Man's Best Friend (The Dogmothers #5) - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,42

using all his strength to try to jiggle the jammed but unsteady newel free. “Not gonna lie, I’ve never liked driving by this place. And not only because of the bad memory, but…” He looked at her. “All the good ones, too.”

She smiled. “Like the time we stayed up all night doing our science projects?”

“And yours won, naturally.” He shook his head, remembering what a mess his had been, while her presentation boards had been perfect. “And remember when you dared me to ride a flattened cardboard box down these stairs and your grandmother caught me?”

She laughed so hard she almost snorted, the sound like music to his ears. “Oh my God, your face when she came around that corner.”

“I told her I was practicing for sledding season.” He did snort on the next laugh. “I damn near peed my pants in fear.”

“She wasn’t mad, though. Mildly amused.”

“You were always pulling crap like that, E. How about when Ella locked herself in the back stairs’ secret hatch when we were babysitting her?”

“Oh, you freaked out.”

“My baby sister was locked in a hole in the staircase landing.”

“I told her it was a good hiding place to try to fool you, but it wasn’t supposed to lock with her in it,” she said on a laugh. “God, this house has idiosyncrasies.”

“You hid my sister in a hole,” he said, giving her a look.

She waved her hand. “She thought it was one grand adventure.”

“She would.” He worked the wooden globe from side to side again. “I may have to squirt some glue in the seam,” he said. “Although you’d think this carved ball would be part of the post.”

“It’s always been a little loose, even when I was young. But now it feels like one good pull and—”

“Whoa!” It detached with so much force that Declan almost lost his balance, making Evie reach up to his waist to steady him. “What the hell?” he muttered, turning the thing over to see it was made like a wooden cork that fit into a carved space in the newel post. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Welcome to Gloriana House,” she said. “Surprises in the woodwork. Literally.”

Leaning over, he looked into the hole. “But it’s… What’s that?”

“What’s what?” She popped up to peer in, her face so close to his, he could feel the warmth of her skin. “Oh my God, Declan. There’s a box in there.”

“Way down there, unreachable.”

“No such thing as unreachable,” she said, stepping back. “I need the right tool. A metal hanger? Something long and tweezerlike.” She shot off toward the kitchen, leaving behind her sweet Evie scent and a vague feeling of déjà vu. And a smile still on his face.

“Look what I found!” She came back with a long pair of rubber-tipped tongs that she snapped near his face. “What do you call these?”

“Tongs.”

“You’re welcome.”

He rolled his eyes. “A total stretch.”

“’Cause I was tweasing you.”

He laughed. “I walked right into that.”

“The best kind.”

He reached for the tongs. “Want me to do it?”

“My hand’s smaller. I can get deeper.” She positioned herself on the step above the newel while Declan pulled out his phone to give her light. “I can’t wait to find out what it is,” she said. “Grandmama Penelope used to always find treasures in the house, mostly things about Gloriana Bushrod. Amelia, her mother, was so distraught after Glory died that she would hide her things. Once, my grandmother found a letter in a broken floor board written by Amelia the day after Gloriana died. It was so sad. It’s in the museum room.”

“The creepy room.”

She shot him a look. “It’s not creepy.”

“Evie. It’s a room full of sad letters about dead relatives.”

“Please. There’s an altar to the family’s Irish setters from the past in your cousin’s waiting room,” she reminded him. “That room has the history of this house. And this might…belong in it.” She grunted and pushed harder, drawing his attention to her body as she worked, too on task to notice him appreciating the curves and angles and the way she filled out a pair of jeans.

“I got it!” Her whole face turned pink as she worked to squeeze the tongs and not drop the box as she slid it up the deep well in the newel.

She managed to pull the box out of the newel, and Declan snagged it right before it fell back in. “Good teamwork.”

He handed it to her, and she dropped back on the step with a happy sigh, holding a