Lyla Sage teases update on Rebel Blue Ranch TV adaptation – plus an exclusive chapter from new book Free Falling

Leith started down the stairs first. "God, it’s like The Conjuring in here," he said. "Maybe we should’ve done this in the light of day."

"Scaredy-cat," I said—even though I wasn’t a big fan of this creepy staircase either. But there was nothing a little bravado couldn’t fix. In situations like this, I found it best to channel Collins. Fake it till you make it and all that shit. When we got to the bottom, there was another door. Leith went to work on testing if any of the keys unlocked it, and I stood a couple of steps away. Unlike him, I understood personal space.

Suddenly, a whoosh of air knocked me forward, and I lost my balance. I let out a yelp, which caused Leith to turn around right before I landed face-first in his chest. Then, as if this series of events couldn’t get any worse, the door opened with a rasp, and we both went down.

One of Leith’s arms wrapped around my waist before we hit the floor with a resounding thud. I didn’t even realize that I instinctively put my hand behind his head until my knuckles scraped the hardwood floor. Leith groaned. "Shit," he said. "You okay?"

"Sorry," I replied. "I lost my balance somehow." There was a haunting giggle behind me, and I had a feeling that "some-how" was a "someone."

My money was on Chewing Gum, probably punishment for Leith’s flashlight. I felt his arm tighten on my waist, and then all I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears. Leith gently grabbed the hand that I’d put behind his head and brought it to his sight line. I could feel that my knuckles were scraped up, but I couldn’t really see anything in the dark. I was very aware, however, of every point of contact between our bodies.

"I don’t think I can see this without accidentally shining the phone flashlight right in your face," Leith said—referring to my hand. "No need," I said, pulling it away. I needed to snap out of it, so I rolled off Leith and quickly got to my feet. He lay on the floor a little bit longer. "You good?"

"Yeah," he said. He wiped a hand down his face. "Just got the wind knocked out of me a little bit."

"Sorry," I said again, still a little breathless. "Stop apologizing, Clarke," Leith said. "Those stairs are older than both of us and are, like, four inches wide. I’m surprised I didn’t go down first."

Leith took a deep breath and reached his arm toward me. "Help me up?" I grabbed his hand and pulled. It took more strength than I expected to get him on his feet and upright. "Okay," I said, looking around, following where Leith was shining his phone light.

We had made it to the bait and fly shop next door to Toades, but it was only open in the summer, so it looked rightly abandoned. "Where to?"

"Door on the other side goes to the hallway." I looked at the other side of the wall and saw the door Leith was talking about slightly ajar. "At this point, these people are literally asking to be robbed," I mumbled. Leith laughed lightly, and the hardwood floor groaned under our feet as we walked through the door and were met with another long hallway. "Surprised that creepy nun isn’t standing at the end of it," Leith commented.

"Maybe we cool it with the horror movie references while we’re in an old, dark, croaking building, yeah?" I spent years of watching horror movies out of one eye with my sister.

"Who’s the scaredy-cat now?" Leith smiled. I ignored him. "Which door is Ron’s?" I asked. "The one at the very end," Leith said. When Leith reached the door, he put his hand on the knob and took a deep breath before trying to turn it. I watched his face fall. "Locked," he said. "Were you expecting all of them to be open?"

"Kind of, actually," he said. "Should’ve bought that lock-picking kit off Kendi in the bar parking lot last week." Kendi sold a lot of useless shit out of the trunk of his car. He was also Sweetwater Peak’s best bowler—went to a national championship and everything. A man of many talents and trades

"And you started off so prepared." I rolled my eyes. "Guess we better head back." What a bummer. Leith dragged his hand down his face.

"Don’t you have, like, one of those hairpins or something?"

"I think that only works in the movies and on Pretty Little Liars," I said.

"You’re supposed to be my Spencer Hastings in this situation."

"How do you—."

"Lainey."

Leith smiled. Lainey was Leith’s cousin. She was sixteen and had lived with Leith’s family since she was little as far as I knew.

"I would think that that show was before her time."

"PLL transcends generations, apparently."

I felt the temperature drop again, which seemed to be the most popular signature for the ghosts in this building. It was way better than smells and moving objects—those were harder to explain away. Leith kept shaking the doorknob. I looked behind me, and what do you know, my new archnemesis, Chewing Gum, had appeared again. She winked at me and then disappeared through the wall. Was she about to . . . ?

