The Bride's Curse (14 page)

Brett kept the radio tuned to the local channel, listening carefully to the news and dreading to hear that there’d been a traffic accident. He’d even phoned his buddy, Deputy Ryan Lockwood, and casually asked him how his shift was going. Ryan had snapped that he wasn’t even on duty that evening but as far as he knew all was quiet and he intended to take advantage of that. In the background, he could hear a woman’s voice calling Ryan. The sensuality of the sound made Brett feel lonelier than ever.

That was weird—he sat up suddenly in his car seat. Lights were coming on in Kelly’s house when up until now it had been dark. He was out of his car in an instant and up the garden path to hammer on the door. He used his fist, too worked up to use the delicate looking brass door knocker. No answer. “Kelly! It’s Brett. Open the door. Please.”

There was no response other than the muttering of waves on the ocean behind the cottage. All the lights went off, one by one, but no one answered his knock. Puzzled, he considered the lights. The sequence of them being switched on and off was erratic. Whoever was doing that would have had to run from room to room in order to create that pattern of on/off, even though the space was small.

“There must be an electrical fault. I’ll tell her to get an electrician in to check it out before her house burns down,” he muttered to himself.

The lingering thought that Kelly might have returned home without him seeing her and was refusing to open the door to him was depressing. He returned to his vigil in the car, watching the night slowly fade into anemic dawn. He decided that he’d give her another hour, until full daylight. Then he’d start calling everyone and anyone he could think of who might know Kelly’s whereabouts. If that went nowhere, well, he’d phone hospitals and then …

Kelly came sauntering up to her front door, looking like a woman who’d had very little sleep. But she was smiling and humming to herself, lost in a world of her own. That smile—it looked like it hid a secret that both excited and pleased her. In fact, she looked like a satisfied woman.

Wherever she’d been, whomever she’d been with, it had sure made her happy.

And that made him jealous as hell.

• • •

The sun was rising as Kelly finally arrived back at her own home, feeling sluggish and hung-over despite having slept for a couple of hours in Noelia’s spare bed. She smiled to herself as she remembered suspecting that Noelia, her friend and assistant, was Mimi L’Amour, Marina Grove’s own bestselling sexy writer. Whatever had she been thinking? That wine must have been stronger than she thought.

The older woman wouldn’t let her leave after they’d killed that bottle of wine, even after downing several strong cups of coffee.

“There’s no way you’re going out of here, tired and with alcohol still in your system,” Noelia had declared. “Driving home in the dark like that, well, it’s asking for an accident. And how could I ever forgive myself if my best friend killed herself on the road after I let her go home when I knew she wasn’t fit to drive?”

Her best friend?
The words made Kelly feel warm all over. She couldn’t remember when she’d last had a best friend, if ever. She just wasn’t a girly sort of girl. But she liked the idea, nonetheless. After the night of shared confidences, they’d better stay friends because they knew all about each other’s secrets. So she was humming some half-forgotten tune as she walked up her garden path.

She was too muzzy to notice the car parked at the curb or to hear the footsteps behind her, and she jumped about a foot in the air when a hand landed on her shoulder. She whirled around to see Brett standing close behind her, a grim expression on his face.

“I’ve been waiting all night for you—where’ve you been?”

Such a domineering attitude brought out the instant bitch in her. “Who do you think you are? My mother? I was out. With a friend. I stayed over.” She got immense satisfaction out of the glare he gave her. Was he trying to figure out whether this was a male friend or a female friend?

She pushed open her door and went inside, startled to see that he had followed her in. “Whatever it is you want, Brett, make it snappy. I have to shower, dress, and get to work.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t party all night before a workday,” he snapped.

Kelly glared. “I’m a big girl now. I can do as I like.”

He gave her that look, the one that went from head to toes and then back to linger on her mouth. “Yes, I can see you’re all grown up, Red.” And before she knew what was happening she was in his embrace, lips locked together in a kiss that was hot enough for one of Mimi L’Amour’s novels. His lips were hard, masculine, demanding, posing an unspoken question that set her heart thumping. Strong hands on her back drew her close, closer, and she melted into him, clinging as he deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth to answer his demand and the taste of him flooded her senses.

