“You must have mystical powers,” Stone adds.
Gloria straightens her posture and seems to be in better spirits. “I knew I was good for something.” A proud grin appears on her face before she snaps her gaze to us with a pointed look. “You two can go, this was still kind of useless.” She shrugs.
Stone is quick to stand up and yank me up with him. “Great. Have fun. Let’s go. We’ll consider you for the invite list for the wedding. Good luck, everyone.”
We are out of that room so fast that my laugh is uneven and mumbled.
The moment we get peace down the hall and head toward the lobby, we calm down, and Stone and I face one another in an embrace.
“That was a real delight.”
Stone widens his eyes to get his bearings before blinking a few times. “What a highlight of our day,” he says, cynical.
“It kind of was. I mean, how are we going to top that, unless you have plans to tie me to your bed again,” I retort.
Stone half-circles us to lead us on. “Not a bad idea.”
I pat his shoulder. “Plan that out in your head while I ask Stuart for a batch of cookies.”
“He might poison them.”
I pinch Stone on his side. “No, he won’t. He likes me.”
Two minutes later, we’re sitting on the sofa in the lobby while we wait for cookies. Stone and I face forward and study the moose on the wall.
“Do you think it’s possessed?” I wonder.
“Maybe. He doesn’t seem to leave, no matter how many times Holden says it’s going to go.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Dead Animal on a Wall.”
I wince. “Ugh, I don’t need that image.”
Right on cue, Holden approaches us. “Heard you two were here.”
He takes a seat on a chaise lounge near us. I met him at Vaughn's wedding.
“Welcome to Lake Spark, Harlow.” He smiles.
“Thanks. So far so good, except this moose on the wall seems to be an evil spirit.”
Holden rubs his face with his hands. “I know. When we had a flood downstairs a month ago, it set us back on the interior designer front, so we were pushed back by four months. I hired a woman to do a full project of this place. The daughter of an old coach of mine, Lexi, but she was in college back then.”
“Great. You can finally swap hunters’ paradise for something to actually represent Lake Spark,” Stone comments.
“Or swap it with a dead duck,” Holden counters.
Stone and I both appear terrified, even though Holden rolls his eyes that we would even consider him to be serious.
“Anyhow, it’s nice to see that you’re shacking up with Stone. I’m sure he’s a real delight to live with. You can soften him a bit, and maybe he’ll finally leave Stuart alone.”
“Nope. His passionate dislike of your receptionist will never disappear.”
“He shows no respect,” Stone is quick to defend himself.
Holden stands and straightens his rolled-up shirt sleeves. “On that note, I’m going to go bury myself in financial numbers. Good to see you, Harlow.”
