“Wait here,” he says mysteriously, before striding out of the room.
I spend the next few minutes trying to calm my giddy mind, but it’s not working, so I mentally build a bespoke design business where I specialize in taking old things and making them new and fabulous. It’s not a storefront. Been there. Done that. But it’s all mine. Only this time, I’d hire a superb accountant. Maybe Taylor could give me tips. He says he’d hate running a business if he didn’t have a guy named Charles to do all the boring stuff. Maybe I can get my own guy named Charles. Maybe—
“Here it is. I knew the dress looked familiar.”
He holds up a framed photo of a glamorous woman I recognize as his grandmother. She’s as beautiful as an old-time movie star, with her Grace Kelly hair and stunning dress. Her stunning dress that looks eerily similar to the one I just designed.
I gasp. “The dress. Your grandmother? But how?”
“My grandmother wore this dress the night she met my grandfather. She kept this picture by her bedside when she was alive to remind her of the night.”
The gowns aren’t identical, but it’s apparent even in the old photo that the fabric, so unique in its tone and shimmer, is almost exactly the same. The bodice of his grandmother’s dress is a little more modest. The design is more an homage than an exact match. But the similarities are uncanny.
“But I’ve never seen this photo before. And the dress isn’t in her collection. But the design and the fabric are so alike. How?” I ask in wonder.
Ryder scratches his chin. “Great minds think alike? A coincidence?”
“Like the smell of Chanel No. 5? Like Archie constantly staring into blank spaces of the house? I never told you, but the night in the pool house, before the tree came down, I kept smelling perfume. It was so strong, like something wanted to keep me awake. Wanted me to get out of bed.”
That wipes the smile off his face. “When I saw the tree…” He shakes his head. “So are you saying that a ghost saved you? Inspired your dress-design idea? Because, Daisy, that’s a little mad.”
“Stop acting like this was my idea. You’re the one who noticed the similarity in the dresses and showed me the photo!”
“I just thought it was interesting. I didn’t think it would mean the house is haunted. But I guess if Grandmother were going to do some haunting, she’d probably do something like this. She always did love a good project.”
I gasp. “Me too! I love a good project, also! See? I told you. She’s trying to help me. I can feel it.”
What I don’t say to Ryder is if his grandmother is trying to help me achieve my long-standing career dream, it might be nice if she could help me with another dream as well.
So I don’t end up heartbroken.
CHAPTER 38
Daisy
(SEVEN YEARS AGO)
Dear Diary,
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in college, it’s that boys are an easy distraction. There are so many lovely ones. They don’t touch my heart. But they make me forget that despite switching majors to fashion design, I’m still barely hanging on. I’m acing my draping class, but I studied harder than I ever had and still failed my visual geography and my art history exams. I’m consoling myself by dating three guys at once. So who cares if I might soon be a fashion-school dropout and that Ryder was away on a world tour when I visited Chase this summer?
Not me. Not at all.
(NOW)
Ryder leaves in seven days.
Seven days and seven nights.
My mood goes to dark and scary places at that thought.
I’ve become addicted. To this house. To this town. To Archie. And, most of all, tohim.
There’s not much I can do about Ryder leaving.
But I need to do right by Archie. Even if it means broaching one of the many subjects we’re mutually avoiding.
I bring it up as we sip our coffee on the patio. It’s a beautiful day with a blue sky and puffy white clouds. Who can be irritated when there are puffy white clouds, right?