When he finally let her go, she was bereft. He grinned a very satisfied male grin, reading her reaction as if he knew, at that moment, she would be his without protest. Cheeks flaming, Kelly placed her hands flat on the hard wall of his chest and pushed away. She tried to glare, but the only expression she could summon up was a smile. She turned and scurried upstairs, muttering that she had to change her clothes for work. She half expected that he would follow her to finish what they’d started; she wasn’t sure how she would react if he did, except that she was both disappointed and relieved when he remained downstairs.

In the bathroom, she splashed cold water onto her burning cheeks, noting the hectic light in her eyes and her swollen, well-kissed lips. She was afraid she’d spontaneously combust if he reached for her again. He literally took her breath away, setting her heart racing and filling her with a passion she’d never felt before.

And she wanted more.

She gave herself a stern lecture as she smoothed face cream into her reddened cheeks. She wasn’t the kind of girl to act on lust alone—although that was very tempting. Things were moving too fast—or perhaps not fast enough. It had been so long since she’d wanted someone who wanted her back with such intensity. Maybe never. Deep inside she knew she wanted more, and for her heart’s sake she had to slow things down.

Leaning over the bannister rail, she called downstairs that she wouldn’t be long and why didn’t he make coffee while he waited. Then she slipped into her bedroom to change into fresher clothes.

She came to a screeching halt just inside her bedroom door. Sullivan the cat was in his usual post on her bed, but instead of dozing he was in battle position, hissing and growling … at the Old Man from the Bench who was sitting in the chair under the window beside her bed. Kelly shivered as cold fingers of terror whipped along her spine, followed by white hot anger.

“What are you doing here?” she yelped, picking up and cuddling her terrified cat. Her worst nightmare had come true. Ghosts could appear anywhere, even in her most private retreat.

“Well, I thought it was better than following you to the bathroom.”

Her pulse was slowing to normal, but Kelly swallowed hard to hold back the knot of frustration that had curled in her throat. After all, he was right. A ghostly appearance in the bathroom would have been much worse. The scary thought was that there was really nothing to stop him appearing anywhere at any time.

“It’s time we set some ground rules. You are not to show up here, especially when I have a visitor.”

Surprisingly, ghosts can blush. Or at least go a pinker shade of gray. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I thought the bedroom would be the perfect place for privacy. I didn’t realize you were planning to have a one-nighter.”

“Shut up! Don’t say another word. None of this is your business.”

“Well, get rid of the guy and … ”

The early morning bliss that had come with Brett’s kiss seemed to evaporate before her eyes. “Darn it all, just stay right here while I explain.”

She didn’t get a chance to explain anything. When Kelly got back downstairs, out of breath and still flushed with annoyance, she found Brett pulling on his jacket. “Uh, where are you going?”

“I don’t want to intrude and it seems you already have company.” His face was tight with anger, his voice cold enough to make her shiver.

“No, I don’t … what do you mean? How could you … ?”

“Obviously you’re not aware that the vent in the room upstairs delivers every sound from there into the kitchen. I don’t know who you were talking to, but obviously there’s some guy up there waiting for you. I could hear every word you said. Maybe you need to get a heating engineer to fix that before you make a fool of anybody else. You sure made a fool out of me.”

“Brett, wait, I can explain … ” But he was gone, the door closing behind him with a very final sounding slam.

Kelly collapsed onto the hall chair, her head in her hands. The very first guy she had met in years who really interested her—lord knew, there was a spark between them like wildfire—and a ghost had to ruin everything. Perhaps it was as well Brett had left. After all, how could she explain that she was talking to a dead guy in the bedroom? Yeah, that would sure bump up the romantic atmosphere.

Come to think of it, what guy would want to take a relationship to the bedroom level if a ghost might appear at any moment and peer over his shoulder?

• • •

Kelly was in a terrible mood when she arrived at Wedding Bliss. She stomped around the store fixing displays that didn’t need fixing, and snapped at Noelia when she asked her a simple question. Finally Noelia sat Kelly down on one of the Victorian armchairs, telling her to sit and take deep breaths while she went to fetch coffee.

