Page 214 of The Seven Rings
“Okay, brilliant. Yes, all of that.” The ideas, the possibilities had Sonya’s nerves leveling again. “Bringing it back to life, top to bottom. That’s what she hates.”
“Only makes me love it more.” Cleo put her hands on her hips. “Let’s keep going, make her crazy.”
“Too late,” Owen added. “She’s already there.”
They hunted, gathered, carried out, carried up, shifted.
Sonya took another long look at the future game room.
“It’s going to be great. It’s going to work. In fact…”
“I hear my back whining.”
She gave Trey a hug. “We’ll help. But if we could get the pieces we’ve earmarked in here, it’ll be great. And piss her off.”
“It’s that part that makes me want to,” Owen admitted.
“And once we do that, I’m ordering the big-ass TV, the pool table, deciding on the jukebox from the sellers the guy you know provided. I need the right lights, too. So putting stuff in helps me see it.”
It took the weekend to move, adjust, consider, and decide on purchases.
Having so much to look forward to started Sonya’s week on a high note. A meeting with Maddy about the website kept that going.
By the end of the week, she’d created a new mood board and started work for her newest client. She had lights, an enormous wall screen ordered, and an electrician lined up. Since Owen wanted one, she ordered a foosball table, and selected the original versions of classic board games.
In a nod to Collin and Deuce, she added a chess table to the mix.
September rolled on toward October. Anticipating, Sonya and Cleo gathered the last of the flowers from their garden. And Cleo, following her grand-mère’s advice, froze chopped fresh herbs in ice cube trays.
Sonya woke to a fire simmering, and the first frost.
Cleo gave herself an hour each day for her autumn painting of the tree as Poole’s Bay rioted with fall color.
Despite threats from Dobbs, Sonya took time for a walk every afternoon. Nothing would make her miss fall at the manor, its whippy breezes carrying the scent of the sea and woodsmoke. The dazzling color that peaked into the breathtaking.
“It’s another kind of claiming, Yoda.” He pranced along beside her as she glanced up at the windows of the Gold Room. “I know she knows I’m out here. I know she’d love to hurt me, but I have to show her, show her every single day, she won’t push me out.”
She looked down at his adorable face. “It’s practically October now, Yoda. I think it’s time to pull out the Halloween decorations, buy us some pumpkins. No way you live in a haunted manor if you don’t go all out for Halloween.”
Her hand shot into her pocket and her head shot up when she heard a window open.
But Cleo called out of the studio: “Hey, when you finish your walk, if you’re not too busy, can you come up?”
“Sure.”
“I want to show you the book illustrations. I think I’m done, but…”
“Give me ten. I’m grabbing a Coke when I come in. Do you want one?”
“Might as well, thanks. God, it’s gorgeous out there. I need to get out. Later.”
She walked Yoda around the house. It didn’t make her as sad as she’d anticipated to see the gardens put to bed. Thanks to Jerome.
Turn, turn, turn, she thought, thinking of one of her father’s favorite songs.
She knew they’d bloom again. They’d plant more, learn more.
“And look at our woods. The pines so dark and green, and the hardwoods—whatever they are—just so rich. That’s a blooming, too. We’re so lucky, Yoda. I need to pay it all back. I need to find the rings and earn all this.”
