“Hm... Interesting. What was the fight with your dad about, Charlie?”
“I—” Charlie’s surprise wears off too quickly, though, and the anger from earlier comes roaring back. “You must get a lot of use out of that Ancestry dot-com subscription while defrauding people. Do you deduct it as a business expense when doing your taxes?”
Yes, actually. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“His dad’s kind of a sore subject at the moment,” Everett says unnecessarily.
Charlie shakes his head. “I have to go back outside andactually work now. I’d tell you to come with me, but...” He glances at Gretchen’s bare legs and feet. “You’re not really dressed for it. Throw your stuff in the washer—laundry room’s next to the kitchen. You can start learning the ropes tomorrow when you have something more suitable to wear.”
“What, exactly, would be suitable?” she asks. “Because all I brought are two dresses and a pair of pajamas.”
He gives her a look of derision.
“I didn’t exactly plan on all of this happening.”
“I’ll ask Lori if she has any of her daughter’s farm clothes from when she helped out last summer. I think you’re close enough to the same size.”
Charlie doesn’t notice the way Gretchen bristles at the idea of wearing a stranger’s hand-me-down overalls, but Everett spots the look on her face and says, “Hey, doll, at least you can change clothes.” He picks at the fabric of his shirt. “I’ve been wearing the same outfit fordecades. Imagine how stupid I feel wearing breeches in the twenty-first century.”
And because Gretchen is appreciative of an interaction with someone who doesn’t despise her, she quips, “I’d rather wear those. I bet they’d do good things for my butt.”
“Uh, what?” Charlie asks.
“Oh, sorry, nothing. Talking to Everett.”
He ignores that, instead saying, “Help yourself to whatever in the kitchen.” Charlie turns, but stops with his hand on the newel post. “And, uh, Acorn?”
Gretchen shivers, though Everett isn’t all that close to her. “Yeah?”
“Don’t make me regret inviting you into my home.”
The tone of his voice is somehow both biting and vulnerable, and Gretchen swallows a sudden lump in her throat. She gives a brief nod, and he continues down the stairs.
“Woooooooo!” Everett screams once the front door slams shut. “Woooo wooooooo!”
Gretchen claps her hands over her ears. “Ahh! Why are you doing that? Stop shrieking like a sorority girl.”
“Sorry, I just... I’ve got a lot of pent-up noise in me! Being quiet ishard.”
A small smile lifts the corners of her mouth, despite her efforts to appear stern.This ghost is like a little kid, she thinks.Well, except for the part where he’s six feet tall and kinda pervy.
“And you! You were brilliant, Gretch. Absolutely brilliant. Now all you have to do is get him to believe you about the curse and we’ll be hitting on all eight! Woooo!”
“All right, all right, that’s enough with the yelling.”
“I haven’t been this excited since Charles accidentally left the TV on the entire weekend.” Everett smiles wistfully. “It was just the Weather Channel, but it sure beat sticking my head into the creek and making up soap opera plots for the tadpoles. Though I am rather proud of some of their character arcs. Oh, hey! I have an idea!”
Well, that sounds like trouble.“What is your idea?”
He climbs onto the bed, although his knees don’t quite touch the duvet. Still, he manages to bounce a little as he says, “We should go downstairs and watch TV!”
“Mm, I don’t know. Isn’t there a better use of our time right now? Like, I don’t know, trying to figure out how to convince Charlie to believe in this life-threatening family curse of yours?”
“Hey, that makes it sound likeI’mresponsible for all of this mess.”
“Aren’t you?”
“No,” he says, elongating the word to give it a sense of attitude. “It’s all Aunt Lucretia’s fault. Have you even been listening to me?”
