Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
I feel so helpless!
XO,
June
Chapter Ten
Apollo
“Okay, that’s enough of the mushy stuff.” June pushes away from me and pulls the trucker cap she always wears off her head, shakes out her red curls, and then secures them once more under the hat. “I have work to do.”
“I’m here to help.”
She narrows her eyes at me, and I just smile at her. “Don’t let that beautiful talk we just had go down the drain, Juniper.”
“Fine.” She blows out a breath and props her hands on her hips as she surveys the space. “What do you need to do in here to get ready for the electrical work?”
“Well, I’d like to get down into that basement so I can see just how easy it’s going to be to run the wires under the house and if it’s worth it for you to finish the space and make it livable. If it is, and that’s something you want to do, my plan might change a bit.”
“Okay, down we go.”
“You don’t have to go down with me. You can do whatever you need to do up here.”
“No, I’m curious to hear what you think, so let’s do it. Besides, I don’t really like going down there alone, so this works.”
I grin down at her and brush my fingers over her cheek. Christ, I can’t stop touching her. “Are you afraid, Juniper?”
“Pssh. No. I’m not scared of the basement. I just don’t like it.”
“Right.” I chuckle as she saunters past me to open the door that takes us through the existing office that she plans to convert to the mudroom, which I really think is a good idea, and to a set of steep stairs that lead down to the basement. “Is the water table high in this neighborhood? You might get flooding once in a while.”
“I don’t think so,” she says, shaking her head as she heads down the stairs. “I didn’t see any evidence of water down here before, and it doesn’t smell mildewy, you know?”
She’s right. It doesn’t smell like there’s been water down here, which is a good thing.
It’s a regular, unfinished basement with a cement floor and stud-exposed walls. A bare bulb hangs in the middle of the room, and strategically placed pillars hold up the floor above.
“If you decide to use this as living space, it would need some work.” Propping my hands on my hips, I glance over at June, who has wandered over to a bookcase on the far right wall. “What’s wrong?”
“Why do you think, in this big empty room, there’s a bookcase over here?”
“I have no idea. Maybe it was too big to move, so they left it. You could store paint cans and stuff on it.”
“I think something’s behind it.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Are you psychic now?”
“No, smart-ass, I just think that something’s behind it. I don’t know why.”
She tries to move it, but it won’t budge, so I walk over to help. “You push that end, and I’ll pull.”
“Deal.” With some elbow grease and a little grunting, we manage to move the case out of the way, and sure enough, there’s a door. “Looks like you were right.”
June doesn’t look entirely happy about that, so I do the honors of opening the door, unable to see much beyond the doorway because it’s pitch-black inside the space.
“There might be a light,” I mutter and feel along the inside wall. “Yep, there’s the switch.”
The room lights up, and June and I just stand here, stunned.
“Is that a mausoleum?” she demands.
“Looks that way.” I step inside first, completely enthralled by the plaques that mark each of the crypts. “But they’re small. No way a casket would fit in there.”
“I think they’re cremated,” June says, looking around. “This is a place to bury cremated remains. I’ve seen these aboveground in plenty of cemeteries. I wish there was something about this in the paperwork so I knew what in the hell is going on. Apollo, there are people buried in my house.”
“Well, to be fair, people were buried in churches all the time.”
“Yeah, in Europe.”
“Obviously, it happens here, too, because here we are. Technically, they’re not in your house since we’re under your side yard right now. I bet that’s why they never added on to the building over here.”
“What am I supposed to do with these people?” Her voice is shrill with panic as she asks me a question I don’t have an answer for.
“I work with electricity,” I remind her. “I’m not a coroner or a city official.”
“Look, I’m fine with the dead people in the backyard. I was expecting that. But this is too much. I don’t like it at all.”
“Okay. I get that. I think you need to call the city and find out what to do. I’m sure this can be relocated to the city cemetery, but there might be a lot of red tape to make it happen.”