In Love With a Haunted House (Contemporary Romance) (7 page)

Every one of Gray Oaks’s windows and doors began to slam open and shut. The windows banged and rattled almost musically, the sashes hitting the seals so hard that it looked as if the glass would shatter at any moment. The front door squeaked and groaned but it was flung back and forth anyway.

If that was not enough the boards on the porch began to sway up and down, almost as if there was a body of water beneath them causing a tidal wave, but one created of wood and cement rather than water.

From somewhere inside the old house came the sound of screaming, and while Mallory and Blake were both certain that some of the screaming was coming from the developer there were other voices screaming as well: men, women and even children. It sounded like an entire cacophony had been loosed inside those walls.

Lonnie stood on the shaking walkway, his face going pale and his hands coming up in front of his body in a burst of involuntary applause or prayer, from where she sat Mallory could not say which one it was. It was easy to see that he wanted to turn tail and run and also equally easy to see that he was still hoping to make that sale.

Any hopes he’d had of selling to that developer were dashed, however. The house stopped shaking, the noises stopped and the front door flew open. The well-dressed developer was hurtled out the door as if something had picked him up and tossed him along like a basketball. He skidded along the overgrown front lawn on the backside of his tailored slacks. His overly polished Italian loafers gleamed in the sunlight and when he finally did fetch up, half in and half out of a flower bed, he had obviously decided that Gray Oaks was not the house for him.

Mallory and Blake wasted no time. Without even thinking about it they both jumped to their feet and ran. They got to the walkway just as the developer made it to his feet and stood there, dusting off the back of his pants and glaring at Lonnie. “Maybe you could give me a small glimpse into what it was that you were thinking when you invited me out here to see this disaster of a place. I have just been assaulted by someone, or something and I refuse to deal with that type of thing.”

“Oh, Lonnie just doesn’t think much,” Mallory put in cheerfully. “He didn’t bother telling you the house was haunted, did he?”

The developer gave her an equally icy glower. “And who might you be?”

“She just wants to buy the house!” Lonnie’s voice was high-pitched and his face was red. His overly large Adam’s apple bobbed up and down his skinny throat as he said, “This is probably something the two of them cooked up together to keep you from buying the house! They want it, and they’re ticked off because I wouldn’t sell it to them.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Lonnie.” Blake gave the developer a hard and level look. “You’re welcome to buy the house, but maybe before you do you should talk to the women who run the historical society. They were out here the other day and I think they had a slightly odd experience themselves.”

Lonnie said, “Even if it is haunted, who cares? That just makes it more exciting! It gives the place character! And character is what it’s all about these days with real estate! Anyone can go rent an average apartment or an average home but this is renting an experience! Think of the publicity it will get you, developer builds on site of haunted house!”

The developer said, “I can’t sell that as an experience. Maybe one or two apartments would rent to those weirdos that like ghosts gallivanting around the place but the majority of people want to be left alone and live in peace. What just happened to me in there was similar to being violated. I cannot imagine my tenants would appreciate that, and if word got out that it was happening I would be stuck with a lot of apartments that are just sitting empty, which means they would just be sucking money out of my pocket.”

Blake’s eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. “Violated? Sir, surely you’re exaggerating. That ghost is quite friendly. The only thing she’s ever done to me is toss me into a wardrobe.”

Mallory chimed in, “Yes, and she let him right back out again!”

Lonnie gave them both a filthy stare. “Pay no attention to them, I told you they want the house. They probably rigged up a bunch of special effects in there so that nobody else would buy it.”

“I tell you what, you spend the night in there and come back out and tell me that it’s not haunted and I will buy the damn thing and what’s more, I will double the price.” The developer dusted his hands off as if the matter were closed as far as he was concerned. He did not expect Lonnie to take the dare and neither did Mallory, as Lonnie did not seem like the brave type.

But Lonnie said, “Did you say you would double the price?”

Damn! Lonnie would do anything for money. Mallory looked over at Blake who raised his eyebrows at her and she said, “He once ate worms to make five bucks.”

