“Oh.” I started clipping more aggressively, and small orange flowers fell around me.Snip. Snip. Snip.Where was Landon last night?
“Are you drinking water?” he asked. “It’s pretty hot out here already.”
“Of course.” Though I hadn’t been drinking much. I’d been too obsessed with making a dent. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, but the heat seemed to crank up a notch. A wave of dizziness hit me, and I swayed a bit.
“Whoa! Sit down. Here,” he said, grabbing my arm and leading me to a concrete bench that had somehow survived the years.
“I’m fine.” But I did feel kind of sick. Where did Landon spend the night?
He handed me my Wonder Woman water bottle, and I took a big drink.
“How’s your mom?” he asked.
“My mom?” Oh, yeah. I’d told him I was going to visit my mom. And I’d tried. “Turns out she took my grandma to bingo. I just missed them. So I hung out with my Aunt Ginny instead, and she hooked me up with the loppers.”
“Always good to have loppers, as long as you use their power for good and not for evil.” He shot me the Fireworks.
I laughed weakly and took another drink.
“Matter of fact, I got most of these garden tools from my dad’s personal shed,” Landon said. “I ended up just staying there last night after dinner. I was so damn tired, I fell asleep on the couch, and by the time I woke up, it was three in the morning. So I just stayed till morning since I didn’t want to wake you. I must’ve just missed you at the apartment.”
“Oh, yeah. You must have.” I was feeling a little better. “I thought you were going out with the guys last night?”
“School night. They all had work in the morning and didn’t feel like it, so I went to my folks’ instead.”
Funny. I was feeling a whole lot better now. I took another sip, stood and grabbed the loppers. “Hey, have you gotten those skeleton keys yet?”
“Not yet. Slow shipping. We should have them in a few days, about the time it’s safe to go back into the house.”
“Awesome. I really want to see what’s in that library closet.”
“So do I. Hey, I asked a tree guy to come out and look at that one leafless oak halfway between the house and the road. It doesn’t look very happy. I’m pretty sure he’s going to cut it down.”
“A dead tree might be atmospheric for the haunted house.”
“Not if itfallson your haunted house.”
“There’s that.” I frowned. “Isn’t it really expensive to cut down big trees?”
“They owe me one. I refer him business all the time. And he wants to be on the plaque.”
“We’re going to have to melt down the statue in Ponce de Leon Square to have enough brass for this plaque, I think.”
Landon laughed. “Hopefully not. Oh, look. The cavalry has arrived.”
I looked up, expecting to see a squad of Landon’s Known Guys or at least a tree expert, and instead I saw an unlikely crew of a woman and a man in their twenties in shorts and T-shirts, bearing garden tools. “Who’s that?”
Landon shot me an expression that suggested I might not like the answer.
“Hey, Landon!” The pretty blonde hugged him first. The guy just shook hands with him, and then they looked at me. “And you must be Kayla,” the blonde said warmly.
I began to realize who this was as Landon gestured to the pair. “I ran into Annabel on a job we’re doing with her company—”
“Her dad’s company,” I said without emotion.My dad’s company.
“The family company.” Landon winced. “Anyway, we got to talking about Milkweed Mansion, and she said she wanted to meet you.”
“So did I,” Andy added. “I hope you don’t mind, but — honestly, we had no idea you existed until we read the will. And we want you to know—”
