Page 21 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“Exactly.”
His gaze remained fully fixed on her, anchoring her to the spot, and linking them together again. Nothing else existed outside of where they sat.
“Dad!” Rebel didn’t wait for permission, stomping straight into frame as if the camera weren’t there. She dramatically threwherself at him and he effortlessly caught her. “I’mboredand falling asleep.”
He laughed and kissed her forehead, taking the interruption in complete stride. “We just finished. Stand up, please.”
“There’s plenty of beds upstairs if she wants to lie down,” Lucky offered.
Rebel yawned. “I’m not allowed to sleep in the house. That’s how it gets you.”
“Oh?” Lucky’s gaze slid smoothly to Maverick.
“It’s only an educated guess. We don’t know for sure.”
“Yes, we do,” Rebel said, oblivious to her dad’s discomfort. “Xander said so and you said we had to listen to him about the house.”
Lucky said, “Personally, I’d love to hear more.”
“Rebel—”
“When you go to sleep, Hennessee House digs around in your brain, takes out all the bad stuff, and shows it to you. It’s supposed to bereallyscary,” Rebel said, fully ignoring Maverick. “That’s why I have twounbreakablerules. No sleeping in the house and I can’t be here after sundown.”
Lucky raised an eyebrow. “Interesting how nobody warned me about that.”
“Stephen sent me home. I’m not working. I can say whatever I want.”
Maverick, bless his heart, was seconds away from laughing but expertly smoothed his features into a poker face instead. “Not quite, honey.”
After packing up, they found the team outside in the front yard. Rebel pointed to the large tree and asked her dad, “Can I go swing?”
“Go for it.”
That was the fascinating thing about kids. One second, they needed a nap. The next, they had enough energy to skip across the lawn at full speed. The tree had a wide trunk, which said nothing of the overhead branches or the age of the rope.
Lucky asked, “Is that thing safe?”
“It’s new. Xander installed it for her last week.”
“Ah. Xander.”
He snickered. “He’s a good guy.”
“I’ll see about that,” she promised. “Do you usually bring Rebel to work with you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “This was the compromise to an eleventh-hour meltdown. We had summer plans but Rebel…changed her mind. It was too late to sign her up for literally anything else so here we are. I honestly didn’t expect her to take it so seriously—she’sexcitedto be here and make her show. I’m gonna have to figure something out.”
“Worried about disappointing her, eh?” She gave him an expectant look before grinning.
He laughed quietly, reluctantly even, while looking away to avoid her gaze. “I already apologized, remember?”
“I do.”
“Hey!” Stephen called, finally noticing, and waving them over.
“I’m sure you’ll come up with an idea,” Lucky said, slipping on her glasses as they descended the porch steps.
“You’re not going to read them?”
