“Stopped by the library, here,” Eli says, shoving the book at me. “Picked this up for you. Same as old times, huh?”
I don’t have to look over to know Cole’s jaw is taut. I can hear the molars inside his mouth as they grind together.
“It’s great, thank you.” I rush to put it into my bag without looking at it.
I don’t know why I react this way. Acting all fidgety and jumpy when I have no reason to be. Friends do things like this for one another. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it feels like it is.
Whatever’s going on between them, it becomes obvious that Cole thinks he’s won after part of his mouth lifts into a smug smirk.
“Wow, you can smell the testosterone from here,” Hailey jabs. Her comment not onlynotneeded but not helping. Putting another crack in the already present tension.
The sparkle in Cole’s eye turns vicious.
I shoot her a look. When had she and Finn stopped bickering?
The sound of a chair scraping across the floor has my head whipping around, Finn of all people the one to storm off. For what reason I don’t know. Too wrapped up in my own stress.
The metal rattles off the frame as the door slams open. My brother storms out into the cold, unfazed.
Hailey does the same, moving as quickly after. Mumbling, she says, “There’s someone I need to call anyway.” Before disappearing in the opposite direction.
I hope for her sake that it isn’t the ghost guy, but I know it will be.
This lunch somehow went from carefree and casual to confusing and hostilerealquick.
I look back, understanding coming too late.
Trapped, I’m stuck alone at the table with both Cole and Eli.
Great.
I’ve never needed a reason to enter my glass house before, but something tugs at me, telling me to go. So, I do later that night.
The room has always been beautiful but never finished. Much as I’ve tried to clean everything, it hasn’t been enough. The one thing tying it all together is something I could never work out how to fix.
Not anymore.
That one missing piece restored before my very eyes.
This one—smaller but still oversized—an almost identical masterpiece to the one outside the Casper mansion.
Unlike that fountain, which was turned off for winter, this one works. Water running tranquil. Peacefully it spouts from the top and down into the circular bowl below.
My chest thumps.
I never assumed I’d see the day. I’d tried on my own but could never figure it out.
But seeing it like this… wow!
The simplicity of it as marvelous as it is magnificent.
Following around the loop, my fingers skim the tip of the water. Giddy in my excitement. The magic inside this room feels as if it’s finally complete.
The excitement I have comes to an almost sedative-like halt when I see the single flower along the edge of the stone.
My breath locks right there in my lungs.
A camellia.