Reluctantly in Love (13 page)

“See you tomorrow, Linda.” I was certain she’d hurry over the moment I parked in Beverly’s driveway. She’d probably stay near her window until I showed up.

Chapter Eleven

Standing beside my SUV, I read the address off my phone one more time. I was at the right place, but the grey bungalow with a wraparound white porch wasn’t the modern apartment in a high rise I had imagined Dr. Chase Walker living in. A high rise apartment was the real estate of choice for all the young bachelor doctors in
Sunset Hospital.
But this was no TV show, and Dr. Walker was clearly not the average doctor. He was more like the kind of doctor that satisfied a sex deprived woman’s fantasies.

Is that why you’re here?

I’d been thinking about Chase all week. I knew plenty of gorgeous guys, but Chase was different. I wasn’t sure why—maybe because he carried me through a field in blazing heat after I hit him in the forehead with a bungee cord. Even sticking him with barbed wire fencing hadn’t drained his sense of humor. I liked that. I also owed him a hat.

The baseball cap in my hand wasn’t even close to the one I remembered him wearing, but when I picked it out¸ the blue reminded me of Chase’s eyes.

I followed the sidewalk up to the porch. It was a nice neighborhood. A few houses down a man pushed a red mower across his lawn while a little girl sat on the sidewalk with a baby doll in her lap. Across the street, a blue minivan pulled into a wide driveway. The side door opened and a couple of boys bounded out and raced to the front door.

There was a wooden swing in the corner of Chase’s porch, and two potted plants on either side of the front door. I raised my hand to knock, but before I could, I spotted Chase sauntering around the side of the house. He stopped when he saw me. There was a long moment when we gazed at each other in silence.

Then he said, “Oh shit,” before turning around. He disappeared around the side of the house.

I stood there with my jaw dropped.

“What the . . .” Bounding down the porch steps, I called out, “Hey! Hey you!”

I turned the corner and stepped onto the driveway. Chase glanced over his shoulder, but continued in the opposite direction toward the garage.

“Chase, what the hell?”

I picked up my pace to a jog and caught up with him around the side of the garage. He stood with his face turned to the garage, his nose just a few inches away from the pale grey siding. I planted my feet and crossed my arms while he pretended I wasn’t there.

“What are you doing?”

He sniffed twice, like he might be two seconds away from crying. “I’m just so scared.”

I smacked him on the back of the arm. “That was a jerk thing to do.” My lips broke into a smile.

He turned around, laughing. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Batting my eyes, I held out the baseball cap. “I come bearing gifts.”

“This is nice of you.” He accepted the hat. “I thought maybe you were the kind of girl to beat up a guy and go your own way.”

I sucked in my cheeks to swallow the smile and narrowed my eyes. “Most of the time I am, but for some reason, I felt guilty about breaking you.”

He plopped the hat on his head—it did match his eyes. He turned to open the utility cabinet to set the sheers inside. “I have to admit, I’ve been thinking about you.”

“You have?” I sounded extremely pleased—I was.

“Yes.” His brows quirked in an attempt to be serious. “You’re a walking menace. I thought I might prepare a first aid kit we could strap to your back. You know, just in case.”

“
Ha
, very funny.” I smiled. “But, it’s not a bad idea. Thanks.”

He pointed at his forehead. “It barely bruised and it’s already fading. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

The spot was light purple tinged in yellow. I wanted to lift to my toes and kiss it.

“Well, I still feel horrible. Which is why I tracked you down.” I glanced around his backyard. It was well kept, fresh cut grass, no weeds in the flower beds. “Nice place.”

“Tracked me down, huh?” His lips turned up into an amused smirk. “Is this the notorious background check step?”

“I call it being well prepared.” I gave him a wide, toothy smile. “But, I only ran a criminal check to make sure you’ve never been arrested for murder. I didn’t pull all the stuff I checked on Matt.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

I shrugged. “Because it’s not my business, and you’re not interested in any of my best friends. As a person in a position to perform gross invasions of privacy, it’s my job to look after those girls so they don’t end up in a trash bin somewhere.”

