Cormac said, his head angled to one side. “That’s crazy. And the money too.”
“And you can’t just, like, sell the house and take the money?” Paige asked.
“It’s all tied up together. And everything is built around Michael Tucker and I each spending six months living at the property.”
“Ew,” Paige said. “That place is so creepy. And so are the Tuckers.”
“It is all creepy,” I agreed. “Especially the house. Cool too though. I mean, it’s one of the oldest houses in town, right? The design of the place, though—it’s so pretty. It could be amazing if we could really get it solid again. I’d kill to have free rein to choose all the finishes. And there’s so much history there. Up in the attic there were all these ancient trunks and a bookshelf with shoeboxes and papers stacked up. Kind of a mess, really, but I bet there’s some interesting stuff in there.”
“Right,” Cormac said, sounding thoughtful. “But I guess what I’m wondering, is what was Mrs. Easter’s purpose in throwing you and Michael Tucker together like this? She knew about the feud. Why you?”
“I’m not totally sure,” I answered. “But she said something that day when we said goodbye, about it being time to end the feud. Her mother was a Tanner and her father was a Tucker—did you know that?”
Paige shook her head. “How did that even happen? It must’ve been like Romeo and Juliet!”
“It’s kind of romantic,” Cormac said, gazing fondly at my sister. By now, the little girls had come and climbed onto the arms of his Adirondack chair, and they were both watching me with open interest.
“Everyone dies in that story,” Taylor, Cormac’s older daughter said. “It’s not romantic.”
“That is an excellent point,” I said, agreeing with the sage words of a child. “And nothing good can come from Tuckers and Tanners hanging out together.”
“Except maybe Mrs. Easter was right,” Paige said. “I mean, better you than me—I’ve been poisoned by proximity to Mom’s constant concern that a Tucker is going to redecorate The Tin again, or steal Verda’s moose.”
“What do you mean, better me than you?” I asked.
“The feud is ridiculous. No one even knows why we hate Tuckers, just that we do. I mean, this isn’t eighteen hundred. Let’s end it already. You should totally do this—end the feud for us all by realizing that Mrs. Easter was basically matchmaking.” Paige looked proud of herself for having figured this out.
Matchmaking? Had Mrs. Easter really had that in her mind when she’d put this together? I wasn’t so sure. I could see her wanting to end the feud, I doubted she cared about my love life. And how did she even know either of us was single? “I don’t think that’s what she’s doing.”
“Maybe she just wanted the two sides of her family to get back together,” Cormac suggested.
“That makes more sense to me,” I said, letting my eyes slide shut as I thought about the house. “I could actually get excited about renovating the place, being allowed to choose all the colors and surfaces and everything. But I’m not sure at all about the moving in part.”
Cormac chuckled. “Because the place is most likely haunted?”
“No,” I said too quickly, thinking that my hesitation was exactly because the place was probably haunted, but I didn’t want to seem like I couldn’t handle a little fear. “Because it’s old. And I’m used to modern conveniences.”
“Wasn’t your building in New York a pre-war building?” Paige piped up.
“They renovated!” I said, defending myself. “We had working toilets and showers, and no ghosts that I knew about. I’m just not sure I could live there with Michael Tucker. And if we each do six months, I have to stay here for a year before we can sell.”
“The place is big, right?” Paige asked.
“Yeah, pretty big, especially compared to a New York apartment.”
“Couldn’t you both live there at the same time without being on top of each other? There’s more than one bedroom, right?”
I nodded, thinking about sleeping with handsome Michael Tucker just down the hall. That’d be strange, wouldn’t it? And Dan would be there too, because Michael had joint custody. I couldn’t figure out quite how I felt about that—would I be an intruder in their family life? I didn’t like that idea.
“One sec?” Cormac said, his face taking a serious cast. “How well do we know this guy? You’re going to move into a house with him? Is that a good idea?”