Lonnie cried out in a peevish voice, “Oh come on, give me a break. I was in third grade!”

The developer shook his head. “If you spend the night in that house—if you’re brave enough to spend the night in that house I will buy it, but otherwise the deal’s off.”

“Can I ask you how you are going to find out if he really stays in there?” Mallory asked. She knew Lonnie well, if there was a way he could weasel out of something he would find it. This was going to be fine, even if she did have to dress up and chase him all up and down the hallways of that house.

“I suppose we will have to webcam.” The developer looked like he was a man with a sense of humor because he was smiling now and there was actually laughter lurking in his eyes. “Some things can’t be faked and I don’t think you could fake being in that house.”

“No, I don’t think you could.” Mallory was trying hard not to laugh herself. “Look at it this way, Lonnie, if nothing happens, you will come out twice as rich as you wanted to be in the first place. If something does happen then you have video proof of it. You could sell the footage to some reality show and make a fortune that way.”

Blake added, “It sounds like you don’t have anything at all to lose there, buddy.”

And just like that—they talked Lonnie into spending the night at Gray Oaks.

**

As it turned out the developer, whose name was Greg, did have a sense of humor. When Lonnie declared that it would be unfair for Blake and Mallory to be able to “sneak in and out of the house and trick him” while he was trying to spend the night there, Greg agreed. He then suggested that all three of them could watch Lonnie’s movements through the house from the living room of his own home.

Mallory and Blake agreed, mostly just because they didn’t want to give Lonnie a fighting chance to pretend that they were behind the haunting of the house. As they were following Greg to his house Blake asked, “Mallory, do you believe the house is haunted?”

“I didn’t used to. I mean, I lived next door to it my entire life and I never saw anything happen. I heard a whole lot of people say that it was haunted but… I mean I never saw anything, not even a light in the window that would say that it was.”

“Okay, are we going to pretend that that whole wardrobe thing didn’t really happen?”

“No, it happened. I was just afraid to say anything about it because I thought you might think I was crazy.”

“I have to admit, it was a very scary feeling sliding along that floor.”

“It looked pretty scary. You must have been flying along at around fifteen or so miles an hour. I wanted to help you but I didn’t know how.”

“If it happens again, why don’t you grab ahold of my legs and either try to stop me or go along for the ride with me?” He asked that question with that same devilish little grin that always made her heart flutter just a little more than she would’ve liked it to.

Mallory began to laugh, she just couldn’t help herself. “Blake, if the house really is haunted and Greg doesn’t buy it, could we make this work? Could we really divide the house?”

“I could think of a few alternatives.”

Mallory’s heart gave a little squeeze. She could think of a few alternatives, too, like love and marriage. Children: a whole new generation being raised within the walls of that giant Victorian home.

She was pretty sure that that was not what he was thinking so she didn’t say anything or ask him to expound upon the subject.

That was actually exactly what Blake meant. It was absolutely utterly crazy—he barely knew this woman but he was madly in love with her. He could see himself spending his entire life with her, right there in that house. He could see them having children, growing old together, caring for each other and remodeling and renovating the house together. He could see them enjoying it and each other for the rest of their lives.

He was afraid to say that out loud. If he did she would probably grab for the door handle and toss herself out into the street. He probably didn’t have enough horsepower under his engine to catch up with her, either, if she took a notion to run.

Greg lived in a completely modern slab of granite and glass. Blake and Mallory exchanged looks that said very clearly what they thought of the place although they never said it out loud. The inside of Greg’s place was just as sleek, modern and unappealing to them, although it was obvious that he took a great deal of pride in it. He took them into a room that featured a giant pool table, a large-screen TV, comfortable recliners and a lot of other masculine-type goodies. Since the sun was about to set, Lonnie was due at the house. Greg hooked his laptop up to his TV somehow so that they could watch it on the larger screen and they all sat down to see what would happen.

Lonnie did arrive, and it was obvious from the way that he was talking into the small portable camera that Greg had given him that he was incredibly nervous and trying to pretend that he wasn’t.

