Mack's Perfectly Ghastly Homecoming (Mack's Marvelous Manifestations Book 2)

by AJ Sherwood

  “I’ll leave,” Georgie gasped out, the words barely audible.

  “Probably the smartest choice. Give me your keys. You’re not driving this drunk.”

  “Ain’t got any,” he responded sullenly as I let his toes touch the ground again. “Truck’s totaled.”

  “Oh Georgie, not again.” Mack sounded more fed up than disappointed.

  Georgie cast one more hateful glance at Mack before slinking out the door. It was a near thing, but I didn’t put a boot in the ass to aid his departure.

  Two arms wrapped around my waist and squeezed. I patted Mack’s hands before gripping them softly. “I wasn’t going to kill him.”

  “This is a thank you hug for shutting him down,” Mack corrected me.

  “Oh. Then you’re welcome.” I understood now his concern about Georgie. If the man had the balls to literally show up at his mother’s house while she was at work, and take whatever he wanted out of it, then he was too far gone. Adelle wouldn’t stop him, clearly. But that enabling method of hers wasn’t making her son grow up, either.

  Nothing could get messier than family. I didn’t know the solution here but something had to be done.

  “Come on, cher, we’ve got a lot to do and not much time to do it in. Leave Georgie be for now.”

  Blowing out a breath, I shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll do the water heater first.”

  It really didn’t take me long to switch out the water heater. It was definitely a workout, as those things aren’t exactly light, but it was simple enough to accomplish. Once I had it installed, I tackled the kitchen sink next. There was more than a little water damage under the sink, and a plastic tub full of water that caught the drips. The makeshift fix protected the cabinet but certainly didn’t address the problem. The seal around the kitchen faucet on top was nothing more than dust in the wind. Caulking honestly would have fixed most of the problem but I wanted this done right.

  Mack got music playing on his phone, the music this area of the world was famous for: Zydeco. It was good work music as it had an infectious, up-swing beat. The cheerful music flowed through the house as he painted the bathroom, priming the walls.

  I’d seen that bathroom. Even primer on the walls would be a vast improvement over the water-stained sheetrock.

  It was fun doing this, both of us working on the house together. It reminded me of my childhood, really, working alongside my parents and siblings.

  I put the final sealant around the base of the faucet, then gave it a good test and let it flow for several minutes. I didn’t see any further leaks, although I tightened and re-siliconed a joint that looked iffy to me. I tested the hot water while I was at it, pleased that the tank had heated up enough to give me some warmth already. Good.

  That done, I moved to the next project. As I passed through the very wide main hallway, I stuck my head into the bathroom to see how Mack was doing. He’d thrown a rag of a shirt on, but there wasn’t a spot of paint anywhere to be found on him. He was bent over to reach a section near the baseboard, his jeans nicely shaping his ass, and I stopped for a moment to admire the view. To my surprise, he had most of the primer up already. Granted, it wasn’t that big of a bathroom, but still.

  He twisted and looked over his shoulder, paintbrush hovering along the wall. “Something wrong, cher?”

  “No, just got done with the kitchen faucet. Thought I’d stick my head in and see how you’re doing before going for the fan.” I looked around and whistled low. “It’s looking better already. Damn, you paint fast.”

  Mack shrugged. “Worked as a painter from the time I was fifteen. Good money to be had, although the work wasn’t steady.”

  “I learn something new about you every day. No wonder you’re fast. Do you like it?”

  “What, painting? Yeah, it’s soothing.” His light-brown eyes looked around the room and he nodded. “Think I’ll prime the kitchen next. Whatever I get done is something less for Mama to do.”

  One of the reasons why I found Mack so attractive was his dedication to his family. He really did all he could to look out for them. I think it was part of the reason why I wanted to be family to him, too. The more time I spent with him, the more that idea took hold.

  But now wasn’t the moment for that. So I smiled and said, “Yell if you need me.”

  “I might for those top corners,” he informed me, pointing to the top of the wall. “Even with the stepladder, not sure if I can reach that.”

