Page 135 of Haunt Me

She cracks a smile. “Gosh, you are so annoying.”

“Always,” I reply. “Might need to add that as a rule as well. Isaiah has to be annoying.”

“I mean, you don’t have to,” she says, “but you probably will.”

“Exactly.”

She giggles. I smile, exceedingly pleased with myself. I seem to be getting the knack of making the Elliot sisters laugh today.

James, Mom, Faith and Walter go for a drive around town. Walter wants to show them around his hometown. Well, he mainly wanted to showmearound, but I’m not leaving the house while Eden is upstairs, asleep. They come back a few hours later, and James has dark circles under his eyes.

Mom looks fresh as a flower, and Walter is glowing as well. Faith is all smiles, keeping her distance from James. I don’t even want to know what they did on their little outing.

“The kids should have something to eat,” Walter says.

“Here is a thought,” James says. Faith is right. He does sound like a grownup—he sounds like he is more in control of the situation than Walter just did. Everyone turns to him expectantly, expecting him to tell them what to do. “Instead of sitting around crying, not that it hasn’t been fun and all, why don’t we go out for a round of drinks? Walter,” he turns to Eden’s dad, “is there such a place around here?”

I gaze at my brother dumbly.

Wait, he has been crying?I suddenly realize that his eyes have been puffy since before he left.He has.Whatever for?

For me, the answer comes.He has been crying for me.

I don’t think I have ever been more profoundly moved in my life. I look down, suddenly needing to hide the expression on my face.

“You don’t drink, baby,” Mom tells him and I chuckle brokenly. James can sound more grownup than the grownups, but when Mom talks to him, he goes back to being my little brother. “And Zay can’t go out in public.”

She sighs in a resigned way, as if she’s used to neither of her children being normal.

“Why not bring the party here?” Walter says.

It’s beginning to get on my nerves how good-natured he is. I mean, it’s not. But the dude is unreal. There is nothing he won’t do for his kids. And I am beginning to see that ‘his kids’ now somehow include James and me. How did this happen?Whendid this happen? Somehow I know it didn’t happen the minute we stepped through the front door of his house looking like a pair of zombies, sleep-deprived and barely human.

It must have happened years ago, when he and Eden started talking about the past.

About me.

…

Walter, bless him, was fully prepared to order dinner for us from a two-star Michelin restaurant, but Mom, seeing the horrified expression on my face, has talked him out of it. Instead, he orders food from every Thai, Chinese, Greek and Italian restaurant he can think of. He would keep going, but James stops him.

“What about some music while we wait?” James asks Faith, who blushes furiously.

I have gone too long without having any siblings around. These two together are already giving me a headache. I can’t imagine the horrors that will take place in this house once the food and the alcohol gets here. And speaking of horrors:

“Have any guitars laying around?” James asks Walter expectantly. “Or a violin. Or a cello,” he nods towards mom, “anything will do.”

Walter goes pale. Of course, the man doesn’t have a philharmonic orchestra collecting dust in the attic, but I wouldn’t put it past him to try ordering one on the spot. He has gone full super-dad mode. Wants to do anything to please us.

“James!” I hiss.

“Right,” my brother appears to come to his senses. “Not necessary. I have the perfect solution, right here.” He lifts his phone, and proceeds to hook it up with a pair of ancient speakers he locates among Walter’s books.

By the time I notice the quiet smile tugging on his lips, it’s too late.

“Please, no!” I rush to grab the phone out of his hands, but the first notes ofHeartbreakerare already floating through the room. My moron of a brother has gone and put on my stupid voice singingthe song I wrote for Eden. In her dad’s living room. With me. literally standing here.

I just put my head in my hands, too embarrassed for words.

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