Page 36 of Willowbrooke
While they were busy upstairs, I decided to start the incredibly laborious task of reorganizing and cataloging the library. Leo and I had been talking about it for weeks and putting it off for just as long, knowing how manual and intensive it would be.
But at least in that time we had come up with a game plan, and Leo had decided how he wanted everything arranged. So what was left was to remove all the books from their shelves, organize, alphabetize, itemize, and return them to their rightful places, in some sort of order that made sense to Leo, which was all that mattered to me.
It was almost dark out when the last of the crew left and Leo returned home, takeout in hand.
“Already sick of cooking?” I joked, secretly appreciative I wouldn’t have to wait a moment longer to eat, as I’d forgotten about lunch, having been buried beneath stacks of ancient encyclopedias and long-outdated textbooks on every kind of subject matter under the sun.
“Never.” Leo shook his head, smiling.
“Any luck?” I hedged.
“Doctor’s office gave me the name of an agency, butthey wouldn’t release any personal information.” Leo began unpacking the bag, laying out the food and utensils neatly across the counter. “I reached out to my friend; he’s going to help me look into it and agreed it’s weird she’s not online anywhere.”
“I’m glad you have help,” I sympathized.
“What did you get up to today?” Leo changed the subject.
“Flooring guys are almost done pulling tacks out of the second floor”—I paused, unsure of how he would react to the next part— “and I started organizing the library.”
Leo raised a brow. “Did you?”
“I hope you don’t mind—it felt weird lording over a bunch of grown men picking at tacks and nails one at a time upstairs,” I joked.
“How far did you get?”
“Not far.” I laughed. “But I’ve been entering everything into a spreadsheet as I go, so you have a full catalog.”
Leo nodded in approval, taking a bite of his food.
The rest of the week went by much the same. Leo went out chasing down leads and working with his “PI friend,” who didn’t seem to have a name, while I buried myself in books, and the men slowly refinished the flooring upstairs. By Thursday, the seal had been put over the newly sanded and stained hardwoods and was left to cure overnight. Danny was right, his friend did good work. They left with a promiseto be back in a couple weeks, after Thanksgiving, to start working on the main floor.
“You sure you want to move back upstairs?” Leo asked suspiciously over coffee on Friday morning.
I hesitated, causing his eyes to narrow. I knew whatever excuse I gave, he’d never accept it now. So I merely shrugged. “I’ll be fine,” I lied.
The truth was that for as much as I wanted to stay in his room, I was also aware I wanted ittoo much. What was worse was that I wanted him in there with me. I was fighting an internal battle, and being in that room made it so much more difficult to ignore my feelings and pretend that I felt nothing when I was around him.
How do you ignore your heart skipping a beat every time someone enters a room, or smiles at you, or lets their gaze linger a moment too long, leaving you wondering if you’ve imagined their interest or willed it into being?
Of course I didn’t want to banish myself back up to the haunted pink room, as far from Leo as I could get, but if I didn’t, I wasn’t sure what would happen.
“Won’t the fumes bother you?” Leo tried.
I shook my head. “They aired everything out yesterday; it’s safe.”
Leo snorted a laugh at the word “safe,” implying that the term was relative. He wasn’t wrong.
“I’ll order new mattresses for the rooms upstairs—the same one I have down here,” he offered.
I shrugged again. “If you want.”
Leo’s brow furrowed, confused by my indifference.
“That would be nice,” I corrected myself.
Leo relaxed, having been given permission to help. “Do you plan on redecorating the rooms now that the floors are finished?” he asked. We’d been gathering items slowly as we visited antique stores in the area, scoured online for special vintage pieces, and kept tabs on what would go where inside the house.
I nodded emphatically. “But I need to finish the library first.” I took a sip of my coffee. “I’d have a hard time focusing on the rooms if I left it in chaos.”
