Page 14 of Now You See Him

Chapter

Ten

SUTTER CONSTRUCTION:

Sorry I’ve been tied up with a construction delay for so long. Anything?

TINA:

Nothing

SUTTER CONSTRUCTION:

Not even a dream?

TINA:

Nothing at all

SUTTER CONSTRUCTION:

I wonder what this means. Did we…I don’t know, satisfy what he came here to do? Was that the last time he was going to make an appearance?

TINA:

Maybe? My fiancé came back yesterday. Is it time to tell him what happened between us?

SUTTER CONSTRUCTION:

Wait. Give it a few more days. See if Damien comes back.

Tina:

I want to see you again.

SUTTER CONSTRUCTION:

I know, sweetheart. I want to see you again too.

I t had been over a week since Derrick had spent the night in her bed.

He’d left first thing in the morning, sneaking out before she’d even opened her eyes, and she’d hated that she’d felt alone, cold, and empty.

There hadn’t even been even ghostly visits, or a chill over her skin, to let her know that someone or something was in the room with her.

Then Logan walked through the front door on Friday morning and guilt slammed into her like a tsunami.

She was a terrible person. She cheated. Now, she’d have to lie to this man who had given her six years and a promise of forever.

Who had still moved in with her, across state lines, to a place he absolutely hated, just because she saw a For Sale sign and decided to uproot their lives. She was absolute scum.

Scum who probably ate something terrible and imagined all those dreams for the last few weeks.

Scum who needed to get the drinking water tested, because where was this poltergeist?

This ghost? Scum who used some twisted, fucked-up excuse to sleep with another man that was most likely a hallucination after all.

And scum who didn’t regret it. Not really.

She stood in the basement, daring Damien, almost demanding that he come after her as she angrily shoved wet clothes into the dryer. She was taking care of both hers and Logan’s wash because she couldn’t help herself but try desperately to make up for her infidelity.

Laundry wasn’t going to cut it, but at least it took the edge off her moral panic.

“Tina?”

Logan’s voice came from the top of the stairs. He still refused to come down them. Tina wasn’t sure if it was because of the door opening on its own or because he was experiencing something ghostly on his own.

“Yes?” she called back as she tossed in a dryer sheet and slammed the door.

“My mother wants us to come to dinner,” he yelled. “It’s in an hour.”

“Okay!” Tina yelled back.

There was a long pause. “Tina?”

“Yes?”

There was another long pause. Tina hit the start button for the dryer, then made her way back upstairs. She figured that Logan was probably on his phone or got distracted by something in the kitchen.

“What is it—” She stopped at the landing and gaped at her kitchen. All the upper- and base-cabinet doors were open.

Logan was white as a sheet, standing next to the island, swaying back and forth as he stared wide-eyed.

“Logan, are you rearranging or something? What’s going on?”

“I-I must’ve missed it.”

Tina walked over to stand by his side. Maybe she wasn’t seeing whatever he was staring at. “What did you miss?”

His fingers trembled as he pointed to the basement door where she’d just entered.

“I walked downstairs from the office, and asked you if you wanted to go to my mother’s house for dinner.

Then I walked back towards my office, and I heard something.

When I turned around, all the kitchen cabinets were open. ”

“Oh?”

He turned to face her, and his hands came up, lightning fast, to grip her biceps. He squeezed the fleshy part of her arm until she yelped with pain.

“Logan!”

“You opened the cabinets,” he said, his tone accusatory. “You—they were already opened when I came down here. I just missed it when I went to the basement stairs. You opened them and then forgot and went down for laundry.”

Tina’s first thought was that she really was sick and twisted because Damien had made his presence known and that was thrilling.

She was giddy. Excited that he was back.

Her second thought was that Logan did not handle this information well.

He obviously hadn’t experienced the level of paranormal encounters that she’d experienced.

And lastly, there was a messed up sense of appreciation that Damien was going after Logan.

That he was hurting him. And didn’t that just make her feel guilty?

Why in the world would she want to hurt the man that she’d agreed to marry?

This had to be some sort of side effect of encountering an evil spirit.

“Tina!” Logan’s voice edged on desperation.

“Yeah, I, ah, there was a strange smell coming from the cabinets. The fresh paint, maybe? I opened them all up to air it out.”

His grip relaxed, the relief so clear in his face that Tina had to hide a smile by turning her back towards him. She walked around the island, closing all the cabinets and drawers until the space was back to its original clean aesthetic.

“Why don’t we go get ready?” she said to Logan. “You know your mom. She likes it when everyone is dressed up.”

He didn’t say anything but managed to put one foot in front of the other and follow her out of the room.

“I just don’t understand why you won’t set a date,” Cynthia said as she sat at the head of her dining table, her hands folded in front of her empty plate.

Her brassy brown hair was swept up in a chignon.

She wore pearls, and her hair was unnaturally shiny.

She was so desperate to show off to all of her friends that her only son was getting married that she couldn’t tell that same son was beet red and hated every moment of this conversation.

