Page 121 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
Neither Maverick nor Rebel had a response to that, other than staring as her words took root. That was the first time she’dopenly talked about her family, barely saying anything at all, but it’d clearly been enough.
Rebel raised her hand. “What happens if you think of someone who made you happy and was nice to you instead?”
“That’s most likely who I would see. Hennessee will make a specter of them.”
“You should do that, then.” An order, not a suggestion. Her little face looked so serious, Lucky had to stop herself from smiling.
“Don’t worry. I plan to give it a try soon.”
“You can think of me. My specter would be really, extra nice to you and if she’s not, I’ll beat her up.”
Maverick scoffed, squeezing her into a side-hug. “You can’t fight a house, honey,” he said softly.
“Yes, I can! I will!”
“Okay, okay.” He kissed the top of her head again, gently saying, “I’m sorry. I believe you.”
“That’s very sweet, thank you.” Lucky did smile then, and had to stare at the back of her computer to get herself together before she started crying. Rebel, her tiny defender—she wasn’t quite sure why that made her so emotional, but it did.
She quickly wiped under her eyes, cleared her throat, and moved on to the next slide. “The unknown phone calls. Sleeping there at night creates a connection between humans and the house. We know this. What I didn’t know was how extensive it was. The longer you’re there, the more intense it becomes, but it also doesn’t stop when you leave. It has to fade over time. Until that happens, it can use the connection to make calls.”
“How can a house make phone calls?” Rebel snorted with laughter. “That sounds like a joke on a popsicle stick.”
“You’re right—it does. In any case, Hennessee has seen our memories. It knows our phone numbers. There are phone lines in the house. It can make the call, but that’s about it so far. It doesn’t have vocal chords and I don’t think it knows Morse code,” she mused. Although, it did make clicking noises when she answered. Hmm. “My connection to Hennessee is abnormally strong. Yesterday it discovered I’d been hiding my true desire when I opened Rebel’s present. Ithinkit realized it didn’t need to show me a specter because it had the means to potentially give me the real thing.”
Maverick’s solemn expression dipped into a frown before understanding set in. “So, the house calledme?”
“It seems so. Do you have your phone?”
He checked his pockets. “I think it’s in my room.”
“I’ll get it,” Rebel volunteered and took off down the short hall. She came back suspiciously fast, as if she’d known exactly where it’d been. “No missed calls.”
Lucky checked her phone and had three. “See? I’m not there. It doesn’t have a reason to call youunlessit’s for me.”
“Jesus.” Maverick rubbed his forehead. “I can see why you got drunk last night.”
“Believe it or not, that came before.” She laughed. “I didn’t figure everything out untilyoutold me you got those calls—my big light-bulb moment. It was the only thing that made sense. Why else would the house call you and not, let’s say, Stephen? Everything fell into place when I started reconsidering everything I knew.”
“Have you told Xander yet?”
Lucky shook her head. “I still need to do a final test and create a long-term solution to giving Hennessee what it wants.”
“Which is?”
Lucky hit her last slide. “A permanent resident or permanent access. So, what do you think?”
“It was a good presentation. Nothing’s confusing. Seems solid.” Maverick bit his lip, hesitating. “Overall, though, I’m not sure yet. I need to think it over a little longer.”
“Oh,” Lucky said, surprised and decidedly not going topush. “Sure. Yeah. Of course.”
“Ithink you’re right about everything,” Rebel said, quickly coming to stand by Lucky. “Do you want to see my room now?”
“I’d love to.” Lucky grinned.
Rebel’s redecorated room had pale pink walls and an early-sunset pink-and-blue ceiling. She gave Lucky a full tour of her bookcases, desk fully stocked with colorful pens and art journals, laptop covered in cartoon stickers, and her brand-new reading corner—an oversize armchair right next to her window, surrounded by her stuffed animal collection.
“You did such a good job,” Lucky said. “Your roomfeelslike you. That’s pretty hard to pull off.”
