Ever After (15 page)

“What are you talking about?”

He shook his head and covered his face. “She picked you. You’re sort of her adopted daughter.”

“We’re not so different. Money doesn’t matter. And I know you haven’t attracted a new girlfriend looking like you haven’t slept in days or attempted to shave. Tell me. Is there something wrong with me?”

“I look that bad, huh?” He rubbed his face. The contact sounded like sandpaper on wood. At a closer glance, his hair was so sweaty it stuck to his head, and I was sure he’d slept in his clothes. “Personal hygiene hasn’t been on the top of my list since you’ve been here. In case you haven’t noticed, the only real mother I’ve ever known had her dead body blown into a thousand pieces yesterday, and I don’t think the culprit is above killing you.”

“He’s wrong. He knows I wouldn’t hurt you,” the female voice said.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been worried about me. If you had been, you wouldn’t have let me out of your sight.” I let my forehead rest on his.

He shivered. “I watch you when you sleep, when you’re reading, when you’re eating, when you’re…” Cole’s voice trailed. He clamped his mouth shut, shaking his head. “I try to stay away.”

“But you don’t have to.”

The contorted figure of a naked, decaying woman crawled up the wall and attached herself to the ceiling above Cole’s head. “Tell him you love him.”

“To keep you safe. Yes. I do.” He linked hands with me and stared at his fingers as they worked over mine. The air thickened.

My breath caught in my chest, and my heart hammered in my ears.

Around us, the world turned black and white. We were the only thing in color.

The ghost should have scared me, but I wouldn’t let anything on this earth or beyond screw up this moment.

The thing spun her hideous head around on her body to look at me.

New power, new determination deep inside guided me. I could handle this.

The ghost tilted her head side to side slowly and gazed at Cole. She licked and smacked her lips, drool falling to the barn floor around him.

He caught me eyeing the rafters and tilted his head to look above him. He looked right at her but didn’t see. Cole’s concerned expression deepened. He pulled me closer. “What are you looking at?”

“I thought I heard something.”

Yellowed eyes bulged out of a pile of rotting flesh that used to be the girl’s face. She smiled at me through greenish-black teeth and lips that looked as though they might fall off. She put her forefinger over her rotting mouth, and in a mocking manner whispered, “Shush.”

“The other day on the horse, you wanted to kiss me. That urge has been eating at you. And last night, you gave in.” Every inch closer I got to Cole infuriated the girl, though she said she wanted me to. She hadn’t told me what she really wanted.

Cole’s face paled, but he didn’t deny it.

“I can’t prove it or explain it, but you were there. In my bed. Last night. I still feel your lips on mine.”

A feminine growl rumbled the rafters.

“I know I didn’t dream your body on mine.”

Cole exhaled, his steamy breath caressing my face.

His chest was damp with perspiration and hot on my cheek. His earthy fragrance sent chills down my spine. Cole fell against the barn wall, groping for something to hold on to, anything other than me.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to admit it now. I know something other than fear holds you back, but I’ll figure it out.” His chest was salty under my lips. I met his gaze.

I’d never seen emotion so alive in his eyes.

His body trembled as he rested his cheek against me.

The ghost’s hands appeared around Cole’s waist as I allowed my fingers to run down Cole’s forearms, half-show, half-enjoyment.

“Don’t touch what isn’t yours
,” I thought to her. I pulled Cole’s arms around me. I locked myself in his embrace to prove the point.

He held tight, another shuddering breath leaving his body.

Her hands misted away.

I smiled in defiance.

Mine.

I met Cole’s gaze.

His face was close. “I need to kiss you like I need to breathe.”

“Please don’t stop breathing.” On my tiptoes, I let my lips graze his.

The woman’s arms dangled from the rafters, unnaturally long. Her fingers stretched downward, nearing Cole’s head.

I didn’t stop.

She wouldn’t hurt him.

I don’t know how, but I knew.

“Tell him you love him.” Eagerness was too strong in her voice.

I held it back.

The ghost landed on her feet beside us, her arms retracting in the dirt as they regained their normal length. Her eyes burned with rage.

“Allie,” is all Cole could muster.

The world went from black and white to a cloudy gray, everything out of focus except us.

