do, Reba?”
“I didn’t do anything. He was always planning on leaving.”
Aunt Gertie rolled her eyes. “For an intelligent young woman, you sure can be as dumb as a box of rocks. That boy loves you and you love him. It’s as plain as the nose on my face. I won’t have another Dixon putting some damned pile of sticks and bricks before love.” She waved a hand around. “And that’s all this is, Reba. It’s nothin’ but a pile of sticks and bricks. Your mama and daddy figured it out and headed off to Galveston to enjoy life. You need to figure it out too and let it go. Or you’ll end up like me. An old grumpy woman with nothing to show for her life but an old building that can never love me back.”
“I love you, Aunt Gertie.”
“I love you too. That’s why I want you to quit sitting here feeling sorry for yourself and go after your man. And stop using me or this boardinghouse as an excuse because you’re scared of getting hurt. It looks to me like you got hurt already. Now I need to get me somethin’ to eat. That hospital food almost did me in.” She turned her walker around and left.
When she was gone, Reba looked at Evie. “Don’t you dare side with my aunt. It’s just a little old woman’s wishful thinking. She missed out on love and she wants to make sure that I don’t.”
“But what if she’s right, Reba? What if you could have a chance for love?”
Before she could answer, Mike stuck his head in. “You need to come see something, Miss Reba.”
When Reba got to the front desk, Mike had the reservation program up on the computer. It looked like the majority of the blanks were filled in.
“What is this?” she asked.
The phone rang and Mike answered and she watched as he took the information for another reservation. When he was done, he hung up and turned back to her. “The phone has been ringing off the hook for the last hour with people making reservations. I finally asked a woman where she had learned about the boardinghouse and she directed me to Valentine Sterling’s Facebook page where I found a post about a free story he was giving away. This free story.” He clicked over to Valentine’s web page.
The picture of Valentine on the banner made Reba’s chest hurt and her eyes fill with tears. But they quickly dried with surprise when she read the title beneath the banner.
“The Ghost of Dixon’s Boardinghouse.”
“It’s a full story about this house,” Mike said. “I only got to the part about your grandfather marrying his housekeeper before the phone rang and I had to take another reservation, but the story had me hooked.”
Reba took the mouse and scrolled down through the story, stopping every now again to read a paragraph or two. Mike was right. Valentine had taken her family history and turned it into a captivating, emotional love story. But it was the final two paragraphs that held Reba’s attention the most:
“It is said that Granny Dovey loved her husband and the home he gave her so much that even in death she refuses to leave it. At night, she wanders through the gardens sprinkling her Cherokee potions on the flowers so whoever smells them will fall as hopelessly in love as she did.
Having been a guest at the Dixon’s Boardinghouse, I discovered there is a woman there who wanders the gardens by moonlight. If she is real or a ghost, I will never be sure. For as hard as I tried, I was never able to catch her. All I caught was a glimpse of white and a whiff of love.”
Chapter Twenty
“I didn’t think we’d ever finish, but damned if we didn’t.” Holden stood back and looked at the barn that he, Logan, Cru, and Val had just finished painting. “Although if I never see the color red again, it will be too soon.”
Val had to agree. He never wanted to see red again in his life. Especially on a certain woman’s head in a pile of unruly curls. He had been so worried about Reba’s heart getting hurt if they got involved, but she hadn’t acted hurt at all when she kicked him out of the boardinghouse. He was the one who was hurt. And he still felt hurt that she could so easily throw him out of her life like one of her dead flowers.
“So