Page 94 of Manors & Mischief

He kisses me. Soft and slow, we study each other once more until we come together as a promise. Life is messy. Things will happen. It’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows, but that’s why you find someone to go through life with because no matter how hard it gets, you’ll still have each other.

This kiss is like a memory we can look back at when the next dark time comes. We can seal it to each other, etching it into our very being, so it’ll be easy to remember that no matter what, we can get through anything together.

That’s what love does. It heals. It breathes. It centers. It’s sort of like a small town. It gives you everything you didn’t know you needed.

35

DEVON

Iemerge from our new bedroom in the back of Sleepy Hollow Manor. We managed to turn one of the sitting rooms to a bedroom while I recover from ACL surgery. I’ve been laid up for a couple of weeks, but every day gets easier and easier.

I flip up my collar in my Dracula costume, feeling the pinch of the fake fangs in my mouth. Walking into the foyer is like walking into Dracula’s castle. Even more flickering candles than what we had at the haunted house dot the room. The music is creepier to set the tone. The lights are dimmer.

Over the past month, Ember and I have been able to maintain the manor’s events—the haunted houses and the week-end parties. We scheduled the surgery I had to have on a day when nothing was planned, and then I spent a few evenings in our new room only listening to the goings on.

Luckily, I’m out and ready to enjoy myself a little more. I open the doors of the ballroom, and I’m blown away. Shue is a good carpenter. I almost hate to admit it. The ballroom looks pristine. It’s freshly painted. The floors were sanded, stained, and buffed. Red and black velvet drape from the walls. All of this due to the huge success the Children’s Haunted House was. Even more people than anticipated joined us, maybe thanks to all the press it got.

All I know is that Harvest Falls stepped up for us, and Ember and I won’t forget it.

I search the room for the woman in question. The woman who has taken care of me through it all. She sat by my bedside the morning before surgery, and then was there when I woke up. She brought me home afterward, waited on me, loved me. To think I almost screwed all of this up. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like if she wasn’t in it.

There, I spot her in the corner of the room near the snacks and punch bowl. One of the drapes has fallen. She has a hammer and nail in her hand, bent over in her vampire costume, her hair done up on top of her head like a queen.

Her father hovers over her, and when I get closer, I can hear him say, “I can do that.”

“I can do it,” she says.

She tacks it up, testing to make sure the nail is in good enough and then smiles at him. Her mother is there, too. She keeps looking around the place in awe, and it was an honor to be there when Ember got to show them around. The moment they got to see for themselves all the things their daughter had been accomplishing, it was like their minds changed instantly. People have been coming up to us on the street and praising her in front of her parents. They’re practically giddy with pride. I also think they’re favoring moving here.

Ember spots me, and she grins. She hands the hammer off to her father, and then she walks toward me. “Everything is coming together.”

I spin around as much as I can since the crutches don’t exactly make it easy. “It’s absolutely breathtaking.”

“Did you see me use the hammer?”

“Excellent job.”

“Yeah, Randy’s a good teacher.”

I narrow my gaze, and she breaks into a laugh that fills my heart. “Even I have to admit he’s done a great job.”

She must notice the wistfulness in my voice because she says, “You’ll still get a chance to put your mark on the manor. We have lots of work to do.”

I know how she can get, so I give her a stern look. If I don’t say something now, she won’t be able to enjoy the night. I’ve never met someone who was as motivated as her, and I’ve played with a bunch of professional athletes. No one else compares. “Tonight, we celebrate.”

At the exact right time, Bea moves around, handing us both a glass of champagne. She lifts her hand in the air. “To the start of the inaugural end-of-year ball.”

“Hear, hear,” the volunteers say, my mother probably the loudest of them all. She loops her arm around Ember’s mom’s and takes her to the corner of the room where they inspect the trim I put up. She also shows off the before and after photos we took that are placed on easels along the wall. We wanted to show our guests what all their patronage and donations that they gave the manor has done for it. The ballroom is back to its original beauty. A beautiful glass chandelier, sparkling clean, catches the light from the candles and sets everything off just right.

I paid off the code enforcement fines myself, so that every last penny we earned could go back into the manor, and it shows. People are in for a treat.

Within a few minutes, our guests start to arrive, and I get to witness it firsthand. It feels like before. On the faces of those who remember what it used to be like, I see it as if they’re coming home to a friend. They point and smile. They must have fond memories here. A ball where they met someone maybe. A ball where they fell in love.

I can see it on their faces that they are truly ecstatic. On the newbies’ faces, it’s a competition for who appreciates it more. They are blown away by their surroundings. People talk excitedly all over the room. Waiters come by with hors d’oeuvres and champagne or sparkling grape juice.

By the time everyone has a champagne glass in hand, Ember moves up to the microphone we had arranged in the front of the room. She taps it, and nothing comes out. She frowns, taps it again and then sets her champagne down on the corner of the table to follow the wires back.

I limp through the crowd to help, and when she hears me coming, she peers up with a shrug. “No idea.”