Mirror Image

Eighteen

Lacey stretched her neck back, countering the soreness between her shoulder blades. Zee saw what she was doing, nodded her head and arched backward too. They were on their knees at the flower bed beside the front door of the mansion. The right side of the raised mound of dirt was covered in freshly patted spots, where they had buried almost one hundred tulip bulbs.

Before they split them between two buckets, Papa Juan rolled them in bone meal, and told them what to put in the holes with them. A little fertilizer and a little peat moss in the bottom and a bulb, with the pointed end up, then shove the dirt back in on top and pat firmly.

The colors were a mystery.

"This is going to be amazing when they come up." Lacey pushed her trowel into the bed, gently probing for a surviving dormant bulb. She hadn't found very many, but there were a few closer to the house foundation.

"I would have put them in colour bands," Zee complained.

"You'll see. All of these tulips won't bloom at the same time. Some of the fancier frilly flowers are the last to open their buds. This way we have them around for the best part of May before they are all done." Lacey explained.

"Wow, look up there?" Zee pointed to the garret window in the west wing roof. "That's not Mama Rosa."

"No kidding! Way too skinny and tall. And she's got long white hair."

"Is that a ghost?" Shivers ran down Lacey's back and she shook her head in denial.

"You're as white as she is, Lace." Zee said. "I bet if we go up there, there's no one there."

"I've never been anywhere in the house except the kitchen. Mama Rosa always has lunch for me and anyone else working on the grounds. How many bulbs do you have left?" Lacey changed the subject. She really didn't want to find the ghost. "I just found a bulb that's still in the ground here, and I've got five left." She peered into the basket she had on the ledge beside her.

"I think I've got five or six left. I see Percy coming from the stables."

"Terry is still mowing, I hear the tractor," Lacey said as she lifted her bulb out of the ground, widening the hole slightly she dropped a few pellets of fertilizer into the hole, a half scoop of peat moss, and rolled her bulb in bone meal. The little container was almost empty. Setting it back in the ground she pushed dirt over it and patted the dark loam firmly into place.

"What time is it?" Zee asked. "I'm out of water."

"Race you to finish these, then we'll go around and see if we're really having burritos for lunch." Lacey glanced at her Fitbit, and continued, "It's almost noon."

"Besides, we're going up to the attic to check out that window. I want to know what's up there."

"She gave me the creeps. I say leave sleeping ghosts lie, Zee." Lacey felt the hair on her arms stand up at the mere thought of ghost hunting.

"Chicken, Lace?" The challenge in Zee's voice was unignorable.

"Yeah, sort of. I thought I saw something up there a couple of times, but Papa Juan told me the doors were locked and no one could get in. Now you tell me there was a broken window where the maple tree is in the back, and there's evidence someone was staying in there. At least some of the time."

"We're going to take Terry and Percy up with us. The doors are all unlocked now, and we'll do it right after we eat." Zee decided.

"Okay, I guess." Lacey patted her last bulb into the ground right beside the front step. Maybe Zee would forget about it. "Done!"

"I'm done too." Lacey watched as Zee put all her tools and containers into the basket she had with her.

She spun around when she heard the lawn tractor approaching from behind her. Terry had taken his shirt off as the morning warmed, and he mopped his forehead with his tee shirt before he pulled it back on. Why did the sight of his flexing pecs stir a flutter low in her belly? Percy arrived and scooped up Zee's basket.

"Shall we drop this stuff at the green house?" His blue eyes were steady on Zee's.

"Sure." Zee went over to stand by him. Lacey thought they looked cute together, her twin barely came up to his shoulder. Come to think of it, she loved the way her head fit against Terry's shoulder too.

"I'll go park this in the garden shed. Hurry up, I'm hungry and I smell burritos. Mama Rosa makes the best." Terry started the mower and hit the accelerator, sending a spurt of gravel out from under the rear tires.

Lacey picked up her basket and took off after the bright green mower. "Last one into the kitchen has to load the dishwasher."

Zee raced past her, but they heard Percy curse, as he caught his toe on the curbing. The girls looked over their shoulders, and when he got up, Lacey put on another spurt of speed. Bursting through the greenhouse door, she dropped her basket, knowing Zee would head straight for the kitchen. She still had a chance to beat Percy in. He had Zee's basket. She jogged across the back lawn, only to have Terry catch her hand.

"Let them win, I'll help you with the dishwasher." He slowed down to a walk. "Did I tell you how good you look?"

She knew he'd been watching. She felt his eyes on her every time he made a circuit around the vast front lawns. "What's different now? I mean you've always been my friend. You've always just been there no matter what. Why is it changing? I'm getting tingles and I'm scared of what I'm feeling." Lacey stopped, turning to look up into Terry's eyes. He was watching her intently and raised his hand to touch her cheek.

"What if we're more?" Terry leaned forward as she tilted her head back, keeping her eyes on the rich brown of his.

"What if we wreck our friendship?"

"Can't do that, I promise." Terry touched his full lips to hers, and her heart leapt into overdrive. All thoughts of food fled as she felt his tongue tracing her mouth, and let him in. Her first real kiss and her knees were starting to wobble. She forgot to breathe as her tongue met his in a dance as old as time.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing into those solid chest muscles and clung to him as their kiss spun endlessly. Reluctantly, she broke contact with his sweet torture, panting. Her heart felt like it would never settle into a normal rhythm again.

"Okay, that was special," Lacey whispered, her voice husky.

"I knew it," Terry said. "I kept asking myself why I didn't want to go out with any of the girls on the cheer squad, why it was always you I came back to. We had so much fun last night. I had to know. You're special. Way more than a friend. You know those tingles? I've been getting them since the beginning of the summer."

"Now what?"

"We take it slow. I've only kissed one other girl and it doesn't count. It turned me off." Terry admitted as he twined his fingers through hers, tugging her toward the kitchen door.

"You're my first kiss. And it was spectacular." Lacey smiled up at him.

Terry's dark cheeks deepened with an embarrassed blush. "No pressure."

"No pressure," Lacey agreed as they stepped through the door.