Man's Best Friend (The Dogmothers #5) - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,50

cringe at how bad I am.”

“I do!” She giggled and waved, then darted away to slip each of her arms around one of Gramma Finnie’s and one of Yiayia’s to help them down the driveway, the three of them laughing over some secret joke.

As Evie watched them leave, she put her hand over her heart, pressing against the wet spot Danny had left, letting out a sigh of bone-deep longing.

Chapter Twelve

When Declan came in through the back, he found Evie standing at the open front door, staring out, even though he’d seen Molly’s van pull out a few minutes ago.

He cleared his throat, making her turn quickly, her expression distant. “Oh, hi. I…didn’t hear you.”

He pointed to the chandelier. “Want to give the cleaning a go?”

She followed his gaze. “It’s a little tricky.”

“I can handle tricky.”

“Okay. You have to climb into the crawl space, which is part of the attic accessible from a bedroom closet. From there, you crank it down, assuming the winch is functioning as it should, then the chandelier will lower to about five feet from the ground. That way, I can clean the crystal and polish the brass, but I can’t get that done in one day.”

“Why don’t I go up and check it out, and if the device still works, I’ll lower it. If it’s safe to leave it that way, you can take a few days with the cleaning, and we’ll raise it up Friday after my shift. Would that work?”

“Perfect.” She took a few steps closer, eyeing him carefully. “You’re really sure about all this, Declan?”

“You know what I’m sure about?” he asked, reaching for her hand. “That I don’t want you to ask me if I’m sure anymore.”

She laughed. “Deal.”

“Seriously, E. I wouldn’t be here to help if I held some kind of grudge against the place, okay?”

“I know that, and it’s remarkable.” She waved him to the stairs. “So come with me to the attic, which is a thousand degrees, so you’ll be…even hotter. If that’s possible.”

He smiled at the unexpected compliment, noticing she had a certain glow since Molly and the gang had been there. Was that because she held Danny? Or talked to Molly? Or could it be…him?

Whatever it was, it made her even prettier.

“Down here, to the other side of the house.” At the top of the stairs, she led him the opposite way of her grandfather’s room.

“This was your parents’ room,” he remembered.

“Yep. There’s a crawl-through access that goes above the entryway.” She gestured him toward the closet, but as he walked, he looked out the double doors to an upstairs patio wrapped with fancy wrought iron.

He stood for a moment, staring at it, realizing exactly where he was. This was the bedroom, that was the veranda, or deck. So, the patio was beneath it…and the sunroom was under where he stood.

And then he wondered if he’d spoken too soon about being okay. Because this whole wing…

“Hey.” Evie was suddenly next to him, curling her fingers around his arm. “Wanna skip it? A dirty chandelier is not worth…”

“Shhh.” He put his finger over her lips, realizing that the more they casually touched, the more he wanted to, well, casually touch. “I want to, Evie. It’s…good to let go.”

“That is not the face of a man letting go of anything.”

“This is all new, right?” He gestured toward the room. “New downstairs, upstairs, and that deck, right?”

She nodded. “Completely rebuilt from scratch.”

“Then there are no ghosts.” He slid an arm around her, suddenly so grateful for her very presence. “Show me the crawl space.”

She led him into the walk-in closet, obviously much more modern than any other closet in the house. The shelves were empty except for a few boxes stored in one corner.

“Pull that, and the ladder comes down,” she said, pointing at a thin white cord hanging from a two-foot-square door built into the ceiling. He’d seen hundreds of these in his life while fighting house fires that frequently started in attics. It was nice to pull one and not get slammed by billows of black smoke.

He easily dropped a set of folding stairs that led to the rafters and started climbing. “What am I looking for, exactly?”

“I’ve never been up there, but my dad said it’s like some kind of crank coming out of the floor above the chandelier.”

He poked his head into the tight space, squinting into the darkness and pulling a flashlight from a clip on his belt to guide his way. The beam