2 The Ghosts Upstairs

by SUE FINEMAN

  “I hadn’t considered it,” Billy replied.

  “We’d need a housemother,” said Mr. Stanton. “Is your friend Kayla still living here?”

  “Absolutely not,” said Mrs. Banning. “I have it on good authority that the girl was a topless waitress in Memphis before she came here. I won’t have the students subjected to that kind of immoral behavior.”

  Holding back his anger, Billy calmly said, “In that case you can either buy the house from me or find another place for the students to stay.”

  “If we had enough money to buy this house, we’d use it to build a dormitory on the school property,” said Mr. Daly.

  Billy nodded. Now he understood. It was a money issue for them, and it would be for him, too. He could increase his income by taking in students, but he didn’t want the kids without Kayla. He knew how Mrs. Banning felt about her. And he knew why.

  Elizabeth Banning said, “I don’t know how an upstanding citizen like the police chief’s son can live with a low-class woman like—”

  Billy came out of his chair. “Low-class woman? Your brother-in-law was the drunk responsible for exposing Kayla’s breasts at the club that night.” He pulled an envelope from the desk drawer and held it up. “I have the proof in this envelope. If you and Steve don’t stop smearing her reputation, we’ll see an attorney.”

  She snatched the envelope from his hand. After viewing four pictures, she shoved them back in the envelope. The pictures were of Steve ripping her top open, her fighting him off while his fingers squeezed her breast, Steve handcuffed in the police station, and Kayla’s breast with his teeth marks and handprint bruised into it. The TV video also showed the police officer who arrested Kayla emptying her apron pocket and touching her breasts while her hands were handcuffed behind her, but those pictures weren’t in the envelope.

  “She wasn’t the only victim that night,” Billy said. “He ripped open another waitress’s top and put his mouth on her, too. As you saw in the pictures, Kayla had his handprints and teeth marks in her flesh. Blaming her for being topless is like blaming a woman for being raped.” He grabbed the envelope from her hand and tossed it on his desk. He didn’t want his evidence to disappear.

  “I can’t believe he’d—”

  “I can. He was the same way in college.” He looked around at the others, who seemed stunned. “I don’t want to hear another word about the kind of people I hang out with.”

  After several seconds of silence, Mr. Stanton cleared his throat. “We’d like to see the house, if that’s all right.”

  “Fine. Please be aware that the house was in sad condition when it came to me. Kayla and I are still painting and fixing it up, and all the rooms aren’t furnished. Excuse me for one moment, please.”

  He rushed out of the room to find Kayla. She was in the family room with Georgia, watching television. “They want to see the house. Is Eleanor—”

  “I haven’t heard a peep out of her all day.”

  “Good. What would you think about having students living here?”

  “Students of the academy?”

  He nodded.

  She shrugged and glanced at Georgia. “What about Georgia?”

  “She can stay or the deal is off.”

  “What if Eleanor causes trouble?”

  He shared a long, meaningful look with Kayla.

  Somehow, he had to chase crazy Eleanor out of the house.

  Billy started the tour with the main floor. “Georgia just moved from the maid’s room to the nursery upstairs. Her baby’s due in September.”

  Mr. Stanton opened his mouth and then closed it. Mrs. Banning asked, “Does she plan to stay here after the baby comes?”

  “Yes. She’ll be a student at OSU beginning in January. I believe Kayla plans to take care of the baby while she’s in school.” He was making it up as he went along. He didn’t know how long Kayla expected to stay, and he wasn’t sure what Georgia had planned.

  “Interesting,” said Mr. Stanton. “Where are Georgia’s parents?”

  “They threw her out because she wouldn’t have an abortion. In spite of the unusual circumstances, I think she has a bright future. She needs a safe place to live and a whole lot of encouragement, and unlike her parents, I have no intention of throwing her out of my house.”

  They walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. “There are two staircases to the second floor, one in the foyer and one right here off the kitchen. As long as I live in the house, the study and library will remain my private spaces.”

