after all, I guessed. More of an illusion. The thought left me cold and tired, and I felt more thankful than before that I was about to see someone who loved me.
An early fall breeze was picking up as I walked and the streets were nearly dark by the time I reached Paige’s door. I didn’t bother knocking, but let myself into the sweet little cottage and tried hard to avert my gaze from all the signs of Paige’s perfect family life as I made my way back to the patio. The two pairs of little galoshes lined up by the door. The kid-sized armchairs positioned next to the couch. The life-sized kangaroo standing in the corner of the living room. Wait, the—?
I screamed, and that brought a furious round of barking and scrabbling as the the dogs raced inside to see what the noise was about. They were followed by a tall, dark-haired man with friendly eyes and a worried expression on his face who found me still standing face to face with a very large marsupial.
“Hey, Addie,” Cormac said, looking me up and down as if he might be able to figure out why I’d walked into my sister’s house and screamed. The dogs were leaping around me now, and I felt like I’d activated a circus. “Settle down, Luke. Bobo, quit it.” Both dogs quit jumping and exchanged a look, as if agreeing that they would resume immediately if the moment seemed to call for it again. They sauntered back outside. “You okay?” Cormac asked me.
My heart was racing and it took me a second to answer. Maybe exploring the haunted house had put my nerves a little on edge. “I hadn’t expected the six-foot kangaroo in the corner is all.” Or for Paige’s dog to be named after my ex.
“That’s Frederick. He’s friendly.”
“Sure.” I gave the huge thing another once-over, wondering if Cormac was the cause of Paige’s deteriorating decorating skills or if there was something about enormous taxidermy I just couldn’t appreciate. Was this something Joanna Gaines was into now? I needed to watch more television.
“Hey you!” Paige called as I stepped out to the patio.
“Hey,” I returned, my eyes falling on the two little girls in fairy dresses twirling on the lawn with what looked like electric sparklers. Wands, I realized. They had wands. In the gloaming light with the dusky night settling around us, the girls really did look like little fairies, and their sweet laughter floated on the breeze and made tears prick at my eyes for some reason. “Hey,” I said again quietly as Paige stood to hug me.
“You okay?” She held me out by my upper arms, frowning at me. “What’s going on? Wait, wine first.”
“I’m on it,” Cormac said, turning back around and heading into the house.
“Everything okay, Ads? Do I need to get rid of the man so we can talk?”
We sank into chairs side by side. “No, he can stay. I do need to talk though. It’s not exactly girl stuff. It’s more, just . . . “
Paige angled her chair toward me, but at the same moment, the little girls seemed to realize they had company, and the tiny one came scooting over, fairy wings fluttering behind her as she approached. She dropped a still-pudgy hand on Paige’s knee as she regarded me through huge blue eyes. “Maddie, this is my sister, Addison.”
“I have a sister,” the little girl told me, her voice earnest and strong.
“Is that her?” I asked, pointing at the older girl, leaping across the lawn.
“Yes. Taylor.”
“You are both very pretty fairies,” I told the little girl, my heart squeezing painfully as she smiled with pride.
Cormac reappeared with three glasses of wine, and as he handed me one he said, “Do you need your sister alone for a bit? I can take the girls in for a bath.”
I shook my head. “No, actually. I could use as many rational adult opinions on this as I can get.”
His eyebrows rose, but he sat and pulled a chair closer.
I told them about my very strange day, beginning with the part Paige already knew about Mrs. Easter’s fall in the street last week.
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Paige said, and I knew her doctor brain was working through what she might have missed, trying to figure out if there was something she could have done.
“The lawyer assured us it was natural,” I told her. “In her sleep. Totally peaceful.”
Paige nodded, her eyes sad.
“So a house, huh?”