Page 51 of Summer Holiday Lifeline

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.” Rising on his toes, Steven pecked his cheek. Safe enough, even if it still caused a mild heart blip on Myles’s part. “Come back tomorrow and we can finish the inventory.”

“Sure.”

“Good.”

“Wait. Did you just recruit me for free labour?”

“I think I did.”

A tight knot released in Myles’s chest, and a chuckle wriggled free. “Okay.”

Steven’s grin radiated triumph. “Okay.” He dropped Myles’s hand and took a generous step back. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Letting me have that.”

“What?” He tried not to imagine Steven was thanking him for turning to, as he’d put it, goo.

Steven just smiled, as though he knew not to put words to it. “Just thank you.”

Myles nodded. “Sure. Okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’m gonna—” He pointed both thumbs over his shoulder at the front foyer.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

He was on the front porch when Steven called after him. “Bring coffee!”

Myles waved without looking back. If he did, he might puddle in the middle of the street, block traffic, and that wasn’t on. He hurried across and up the steps of the B and B. When he looked back, it was in time to see the porch light blink off.

“Coffee,” he whispered. “See you tomorrow.”

The front door of the Oaks creaked slowly open, an invitation, though no one was there to open it for him.

“Right. You waited up.” He patted the door frame as he walked through, and the invisible bells tinkled softly. He didn’t see the point of arguing with the buildings’ residents that she had her own opinions and acted on them.

Did Steven’s shop have the same quirks? And if so, was Steven right to be worried about it? The place seemed normal to Myles, without the kinetic energy Mildred always exuded even when she was quiet.

Then again, what was normal? Because Natalie’s house had been normal once, too. Then she’d gotten sick, and everything had changed. Not just the fact she’d been gone and her kids had turned sad. The whole house had sunk into a kind of never-ending, oppressive gloom he’d had to escape.

Steven’s shop didn’t have Mildred’s cheerful vibe, or the debilitating sense of doom the house in Calgary had developed. It was like the place had settled into stasis. Neither alive nor—quite—normal. Like it had paused in the middle of an unsettling mood and never roused itself.

Frowning, because his analysis of buildings as though they had feelings was a little out there—and because thinking about the bookshop inevitably brought Steven to mind as well—he dismissed the topic. Thinking about Steven, even tangentially, would keep him up all night re-examining every detail of their interaction until he’d talked himself out of going back.

And he very much wanted to go back.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Morning dawned with a damp, drizzly face. and Myles came out of his shower to find both Jet and Shelly tucked into the king-sized bed, still in their PJs. Jet’s computer on the food tray played YouTube videos.

“What’s this, then?” Myles tossed his towel on a chair to rifle through the dresser for a clean shirt.