Somehow, Trisha managed to get home before Monday sunset. She'd had to leave her car in Boston, take a bus to Worcester, another from there to Hardwick and then walk all the way from town to the Manor. But she made it, and I treated her to a lavish dinner, before sending her upstairs for a relaxing bath and a good night sleep in her warm, comfy bed.

I was still excited about Brandon's call, but I put it aside to hear about her crazy adventures in the snow. By Tuesday morning, when my friend found her way downstairs to let Susan have her way on the second floor, I was already calm and composed, and just dropped a casual comment about it.

"Oh, he texted me last night," she said, struggling to go from the standing-up state to really awake. "Just a line: let's do it after New Year. You coming back from the party with him?"

I frowned, thinking that was actually a good idea. If roads were open, maybe he would accept an invitation to spend a couple of days here with me. That would be nice. No. Not nice. It would be frigging awesome!

"What're you wearing to the party? D'you even have anything like a night dress, Fran?"

"Fuck," I snarled. "No, I don't."

I needed to breathe deep and calm down, 'cause I could already foresee the next two weeks would be a dreadful spiral down into panic, and I might be enough of a chicken to find an excuse to fall back and don't go to Boston at all.

Knowing myself and my available resources for advice, I texted Amy, telling her I was alright, but I would like to talk to her whenever she had a spare while. Her medium superpowers told her it was a life-or-death situation and she called me that very evening. She was thrilled by the news, and organized my last week of December at the speed of light.

"What're your plans for Christmas?" she asked.

"Hum. None?"

"Okay, then you're coming over to spend it with me, and Trisha too, if she doesn't have plans either. You can stay here the week and get ready for the big meet." She narrowed her eyes. "How long since you got a nice waxing?"

"Hum. Never?"

"Okay, a friend of mine has a beauty parlor, so we can go have our ladies' day there, and then go shopping for something decent for you to wear. And then let the Haunter descend on you."

Was I to say no?

With my moves before seeing Brandon again on such a safe track in Amy's hands, I felt like I could breathe again. Sort of, because just the thought of seeing him was enough to make my heart race and pound.

As to feed that surreal feeling of living in a constant mix of panic and bliss, he called me the next night. I hardly managed to bring my idiotic grin down to a stupid smile before picking up.

"I was thinking," he said, no time wasted in greetings. "I could fly to Boston a couple of days ahead, like the 28. How's that for you?"

"Great. I'm spending Christmas at Amy's and staying there until we meet."

"Cool. Then I can go on the 26."

"No, mister, you can't. We've got girls' stuff to do, Amy and I, and we don't want any men coming in the way."

"Okay, okay! Then the 28 it is. Text me her address so I can go pick you up."

"Yessir." I liked his pleased-boss smile, 'cause I'm that much of a fool. "By the way, what kind of dress should I wear?"

"For me? Eve's works fine." He laughed when I blushed, the bastard. "Don't worry about that. We'll pick it together."

"You mean going shopping with you? Should I panic?"

"Trust me. I got a fine taste for night dresses other than Eve's." He winked at me, his lips pursed in a little smile that stirred five new generations of infernal butterflies. "Okay, so the 28. It's a date."

And it was.

Being in touch with him again, on such great terms, lifted the ban on writing in a heartbeat, because now I enjoyed reliving every single minute of his days at the Manor, even those when he was out of his mind. So I found myself reluctant to leave the study to eat or sleep, and Trisha snorted and complained about being forced to go up to the third floor to get me half a dozen times a day, because I wouldn't pay any attention to my phone.

You see, writing gets to you. Having a story to tell is like falling in love: it takes over your heart and thoughts, the world seems better, colors are brighter, everything is beautiful and you can't wait to sit down again and resume writing. And in my case, I was feeling all that about writing about him. I mean, I didn't think I was in love with him, but I was certainly head over heels. It was mostly physical: the desire of being in his arms, kissing, having sex. That alone doesn't qualify as love to me. That's chemical reactions of the body and they're gone faster than they come.

But I had to admit that wasn't all. There was more to it, to him, than just sex. It had to do with something that laughed at my many attempts to cage it in words. Something deep inside me that seemed to revive with the sound of his voice and his mere presence.

I still thought it came from what I'd seen him go through, and the respect and admiration his will and his courage inspired in me. I'd seen him at his lowest. I'd been there to watch him bend in pain and still put up the fight of his life. And I'd seen him pick up the pieces, rise and stand tall. All he'd been through before my very eyes made me want to give him anything and everything he would need of me, because he was so worth it.

All this to say yeah, I loved him, but I still wasn't sure I was in love with him. Can you tell the difference?

And look, it's already Saturday 23 and I haven't even packed! Shit. I'm such a mess.

I was happy the Blotters would be able to have a nice, quiet, family Christmas, and they sent with me their best wishes to Amy and Trisha. They also wished me the best for my reunion with Brandon, and spared me  the embarrassment of asking them if I could bring him over when I came back.

"You should invite him," said Ann. "We haven't been properly introduced."