Cole leaned in. His hands caressed the small of my back as our lips touched.

The barn door rattled as someone jerked it open.

“There you are. We have an emergency.” A girl’s voice I recognized and hated at the same time blurted.

Cole stared down into my soul, his gaze locked.

I was the only one in his here and now.

“The fountain is overflowing,” Kaitlyn said.

“Overflowing? No, it’s ruining the flowerbeds. And Ava would roll over in her grave. There’s potting soil and mulch everywhere. Dalton’s in the fountain up to his knees trying to recover whatever it is. He says he thinks it’s a finger stuck in the sump pump.” Shelby made retching noises. Well, that ruined the moment.

The glazed-over look faded as the intoxication of our nearness left Cole. He stepped back but not out of my arms, nostrils flared.

Shelby passed glances between us. She kept silent, but her eyes shot daggers in my direction.

Loud voices and girls literally puking ten or so yards from the barn completely sealed the deal. There’d be no revisiting the romantic moment later.

Cole dropped his gaze, though he still didn’t move away. He pulled his arms back.

Kaitlyn and Shelby stirred around in my neural pathways.

Cole walked past me and Shelby, but stopped for a moment. Without looking at either of us, he addressed Shelby.

“Next time, knock. Sneaking up on me could get you hurt,” Cole said in a low, even, controlled tone. The statement shocked me.

“Think about nothing.” Kaitlyn held my forearm with a fierce grip. She stared past me into the barn. “Are you crazy? Don’t ever try that again.”

Cole nodded a good-bye in my direction.

“Try what?” I asked in a matched whisper. My eyes traveled the length of Cole as he walked out. It was hard not to appreciate the view, but the familiarity of him tugged at the corners of my mind, driving me crazy. I could have sworn we’d known each other since birth.

“You are supposed to be staying away from him,”
Shelby said inside my head, glancing sidelong at me, while keeping a close eye on Cole’s departure.

We stayed a safe distance from the water fountain, but watched with the rest of the staff as Cole slid off his shoes and stepped into the knee-deep fountain, soaking his jeans in the process.

Kaitlyn’s jaw dropped as she held my arm.

Cole put his hand under the water. It swallowed his arm up to the elbow.

Kaitlyn turned three shades of green, but morbid curiosity held her.

“I need you to leave him alone. Like, you see him, you go the opposite direction,”
Shelby thought-said.

“You didn’t say I couldn’t make him admit how he felt about me.”
My stomach lurched.

“You have to stop.”
Shelby shook her head, her eyes wide.

“That ghost you think is some harmless mist is nothing like the green glob of ectoplasm on Ghostbusters. She wants a lot more from you than a play date. You’re putting Cole in danger just as much as yourself.”
Kaitlyn took a step toward her sister, a united front.

“Stay away from him until he comes to you.”
Shelby gave me a final nod.

“How can you be sure that will happen?”
It was still unbelievable that we could communicate this way.

“Trust me. He’ll only be able to stay away for so long. The real question is, will you be able to handle what he’s gonna ask of you when the time comes?”
Shelby hitched her brow and smirked.

Kaitlyn nudged her sister with an agitated groan. “What are you trying to do? Send her into the mouth of the lion?”

“Good one. I seriously can’t wait to see this unravel.” Shelby giggled.

Kaitlyn’s face pinched, and she crossed her arms.

“We’ve got to give the girl something to hold on to. Remember, we do have to keep her here till it’s over.” Shelby sighed but turned to me. “We can’t keep you against your will, mind you. Just hang on and trust us.”

Dalton tossed wood shards out of the other side of the fountain as Cole jerked at something. Cole pushed up his sleeves, leaned in, hand on one knee, and went to work. His hair fell over his forehead but wasn’t quite long enough to cover his eyes.

It had always fallen at the dark arch of his eyebrows. But always? How long was always?

Cole held up a brownish-green, swollen something I couldn’t bring myself to process.

The staff gasped.

He waved it in the air, turning around so everyone could see. He jumped down from the fountain. “It’s a finger, folks. You act like you don’t have ten of them.”

With gaping mouths, the staff members stared after Cole as he walked toward the path to Ava’s mausoleum in the family graveyard.

“Yes, but ours are attached,” Dalton muttered, nearing us.