  “Yeah, sure. Just reach what you can, I’ll cover the rest.” I retreated to give him room to work and went across the hall to the master bedroom.

  Mama Lafayette was much like her son. What she had was kept very carefully and her room was tidy. In contrast to that, the bedroom walls looked faded and the light fixture hanging from the wires made it look shabby. I could not wait to yank that thing down. It was an offense to the eyes.

  I opened up the new fan and started assembling the pieces, getting the wires prepped first. I belatedly remembered that I hadn’t turned off the breaker, so went back out and found the panel on the back screened-in porch. Yelling inside, I warned, “Turning off the breaker!”

  “Go ahead!”

  That safely off, I returned to the fan. Swapping out light fixtures wasn’t tricky if the new one was a match for the old one in size, which was the case here. The room wasn’t all that big, so buying a larger fan hadn’t made any sense. I got the old one down, replaced the box, then screwed in the new bracket. I had the motor up, wires connected, and was mid-way through attaching the blades on when I heard the side kitchen door open.

  “You in here, sha?” Adelle called out.

  “Cahbin!” Mack called back to her. “Come see!”

  I heard her light tread as she crossed the house, following those instructions, but I didn’t hop off the ladder. I wanted to get this done as much as possible before showing her.

  “Oh merci, mon angé!” Adelle exclaimed. “I’ve wanted to paint this bathroom for so long.”

  “I’m not sure if I can finish the job,” Mack warned her. “Not with the cases we’re working down here. But I’ve bought all the paint and supplies and you can finish it up at any time.”

  “Bless you, bless you. I can’t believe how much better it looks!”

  “Mama, turn on the faucet,” Mack urged her, mischief in his voice. “Hot water tap.”

  “You know, I don’t trust you with that look on your face.”

  “You’ll like this surprise.”

  There was a long moment of hesitation in the bathroom before I heard the water turn on. About five seconds later, she gasped. “Hot! Cher, what did you do?”

  “Not a damn thing. Brandon fixed that. Turns out my boyfriend’s a bit of a handyman.”

  “Brandon did?” Adelle spluttered in astonishment. “Where is he, then?”

  “Replacing your bedroom fan.”

  I still had a fan blade to go, but apparently was out of time. I stepped down a rung just as Adelle burst through the door. Her wide, dark eyes met mine before jerking up to the ceiling fan. Her mouth dropped open and I swear to god, she started crying instantly.

  “I didn’t think it was that ugly,” I protested, teasing her.

  “It’s gorgeous and you know it. Get off that ladder so I can hug you proper.”

  “I’m sweaty,” I warned her.

  “It’s good sweat as you were helping me. Come here.”

  You don’t argue with a mother when she uses that tone. I got down and had an armful of happy woman in Mach 2 seconds. I hugged her tight, feeling once again how skeletally thin she was, and mentally swearing I’d do more to help her too. No one should be this thin and worn.

  She looked up at me, tears still filling her eyes, but that smile. I knew that happy smile. Her son wore the same when he was perfectly, incandescently joyous.

  “Your kitchen faucet’s fixed too,” I told her, partially to keep that smile on her face.

  “Thank you so much.” The words came out hoarse. “I
hope you didn’t pay for all this?”

  “Naw, Mack paid for it. I’m just labor.”

  Adelle smacked me lightly on the chest. “You are not ‘just’ anything, Brandon Havili.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said mildly. Really, she was so much like her son, it was cute.

  “I’ll cook you dinner tonight,” she promised me. “Mack, you too! I’m so proud of you both, I’m about to burst with it.”

  “I will not turn that invitation down,” I promised her. “If you want to start cooking, I’m almost finished here. I can clean up and help you.”

  “You’ll do no such thing, you’ve done enough today.” She smiled to soften the refusal. “Let me help you finish and clean up first.”

  “Alright.” Again, I was smart enough not to argue. I went back up the ladder and slotted the next fan blade in. As I screwed it into the base, I asked, “Is this one okay? Mack said he thought a white-on-white fan would look best in here.”

