Page 3 of Lakesides and Longing

Tess reached over and gripped Lukas’ hand and Blake frowned. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked.

“She’s….fragile and kind of a recluse. And I don’t know how to protect her. She flat out refuses any help we offer. I have a few people in town that keep an eye on her for me, but she’s not super open with any of them either.”

“Fragile, how?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. When we were growing up, she was tough as nails, but then she married Emery and withdrew from the family. We still saw her on holidays and stuff, but she stopped calling me on a daily basis. I just thought it was because she was in love and distracted. She didn’t need me anymore. I was busy with my own family so I didn’t really notice it. Then Emery died and we all went to help out and it was like she was a stranger. She cried constantly and was scared of her own shadow.”

“Grief can do weird things to people.” Blake swallowed. He couldn’t imagine how difficult that must’ve been for her. Sure, he was upset the love of his life just married another man, but the death of a spouse so young had to be devastating.

“They can, but that’s just the beginning. The day after the funeral she was arrested for manslaughter. It was a car accident, and she’d run a stop sign. We hired the best attorneys and got her off on temporary insanity. Though to this day I don’t understand how she got that. She never told me what caused the insanity. Anyway, instead of jail she had to do a couple of months in a psych ward. She hasn’t been the same since.”

Blake sat back in his seat. That was horrible. He couldn’t believe Lukas hadn’t told him this before. Though he supposed he never talked much about his family either. His parents had died when he was a kid.

“How often do you see her?”

“A few times a year. But I talk to her weekly and threaten to visit if she doesn’t call. She’s gotten even stranger as the years have gone on.”

Tess snorted. “It’s true. She has crystals all over her house to ward off evil spirits and she believes the dreamcatcher above her head really does protect her dreams. She burns sage and grows a bunch of weird herbs in her greenhouse. She’s always telling me what the stars and tarot have predicted.”

Blake swallowed. Maybe he should’ve stayed with Anna and Hayden. Blake was fairly tolerant of people, but he couldn’t stand people who acted like all the psychic stuff was real. He was firmly grounded in science and things he could see. He had no patience for silliness like that.

“I keep telling Lukas we need to find a good guy to hook her up with but he won’t hear of it.”

Lukas gripped the steering wheel.

“Why not?” Blake asked. It made sense to him and Lukas wasn’t all that unreasonable. He’d never struck Blake as the overprotective big brother type.

“Because Emery destroyed her and I thought he was a good guy. In fact, I even encouraged the relationship when Paige had cold feet. When she asked me what I thought she should do, I told her to marry him. I never want to see her go through that again.”

Blake didn’t argue with Lukas, but he tended to think along the same lines as Tess. If he could, he’d be married right now even though it was risky to trust his heart.

“So why are we heading out there now?”

“Last night she called the sheriff about a break-in. Someone was standing over her. She lives so far out that if someone broke into her house, that meant they were looking specifically for her. I’m going to try to talk her into coming home. This is just one more reason she shouldn’t be living so far away. I don’t like her being alone. It’s not healthy for her. She doesn’t even drive anymore, so she never leaves the house. I worry about what it’s doing to her psyche.”

“Why doesn’t she get a roommate or something?”

Tess chuckled. “We’ve suggested it. But Paige always finds a way to make it sound like a bad idea.”

They drove down a long driveway and the house came into view. It was a monstrous log home but looked like it belonged in a fairy tale. There wasn’t a straight wall on the house. Everything curved and twisted, and it had a gnarly roof. And even though the house looked unusual, it was the size that got to him. No one should ever live alone in a house that spacious. They’d go mad. Maybe that was why she was weird.

“You know, I thought your house was big,” Blake commented as he climbed out the back door of Lukas’s Navigator. Lukas’s house was nothing compared to her home.

Lukas clapped him on the back. “The fudge fortune is good, but this house was paid for by Paige’s husband. He was an architect and came from old oil money.”

The house spread out in all directions, with not a single sharp edge. The porch was held up with what looked like trees surrounded by vines, and the front door was a double wood door carved with various animals. At first glance Blake spotted a fish, a fox, and a bear.

The house was a work of art, and he was insanely curious what they’d done with the inside. It was not his style at all. As a scientist and city-dweller, he preferred clean lines and a more modern style, but this had its charms.

Dio and Tria scrambled out after them and raced into the backyard.

“Are they going to be okay?” Blake asked, not able to see around the house.

Lukas nodded. “Her property goes down to the water. I always let Dio run when she comes here. As long as Tria isn’t a wanderer, she’ll be fine.”

Lukas didn’t bother knocking, just pushed the door open. Blake and Tess followed. The house smelled strongly of essential oils—which Blake expected, those who believed in horoscopes and things tended to believe in fake medicine.

Blake wasn’t disappointed in the least by the interior. He stopped for a minute to determine the smell. It was lavender with lemon. He wasn’t an essential oil guy, but as a botanist, he could identify the smells. The floors were made of natural wood in various colors, and like the outside, the floor wasn’t straight lines. The wood ebbed and flowed like a wave.

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