“I think I’m going to puke.” Shelby wretched.

“It was just a finger.” I couldn’t believe I had agreed with him. As if seeing a decomposing finger was an everyday thing.

“We normally deal with ghosts, not the actual dead body parts.” Kaitlyn clutched her stomach too.

On to a different subject that might possibly curb everyone’s nausea. “This ghost thing seems to have a crush on Cole. Like a weird, obsessive thing. The whole time we were out here in the barn together, she taunted me, but I don’t think Cole saw her.”

“How do you know?” Shelby stiffened.

“He was so engrossed in me he didn’t have time to notice.”

“That’s strange. He should have at least heard.” Shelby tapped her chin thoughtfully, her brow pulled together.

“She’s showing herself in broad daylight now?” Kaitlyn’s face paled.

Shelby counted on her fingers and looked up at the sky. “Two and a half weeks. You have to listen to everything we tell you to do in that amount of time. Do you hear me? We have a plan, but you have to play by our rules.”

“Could you two be any more obvious? Wait till he’s out of earshot.” Kaitlyn’s eyes dug into her sister. They passed meaningful glances between each other.

Frustrated, I leaned against the barn wall. “He’s a football field away.”

“Let’s put it this way, sound carries here better than other places.” Shelby pulled me toward the house, past the fountain. It sputtered but was almost back in working order.

A few staff members shoveled soaked potting soil and mulch into a wheelbarrow while others transplanted new flowers from trays into the bed under the fountain.

Catching my reflection in the murky water, I cringed as I walked by. For a split second, my complexion was greener. The normally bright and lively skin fell off the bone, and a skull peered back at me. I tripped over dirt clods.

Shelby and Kaitlyn jumped at the morbid sight.

“Come on,” Shelby said, pulling me. “This ghost is becoming more active.”

“She told me to tell Cole how I felt for him. She acts as if she wants us together. Why would she haunt me?”

“It’s need-to-know time,” Kaitlyn said.

“Just what I’ve been waiting for,” Shelby crooned.

* * * *

Shelby and Kaitlyn pulled me into the library and latched the heavy double doors behind us. Once again, Shelby plugged the old-timey radio into the wall.

“Don’t tell me. White noise?” My legs were heavy, exhaustion setting in.

“Sort of. It drowns out everything we say and think. Nothing in the house or on the grounds can hear through it. We have to make this quick.” Kaitlyn sent a nervous glance to Shelby and darted to the bookshelf. She pulled down an old book much larger than the others. She joined her sister on a sofa across from me.

I sat on the brown leather ottoman in front of its matching wing backed, claw-footed chair. It smelled like cologne and a daddy’s hug.

“Here it is. The moment I’ve been waiting for since you came onto this property.” Trembling, Shelby flipped the book around on the coffee table between us. The first page was a faded picture of a family standing in front of the foundation of a house that looked much the same as it did now without the landscaping.

“The original owners?”

A nod from Shelby.

“I think she remembers more than we think.” Shelby gave her sister a knowing glance.

Kaitlyn jabbed her with a pointy elbow.

“Ouch. One more time, and it’s you and me in the backyard.” Kaitlyn massaged her ribs.

Through my frustration, I grinned at their antics. “It’s hard to believe we are sitting in that same house.”

“See this girl.” Kaitlyn pointed to a small girl standing in front of a man and a woman.

Shelby regarded me carefully.

“She’s too pretty to be an ugly ghoul. Let me guess? Classic ghost story. Original-owner-wants-to-scare-off-new-owner?”

“Close. But not quite.” Kaitlyn looked closer, a scowl on her face. “Her name was Grace.”

“Let’s put it this way. It’s not the house she’s after,” Shelby said.

I gently turned the page to find a larger picture of the same girl in her teens—Grace, I guessed—with a smaller girl at her side. The older girl’s face was hard and bitter, the younger one a playful, lively smile. Below the picture were two words. Grace and Annabeth.

At the statue, I hadn’t caught it, but I was Annabeth in my dreams, only much younger. The hair, the eyes, the heart-shaped face. “She’s me?”

“That’s enough for now.” Kaitlyn slapped the book shut.

“What do you mean, she’s you?” Shelby’s face was colored with fascination.