  In the ballroom, Mr. Stanton asked, “Is this where you held the prom?”

  “That’s right. It turned out quite well, considering we only had six days to pull it together. The kids did an amazing job.”

  Mr. Stanton smiled. “From what I hear, so did Kayla. My granddaughter is still talking about her.”

  “She has a beautiful voice, and she loves kids.”

  Kayla walked out of the family room. “Are y’all talking about me?”

  Billy introduced her to the board members. She shook their hands and asked, “Would y’all like something to drink?”

  “No, thank you,” said Mr. Daly. “Are you the one who takes care of the house?”

  “Mostly me, yes, sir. Cleaning, painting, cooking, and whatever.”

  “If Kayla takes the job as housemother, she’ll need help with the cleaning and cooking,” said Billy.

  “Of course,” said Mr. Daly.

  Mrs. Banning scowled.

  Leaving Kayla in the family room with Georgia, Billy walked the three board members up the main staircase to the bedroom floor. He turned left and showed them the four smaller suites. In the nursery, he said, “This is Georgia’s suite.”

  Mrs. Banning walked through Maggie’s suite. “We could put three girls in each suite. There’s room for four, but I don’t want to start out with that many until we see how well this arrangement works.” She walked into the suite with the golden walls. “We’ll need beds and desks for each student.”

  Billy didn’t offer to supply the furniture. If they wanted to use this house for students, they could supply the furniture themselves.

  As they walked into the room Billy shared with Kayla, Mr. Stanton said, “We could use this suite for visiting parents.” The other board members nodded.

  That meant he and Kayla would have to use the master suite. That could be interesting if Eleanor hung around.

  They walked back to the staircase and he pointed at the master. “That’s the master.”

  He motioned toward the attic stairs. “There are more rooms upstairs if you’d like to see them.”

  “By all means,” said Mr. Daly.

  As they walked into the big attic room, Mr. Stanton said, “There’s enough room in here for a pool table.”

  “The pool table is in the basement. There’s a home theater up here, and my uncle replaced the electronics last weekend, so it’s good to go. And you see the snack bar.” He pointed down the hallway. “Down this way, there are four more bedrooms and two bathrooms.” He and Kayla had piled painting supplies in one of the rooms. “We haven’t finished painting up here yet. The bedrooms and bathrooms have yet to be done, but we’re getting there.”

  “Amazing, the amount of space in this house,” said Mrs. Banning. “Your grandparents must have had a big family.”

  “My grandfather’s only brother died when he was a kid. My grandparents had two kids, but they didn’t live here at the same time. I have no idea what they did with all the space. I just know it’s too much house for a schoolteacher. I can’t afford the taxes and upkeep on a house this size.”

  “We’ll help with that,” said Mr. Daly.

  They were talking as if they’d already decided. Maybe they had, but Billy hadn’t. Renting out the house for use as a dorm would pay the costs of keeping the house, except the taxes. That would take a big chunk of money.

  Their footsteps echoed on the bare wood floor. “Kayla wants to put carpet up here
to deaden the noise. I was going to refinish the wood floors, but I think she’s right. It needs to be carpeted, especially if we’re going to have kids living up here.”

  After they examined the home theater, Billy took the entourage down to his study. “How many boarding students attend the academy?”

  “We’ll have eight this coming year,” said Mr. Daly. “Four boys and four girls. It would be easier on everyone if they all lived in the same home. We have a van for transporting them, but the homes where four of them have been living are no longer available.”

  “Do you intend to increase the number of boarding students?”

  “We would if we had a place to put them,” said Mr. Stanton. “We could easily double that amount.”

  Eight kids. Did he want to live with eight kids? For the right price, yes. They couldn’t be any more trouble than Charlie.