  “It’s lovely,” she assured me, looking it over and nearly bouncing, she was so giddy. “How’d you learn how to do all this?”

  “My father, mostly. He taught all of us kids how to fix things. Mom’s the one who taught me how to lay tile, though.”

  “I wish I’d picked out a better father for my children,” Adelle said sadly. “I got swept off my feet right after I graduated from high school. Too young then to really understand what I was getting myself into. But he wasn’t a good husband, a worse father, and it was almost a relief when he was gone.”

  In the time I’d known Mack, I’d never heard him mention a father. “Gone as in left, or…?”

  “Drunk driving. Fortunately, he didn’t take someone else with him. Hit a telephone pole and was dead on impact. Mack was too young then, just turned six, so he barely remembers anything of the man. My older children don’t have much kind to say about him. He’d never have done what you’re doing now, helping fix up someone else’s home.”

  And that partially explained why Mack resisted me helping. Not used to the men in his life doing that, apparently. “As I explained to your son, I want you both to have peace of mind. And if fixing a water heater, and a sink, and a ceiling fan on the verge of collapse does that? Then I’m happy to do it.”

  She patted my leg, her smile a little sad. “Your parents did good raising you. I wish all my sons were the same.”

  Mack came in, sans paintbrush, so I had to assume he was waiting for the primer to dry. He gave his mother a stern look. “You’re not letting Georgie take advantage of you again, are you?”

  Adelle’s expression faltered. “No, cher, it wasn’t that.”

  “Mama, I sent you a thousand dollars last month to help with things. But I didn’t see a speck of food in your kitchen that wasn’t out of the garden, the old fridge is still here, so where did that money go?”

  “Water pump in the car went,” she admitted, eyes falling to the floor. “I had to fix it.”

  Mack looked at her steadily. “Just the water pump, Maman?”

  “Well, there were a few other expenses too.”

  Probably her replacing things Georgie had taken. From what I’d seen today, it was a real possibility.

  Different problem for a different day. I put the bulbs in, attached the glass globe, and hopped down. “Alright, I’m going to turn the breaker back on. You hit the light switch.”

  Adelle seemed glad for the change of subject. “I’ll turn the breaker back on.” She darted from the room.

  I leaned in and asked, “Do I need to break Georgie’s legs?”

  “Don’t fucking tempt me,” Mack ground out between clenched teeth. “My mother’s been eating veggies and rice again. She does that when money gets tight, as the vegetables come from the garden, and rice is cheap to buy. If I find out my brother’s milking her dry again, I’ll put a curse on his head.”

  “I didn’t know mediums could curse people?”

  “I can use a voodoo doll with the best of them,” he assured me flatly.

  “You’re really scary when you’re pissed off.” I wasn’t kidding. I was one hundred percent certain he’d curse his brother, he was that mad.

  Mack harrumphed.

  I heard the back door open again as Adelle reentered the house. I waited until Adelle skipped back into her room before hitting the light switch. Her eyes lit up with it, staring like I’d hung the moon there.

  “Now, you’ve got a remote with this fan,” I instructed her, handing her the small white remote. “Six speeds, and the remote’s the only way to change them, so don’t lose it. There’s a bracket it can sit in. Where do you want me to put that?”

  “Next to the light switch,” she instructed, still mesmerized by the fan. “Listen, oh listen. It’s so silent. I don’t hear more than a whisper.”

  “Good fans you don’t hear.” The last one was probably like Bob Marley—all it did was shake, rattle, and moan.

  She hugged me again, suddenly, arms threatening to cut off all circulation around my waist. “Merci, Brandon, merci.”

  “You’re welcome.” I honestly wished I had time to do more. To fix every issue in this house. This beautiful, wonderful woman deserved that. I might be able to squeeze in something else, but I hesitated to tackle the bigger projects for fear of leaving it half-done and burdening her with it.

  She turned and hugged Mack just as hard. “You spent too much money on me, mon angé.”

  He harrumphed again, arms tight around her shoulders. “No such thing, Maman.” Meeting my eyes over her head, he mouthed, Merci, cher.

