Chapter Five
With an open suitcase in front of her, and a matching dress coat and slacks to wear on the stand, Luna packed what she needed for the overnight trip to Denver.
Her cell phone rang with a number she didn’t recognize. Even without the words Potential Spam on the screen, she considered blowing off the call.
On the fourth ring she changed her mind.
“Hello?” she started, fully expecting a pause and then either a bot telling her about how she’d won something, or the voice of a complete stranger acting as if they knew her and then trying to sell her beachfront property in Kansas.
“May I speak with Luna Canning.”
“This is her.”
“I’m Greg Filmore with Alliance. Your insurance company.”
Luna stopped tossing clothes in her suitcase and stood tall. “Oh, hello.”
“I understand you have some roof damage that we need to take a look at.”
“Yeah, I do. I wasn’t expecting you to get back to me so soon,” she admitted.
“I had a cancellation and can get there tomorrow.”
Luna cringed. “I won’t be here tomorrow.” And Miley was working.
“Is there any way someone else can meet me? Otherwise, I can’t get there until late next week. Your roofer said the damage is likely to get worse with next weekend’s storm.”
The last thing Luna wanted to do was push this guy off. “Can you guarantee a time? I might be able to get my sister here, but she works and can’t wait around all day.”
“You’ll be my first appointment. Is eight okay?” he asked.
“Let me call my sister and I’ll get right back to you.”
Greg agreed and Luna called Harper.
“I need a big favor,” Luna said without saying hello.
“What is it?”
“I have to be in Denver tomorrow. The insurance guy says he can check out the roof at eight in the morning, and Miley has to work. Can you be here? I really need my insurance company to help pay for these repairs.”
“Hold on.”
Luna waited while Harper put her on hold.
Ever since the pandemic, employers were a lot more lenient about working remotely. At least that was what Luna was banking on.
It wasn’t long before Harper got back on the call to affirm her ability to help. “I don’t have to hang out in the attic with this guy, do I? I hate it up there.”
Luna grinned. Harper and Ash swore the attic was haunted.
When they were kids and staying at their grandmother’s house in between the times their mother was married, they’d dare each other to go into the attic alone.
They never lasted long.
Whether their overactive child imaginations got the best of them, or there was something to their claims, neither Harper nor Ash volunteered to go into the attic even as adults. When they were kids, they swore they heard footsteps on the stairs only to open the door and find the room empty.
Other than the drafty space giving her a chill, even on warm days, Luna didn’t hold any issues with the attic. If there had been anything running around up there, they were gone now.
“Nope. Just show him where it is.”
“Good. Who’s taking you to the airport?”
“I’m parking in the overnight garage. It’s cheaper than an Uber.”
“Okay. I’ll be there before eight.”
“Thanks, sis. I owe you.”
Luna confirmed the appointment time with Greg and finished packing.
She sat on the edge of her bed and looked around the room.
As the primary bedroom, this had been Nana’s.
When Luna moved in, she changed out all the furniture, especially the bed.
Most of that furniture lived in the attic along with all those dusty boxes, some of it had been repurposed in other places in the house.
When Luna was home alone, the space felt quiet.
Too quiet.
It wasn’t the first time Luna wondered how her grandmother had lived in the house all alone.
Well, that wasn’t fair. With all the husbands she’d managed to acquire and subsequently get rid of, Nana had shared the house for many years.
And then there were the times that Luna and her siblings had moved in. A few times as a complete family, her mother and the three kids . . . but then each of them, Ash, Harper, and Luna, had lived with Nana separately. Harper more than Ash, Ash more than Luna.
Karen Canning, their mother, was proficient at finding the wrong men.
A trait Luna followed once, and never again.
Karen jumped into relationships with little to no regard for their possibility of longevity.
Karen’s first marriage happened before she graduated from high school. Before she was old enough to drink in a bar, that marriage was over, and Karen had moved back in with Nana.
Harper was just a baby.
Baby daddy number two came along, and Karen followed this guy to Fresno, California.
According to Nana, Ash’s father had been in the military and had zero desire to get married.
Karen stayed the course, had Ash, and things got ugly.
“That man didn’t want one kid, let alone take care of two,” Nana had said once.
When that fell apart, Karen ran home, this time with two kids.
Ash doesn’t remember his father, and all Harper recalled of him was bits and pieces.
