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“All valid concerns,” I murmured gently. “Did you talk to Knox about them?”
“Yes,” she bit off. “Well, I sort of yelled them at him as reasons why we would never work.”
I sat back. “Candice, are you two together or not?”
She was still for a long moment before her large brown eyes met mine. “I don’t know.”
“Wow.” I blew out a long breath. “Do you love him?”
Her face crumpled. “So much, Sutton. I am such an idiot. It’s like I sabotaged myself and now everything is wrong between us.”
“Maybe you just need time to make it right again?” I suggested.
I had never seen Candice like this before. Her posture was slumped, and her eyes looked tired. “Things will be okay,” I promised. “We can fix this.”
Her lips pressed together in a firm line, indicating that she didn’t believe me.
Well, that was her mistake. Little did she know, but Knox and Candice had just become my little project. After all, matchmaking for my dearest friends seemed like the perfect thing to do while Mark was off in Tokyo making the deal of the century.
I decided that it was time to change the subject. When we brought the brownstone in New York, I insisted that we have a home in Otterville Falls as well. Mark was surprisingly on board with the request.
Maybe he was just sick of sharing a single wide with one bathroom. Who knew? I watched as he called the realtor and asked for the biggest house in Otterville Falls.
I had tried to dissuadedisuade him. Everyone knew that the Baker estate was haunted. I tried to tell Mark that, but he wouldn’t listen to me.
Instead, he had construction workers pulling crazy hours preparing the house so that when we arrived, we would have somewhere to stay.
“How’s the house?” I asked Candice, who had been Mark’s go-to on the project.
Candice smiled. I could tell she was thankful to talk about something else.
“Sutton, it’s completely gorgeous. You won’t even recognize the place.”
“Then we are good to go straight there?”
She shook her head. “No, I guess there were some vandals that broke in and stole all of the tools. So, it will be another five to ten days.”
I felt the little hairs on my arms raise. “It’s those ghosts, Candice. I am telling you!”
She shivered. “Stop! There is no such thing as ghosts.”
I scoffed. “Of course there is. Alice said that when she was a girl, she saw a marble drop right out of the ceiling at the Baker Mansion. And Reena said that somebody pushed her down the stairs!”
“What was she doing there? I thought nobody had lived there in fifty years?”
I rolled my eyes. “All the kids traipsed through the Baker Mansion at one point or another hoping to see a ghost. There are hundreds of accounts, I’m telling you.”
Candice looked unconvinced. “Either way, it’s not ready, so we are going to need to stay at the trailer.”
Was it just me, or did Candice sound as relieved as I felt?