Page 29 of Manors & Mischief

“Why is it always room five?” he asks.

“Fantastic question.”

Devon nods at me before going into the house. Rose sighs and once again sits in the rocking chair. “He’s such a good guy. I only called him twenty minutes ago, and he’s already here.”

I almost gag, but that’s not the first time someone has sung Devon’s praises. Even Bea keeps telling me to give him another chance.

“Though he probably left the manor to come help me. Sorry!”

I laugh. “It’s absolutely fine. What’s wrong with room five?”

“The sink. It’s cursed. It always has a leak, and it doesn’t matter how many times Devon comes out and fixes me up, it just springs again.”

“Maybe it’s haunted?” I suggest with a smirk.

She laughs. “I’ll put it in the haunted tour. I think we should definitely ask Mark Chisholm, the farmer who always does the corn maze. This would be right up his alley, and he would only have to turn it haunted for a day, or even a week depending on how we do this.”

“October is the busiest month, right?”

Rose nods.

“What if we do it weekly in October to get every tourist who comes into town? So, if we have five participating businesses, we can do it Monday through Friday, and then every Saturday could be the party and Sunday as a rest day.”

“I like it! Here’s what you need to do. You need to write up a proposal for the mayor. You can tell her I’m on board, and maybe ask Mark as well. Propose it to her with our names attached, and then she’ll either suggest the other people, or we can fill them in after the fact. But the sooner we get the idea in, the better. I’m just going to warn you, she’s probably going to give you a hard time about the late notice, but she thrives on this kind of stuff, so don’t let it get to you. She’ll actually be secretly thrilled that you’re doing this. If you want, I’ll read it over before you hand it in, or I’ll even go to the meeting if you want.”

“That would be great.” I’m almost beaming that I can barely keep my excitement inside.

“Oh,” she says, her gaze lighting up again. “You talked about doing the end-of-year ball? What if every kid who at least participated in one week of the haunted houses gets to come for free?”

“Perfect! I am so glad I ran into you today. I feel so much better.”

“Aww.”

Rose stands, and we share a hug. Not just that, but she squeezes me hard. She squeezes me so hard I have to catch my breath., effectively giving me the most genuine hug I’ve received in a long time. I almost tear up.

“She’s fixed, Rose. Oh, sorry.”

Rose and I finally break apart, and I stand there, a little frazzled. Rose doesn’t hesitate. “Did you know how smart Ember is? She’s going to do great this season, I can already tell. She’s exactly the kind of fresh air we need here.”

“That’s too kind,” I say, but Devon’s gaze meets mine anyway. Before I can look away, there’s something there that makes me stop. It’s not full-on hatred or disapproval, which is surprising.

“She’s going to need some help getting the front of Sleepy Hollow Manor in shape in time for the Haunted History Tour. You’re going to do great!”

“Oh, you’ve definitely decided on that then?”

“Yeah,” I croak out, still weary of him and wondering when the next rude remark is going to pop out of his mouth.

“Sounds good.”

“And a Children’s Haunted House,” Rose supplies like she’s listing out my accomplishments on a resume.

“Sounds like you’ll be busy. Speaking of, I better get back to the manor.” He waves and is down the steps in a few seconds and walking out to his work truck.

Rose stands at the railing and waves goodbye. She turns when she starts backing up and sighs. “Poor Devon.”

Okay, well, that has me curious. “Poor… Devon?” I ask.

“No one told you?”