  I winked at him. “I’ll clean the trash out and get things back in order here. Mama Adelle, how about we celebrate by eating out?”

  “No such thing, I’ll cook for you.” She pulled back, looking at the fan again in wonder. “Thirty years I was looking at that eyesore and now it’s gone. Gets me in a renovating mood, it really does. What do you boys want for dinner?”

  “Yes,” I told her firmly.

  Mack laughed outright. “Don’t ask him that question. He’s never helpful with the answer. Come on, Mama, I bought a lot of groceries to work with. How about shrimp?”

  I watched them go, linking arms and chatting happily about the possibilities. Mack was right. She was too thin. And I didn’t like that she had a car that wanted to break down on her.

  Mack and I would need to step in, it seemed, and take better care of her.

  7

  The ghost at Edmée’s house wasn’t willing to say boo to me. No matter what kind of lure I tried, or how much space I gave it, it would only linger just out of sight. I could see the trails of energy it left behind, I knew that it was here, but I couldn’t lay hands on it. We spent the whole night in a waiting game that proved useless.

  I didn’t have the time or patience to wait on it to come out on its own. It was time to go in after it. I went with the easier way to start matters and looked through the attic, but didn’t see anything other than insulation and mice droppings. If I couldn’t find a clue above, I’d have to go below.

  I’d bought some painter’s coveralls to wear over my good clothes, so I slipped into them and grabbed a flashlight. Edmée’s house sat up on bricks, giving it a very narrow crawlspace underneath. I wanted to take a look under the house, and into the ducts a bit, see if something had been stashed in there.

  Brandon didn’t like this plan one iota and hovered near the access door, shining a light inside. He was on his knees, heedless of the damp grass against his cargo pants, hunched over like he was two seconds from ready to follow me in. “I really think I need to go in there.”

  “Listen, Mr. Shoulders,” I retorted, grunting as I army crawled along the dirt, “you won’t fit. I barely fit. And I’m better equipped to deal with it if the ghost finally does make an appearance.”

  He grunted sourly. “I really hate being so big sometimes. Damn inconvenient in cases like this.”

  “Don’t you be huffing about your height. I like you big.” I paused to give him
a saucy grin over my shoulder. “Especially when you’re pinning me in the shower and giving me a good seeing to.”

  As expected, he grinned back, teeth flashing white in the fading light. “I do enjoy doing that, true. Anything yet?”

  “Bunch of cobwebs.” I dragged myself further along, trying to estimate where Cali’s room would be overhead. When you were underneath like this, there was nothing to be used as a landmark. So far all I saw were pipes, framing, and traces of black tarp. It was musky and damp, especially damp after the rainfall last night. I smelled mildew and was in a hurry to get out of here before I breathed too much in.

  I searched as carefully as I could, using the flashlight to see from every angle, but there was nothing under this house that shouldn’t be there. I finally gave up, as I’d covered the area thoroughly and nothing had pinged on my senses. “No, cher, it’s not underneath.”

  “Alright, come out, then. We already checked the attic space, maybe ducts next?”

  “Yeah, let’s do that. We might get lucky.” I had a suspicion the mysterious object was in the walls themselves, though. Or right under the floorboards somehow. Not that I knew precisely what I was looking for. It was more of a hunch. A hunch based on experience.

  I started army crawling back out.

  Something like glass shattered above my head and twin female screams rang out. Brandon was off like a shot—seriously, I didn’t know a man that big could move that fast—and it left me struggling to quickly get free of the crawlspace. A bad feeling twisted and churned in my gut, and haste made me clumsy as I fought my way out from underneath the house.

  By the time I’d made it out of the crawlspace, both Edmée and Cali stood out front, my young cousin sobbing and burrowing into her mother’s arms. Edmée just looked grim. Spooked, but grim. Catching my eye, she pointed inside. “He went in.”

  “Merci.” I darted through the open door after my partner. I barely had my head in when I heard two shots ring out.

  “Damn you, come out,” Brandon snarled. “It’s easy enough to frighten a child, but not me, eh? MACK!”