Out of kinship, affection after years of knowing him, Tina reached under the table and rested her hand on his thigh. He gave her a resolved, miserable half smile in acknowledgment.

“Let it go, Cynthia,” Tom said. His voice was bland, as if he’d already heard his wife’s complaints and was used to them. “They’re young. Let them decide when it’s right for them.”

“They’re in their thirties , Tom,” Cynthia said. She sounded more and more desperate with each syllable. “It’s time to either shit or?—”

“Okay,” Tina said, standing from the table. She picked up her plate and her glass. “I’m just going to put these in the dishwasher, and I have to check my phone for a work…thing.”

She made her escape as quickly as she possibly could.

The kitchen was less welcoming and classic than the one she had in her beautiful new home, but definitely more ostentatious.

Marble waterfall island. Grecian-style cabinetry.

Bamboo hardwood floors. A restaurant-size fridge with custom paneling. Tina hated it.

After loading the dishwasher, she walked in the opposite direction of the dining room and went into the family room, which was less formal than the sitting room.

She technically had enough space in her home to have two separate conversation spaces in addition to the great room.

There was a part of her that knew Logan was interested in a similar setup, but after she told him the truth, after they figured out what Damien wanted, he was probably going to move out.

Why would he want to stay with her after she cheated?

No, after she cheated and felt zero remorse?

Tina walked past the couches towards the wall of bookshelves. She’d kill some time, give the family space to talk at the table without her. As she scanned the photos of Logan from when he was a child through adulthood, her eyes stopped on a stack of yearbooks.

Smiling, she touched the one that was from Logan’s last year of high school and slipped it off the shelf.

The book had a thick leather cover and gold-stamped lettering.

Tina turned her back and leaned against the shelving unit as she began flipping through pages.

There were mostly photos of high schoolers with arms draped over one another’s shoulders.

Because the school was small, Tina tried to find as many pictures of Logan as she could.

There he was on the debate team. On the lacrosse team.

Because of course he’d play lacrosse.

She flipped another page and froze, her blood icing over. She almost dropped the yearbook at the image staring back her.

In the center of the two-page spread featuring the award-winning football team stood the star quarterback and wide receiver.

Derrick and Damien Sutter. They were identical at first glance, but they’d both been inside her.

She could tell the difference. Damien had a cockier, meaner smile.

It said that he knew he was hurting you and expected you to enjoy it.

His jaw also looked like it was drawn with sharp lines and hard edges.

When she stared at it long enough, she could tell that it was more angular than Derrick’s.

Meanwhile, Derrick had the sweeter expression, the one that she preferred.

It was a genuine, warm curve of his lips.

It was the kind of easy charm that had butterflies fluttering in her belly, especially since she knew that he could be just as mean as his brother in the sheets if he wanted to.

Everything started to click into place. Derrick’s strange aversion to the name Logan started to make sense now, especially if they knew each other. Logan’s aversion to staying in the house when Sutter Home Construction was coming over to check the hot water heater.

Lacrosse versus football. Was that a natural rivalry? She’d never really paid attention to either sport in her city public school.

It could be nothing, but she wouldn’t know unless she asked Logan herself.

Tina put the yearbook back in its designated spot and walked to the dining room. Just as she was about to make an entrance, she heard Logan’s harsh voice as he snapped at his parent.

“Stop it, Mother. This is none of your business.”

“Of course it’s our business,” she hissed. To Tina’s ears, Cynthia’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard. “Especially if you’ve made us accomplices.”

“All you have to do is stay quiet,” Logan said. “I’m not asking you to say anything.”

“Son,” Tom replied. “This is not what you want to do at the start of your marriage to a woman you plan on spending the rest of your life with. You should be honest.”

“It won’t matter in a few months.”

“It’ll matter to her. ”

Tina had heard enough by then. She backed up a few paces, then made enough noise as she walked into the dining room. She looked at Logan first, who had an expression of alarm, and then his features immediately smoothed out. Logan’s parents weren’t as careful in hiding their distress.

Tina wasn’t sure what Logan was talking about, or what his parents were covering for him, but it was another building block in her carefully constructed life that came crashing down.

Not only did she betray Logan’s trust, but it appeared that the secret he was hiding betrayed Tina’s as well.

Was it wrong to admit that she didn’t care what he did, just that it evened the playing field between them?

She decided that it wasn’t the right time to confront him about the Sutter twins after all.

She’d wait, just like Derrick suggested.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t go home and test another theory that was taking shape in her mind.

A theory that could answer a lot of questions about Damien’s connection to her fiancé.

“I’m so sorry,” she said with a bright smile as she took her seat. “I have some work that I have to do at home. I hate to cut our night short but I really should get going soon. Cynthia, your meals are always delicious. I absolutely hate to eat and run, but I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, dear. We can do this again soon now that you two are so close.” She looked over at her son with a questioning smile.

Logan nodded, and the lines of his shoulders seemed to droop with relief. “Yeah, thanks mom. I better get Tina back, then. After the week I had with work, I could use an early night anyway.”