So much for a happy family. Apparen

So much for a happy family. Apparently this little section of the lake had become the misery-loves-company block. It had been a week since Tess’s neighbors had shown up at their house, and for the past seven days, her ears had been assaulted by the sounds of little girls whining and their father being a grumpy pain in the ass. Where was their mother, anyway? Probably holed up in the bedroom, drinking. She’d thought that moving to a small town would afford her the luxury of not having to hear her neighbors’ every move, but sounds seemed to carry when you lived so close to the water.
As far as she could tell, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Grumpy was a total buzzkill and it was starting to get on his daughters’ nerves. The property next door existed in a virtual police state. No fun allowed. In fact, it had been so quiet for the past few hours that Tess had begun to wonder if the family had decided to pack it in and call it quits on their vacay. Fingers crossed. The restored quiet would give her plenty of time to continue to wallow in her own loneliness while she procrastinated on all of the projects around the house that she’d yet to start.
Tess, your new life is too exciting for words.
“No fair, Jane! You had five cookies and I only had four!”
“Nuh-uh! I had four cookies. The rest are for later so don’t eat them!”
So much for her hope for peace and quiet. Tess sat up in her chair on the back porch and strained to hear the tiny voices that sounded as though they came from the small barn at the northern most corner of her property. The structure was barely sound, it tilted slightly to the right and parts of the roof had begun to sag. It probably wasn’t suitable for squirrels to be running around in, let alone kids.
“Shit.”
Tess tugged on her boots and trudged across the spongy spring-damp ground to the corner of the property. Would it kill their dad to keep an eye on them? And where in the hell was their mother?
The girls continued to bicker as Tess eased open the large rickety door. Like a couple of mice, the girls quieted, the only sound the loud “Shhhhh!” of one sister silencing the other.
They thought they were pretty sneaky. Amusement bubbled in Tess’s chest as she made her way to the ladder that led to the loft. She couldn’t begrudge them going out and looking for a little fun. She just wished they’d find somewhere safer to do it. Tess poked her head up the square hole in the loft’s floor and her jaw fell slack.
Those little squatters …
Today wasn’t the first day the neighbor girls had decided to play in the barn. From the looks of it, they’d been squirreling away all of the things they’d need to turn the dilapidated loft into a luxury fort for quite a while. Much longer than the mere seven days they’d been here. Pretty dang impressive.
“Okay, little mice,” Tess crooned. “No more hiding. Come on out.”
She waited patiently as the sisters exchanged heated whispers from behind an old hay bin that they’d draped a sheet over to make a tent. “There’s no mice here,” a tiny voice replied. “Just ghosts. So you better run before we decide to scare you.”
Tess suppressed a giggle. They were tough little cookies, she’d give them that. “Ghosts, huh?”
“Yep,” another tiny voice answered. “And we’re super scary.”
“Okay,” Tess said. “It’s too bad. I baked chocolate chip cookies this morning and I was going to share them. But ghosts don’t eat cookies.”
“Yes they do!”
“Jenny!” one of the girls hissed.
“If we’re running away, we need food.”
Uh-oh. “It’s true,” Tess said. “If you’re running away, you’re going to need food. I think you’d better come in the house and get some cookies. It could be a while before you eat again.”
The sheet rustled and Tess waited. One little body, and then another came out from the tent. Identical twins. No wonder their dad was a grump. There was a reason twins got a rep for being double the trouble.
The girls studied Tess with expressive brown eyes. Their blonde hair had been pulled back into abysmal, messy ponytails and one of the girls blew the long strands of her bangs from her eyes. Too adorable for words. Tess was torn between wanting to scold them for playing in the barn and wanting to cuddle them.
She made a show of appearing relieved. “I was worried there for a second. Ghosts are pretty scary. But you two are a couple of cuties.” The girls giggled at the compliment. “I’m Tess. This is my barn.”
“I’m Jenny,” the girl on the left said. “And my sister is Jane. Your barn is our fort.”
They stood as a united front, way too brave when they should have been wary. Tess was a stranger after all. “You know this barn isn’t very sturdy. It’s not a good idea to play here. It could collapse and you’d be hurt. I don’t think your mom and dad would be very happy about that.”
“Mama’s dead,” Jane said quietly. She had a tiny birthmark on her temple that Jenny didn’t. Tess’s heart sank at her words. No wonder she hadn’t seen their mother around.
“I’m sorry, honey. That’s very sad.