Page 64 of The Curse of Redwood

Much like I want to protect mine.

“Good evening,” Ben said, appearing in the doorway wearing a casual suit. He was freshly shaven and had trimmed his hair since the last time I’d seen him. He still looked like Ben… just a more polished version. “Come in.”

“Thanks,” Taylor said, as a dopey smile crossed his face.

I snickered and let him go into the manor first before stepping in behind him and closing the door. Taylor gawked at the interior, looking like a kid in a candy store as he struggled to stay in place and not wander around.

“It was built in the late 1800s,” Ben explained, noticing Taylor’s interest. “After dinner, I can give you a tour.”

“That’d be awesome,” Taylor responded with an excited grin. “I’ve always loved Victorian styled manors. You can really feel the history of the place.”

A floorboard creaked to the left of us.

“Let’s go to the dining room,” Ben quickly said, guiding us that way. I didn’t miss how he shot a look over his shoulder at the area the creak had come from.

Dinner consisted of pot roast with all the fixings; potatoes, carrots, and celery. As we sat at the table and ate, I eyed the basket of homemade bread before glancing at Ben. My best friend was a decent cook, but I knew he hadn’t made the meal all by himself.

Ben met my eye and smirked. The top of his hair ruffled ever so slightly, even though there wasn’t any sort of breeze around to cause it. That’s when I knew Theo was with us.

“I finished my book today,” Ben said halfway through the meal.

“Congrats!” I held up my glass. “Good thing we brought wine. A celebration is in order.”

“I don’t know about that.” Ben dabbed at his mouth after swallowing a bite of food. “It’s still a rough draft, and I’m not sure if it’ll be published. Not much to celebrate right now.”

“Finishing it is huge,” Taylor chimed in. “Don’t downplay your achievements. Not everyone can write a book. I knowIcan’t. I’ve tried.”

“You have?” I asked. He was so much more than the dumb jock I’d initially pegged him for. “What kind of book?”

Taylor became shy as he poked at his pot roast. “Just something silly.”

“I’d like to know as well,” Ben said.

That did it. Taylor smiled before saying, “If you really wanna know, it was a thriller. You were the inspiration behind it. Well, your work was. Not you as a person. Although there’s nothing wrong with you as a person. You seem really great and—”

I lightly kicked him under the table.

He cleared his throat. “Um. What I mean is being a fan of your work inspired me to tell my own story. But writing is a lot harder than it seems. I got one chapter in and hit a major block. Haven’t opened it again since then.”

“You should try to finish,” Ben told him. “For every story untold, there is a missed opportunity for a reader to fall in love with it.”

“Wow, Ben.” I put a hand to my chest. “That was deep.”

I felt a flick to the back of my head and jolted in my chair.

“You okay?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah,” I responded, rubbing at the spot.

Ben smiled before taking a drink. He knew Theo was messing with me. That damn ghost boy was going to get it if he didn’t knock it off.

After dinner, Ben showed Taylor around the manor. To make it more interesting, I told Taylor the stories I’d told Ben when he’d first moved in.

“Six confirmed deaths on the property,” I said in an exaggerated tone, as we entered a bedroom upstairs. “One was a little boy named Paul. He got sick and died in this very room.”

Taylor looked at Ben, “Is your house haunted?”

“Only a little,” he responded.