“I suppose that makes sense. They’re lucky to have a paranoid friend like you.” He laughed when I smacked him in the arm again. “But if I had access to that sort of thing, I’m pretty sure I’d do the same for my sisters. I get it.”

“Just let me know if you need me to look into anyone.” Another reason to see him—I smiled. “I’d be happy to.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He gestured to the patio. “You want to stay for a beer? Iced tea?”

He had been on my mind for days—I really, really wanted to stay. But I shook my head. “I’m meeting Lexie at the boutique with takeout. She’s got a late appointment and I promised to save her life with sushi.” I nibbled on my bottom lip, surprised at how strong the urge was to call and cancel on my best friend, just because this guy’s smile made my knees week. How bad was that? “Rain check?”

“Rain check.”

God, I loved the way his entire face smiled.

“Looking forward to it, Dr. Walker.”

“Me too, Bruiser,” he said, and the flutters went crazy in my stomach.

“So, I’ll see you later.” I stepped backward and away before his baby blues sucked me in. Being attracted to him wasn’t what caught me off guard. Not being able to reign in the damn butterflies, though—that made me uneasy. This jittery breathlessness had never been a problem before.

“Hopefully sooner,” Chase said. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

I was quick to shake my head. “No need. Enjoy your evening, Chase.”

“Until next time,” he said. “Thanks again for the hat.”

I left him in the backyard, where I imagined him shirtless, doing sweaty yard work. It was a nice image. Something told me I’d have a hard time resisting a dose of Dr. Chase Walker.

Chapter Twelve

“Did you hear that?” I whispered. No answer.

Gen and Richard, my two sidekicks for the day, hadn’t known about this field trip. I thought it best to keep my second agenda to myself. They wouldn’t have come if they knew I was here to snoop for a case—and for research.
A real life haunted house
. This was a writer’s dream come true.

My ears pricked and my body tensed. All my senses adjusted to the handicap of the darkness and became fine-tuned—survival mode.

The pale yellow beams coming from our three flashlights were pathetic at best. They’d been purchased more for looks than for function—cute and absolutely worthless. And they were the best I could find during a quick stop at the gas station before driving our motley crew to the Garrett Mansion.

I was here to investigate—mostly. I’d spent the past two days following Matthew Garrett around town, and twice he came here. I found his visits suspicious since the house was furnished but hadn’t been occupied in over a century. It was kept by groundskeepers and a cleaning crew.

Earlier this morning, I visited Beverly and asked her about Matthew’s visits to the vacant mansion. She seemed surprised but not alarmed. It was his birthright, after all, though he’d never shown interest in it before. If the old mansion were my legacy, I’d be there all the time. Especially with its tainted history. To appease my curiosity, Beverly gave me the location of the spare key—under a stone statue in a garden on the side of the house. I liked to be thorough.

The home was listed as a historical landmark, and a stop on a fall tour of historical homes in the city; I’d always wanted to see the inside. I was so keyed up with excitement, it was hard to breathe.

Every inch of the Garrett Mansion, from its high ceilings to its little nooks and crannies, had been hand-carved—it was eerily beautiful. The drapes hanging from the high-reaching windows, though faded with time, were heavy and made of velvet in most rooms. The thick material effectively snuffed out even the tiniest sliver of light, blanketing the massive structure in eerie darkness except for the thin streams of light I darted around the second floor hallway so quickly I couldn’t see a damn thing.

I was also guilty of jerking my flashlight in an erratic attempt to capture something I imagined might be lurking in the shadows, all while praying to God nothing jumped out at us. The creaking, wherever the hell it had come from, sounded more like heavy footsteps. Or maybe that was my imagination. Maybe the creaking was from our own footsteps on the old wooden floorboards in the second floor hallway.

“What the hell is it?” Gen said, breathing down my neck.

Her clinging only made my nerves twitchier. I swatted her away. “It’s nothing. It’s just the wind.”

Behind us somewhere in the dark was the oak staircase we’d climbed to reach the second floor. At the top of the stairs, we’d taken the east wing. The noises came from behind us, somewhere at the end of the hallway. The darkness stretched on and on behind us, with no end in sight.