  “I intended to put the house on the market after we finished the painting and the alterations to the outside, but I’ll hold off until you make your decision.” After they thought it over, they’d probably back out. They didn’t want their students exposed to an unmarried couple living together, and they wouldn’t want them living in the same house with a teenage mother.

  The teaching job they offered him was probably contingent on him boarding students. He didn’t have another job, not even a nibble, so he needed the job. But he wouldn’t compromise his principles for anyone.

  Especially Elizabeth Banning.

  As he turned out the lights and locked up for the night, he pictured this house filled with kids running up and down the stairs, playing their music too loud, watching movies in the attic, making popcorn in the microwave, and maybe even singing with Kayla.

  Would Kayla make a commitment to stay for a year? She’d made it clear from the beginning that she had a life in Memphis, and she was here only for her inheritance. Now that she had her money, she could leave anytime.

  Was that what she wanted?

  He loved coming home from work and finding her here, and he loved the gentle way she encouraged Georgia. He loved the way she snuggled at night, the way she made love, the way she sang when she cooked… he even loved the way she talked to the dog, as if Buford understood everything she said. Maybe the hound did understand her.

  She wouldn’t leave before Georgia had her baby, but would she stay through the school year to serve as a housemother for a bunch of teenagers?

  Would she stay for him?

  Kayla was about to go upstairs with Billy when the phone rang. She could think of only one person who’d call this late. It had to be Norma.

  “Kayla, Ted got arrested, and the cops are looking for me.” Norma was crying and almost hysterical.

  “Why? What did you do?”

  “You know that lawyer we signed the contract with?”

  “Yes.”

  “He-he sells babies.”

  “You mean arranges adoptions?”

  “No, you don’t understand. He buys and sells babies. Ted knew all along, but I thought… I thought… I don’t know what I thought.”

  “Find a good attorney and turn yourself in. I’ll pay for the attorney, but don’t talk to anyone except your attorney.” Anyone with any sense could see Norma wasn’t smart enough to know what was going on. “And don’t you dare talk to Ted again. He’s just using you. If you didn’t have a baby to sell, he’d be halfway to Texas with another woman by now.”

  She sniffled. “I know.”

  “Don’t talk to the cops unless your attorney tells you to. But you have to tell your attorney everything.”

  Norma started sobbing again. “I don’t want to go to jail. You know how I hate it in there.”

  “I know.” In her younger days, Norma had been picked up for various things, like drunk and disorderly, DUI, and smoking pot. She’d never done hard drugs, not that Kayla knew about, and she’d never spent more than a day or two in jail. But if the prosecuting attorney could make this charge stick, she could end up spending a few years in a prison cell.

  After she calmed Norma and ended the call, Kayla walked upstairs and sat on the side of the bed.

  “Everything okay with Norma?” Billy asked.

  “The police are looking for her. She signed a contract with an attorney to give him her baby, but apparently he wasn’t an adoption attorney. He’s just some jerk selling babies to the highest bidder. Ted knew, but Norma isn’t smart enough to know what they were doing.” She punched her pillow. “She’s scared, and I don’t blame her. Ted will turn this around and make it look like it was all her fault. He’ll get off and she’ll go to prison.”

  Norma needed her, but if Kayla went to Memphis now, she could run into that crooked cop, and he’d figure out a way to charge her with something.

  No, she couldn’t go.

  This time, Norma was on her own.

  Instead of getting ready for bed, Billy paced from the window back to the bed. He needed to know if she intended to leave him. If so, he needed to know now, before he agreed to take a bunch of kids into this house.

  “Kayla, we need to talk.”

  “About Norma?”

  “About us, and about the academy.”

  She walked around the bed to face him. “Talk.”

  “I don’t want you taking the job as housemother and then bailing out on me in the middle of the year. I can’t handle that many kids by myself.”

  “So it’s either leave now or stay for a year?”

  He took her hands and gazed deeply into her eyes. “I need to know what your intentions are.”

