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Chapter 5
“Thanks for bringing me down here, bro. It was a really cool thing to do.”
Troy smiled at his little sister. “I kind of had to do something cool to make up for all the times that I’d been, in your words, ‘lame sauce.’”
She rolled her eyes. “First off, although this is a nice thing to do, it definitely doesn’t make up for all the times that you were lametastic—which is what I say now, by the way. I haven’t said lame sauce in like, months.”
Troy shook his head. “I can’t keep up.”
She shook her head right back at him, moving it slowly from side to side and then punctuating the movement with a deep, disappointed sigh. “And that, my friend, is what makes your game weak,” she replied in a mock-pitying tone and Troy laughed. He couldn’t help it.
Although she was only thirteen years old, Mila could make him smile like no one else. The things that came out of her mouth sometimes were so unexpected they completely surprised him. Being on the road with a pro ball team, he’d seen a lot of crazy behavior in his life, and the ability to catch him off guard was a rare one. He loved his little sister for a lot of reasons, but her consistently off-center take on the world was at the top.
He gestured to the house next door with his chin. “So? Does it live up to your expectation now that you’ve seen it up close?”
Mila craned her neck to look at the spectacular house out on the edge of the bluff. It had always been her dream house. Ever since she was a little girl, when Troy would take her walking along the beach below, she’d look up at the rambling mansion perched high above like a grand lady overseeing her domain and gazed longingly at the rickety-looking wooden steps built into the side of the cliff face, begging her brother to let her climb them and take a closer look at the home.
Of course, he never let her. It was private property, and they weren’t the owners. But now that he was remodeling the small house that sat just a few hundred feet down inland, he knew it was the perfect opportunity to let Mila get, if not an up close and personal look, at least one that was way more up close and far more personal than she ever would’ve been able to otherwise.
“So, someone’s living there, huh?”
Her tone was far too casual to actually be casual. Troy may not have been able to keep up on whether lame sauce or lametastic was her preferred insult, but he knew her well enough to know when she was up to something.
“Whatever it is that’s in that sneaky little brain, go ahead and get it out.”
“What?” The exaggerated innocence on her face made him laugh out loud. He couldn’t help it. He knew she’d get all hotly indignant. After all, there was nothing thirteen-year-old girls loved less than being laughed at by their big brothers.
But instead of puffing up with self-righteous anger like she normally would’ve, in his experience, she simply ignored his laughter and pressed forward.
Wow, he mused. She’s switching up her toolbox. I’ve noticed her pull out the ignoring thing a couple of times now. And she’s pretty damn good at it.
“All I was thinking is that, since I’m already so close, I could just, you know, walk on over and take a closer peek. But it’s no biggie. Whatever.”
He smiled at her casual attitude, probably meant as some kind of Jedi mind trick to convince him, by osmosis, that it was no big deal. But she was still young and hadn’t quite mastered the trick yet.
God help him when she was sixteen. But for now, he was still safe.
“Oh, good. I’m glad it’s no biggie. Because it’s not happening.”
She shot him a withering glance, full of the kind of derision that only tween girls can really deploy with full strength. But, because she was such a good-natured kid, the storm blew over quickly and she was back to her funny, self-deprecating default setting.
He was going to be so glad when the turbulent drama of the teen years was over, but he had to admit, it was kind of fascinating to watch.
“All right, fine, then,” she said with a grin. “You know I had to try.”
“Of course. That’s a given. But the new tenant moved in last night so I can’t have you peeking in her windows.”
This perked Mila right up. He’d known it would. A mystery woman living in the grand house on the bluff? That kind of thing was right up Mila’s alley.
“Oh, wow. Have you seen her? What’s she like?”
“I’ve met her, actually.”
Mila’s jaw dropped. “You’ve met her? How could you not lead with that?”
“I guess I didn’t realize you’d be so interested,” he lied.
“Interested? Interested?” she squealed. “You know I’m obsessed with that house. And now there’s some rich lady living alone in it, like a character in some tragic gothic novel, and you don’t think I’m going to be interested?”
