The Unofficial Zack Warren Fan Club (12 page)

Carlos rolled his eyes. Eyes so dark they looked black. And he was scary big, as tall as Zack, but double the muscle with curly black hair. He made Zack look as tame as a kitten. No small feat. “Stella means to say, we’ve never been in the house and we want to snoop around.”

I laughed. “Uh, okay. Nice to meet you, I’m Chloe Baker.”

After accepting the basket of fruit and placing it on the dining room table, where it would probably be forgotten until it started to stink, I led them into the living room. Zack was as charming as could be, even settling his magical spell over me for a bit.

“So,” Stella eyed us with confused, gray eyes. “I heard the people who bought this house had two kids…no offence, you don’t look related.”

“It is so cool to finally be in here.” Stella said, glancing around the living room, not in tune with where our conversation had turned. She was a little oblivious, but in a sweet way.

I was on the edge of my seat ten minutes later. Zack seemed a bit more relaxed on the outside. But I knew he was just as wound up by the way his fist kept clenching next to me.

Carlos rubbed his hands together and leaned forward. “They say a colonel named James Lane built the house with his bare hands. One day his wife went missing, vanished. The town blamed him. Then his neighbors found him dead in the front yard two weeks later. This was about ninety years ago. And, supposedly, he’s been haunting the place ever since.”

I didn’t buy into the story either, but I had to admit, I was a little spooked.

“We haven’t experienced anything.” I said, thinking back to strange things that might have happened. Nothing stuck out as otherworldly.

“I’m skeptical too. Then I had to wonder why your parents got the house so fast, at such a cheap price? The previous owners couldn’t get out of here quick enough.” Carlos said.

Despite everything going on between Zack and me, the whole love hate relationship we had to figure out, I peeked up at his face, looking to him for something…reassurance maybe? That it was just a spooky story. I knew whatever answer I needed, he would have. Call me crazy, I felt I could trust his reaction to the situation.

“No offence, I still don’t believe you.” Zack stayed firm, not convinced in the least.

Great, that was my cue. He didn’t believe them and neither would I.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t think for myself. Ghost stories always scare me. Ever since I was little I’d had problems with the dark, flipping on every light in the house when I was alone. Scared I’d walk down a hallway and some sheet with eyes and no feet would pop out.

I could thank my dad, Vince, for that trauma. He took Halloween too seriously.

“At least you have a warning in case it is true.” Stella said.

A phone rang somewhere in the depths of the house. Zack excused himself and raced upstairs. I wanted to go with him, only because I was spooked. Not because I liked his company…

I smiled, thinking that hanging out with her would be cool, and take my mind off of Zack. “Definitely, what did you have in mind?”

Carlos had to get going to ready the boat. Stella decided to stay. We went up to my room and I grabbed my backpack, threw my hair up and changed into a bikini with shorts and a tank.

“So, you go to school around here?” I asked.

She nodded. “Carlos and I decided to help with his family business and go to community college. We’re sophomores. He’ll take it over one day. It’s really exiting. Airboat tours, scuba trips and kayak rentals. He loves being outside. I run the office. Perez Rentals and Tropical tours. I really like it, and I get to be with Carlos.”

Stella went to wait downstairs to wait. I forced myself to walk through the bathroom. Zack was on the computer, brushing his teeth, and texting. Talk about multitasking.

“Does it matter?” I wondered what his grouchy, and somewhat nosey behavior was for. If I caused it…it was probably nothing I could control. The mere fact of my existence must drive him insane.

“Yeah, you’ve known Stella for thirty minutes.”

I let out dramatic gasp. “Do I hear a hint of concern?”

“You wish. I’m just doing what any stepbrother would do.” A muscle in his jaw jumped. He looked annoyed, and pissed, which was normal. I figured living with me was starting to make him dislike me even more than he already did. I wasn’t sure how much he didn’t like me in the first place. For all I knew, he could hate me with the blazing fire of a thousand suns—no matter what he told me to my face. He could wish I were being chased by a pack of hungry polar bears. Of course that is all a little far fetched. But then, so was him being concerned about where I was going.

I told him about the airboat, mumbling the entire time so there was a chance he didn’t understand me. But that didn’t work. His enthusiasm for an invitation to go airboat riding through a swamp was a verging on giddy. Then I remembered he was a guy. There was a boat with a giant motor involved in this activity, and the potential to come face to face with carnivorous reptiles capable of drowning a cow. It was only natural for him to want to come.

“I’ll meet you downstairs.” And I marched down those stairs with emphasis, hopefully showing him that I was just as pissed at him…for some reason.

In the living room I found Stella sitting on the couch and soon forgot about the grouch upstairs, mostly. She was cool, not judgmental or snippy like Lana. I’m not looking to replace my friend, but I’m glad I found someone to hang out with who was Lana’s opposite…and a little ditzy in an endearing way. It turns out Stella was experimenting with sunless tanner, until she turned orange. She tried covering it up with a different brand of tanner, ended up looking like an Oompa Loompa. So she was really embarrassed.

So last year my mom did the spray tan thing and she turned orange too. A friend told her that a combination of warm water, sugar, and lemon juice would exfoliate her skin and get rid of the icky tan. I grabbed all the necessary ingredients from the kitchen and dragged Stella out into the backyard. She was wearing a bikini under her sundress, so her modesty wasn’t an issue.

“I thought you were crazy when you suggested this, Chloe.” She scrubbed the concoction on her arms and legs. I took care of her back, and after a few minutes the orange tanner faded away.

“I made a lemon exfoliating scrub to get rid of the tanner.” I said. Pleased with the way Stella’s skin looked. She was pale, more porcelain than I expected.

Zack raised his eyebrows, grinning. “Aw, now you ruined my fun.”

Stella giggled. “Must be a guy thing.”

“I agree.” I grabbed the hose, aiming it at him. He ducked back inside. Since I lacked a target I sprayed Stella, careful of her hair, and couldn’t help but smile because of Zack’s antics. “He wasn’t being a pervert.”

She nodded. “He’s trying to get under your skin, just like Carlos does to me. He likes it when I get mad at him. Half the time I forget that I’m pissed and we end up making out.”

I never thought arguing could be a turn on with a guy. But now that Stella brought it up, I guess all that adrenaline and excitement had to go somewhere.

Chapter 14

By the time we were cleaned up and Stella was her normal color, Carlos had come back to see what was taking so long. We found him and Zack in the living room watching the news and talking cars.

On our way out to Carlos’s jeep, Zack was kind enough to explain how I got the fake tan off, and the way he described it made Stella and I roll our eyes.

So Carlos lived in the swamp. His dad had a big property that backed up to a canal, which led right into the everglades. There was a fence up around the whole place…to deter the alligators.

Nothing says good morning like going to get your paper and finding a gator.

Zack jumped out of the jeep, which was missing doors and a roof—it was the safari edition, complete with snorkel—and pulled open the gate. We drove up to the house. It was big, brown and ugly. It blended in so well with the swampy surroundings, it looked like it’d been there forever.

The car stopped at the back of the house next to another mean looking jeep. This one with a giant spotlight attached to the top bars. There was another wide rolling gate leading down to a dock where three people were waiting.

One of those people had a soggy middle and shaggy brown hair.

I groaned, wondering if I was doomed to deal with Max for the rest of my week in the swamp.

Zack looked unfazed, offering me a hand as I was figuring the best way to get out of the backseat. I stared at his outstretched arm for a second, and then jumped down next to him.

“I have no idea. Zack has been acting so weird. Ignoring me, avoiding me. Then he’s nice to me, like he was never annoyed. And he wants to know where I’m going, like he cares.”