Page 12

My mouth opened and then closed.

“I should get to bed; morning comes early,” I said, quickly gathering my things.

“Yes, you should.”

Everett didn’t move; he didn’t step back to give me room. I slid off the stool, and we were so close together that I caught the scent of his cologne.

“Good night. Mr. Stone.”

“Night, Miss Wilde.”

Without hesitating, I made my way over to the doorway to the hall.

“Ember.”

I turned around to see him standing there, backlit by the light from the kitchen.

“Thank you for breakfast this morning. That French toast was good.”

“You’re welcome.”

I could barely swallow as I looked at him, at the look he was giving me. I turned away and went to the end of the hall and climbed the stairs to my room, and when I was finally behind my bedroom door, I took a moment and leaned against it, trying to calm my hammering heart while my hands shook.

Chapter Four

Everett

The leggings she wore should’ve been illegal. Each cat had glittery, holographic eyes that caught the light every time she moved. I could barely keep my eyes off her. She bent down to grab sprinkles from a low cabinet, then stretched up to reach the mixing bowls on the top shelf, then she crouched down beside Sophie at the kitchen island where they’d been busy building haunted houses out of graham crackers for the last hour and a half.

I had migrated from my office to the kitchen twenty minutes ago. The kitchen had better lighting, at least that was the reason I gave when Ember glanced up from fixing a collapsed graham cracker wall and found me setting up my laptop at the breakfast bar.

“Plus, the office feels stuffy today,” I added.

“Mm-hm,” she smiled but frowned at the same time.

The charms on her bracelet jangled against each other as she turned back to the graham cracker construction zone. I couldn’t help but look at how the orange sweatshirt she wore hugged her in all the right places, the words CREEPIN IT REAL embroidered on the chest.

“Look, Daddy!” Sophie screamed, holding up her haunted house.

“That’s…impressive, Soph.”

“It’s a haunted house, complete with dinosaurs. The M&M’s are the velociraptors. The red ones are ghosts and the green ones are still alive.” Then she pointed to the gummy bear propped against the front of the building. “That is the security guard.”

Ember caught my eye over Sophie’s head. Her lips were pressed together, fighting a laugh.

“The licorice is an electric fence.” Sophie continued, her face serious. “That’s how the velociraptors turned into ghosts.”

“It’s perfect, Soph.” My seven-year-old daughter had built a haunted dinosaur house with colored dinosaurs and an electric fence. Rebecca would’ve…

I cut that thought short as my phone buzzed. I ignored it. It buzzed again and again in rapid succession, which meant Mark was calling and not emailing.

“Stone,” I answered on the fourth buzz, already getting up from the breakfast bar.

“Everett we have another problem with the portfolio valuation. Their counsel is claiming patent filings in Southeast Asia are…”

“Hold on.” I moved toward the hallway, but Sophie’s voice stopped me.

“Daddy, where are you going? You haven’t seen Ember’s house yet.”