When they were both sitting comfortably, coffee mugs in hand, Noelia asked Kelly to tell her what had happened.

“I had a real screw up with Brett. He’s got to be the most unreasonable man on the planet,” Kelly snarled, but her eyes were filled with tears.

“He always seemed rather a kitty cat to me. A gorgeous, sweet, sexy kitty cat. And the way he looks at you … wow! It’s a wonder you don’t both spontaneously combust.”

“He looks at me as though I’m something that crawled out from under a rock. He thinks I’m sleeping around because I had a man hidden in the bedroom when he came to visit this morning, after he’d been sitting outside my place all night, worrying about where I was … ”

“Ohhh, this is getting interesting. So, put Brett on hold for a moment and tell me about the guy in your bedroom.” Noelia smirked. “Who is he and where did you find him? Are there any more where he came from?”

Kelly gave her a nasty look. “There was no guy, or there was but not someone you’d be interested in.”

“Honey, when the only romance in your life is the stuff you have to read aloud into a recording program, you can get very interested in the strangest strangers.” Noelia winked over her coffee cup and helped herself to a second chocolate digestive cookie.

“Yeah, well, even a sexy author wouldn’t get a kick out of this one. The Old Man from the Bench. You know, the restless spirit? Well, he was seated on a chair in my bedroom, large as life. Only still dead. Scared the hell out of me. And out of poor Sullivan. The worst thing was, Brett and I were getting on so well together and I’d slipped upstairs to change … ” She scowled at Noelia’s raised eyebrow. “And I ended up having this conversation telling Mr. Ghost to take a hike and not come back, but it seems the heating vent that runs up to my bedroom is somehow connected to the one in the kitchen. Brett heard my side of the conversation, added two and two, got five, and skedaddled.”

Noelia munched quietly for a moment then she sighed. “Kelly, I swear you have the most interesting life of anybody I know. Interesting like that old Chinese curse of ‘may you live in interesting times.’ I honestly don’t know how you get yourself into these things, but you need to get yourself out of them.”

“I’m trying. It’s just since that shrapnel hit my head, it’s like I’m a magnet for all sorts of weird spirits. And I can’t seem to shut it down, although that cute paramedic told me that I should get an x-ray. He said it’s possible there’s a tiny sliver of metal sticking into my brain and causing the ‘hallucinations,’ as he called them.”

“Then you have your answer. Go get the x-ray done.”

“There’s only one problem, Noelia. These aren’t hallucinations. These are real dead people.”

Even Noelia had no answer for that one.

It was a good thing traffic was light as Brett drove to the Holywell Home to pick up Mary and bring her home. He had a hard time concentrating on the road as his thoughts kept dancing themselves to Kelly Andrews and that morning’s disastrous revelations.

She had sure fooled him! Disappointment lodged like a stone in his chest. How could he have been so mistaken about her? Maybe his initial reaction had been correct. His first instinct when he met Kelly Andrews—after that burning desire to sweep her off her feet and kiss her silly—had been to stay away from her. That long, curly red hair signaled danger to his hormone levels. But the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted her.
On every level known to man.

Then all that nonsense about the wedding gown being cursed.
Please.
He’d been furious when he had found her sneaking around the nursing home against his express orders. Aunt Mary was eccentric enough, what with all that witchcraft stuff, without being encouraged by a fellow weirdo like Kelly.

He sighed. There
was
something different about her. He’d been coming to the conclusion it was a nice difference, up until the moment he realized she was stringing him along while another guy waited upstairs in her bedroom. He’d have found it hard to believe of her if he hadn’t heard her telling the other guy to wait for her. Heard it with his own ears. And if some guy was lurking there, waiting for her to come home, it explained why the lights were going on and off in her house. And he’d thought she needed an electrician! What she needed was a good spanking …

Oh, no, he shouldn’t let his thoughts go there … but somehow he couldn’t help himself. Ever since he met the wedding shop owner, his thoughts—and other parts—had been attracted to Kelly.