The soft click on the other side of the door told me that, yes, in fact she was. I had to hold in my reaction. Of course she’d be happy to push me down the stairs and unlock doors, because ghosts can’t get convicted of manslaughter and breaking and entering.

"Was that . . ." Leith’s voice trailed off, and then he tried the door again. It opened. "Holy shit." Before I knew it, both of Leith’s arms were around my waist, and my feet were off the ground. "Clarke Cartwright, you are my good luck charm!"

A shocked laugh bubbled out of me as Leith spun us in a quick circle. I was breathless when he set me down, but I did my best to recover quickly. Leith was beaming, and I willed my stomach to stop its backflip. It felt like it just did an epic face-plant instead. The effect he had on me was just the aftershocks of a teenage crush—no need to let it take over. Leith pushed the door all the way open. "After you," he said, gesturing for me to go through the doorway.

Ron’s office was a disaster. There were papers strewn about his desk, and a seemingly infinite number of filing cabinets—all in varying states of openness. Leith let out a low whistle. "Divide and conquer?"

"That seems like the best option," I said. "We’re just looking for anything regarding your dad’s estate, right?"

"Yeah," Leith said. "And any last will and testament stuff. I’m hoping there’s a paper file with everything in it somewhere.

I looked around again."Fingers crossed," I murmured. The state of this place meant we were going to have our work cut out for us. I hoped he wasn’t about to try it with the chitchat again. "So, how was your week?" Leith asked. I was really really missing my boxed wine and internet doomscrolling right about now.

"This will go faster if we’re not talking," I said—snapped, maybe. A little.

"I’m not great with silence," Leith admitted. I couldn’t pinpoint the emotion in his voice.

"Sorry."

"No, I’m sorry."

I hated that I couldn’t seem to regulate my emotions in his presence. I thought I had gotten better at this. "I’m just . . . kind of on edge lately," I admitted. That was the understatement of the century. I was so close to the edge that I didn’t even care if I fell off it into oblivion. Maybe I’d feel better there.

"Why?"

"A lot going on at Toades," I said as I kept making my way through papers. "And Sadie flew south for the winter permanently. She’s doing, like, this permanent cosmetics training thing in Arizona."

Sadie was an aesthetician—the only one in Sweetwater Peak, so she was deeply missed by her clientele of older women. She had her cosmetology license, too—mostly did perms, and promised to come back a few times a year.

"And Collins didn’t last very long here, did she?" I shook my head. "No, but she’ll be back soon too." That’s what she said, at least. Youcouldn’t always take my sister at her word, though. She tended to go wherever the wind took her, but now she had Brady, and I was hopeful the wind would blow her back to Sweetwater Peak. Back home.

"So, her and the upholsterer, huh?"

"Her and the upholsterer." I nodded. An unexpected but well-matched pair. I genuinely thought that Collins and Brady were good for each other.

After that, Leith shifted gears to Pearl and then told me about how he got Bill. I don’t know how long this went on, but after a while he shouted, "I found something!"

"Shhhhh," I said quickly. "Come over here," Leith said—this time at a lower volume. "Wilkes comma Wilder!"

I made my way over to where Leith was—careful not to knock any of Ron’s stacks over. "Do you have your phone?" he asked. He was holding a thick file folder. I opened up my flashlight this time to get a better look—careful not to flash it around the room at any guest Leith and I might have.

"God, this thing is huge." He opened the file and started snapping away with his phone. "I’ll read all of it later," he said—more to himself than to me, I think. After ten to fifteen pages, I didn’t see anything, but I heard someone—maybe Chewing Gum. I couldn’t see her, but I tried to focus on her energy. "Incoming," she said quietly. Incoming? Right then, a noise came from the front door—a key entering a lock.

"Fuck," I said, panicked. Leith was looking at the door like a deer caught in headlights. We didn’t have time to run. The door was opening.

I grabbed the file folder from him, shoved the papers back in, and did the first thing I could think of, which was admittedly, stupid, but not nearly as stupid as the next thing. I lifted Leith’s shirt, pressed the file folder against his stomach, and slid the bottom of it into the waistband of his jeans—securing it.

Then, right as the lights turned on, I threw my arms around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine.