Haunt Me Read Free Page A

energy blew into the room, blond hair flying.
    “Justin, I know exactly what we have to do about Summerfield!” His sister’s blue eyes practically snapped as she bounced over to him.
    God, she made him tired just to watch. She was also supposed to be several hundred miles away, moving into her dorm room. But no, she was here, in Penny Hollow, driving him crazy.
    “I thought you were heading back to school.” He grinned, accepting her fierce hug—delivered with the same verve as she did everything else. “Nathaniel was supposed to be driving you.”
    “Nathaniel was,” came the droll reply from his brother, who leaned against the doorjamb. “But Hurricane Jock insisted we had to turn around an hour from her school and get back here.”
    “Pfft, we can go later— this is important.” Jocelyn—known to the entire town as simply Jock —practically vibrated with excitement as she clamped her hand on Justin’s forearm.
    Nathaniel rolled his eyes. Only eighteen months younger than Justin, Nathaniel couldn’t be less like him. Justin started a business and ran it with intensity; his brother wanted to get his inheritance and hang out behind his bar, serving up drinks without any desire to be anywhere at any time. On the matter of their sister, however, Nathaniel, Justin, and their brother Elijah were in complete agreement—she needed to be out of Penny Hollow and back at school.
    “So…the way I see it, MacKenzie Dillon has no idea what she’s dealing with at Summerfield.”
    “Get to the point, Jock.” He sat on the corner of his desk, a headache pounding behind his eye.
    “The Summerfield Curse.”
    “Oh, for the love of God, drive her to school.” The last thing he needed was to hear the tired, old tale of Summerfield.
    “Justin, that MacKenzie woman is an outsider, so she can’t know about the curse—finding out will drive her out faster than anything.”
    “There is no curse, Jock. It’s an old town legend told to scare bad children.” It was the same type of nonsense that led to the town drive to attain the moniker of “Most Haunted in Virginia.”
    “Fine, you don’t have to believe me. But that place is haunted.”
    He turned to face Jock. “Classes start Monday and you need to get settled in your dorm.”
    “Who cares about school? If we don’t find a way to get this whole project back on track soon, we can kiss our inheritance good-bye.”
    His chest tightened. Jock never complained about money. But he didn’t want to scare Mac. All he’d wanted to do was open Summerfield to the tours and let visitors draw their own conclusions from the tales like the damn curse.
    He’d swung by a couple of times in the past week, hoping he might catch a glimpse of her. Maybe he could strike up a conversation, ease her transition into the town—be friends. Maybe if he involved her in the town’s dilemma…
    Huh. Maybe that was the key. If he got to know her, got her involved in the town and the revitalization project, maybe she’d volunteer the house for tours in the weekend. That’s all the council needed it for, really. And to convince her, it wouldn’t kill him to spend some time with her.
    A slow heat spread to his midsection. Damn it, this had nothing to do with MacKenzie’s long legs or her sexy, biting humor.
    “I’m trying to help,” Jock said, then sighed. “I’m psychic, you know. I see a connection between the Curse and MacKenzie Dillon.” Underneath the annoying baby-sister voice was a plaintive note of genuine worry.
    Justin walked over and gave her a hug. “Jock, no matter what happens, I have your back. You will finish your degree in—hydroponics or hydroplaning—whatever it is you’ve decided to study this week.”
    Her stiff frame relaxed a little and she sighed. “It’s hydrology, jerk. But why don’t we plant the seeds about the ghost? You know, help her imagination along…”
    “No. Ghosts aren’t real. The curse isn’t real. It’s all a bunch of folk tales