Chapter 25
CHAPTER 25
JESSY
W ell, that was odd, but I don’t have time to think about it when I note Angie heading my way with a troubled expression on her face.
“Jessy.” She whispers as she hurries towards me and grabs my arm.
“Let’s get out of here. We really need to talk.”
She rushes with speed towards the front door and as we spill through it and it closes behind us with a resounding thud, she drags me in the direction of the lake and says with a low whistle, “You will never guess what I just saw.”
“What?”
Angie has always been overly dramatic so it may be anything and she whispers, “Morgana booked me to do her nails and I arrived about ten minutes early because I was excited and couldn’t wait to get there. So–” Her words are tripping over themselves and I stop and say pointedly, “Calm down, what did you see?”
“I’m telling you.” She rolls her eyes – as I said, so dramatic.
“Well, Karen let me in and told me I’d find Morgana in the main bedroom because it had the light, apparently.” She rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I went that way and I was a bit nervous. I’m not going to lie because that house is kind of creepy if you ask me and the paintings appeared to be watching me.”
She stops. “Do you think it’s haunted because I wouldn’t be shocked if it was? I mean, so much tragedy must have left a few stray souls wandering the halls for closure.”
I laugh. “Focus, Angie. I doubt the place is haunted. So, what did you discover – a ghost perhaps?”
“If only.”
She groans and glances around her before lowering her voice.
“Worse than a ghost. I witnessed a sin.”
“A sin?”
I’m wondering if Angie has lost her mind because who sees sin? Is there such a thing, anyway?
“I didn’t knock and opened the bedroom door, expecting Morgana to be sitting at the dressing table, revelling in the appropriate light for the occasion, but it wasn’t the light she was revelling in.”
“Explain.”
Now I’m interested because the words ‘revelling’ and ‘bedroom’ are conjuring up all kinds of images and Angie whispers, “I found her hugging that agent guy, Steven and I heard her say she wished things were different and they could be together.”
“Angie!”
I gasp in shock and she nods, her eyes laden with worry as she whispers, “He was reassuring her. Telling her it had to be this way and things will change when the time is right.”
She pauses for dramatic effect and gasps, “Then he kissed her – on the lips no less and not the kind of kiss you give to a friend or family member, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Did they see you?”
Angie shakes her head. “No. I backed out of there pretty damn quickly and then knocked loudly on the door and when she called me in that Steven guy had gone.”
“Where did he go?”
“Who knows? Possibly through a secret passage or a connecting room door. How do I know and Morgana just squealed in her excitable way and told me she was happy to see me because one of her nails had chipped and she couldn’t stop looking at it. That it was spoiling her day and she couldn’t see past it”
“Her chipped nail?” I pull a face. “I would have thought that was the least of her problems.”
Angie nods. “She carried on as if nothing had happened and told me how happy they were to be here and she even filmed us for her vlog.”
“I bet you loved that.”
I know my friend so well and Angie shrugs, looking pleased with herself.
“I mean, obviously when the video goes up I will repost it with some kind of friends emoji and tag her, so her followers see I’m her new bestie.”
She shakes her head. “Anyway, that’s beside the point. Do you think Luke knows she is lusting after another man and has she lost her freaking mind because that Steven guy is nowhere near as dishy as Luke Adams, premier league hottie?”
I must agree with her, but then I remember the wistful glances we have shared and the way he stares into my eyes as if he wants to say something but can’t. The impromptu hug and the sexual tension between us and I say fearfully, “Oh no.”
“What?”
Angie spins me around and I gasp, “What if they’re, well, in an open relationship? Swingers even!”
“No way!”
Angie’s eyes widen even further and even the ducks on the lake start screaming, or the equivalent in duck language, as we face the possibility that our new landlords may be about to turn Granthaven into Sodom and Gomorrah.
“What happened?”
Angie isn’t my friend by chance. She actually can read my mind and I say with horror interwoven through my sentences, “What if he wants me to, well, do other less regular duties?”
Angie shakes her head slowly. “Wow, you lucky bitch.”
We both burst out laughing because she’s not wrong and I shrug. “So what if they’re prone to decorating their doors with upside down pineapples.”
Angie nods. “It would certainly alleviate the boredom around here.”
“Imagine the memories.”
“Yes, and the headlines if it ever got out. We would be famous.”
“Infamously famous.” I remind her, and she grins.
“It would be worth it, though. Imagine the fun we would have.”
We giggle like two teenagers as our conversation tumbles down the nearest rabbit hole and for the entire journey home, it is all we can talk about.