"And we'd like to thank him," said Lizzie.

"Righting our own wrongs isn't easy," said Joseph. "Yet he did it, restoring our home."

Edward hadn't spoken yet, and I was curious to hear what he had to say.

"I'd like to talk to him," he said. "I want to know his intentions." The pause added to the weight of his words. "About you."

Okay, now I was curious to see what the Haunter supreme had to say about meeting them and having such a conversation with Edward.

A while later, I dropped my bag in my car, knocked on the Collins' door to wish them a merry Christmas —even merrier, with me away— and hit the road toward the big city. In no hurry, because even if roads were clear of snow, there was no telling where a patch of ice on the pavement could send the car spinning to the ditch.

Trisha had some outlandish plans with her outlandish friends for Christmas Eve, but she would join us at Amy's for Christmas lunch. Amy and I spent the evening with the same three friends she'd hosted for Thanksgiving, and stayed up late after they left, sort of catching up.

"I found something that might help you see or at least sense Kujo," she said while we cleaned the dining room. "It's some sort of initiation that's supposed to help you open your mind's eye."

"Oh, that's awesome! When can we do it?"

"Not this week, my girl. I still wanna talk with a couple of contacts that went through it. I've read that it takes some time for the individual to grasp the inner changes, and they can be a little surprising or even unnerving. So we ain't doing it just three days before your big reunion with Brandon."

I agreed, chuckling. "Yeah, I better hold my horses until I'm back and alone at the Manor."

"We should do it there. I have a feeling that the Blotters can help you. And they're gonna be your target practice until you learn to handle it."

"The perks of living in a haunted house."

I decided my fingers wouldn't fall off if I texted Brandon and wished him a merry Christmas. To have him call me right away.

He was having dinner with his closest friends from the Haunters crew at his place, and I had the chance to say hi to Isaac too. It was a short call, nothing personal, nothing intimate. Just a holiday greeting, see you in three days, bye.

Three days! Damn! Only three days! I shouldn't have called him. Now that number would be the only thing on my mind.

Trisha came just in time to get a shut-eye before Christmas lunch, wasted after an especially over-the-top weekend. We opened the silly presents the three of us had gotten for each other and had a nice goofy day at home. Amy convinced my friend to stay the night and return to the Manor on Tuesday.

She left at an unusually early ten in the morning, and Amy pretty much dragged me to her friend's beauty parlor, which was almost a full-out spa. We spent hours there, having our bodies creamed, massaged, waxed, bathed and pampered in any possible way. Somehow we managed to float back to Amy's apartment before the icy wind blew us away. We ordered dinner to keep from damaging our just-done nails and fell asleep like babies.

Brandon's call woke me up at nine. It was six in LA. What was he doing up so early? Or he hadn't gone to sleep yet?

"Hey, kid, good news, bad news," he said.

Kid? He was driving? What was going on?

"Hey," I mumbled, brushing the hair off my face with a sleepy frown. "What."

He glanced at the phone and looked up again, chuckling. Shit. I didn't even want to glance at the little square showing how I looked.

"Woke you up, Sleeping Beauty?"

"You bet. Where are you?"

"On the way to the airport. That's the news. There's a nor'easter brewing just off New York, and it's gonna hit the Boston area tomorrow afternoon, so I'm flying in today, a whole day ahead of schedule."

"Oh, okay. And what's the bad news?"

His smile took a 180 when he heard me. "That I'm arriving today at about two and I don't know when I'll be able to leave?"

"That's great news."

He chuckled again, but that warm, soft chuckle I liked so much, especially if I was the reason.

"Really? You don't sound like it."

I realized I was still frowning, and grunting rather than speaking. "Sorry, I'm still asleep," I muttered, rubbing my eyes. "Yeah, it's great news. I was meaning to ask you if you felt like coming back to the Manor with me, and maybe staying for a couple of days."

His eyebrows jumped up. "Didn't see that coming. Sure. They say it's gonna blow for about a week, so I'm game. I've got some Zoom calls to make, but if you don't mind me working for a while, I'm in."

"The Blotters asked me to invite you, too." Now his eyebrows dived down. I so loved how his face told on him. "I think they wanna thank you. And Edward might have some questions for you."

"Questions?" That was cautious.

"Concerning your intentions about me."

Brandon tried to fight back his laughter and failed, so he pulled up to the curb to keep from crashing. He laughed long and heartedly, shaking his head, and needed a minute to put himself together.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me!" he panted, getting back into the traffic.

"I'm afraid that's what he said. I think he feels the responsibility to play the father figure or something like that."

He still kept shaking his head. "Jesus Christ!" he muttered. "Okay. Can't say no to that. At least I have a couple of days to come up with something polite to say to him."

"You don't know yet?"

"Oh, yes, I do. But he ain't gonna like it. Neither will you." I frowned and he glanced at me from over his sunglasses with a quick smile. "Text me Amy's address. See you in a while."

He disconnected before I could ask him anything, or even wish him a safe flight.

Edward and I wouldn't like what he had to say? What the hell did he mean?