine.”
“I could draw up some potential plans so we could talk about the possibilities,” I said. “I mean, not that there’d be any rush.”
“It’s only…” She gave a soft laugh. “Maybe it seems silly considering how much I’ve gone through in this house, and how much even the times I thought were good weren’t, but I did spend the first thirteen years of my life here. Everything about the place is familiar. Part of me doesn’t want to destroy that.”
I wasn’t going to tell her she was wrong to care about the past, but I couldn’t help asking, “What is it you’d want to hold on to?”
She and us guys had never really interacted in the house—all our adventures had happened off in the hundreds of acres of woods that sprawled behind the mansion. This house had been where her father had ended up holding her mother as a sort of prisoner before her death, where he’d played the role of a loving parent while scheming to feed Rose’s magic to those demonic fiends.
“I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “Maybe it’s the overall history, thinking of all the generations of Hallowells who’ve lived here. They weren’t all bad like my father. And this is tied into my memories of everything you and I and the rest of the guys had together back then. I’d see Ky bugging your mom in the kitchen, or Damon grumbling when his mom got him to pitch in a bit with the cleaning. I had to sneak down this hall to go out to meet you all to play.” She gazed down it and shot me a grin so sweet I had to question whether I really wanted to knock down those memories too.
“No pressure,” I said. “It was only a thought.”
“Probably a good one. I’ll mull it over. It’s not as if my memories are going to disappear even if the house looks different. And there was something freeing about clearing out the master bedroom.” She took one last look around and then motioned me toward the dining room. “Are you going to have breakfast? The bacon and hash browns will be getting cold.”
My stomach growled again, and I smiled sheepishly. “Can’t have that. I think I’m going to need a full plate.”
I did manage to gulp down a sizable breakfast, but neither that, the sketches I drew for one of my courses, or the run I took around the estate after totally eased the restlessness still dogging me. When I’d changed out of my workout clothes, I meandered around the grounds for a while, an idea coalescing in my head. Then I headed to my truck to make the drive into town.
My dad usually spent most of Saturday in the hardware store. I found him out back, overseeing the organization of a recent lumber delivery.
“Hey!” he said, coming over and giving my shoulder a squeeze. “It’s been a while.”
It had. Some of the pinching sensation inside me transformed into guilt. Dad had seemed a little awkward about my new living situation at Hallowell Manor, but he’d never made any critical comments about it. When we talked, he’d always ask about Rose and the guys as if we were all hanging out together just as friends, skirting the issue of our unconventional relationship, which was totally fine with me. I just also felt guilty about stepping aside from his business after we’d worked together for years.
But the reason I’d come here today might help alleviate all of those tensions.
“I know,” I said. “I’ve been busy with school and all—but I’ll talk to Mom about coming by for dinner sometime soon, and see if I can rope Ky in too.”
“We’d both love to have you over.” He gave me a quick scan up and down, all parental consideration. “You’re still enjoying the courses?”
I could smile with honest enthusiasm. “Yeah. It’s a lot of work, especially after I thought I was done with school for so long, but I’m really enjoying digging in on the design side of things. Having the practical background in how the pieces come together has ended up helping quite a bit compared to the people who only know the theory and mathematics.”
“I’ve done my job well, then.”
I tucked my hands into my pockets, feeling a little awkward in the moment myself. “I actually had a potential new job for you, if you can fit it in and like the idea. I’m hoping to do a little construction work on the Hallowell estate.”
Dad raised his eyebrows. “Is the young lady finally bringing that old place up to date?”
“Not the house—not yet, anyway. This is going to be a surprise for her. A little addition on the grounds past the garden.” I dug out the sketch I’d done. “Between the two of us, we should be able to manage a gazebo like this, don’t you think?”
My breath locked in my lungs for a few seconds as he looked it over. I couldn’t help scanning his expression for interest and approval.
To my relief, his mouth slowly curved upward. The energy I was used to seeing when he was picturing getting down to work on a project lit up his face.