  “My intentions? What about yours? Do you love me, Billy? Do you want me to stay? Everything between us is so tentative. One day I think you love me and the next day I’m not so sure. I have a feeling you aren’t so sure yourself.”

  He didn’t answer. Did he love her? Did she love him? She’d said the words once, but it wasn’t as if she meant them. She was so different from the other women he’d dated. She was uneducated and couldn’t have his children, but he’d never felt this strongly about any woman, even Laura, and he had planned to ask Laura to marry him.

  “You’re holding something back, Billy. If it’s me, I’ll help you finish the painting and then find another place to live. But it’s not me, is it?”

  “No, it’s me.” He couldn’t tell her he was afraid, but he was. He couldn’t handle another rejection. Forgiving Maggie for not loving him lifted a burden off his shoulders he didn’t realize he’d been carrying. He could even forgive Eleanor, because she wasn’t in her right mind. But if he let himself love Kayla and then lost her, he could lose himself.

  She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled in close. “I love you, Billy. I’m head over heels in love with you, but if you don’t love me back, if you don’t want me to stay with you, just tell me, honey.”

  “I want you to stay.”

  “For now or forever?”

  “Are you asking if I’ll marry you?”

  “I don’t need marriage to validate my feelings. I’m asking if you love me.”

  He leaned his cheek against her soft curls and whispered, “Yes. I love you, Kayla.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Billy drove Kayla and Georgia to Hannah’s house for Georgia’s eighteenth birthday party. He was surprised to see Georgia’s sisters there. They jumped up and ran to Georgia for hugs. He stepped into the kitchen with Hannah to give them some time alone. “How did you arrange that?”

  “I told their mother I was having a surprise birthday party for my daughter. They’ll be going to Ginny’s school next year. Victoria said their father refused to send them to the academy.”

  Billy hugged her. “Thanks, Mom.”

  “I hate lying to people, but looking at them together, I think they all needed this reunion. If I thought I could entice their mother to see Georgia—”

  “Last time Georgia’s mother paid a visit, she took the kid’s car and left her in tears.”

  “She’ll come around.”

/>   “Maybe.” But Billy wasn’t so sure.

  Hannah cocked her head. “You look happy. Does this mean you have your job back?”

  “I don’t know. After their visit the other night, I haven’t heard from anyone on the board.”

  “Then it’s Kayla.”

  He smiled. “I love her. I never thought I’d say that about a woman who can’t give me children.”

  “There are other ways of getting children, Billy. After you get married—”

  “I don’t intend to marry her. I want my own children, and she can’t have any.”

  Her hands flew to her hips. “Now you listen to me, young man….”

  Billy glanced over to see Kayla standing in the doorway in tears. She’d heard, and he’d hurt her feelings. “Kayla…”

  “Tell Georgia I had a headache and went home.” She ran out the door, her shoulders shaking with deep, heart-wrenching sobs.

  Billy called, “Kayla, wait.”

  “Billy Kane, I never thought I’d say this,” said Hannah, “but I’m ashamed of you. Don’t you think she hurts enough?”

  “I didn’t know she was listening.”

  “That’s not what I meant. There are others ways to have a family. I didn’t meet you until you were almost ten. Have I ever given you a reason to think I loved you any less than the babies I gave birth to?”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “Isn’t it?” she said gently, and he knew she was right. From the day they’d met, Hannah had treated him as if he were the most important kid she knew – her favorite kid – and she’d shown him more love in one afternoon than Maggie had his whole life. He’d never once doubted her love, yet he wasn’t sure he could love someone else’s kid.

  He opened the door and walked outside. He didn’t stop walking until he reached the house on Mansion Drive. The mile-long walk cleared his head, but his heart felt heavy. Why had he fallen in love with Kayla if she wasn’t the right woman for him?

  He stood outside the gate and stared at the house, knowing Kayla was inside crying. He’d done that to her. He’d hurt her so deeply she’d probably never forgive him. Somehow, he had to make things right between them.