Page 20 of Ghost of a Chance

I walk across the porch and pull the keys from my pocket. Even the locks are old. I might want to make that the first thing I look into fixing. It's all good and fun now while the sun is shining but after the sun goes down it's going to creep me out that I don't have any better locks or an alarm system just yet. The heavy door swings open and the stairs greet me right away. The banister is almost as big as I am around and supporting a whole shitload of stairs leading up to the second and third floors. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust. It is going to be hell cleaning this out with my allergies.

I might as well plan to take the following day off so I can be miserable. I know that’s what is going to happen when I start stirring up all the dust and dirt from all the years she sat empty. I already think of her like a...well, her. She's a proud old lady, maybe an aunt who might just know you better than your own parents, or the grandmother you run to when life at home is rough for whatever reason. The house might be old, but there is so much love in it and love waiting to be given still.

I place my hand on the railing and trail it up until it rests on the round globe at the top of the spindle. The detail in the design of something so mundane is why I love this house. How many other people stood where I am standing and wondered the same things that I am wondering? How many of them figured it out and moved on to live and love in this place?

The sense of history is as thick as the dust...but it can stay. The dust has to go. "Hey Neighbor." The voice causes me to jump because I wasn't expecting anyone but me to be here. I turn and run right into my best friend in the whole world, Parker Sloan. We both squeal and hug each other tightly.

"God I can't believe you're back! I'm so excited! How does it feel to be twenty?"

I giggle with Parker. "Surprisingly the same as nineteen."

We both laugh at the stupid question considering she turns twenty next month and hug again. It’s not like I stayed gone once I left for college, I visited. I didn't even really go that far. It was still in the same state just five hours away and not always easy for me to get back home with how I constantly studied or worked.

Parker pulls away from me first to twirl around in the foyer. "Wow," her eyes are lighting up at the sights, and then she sneezes three times in a row in rapid succession, "Holy cow, the dust is thick with this one." I laugh again at her lame attempt to insert a Star Wars reference into normal conversation. Parker is as big a geek as I am.

"So," she turns around again, "what's the first thing to do? What are we thinking? The floors? The walls? The windows?"

"Um, I'm not really sure. I...I'm kind of lost about what needs to be done first...or second and third."

"Hey, why don't I call Knox to come over to help? He's really good at all of this shit. You know he owns his own construction company now."

Knox Sloan.

The guy I had a crush on for the longest time. My best friend's brother. Ex-con.

"I...uh, don't know if that's such a good idea, Parker."

"Oh come on. You can't be all judgy because of the whole prison thing right?"

That is the last reason I have for not wanting him here. "Absolutely not!" I can't even believe she would ask me that.

Knox went to jail when we were fourteen for manslaughter. One of his friends - a girl - was being attacked and he kind of went nuts about it. Turns out the guy trying to attack her had been stalking her for months but even after Knox put him down he didn't stop. It might have been wrong what he did but all of the women in town thought he was a freakin' hero because of it.

I sure did. As if I needed another reason to hero-worship him. I was already halfway in love with him when he got in trouble but afterward it just kind of solidified the infatuation. Not that I could ever tell Parker about it. I mean what would she even say if she knew I thought her brother was hot enough to have wet dreams about.

"I...um, don't have a lot of money left to spend on renovations and I don't want to put anyone out or have someone think I am trying to ask him to do this because I'm friends with you. I guess I don't want him to think I'm taking advantage of him."

"Oh bullshit! That's the last thing Knox is going to think. Here let me call him."

"No! Parker! I don't want to..." it's too late. She's already hit his number.

"Hey brother, whatcha doing?" I can't hear his side of the conversation so I can't begin to guess how he's answering. She could have interrupted him doing something naughty with a girlfriend, or unwinding after a long day at work, or he could be trying to find a girl to do those naughty things to at a place he unwinds at. I walk off not wanting to hear if he tells her he's with someone else.

I realize it's fucked up and crazy but it will kill me to think of him with some other girl. He's been out for a while now - almost a year I think. There is no way he hasn't got a girlfriend. Fuck, for all I know he might have gotten with the girl he was protecting. I don't think they were a thing just friends but if someone went to prison for me I would definitely be ready for him when he came out.

I busy myself with menial things and wait until Parker finishes her conversation with Knox. So I'm a little thrown off when Parker sticks the phone in my face. "Here, he wants to talk to you."

I give her an 'I can't believe you' face with big eyes but take the phone in my hand. If I don't she'll just keep on until I do give in.

"Hello?" God, I sound like I'm still a fourteen-year-old unsure dork who can't find a date to save her life.

"Hey, how's it going?" God, he sounds like sex on a stick. His voice is so deep and growly it goes straight to my lady bits.

"Um, good." There is an awkward silence that I should fill but I'm unsure of what to say.

"Parker tells me you just bought the Pierce place."

"Yeah," I can work with this, "I've been in love with it for years."

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