“She will. Are you going to tell her everything?”
“I don’t know yet. I’d prefer to tell Louisa and Agatha myself rather than have them hear it from Teresa. Either way, we’re starting the conversation today. Would you be opposed to going over to the house tonight if it comes to that?”
A part of Oliver’s mind rebelled at the idea of having to go, but he truly didn’t mind. He liked Louisa and Agatha, and playing with the dogs after a long week would help balance the stress of telling them all that happened in January. “No, I would be happy to.”
Felipe gave him a watery smile as a wave of cold fear passed across the tether. “Oliver, do you think they’ll be upset with me for dying?”
The question hung between them. After years of reanimating people, Oliver still didn’t know how to comfort the newly dead. In two steps, Oliver engulfed Felipe in his arms and kissed his temple. “No, darling, I think they’ll be happy they still have you. That’s really all they care about.”
“You’re right,” Felipe said but didn’t look thoroughly convinced as he stepped out of Oliver’s arms. Rolling his shoulders, he put the errant stool back and smoothed out his waistcoat. “I should get going. While you were gone, I finished developing the remaining photographs and wrote up my additional notes from the other night. They’re both on your desk.”
“Thanks, Felipe.”
“I was thinking of taking Teresa to your room in the library to talk, if the building will let us see it without you there.”
Felipe gave him a pointed look, as if asking for silent permission. It wastheirroom; his, Felipe’s and Gwen’s, even if the building had created it for him.
“I think that’s a great idea. It’s private and cozy.”
Nodding, Felipe checked the clock one more time and drew in a long breath. “I should go up.”
“Tell Teresa I send my love,” Oliver replied, kissing his cheek. “And give two tugs if you need me.”
Oliver watched Felipe go and tried to ignore the knots of tension in his breast as he headed for his desk on the other side of the closet. If he wasn’t careful, he would spend the next hour trying to puzzle out the feelings on the other end of the tether instead of working. Oliver’s gaze lingered on the shower, but he knew if he stopped moving, that would be it for the day. Bringing the photographs, their collective notes from the institute, and Herman Judd’s autopsy notes to the longest bench, Oliver spread the pieces of the case before him.
Herman Judd, the magical family tree, Dr. Yates, and the dead patients. All day he had been churning the case over in his mind as he schlepped boxes. There was something they were missing, something that would show this was more than simple negligence. Pulling the floorplan he and Joe had sketched closer, Oliver filled in what they had discovered. It was clear the institute had been built with a purpose in mind. But what?
***
FELIPE’S HEART RUSHEDloudly in his ears as he stood at the edge of the foyer. He didn’t know if he was more afraid of Teresa showing up or not coming. No, hewantedher there; he wanted to talk, even if it scared him that he could make things worse. Drawing in a tight breath, Felipe focused on the weight of the tether beneath his heart. He had another chance to make things right.
“Papa?”
Felipe turned to find Teresa watching him warily. Despite looking very much like a competent young woman in her hunter green walking dress and cream gloves, the expression was the same he had seen many times, typically after something broke. Relief loosened the knot in his throat; his daughter didn’t hate him. When he opened his arms as he always did, she paused only a brief moment before folding against him with a sigh. Holding her close, Felipe kissed the top of her head and relished the feeling of holding his not-so-little girl again.
“You don’t know how relieved I am to see you,” Felipe said softly. “There is something I need to tell you, but let’s go somewhere more private.”
Nodding, Teresa followed him up the foyer stairs. The entire way to the uppermost floor of the library, Teresa was quiet. A small smile crossed Felipe’s lips as her head swiveled to take in everything, from the winding halls of the Paranormal Society to the soaring shelves and catwalks of the library and to the people they ran into in between. As Felipe led her around the corner of the last shelf on the library’s third floor, the wooden staircase leading into the ceiling shimmered into existence as if it had to be coaxed without its master there. Teresa blinked and frowned thoughtfully before testing the first stair with her boot.
Climbing through the hatch first, Felipe helped Teresa inside and carefully shut it behind her. The cozy sitting room looked like something out of a castle or Oxford with its three arrow slit windows and ironwork sconces stationed around the sofa and armchairs. On the low table in the center was a book of Whitman’s poetry Agatha had lent them. Teresa glanced at the title before taking a seat on the sofa. Felipe debated sitting in the armchair he usually favored, but Teresa had scooted far enough down that he realized she meant for him to join her.
He opened his mouth to speak when she blurted, “Mama told me you tried to visit me on Saturday after I left. Thank you for the flowers. I didn’t see them until last night, but they were lovely. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“We all need space sometimes.” He, of all people, was certainly guilty of leaving the moment he didn’t want to answer hard questions. Felipe ran a tired hand over his face. “And I’m also sorry. A lot has gone on while you were away at school, and I wrongly assumed you wouldn’t need time to adjust to those changes because, for me, they happened months ago. I never considered how different it would be for you when you came back for the first time, and I wasn’t there.”
Teresa swallowed hard and fingered her beaded purse. “It was strange without you at home. All Mama and Ma Ma talk about are their gallery shows and their friends. I never thought I would get sick of talking about art, but that’s all I do at school and now at home too. Sometimes, they seem startled to see me sitting on the sofa, like they grew accustomed to it being just them.”
Felipe nodded. When Teresa left, the same thing had happened to him. He would return home from cases and feel like he was intruding upon Louisa and Agatha’s private time, even though they tried to make space for him.
“And I miss our breakfast talks.”
“I miss them too,” Felipe replied with a smile. “You can’t begrudge your Mama and Ma Ma too much for having gotten used to an empty house, but I do understand how it feels to suddenly be a guest in your own home. That’s why I initially started living here instead of the house. If I was home for a while between longer cases, everything was fine, but when I’d come back after a few months away, I felt like I was intruding, especially once you weren’t there.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Laying his hand over Teresa’s, Felipe held her hazel gaze. “Let me be clear that I want you to do whatever it is that makes you happy. I want you to go to art school and have a life of your own, even if it takes you away from me. But rattling around the house without you while your Ma Ma desperately tried to make me feel included didn’t feel fair to them or me, so I came back here, which was, frankly, equally lonely until I found Oliver. More than anything, I want you to remember that no matter where you or I live, we’re still a family. I will always be your Papa, and I will always love you and your mamas.”
“Even when we make your hair grey?” Teresa asked, biting back a smile.
