“They’re the same design?” Ava asked.
Nate’s eyes caught mine before he looked at Ava. “Or they were designed by the same designer.”
Ava smiled. “I know. I won’t deny that it feels like I feel her presence. At first I thought it was silly and I was only feeling that way because she died in the house, but now after seeing this. I’m not really sure what to say anymore.”
I cleared my throat and shook my head. “Wait. I mean I think this is all easily explained. Ava, you said yourself you needed some time to just design with no restrictions and pressures from the outside world. Don’t you think maybe your designing is just a reflection of that and merely a coincidence and that’s all?”
Her eyes looked sad, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I doubted her or if she honestly believed me. “Probably. But I still find it all very crazy weird that it’s so similar.”
“I agree with Ava. Kate’s dress looks almost identical to Ava’s.”
Pushing my hand through my hair, I looked around the house. “Maybe you picked up a magazine or a book that Kate looked at as well and saw the same dress.”
She pinched her eyebrows together and shot me a dirty look. “I think I know my job well enough to know I don’t unintentionally put someone else’s work into my own.”
I held up my hands in defense. I could see that pushed Ava to the edge. “I’m sorry … I guess it is a little strange how similar they both are.”
When I reached over, I began thumbing through some of Ava’s designs and my heart dropped. The last time I had sat in this very room with Kate, she had shown me some dresses she had designed. She said she was going to bring back the style our great-great-grandmother Lizzy wore. Ava’s sketches were eerily similar to those drawings as well. “Are you going for an older look with these?” I asked as I turned the pages back about four. The gowns almost seemed like they were from the early nineteen hundreds.
With a weak grin, she tilted her head and said, “I’m not sure. It was something I was feeling at the time, so I was mostly playing around.” With a deep breath in, she grinned bigger and said, “Maybe we should get a move on if we’re heading to Helena.”
My heart felt heavy as I watched Ava glance at the designs and then shut the books. I’d seen my sister Kate get lost in the world of her own, the last thing I wanted to see was Ava do the same. I’d help her with this little adventure, but as soon as we got back, I was going to suggest moving into the main house and out of the stone house.
I wasn’t sure how much longer Ava would be staying here in Montana, and as greedy as it sounded, I didn’t want to share her with some romance story of Robert and Lizzy. I wanted her to myself, but at what cost would that come?
THE FORTY-MINUTE DRIVE into Helena wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought with Ryder’s truck being plenty big for my stupid broken leg.
“This is it,” Ryder said with a huge smile as he pulled into the driveway of a beautiful Queen Ann Victorian house.
My heart was racing. I hadn’t had any time to read more of Kate’s journal because I was consumed with her drawings, so I wasn’t really even sure what I was looking for. Kate’s secret might not have had anything to do with Robert and Lizzy. But now that we were here, I couldn’t wait to see the inside of the house.
“Oh. My. Word,” I gasped. “This house is amazing!”
“Wait until you see the inside,” Ryder said as he parked and took my hand. Turning to him, I shook my head in wonder.
“Why is no one living in this house?”
With a shrug, he said, “Don’t know.”
Nate pulled up behind us and quickly jumped out to try and beat Ryder to opening the truck door and helping me out. I couldn’t believe it when they got into a pushing match right there in the driveway.
“Seriously? Are the two of you twelve?”
Ryder acted as if he was going to leave it be, but turned suddenly and tackled Nate to the ground. As they rolled around in the snow in the middle of probably one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Helena, I managed to get out of the truck and get my own crutches. I wasn’t about to try to walk as I wasn’t sure if there was ice on the sidewalk.
“Stop putting snow down my pants, you asshole!” Nate yelled out as I waited for the two of them to grow up.
“I see some things never change.”
Turning to my right, I saw a woman my age walking up. She had blonde hair that was pulled up into a French twist. Even though it was freezing outside, she was without a coat. Her pencil skirt and tight blue blouse showed off her curvy body as she stood in I swear ten-inch heels. With a smile on her face, she reached out her hand to me. “Vanessa Emerson. I live next door.”
What? How in the hell does someone my age afford to live in this neighborhood? “You own the house next door?” I blurted out.
She must have caught my stunned expression because she chuckled and said, “Let me rephrase that. I live with my parents … next door.”