I had done my research. If we kept moving in this same direction we would meet the master suite where Arielle Garrett met her demise eighty-seven years ago.

“It’s not windy outside,” Gen hissed in my ear. Her breath smelled like peppermint from the tic-tacs she popped every other minute since entering the mansion.

“No wind,” Richard pointed his smartphone at me from behind Gen. “My weather app says partly sunny, fifty-three percent humidity and no wind.”

“This is no time for app talk,” I told him. “We are
investigating,
Richard. This is serious business. This is my
career
.”

“Your career is giving me hives.” Gen clung to my shirt. “This place is creepy. What do you plan to find here, anyway? I don’t think Mrs. Potter’s cat is here.”

No, I didn’t think her cat was here, either. But I kept that to myself. “Maybe Pretzels isn’t here, but I have to make sure. You know?”

“Make’s sense,” Richard said.

“I guess so.” Gen didn’t sound convinced.

We’d started off down the hallway side by side, but at some point we’d morphed into a single file line with me in the lead. Gen had pushed me forward, stating this was my investigation, not theirs.

True—but still.

I sucked in a heavy breath. “It’s like a freakin’ sauna in here.”

“My pits are sweating,” Richard said.

The only way I’d been able to talk him into coming was by promising he’d be home before his “bro time” with his gamer friends. They weren’t gaming tonight, but had a sci-fi movie marathon. If I understood correctly, they were all attending dressed as their favorite character in the space drama.

The sweat beaded off my forehead and ran down my temples. I hadn’t accounted for the fact the place wouldn’t be air-conditioned. I would have dressed better, maybe put my hair up. Of course there wouldn’t be central air. The mansion was impeccably kept, but it had sat empty for close to a century—there’d been no need to modernize it.

My hair stuck to my neck and made my skin crawl. I picked the wet strands off my skin and deposited the bulk over my right shoulder. Thank God I’d worn a tank top. The now damp material stuck to me as I sweated bullets, mostly from the sauna-like heat, and a little bit from fear. Even my red shorts clung to my sticky legs.

“There’s that sound again!” Richard’s squeaky voice sent a chill up my spine. The beam of his flashlight danced against the wall.

“I didn’t hear anything,” I lied.

Definitely something.
The creaking of what I’d been telling myself was just an old house settling, was now joined by a hair-raising scratching noise. I was seconds from aborting this mission. If I did retreat, I would do so walking backward. No way in hell would I turn my back on those noises.

To save face as the fearless leader, I hadn’t yet said a word about how freaked I was. Plus, if I lost it, we were screwed. I was the thin string holding us together.

“It’s probably just mice,” I said.

“That didn’t sound like mice,” Richard said.

“It kind of sounded like mice,” Gen said, a note of hope in her voice.

I took another step forward. Then two more steps. A creak echoed throughout. This time, it sounded like a door drifting open. I stopped. My hands were numb—
fear or nerves?
I didn’t know. What I did know was something didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like we were alone . . .

My overactive imagination was being a pain in my ass.

Fact was, I hadn’t considered what we’d do if we actually found a real ghost.
Stupid vodka.
The ghost hunting bit had seemed like a great idea over the martinis I had instead of lunch. At this point, I definitely preferred recovering Pretzels over encountering a ghost.

Gen bumped into me, and I stumbled. Her sudden stop caused Richard to bump into her, and then she bumped into me again. I nearly tripped this time, which would have made me easy prey for the pissed off ghost.

I whirled on them, and grabbed Gen’s arm to steady both of us. Doing so caused me to drop my flashlight. It hit my big toe bared in my heeled shoes, then rolled to a stop to shine against the hallway wall.

“Ouch, damn it!” I whispered on a hiss. “Will you two get a grip? You’re freaking me the hell out!”

“We’re freaking
you
out?” Gen poked me in the chest with her finger. “This was your idea!”

“My
awesome
idea.” I slapped her finger away and bent to retrieve my flashlight. I scooped it into my clammy hand and straightened. “And you were both excited about coming here, remember? We’re solving a catnapping here!”

“Really, Roxi?” Gen shined her flashlight between us, illuminating her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Are we here for Pretzels?”