The Arrangement

Burke paused for a moment, then shook his head.

“I walked the house last night. There are a thousand fucking doors here. There’s also a cellar that Chase and Nathan claim to know nothing about, and there has to be a way to access the roof.”

“Exploring,” he said again flatly. The word came out like he’d never used it before. “Tonight.”

I smiled merrily. “Yes.”

“In this old rented house.”

“Sure, why not? It’ll be fun.” I grinned slyly. “Unless there’s something else you’d rather do together?”

I watched his eyes crawl slowly over my body, the way they had in the kitchen that night. The night I’d kissed him. The night he’d kissed me back, and sent my whole world spinning.

“If you’re stumped for ideas on what to do later,” I said, my voice going lower, “you could always ask Chase or Nathan.”

I crossed the bedroom and stepped into him, bringing our bodies close. Very leisurely, I ran one finger down the center of his chest.

“They knew what to do with me,” I smiled wickedly.

Eighteen

BURKE

“Look at this place, it’s amazing!”

I couldn’t help but smile, just watching her. She was like a kid in a candy store. A very old, very dusty and dirty candy store, all covered in spiderwebs.

I guess it was a testament to her courage that the spiders didn’t even bother her.

“I don’t know about amazing,” I shrugged. “But it’s a basement for sure.” I took a few more steps, still bent at the waist. “Almost a crawlspace, actually.”

We’d spent an hour exploring the house, way after dinner, well after everyone else had gone to bed. Kayleen had insisted on that part. That our adventure would be more fun by moonlight and flashlights, even if it slowed us down.

Maybe even especially because it slowed us down.

At first I thought the whole thing was stupid. The idea of exploring a house I’d been living in for more than a year already. Yet the more we walked the grounds, inside and out, the more we found things that her skeleton key would open.

And most times, they were interesting.

For example, there was an overgrown shed way out in the garden. After unlocking it and clearing away the vines, we found a whole bunch of antiquated tools and cutting equipment. There were scythes and pruning shears. Hand-forged pitchforks and multi-tine cultivators. But right there, in the center of the shed, were also a collection of beautiful jeweled eggs. The set belonged to a burnished copper birdbath, which was buried in one corner.

A birdbath which we set up in the atrium, on a whim.

Somehow Kayleen had me dragging it out and polishing it off, with her little dog watching the whole way. When we were d

one it looked absolutely gorgeous: 5 faceted eggs sitting in a pool of reflected stars, twinkling by the light of the moon.

“Alright, that’s pretty kickass,” I had to eventually admit.

Kayleen had only smiled sweetly. “Told ya.”

We found closets and cabinets, some empty, some full. A door in the back of the house even led to a whole extra bedroom, all decked out in turn-of-last century furnishings.

But the basement was by far the biggest find.

We’d seen it from outside of course, through ground-level windows all stained by time. Kayleen located the doorway by figuring out where the stairs ought to be and then moving an empty bookcase aside. Her skeleton key clicked in the lock, and one very risky stair-climb later, we ended up here.

“No one’s been down in this place for years,” Kayleen said, picking her way along rows of decrepit boxes and old wooden trunks. “Maybe decades.”