Then came Luna’s dad.
He married Karen the second the double blue lines appeared on the test. When Luna was born, Harper was four and Ash was two. Karen’s marriage to Luna’s father stuck until after Luna’s second birthday.
Someone cheated on someone, and Karen Canning and her three young children were back at Nana’s.
Harper’s real father lived in Idaho. She’d gotten ahold of the man when she was in her midtwenties. The encounter put her in therapy for two years.
Ash’s father was MIA. Either literally or by design.
And Luna’s dad . . . he was in New York with his other family. The family he provided and cared for.
None of these men paid child support, and none of them wanted anything to do with Karen Canning and the baggage she came with.
Harper, Ash, and Luna were the baggage.
Then came husband number three. He lasted the longest and was by far the worst. Since Karen was obviously more fertile than the neighborhood rabbits, husband number three must have had an issue, since Karen stopped procreating.
Karen made a point of breaking all ties with her various baby daddies, so none of the Canning children grew up knowing their biological fathers.
Harper, Ash, and Luna all called Karen’s third husband Dad, but he wasn’t related to any of them.
The memory of Paul, husband number three, always made Luna cringe. And like looking away from the TV when something awful is happening on-screen, Luna turned her thoughts on something . . . anything else, other than him.
And then there were the multitude of men once Paul walked away.
Karen had stopped getting married to them, but that didn’t stop them from moving in with her.
Luna stood drumming her fingers on the bed as memories of how she and her half siblings came to be floated in her mind.
She hadn’t thought about this stuff in years.
And she likely wouldn’t be thinking about it now if not for her sister reminding her of how much she hated the attic.
By Luna’s hand sat the bag with the lavender laced sage from Jorden over at Crystal and Clover.
Removes bad energy.
Luna picked up the sage, found a lighter used for candles, and headed to the attic.
She found Midnight at the base of the stairs. “Are you protecting me?” Luna asked in the high-pitched voice that always came when people were talking to animals and children.
Midnight looked up, bored, and slowly unfurled from where she’d been napping.
Not exactly knowing what she was doing, Luna lit the sage until it started to smolder and entered the attic.
At the top of the stairs, she paused. “I should probably be saying something,” she said aloud.
Midnight offered nothing but a yawn before walking off to explore the space.
“You’re no help.”
Luna glanced at the smoke circling toward the ceiling.
“Okay, bad juju . . . it’s time for you to go.
” It felt silly walking around the drafty space waving a bundle of burning sage.
The scent was something close to a damp forest void of pine trees.
The tiny hint of floral from the lavender wasn’t enough to make the sage pleasant.
“Let Greg find whatever he needs so my insurance company pays up.”
She kept walking deeper into the attic. “Don’t let anything freak Harper out. And, Nana, if you’re listening, help Greg check the right boxes.”
Luna repeated herself twice while waving the sage.
When she was done, she shooed Midnight out of the attic and closed the door behind her.
“There goes nothing,” she said to the empty room.
At Luna’s feet, Midnight sat staring at the door she’d just closed.
Then she pawed at it as if asking it to open.
“Sorry, kitty. I know I promised you more time in there, but Mama’s gotta go.”
Midnight meowed and pawed at the door again.
“Wednesday, okay?”
If cats could roll their eyes, Midnight would be an expert.
Nate strode up the steps to an old college friend’s home with a six pack of beer in his hands. He rapped on the door with his free hand and sat back on his heels.
The two-story house was in the suburbs south of Seattle in a town called Sumner.
The homes looked as if they sat on half-acre lots minimum with pine trees dotting the properties.
The front lawns were perfectly manicured with shrubs and fountains and zero fences.
Nate imagined there had to be some rather strict HOAs to keep any neighborhood looking this polished.
Not one junk car or abandoned sofa could be seen.
It was nice.
The kind of nice one dreamed up when they wanted to settle down with a wife and kids in a good school district.
At least that’s what Nate imagined his life would be.
Who knew, maybe that day would come.
The door swung open and revealed Clarissa, her blonde hair pulled back, her smile just as happy as the last time Nate had seen her.
“Nate! We’re so glad you came.”
She opened her arms.
Nate stepped into her hug with one arm to avoid smacking her with the beer. “It’s been too long,” he said.
“It was the wedding, right?” she asked.