He made his way up to the porch and stood there, his hand reaching towards the doorknob and the keys dangling from his fingers. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down once more before he finally got up the courage to insert the key in the lock and press the door open.

Lonnie switched on the lights and Mallory leaned forward, her eyes riveted to the screen. Beside her Blake and Greg did the same. Lonnie said, in a quavering half-whisper, “See, nothing to it.”

He stood in the foyer, looking right to left as if trying to decide which way to go. Finally he said, “I think I’ve checked out the living room. The upstairs is pretty hot.”

“No crap,” Blake said. “There’s no air-conditioning up there but yet he wants someone to pay an outrageous amount of money for that house.”

“That’s called business,” Greg said comfortably. “Although I have to say I would never buy a house without air-conditioning, that would really be uncomfortable.”

Mallory hushed them. Lonnie was walking into the living room now and it was obvious by the way that the camera was jerking up and down that he was either nervous and shaking or he was trying to record everything in case there really was a ghost he could make a buck off hiding somewhere around the corner.

Mallory was nervous and tense. Blake’s hand lay on the couch beside hers and she looked down at it, before she nudged her pinky slightly towards his. For a moment their fingers just sort of almost met and then he moved his hand over and enveloped hers with his own.

He turned his head and smiled at her and she smiled back. All of her anxiety melted away. So what if she didn’t get this house? Did it really matter? What did matter was that she had found something even better than a house, she had found Blake.

Lonnie sat himself down on the couch and looked around. He spun the camera around his head and down the floor towards his feet. He was getting into it now, pretending he was the narrator of some reality show or something, and Mallory wanted to reach right through the television screen and give him a good hard shaking.

Where was the ghost? Where was Shannon? If there was ever a time for her to show up, now was it. As if to prove that point Lonnie said, “Looks like I’m going to get double for this ratty old place after all. I told you there was no such thing as ghosts.”

The words had barely left his mouth before he was yanked up off the sofa and dangled from the ceiling by an invisible hand. His screams echoed and Greg jumped to his feet, his mouth hanging open as he stuttered out, “That is just what happened to me! Do you see that?”

Mallory did see it. The look on Blake’s face told her he saw it too and that he was equally astonished. Lonnie was screaming like a banshee. Most of what he was yelling had something to do with the fact that he wanted out of that house and never wanted to see it again.

Mallory said, “Well, I guess he can’t say we’re behind this one.”

Blake said, “Wow, look at him go!”

Lonnie was spinning around the living room now, his feet not touching the floor. It didn’t look like he was in pain but it was very apparent that he was scared witless. His screams were high-pitched enough to shatter glass and Mallory put her hands to her ears, wincing as one particularly loud and strident shout echoed through the camera and into the television. Greg grabbed the remote and turned the volume down.

Mallory asked, “Should we go get him?” Blake and Greg looked at each other and just shrugged. Mallory rolled her eyes. Guys, they would sit here all night long watching poor Lonnie get dragged across that floor like a puppet whose strings had got lost somewhere and never make a move to help him simply because they thought the whole thing was funny.

Okay, it was funny. She did not particularly like Lonnie but she still felt a little sorry for him though.

Lonnie yelled, “I won’t sell it to the developer! Will that make you happy, Grandma Lewis?”

Immediately his grotesque parody of a dance stopped. The lights blinked off then on again and Lonnie looked around like a frightened little child who had just been caught stealing. “Now come on, Grandma Lewis, you know I own this house fair and square.”

He was snatched back up in the air and this time he was dangled by his foot from somewhere around the center of the light socket. When he stopped screaming he was set down as neatly and gently on the sofa as if he had never been lifted off it.

“Still want the house?”

Greg looked over at Blake and said, “I can’t sell that. I could never turn it into apartments and renovating it just to sell it as a single house makes no sense from a financial perspective. If I can’t make money off it, the house has no value to me.”

Mallory did a happy little dance. Things were not really solved, but they were better than they had been. In the house Lonnie shouted out, “Hey, y’all come get me!”