Page 101 of Chasing Your Ghost

He didn’t hesitate when he reached the door, and maybe that was a mistake. Perhaps if he’d stopped to take a deep breath in, his knock wouldn’t have been quite so aggressive.

Perhaps if he’d cooled off before hammering his fist into the door, Ella wouldn’t have opened the door with a shouted “What?” and a murderous scowl. Perhaps if he’d been calmer, he would have noticed her bloodshot and desolate eyes immediately and wouldn’t have sneered and fallen back into his usual routine with her.

“Oh, not much,” he replied. “Just came by to ask if you’re still the same selfish bitch who’s going to let her friend die.”

He knew he’d made a mistake the moment the words passed through his lips, but Ella’s flinch brought home just how badly he’d screwed it all up.

She shut her eyes, hiding the pain that was evident in the brown orbs. “I get it, okay,” she said through gritted teeth. “You hate me. I’m a selfish cow.”

Those eyes that haunted his dreams, that had caused him nothing but trouble, opened and burned into him with the heat of a thousand suns.

“Thanks for the reminder, but now you can kindly fuck off.”

She tried to slam the door, but Noah was quicker. His hand shot out and landed against the wood. It took almost no effort to push it open and force his way into the doorway.

“I’m sorry,” he said once she’d backed out of his way, and he could lift his hands to show he meant her no harm. He let out a heavy breath. “I didn’t come here to fight. I just wanted to talk.”

Ella laughed darkly, and he didn’t blame her. “You, Noah Warner, just want to talk?” she asked, her tone bitingly cold and heavy with skepticism. “Sure, why don’t you come right in, and I’ll make us some tea. Maybe I’ll even let you read my diary.”

“You have a diary?” he asked, a smile tugging at his lips. “Now, that’s a book I’d like to read.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’d love to get ahold of all my secrets. They’d be great ammunition in your war against me.”

Noah’s brows lifted. “Is that how you’d describe our relationship? As war?”

She folded her arms and shrugged. “I think it’s the perfect word. Don’t you?”

Noah was saved from having to respond by a ball of fur that came racing up to them from the living room.

“Hey, Archie,” he greeted the Yorkie, crouching down to scratch behind the little guy’s ears.

“Traitor,” Ella muttered when her dog rolled over and exposed his belly.

Noah chuckled and dutifully scratched the Yorkie’s stomach. “Who likes tummy tickles?” he asked. “Who’s the cutest boy?” He gave him a few more seconds of attention and then straightened to look at Archie’s owner, who was staring at him with wide eyes and parted lips. “What?”

“Nothing. Just didn’t think you’d ever lower yourself to treating my dog nicely. I thought your hate extended to him.”

“I’m not a monster,” he retorted dryly. He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. “Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how I reacted after I found the watch. I know you’d never be involved in Asher’s disappearance. I shouldn’t have treated you like that.”

She considered him with slitted eyes, mistrust evident in her expression. “What do you want, Noah?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “I only wanted to say I’m sorry for this morning. I wasn’t fair to you. I know you care about Asher, and I’m sorry I said otherwise.” He wet his lips and looked down at Archie. “But will you please do one thing for me? Will you please consider spiritwalking to try and find him?”

She said nothing, and when Noah returned his gaze to her, it was to find a fire raging in her eyes. “So, you weren’t here just to apologize.” She let out a humorless laugh. “You’re probably not even sorry.”

“I am,” Noah insisted. “I may not understand everything you’ve done, but I should never have accused you of lying about being unable to find Asher. I was completely in the wrong.”

It was the truth, and although he had also come to ask Ella to reconsider helping them, his apology was sincere. It hadn’t been part of some nefarious scheme to get her to soften toward him before he’d brought up the second reason for his visit. Ella clearly didn’t see it that way, however.

“You’re a real piece of work,” she told him, her head shaking slowly from side to side as she glared at him. “I took your shit for years, hoping you’d let me be if I didn’t fight back, but you can’t let it go, can you? You really hate me that much.” She threw her hands up. “Well, guess what, Noah? I think you’ve finally done it because, after everything you’ve said and done in the past, this is the final straw. So, congratulations, because now I hate you too.”

Noah was struck silent. He wasn’t sure what caused a bigger reaction in him: her assertion that she hated him or the knowledge that he probably deserved it. “I don’t hate you,” he finally managed.

“Of course you do,” Ella retorted in a shout. “You always have.”

Noah thought about the crush he’d had on her when they were young—the crush Asher and Chris had teased him about incessantly until he’d pulled a coward’s move and told them he didn’t like her at all, that she was just an irritating girl who trailed after Asher. The boyhood crush he’d had before everything came to a grinding halt when she’d started ignoring him and stopped hanging out with them while remaining friends with Asher.

He was still half-convinced that Ella was infatuated with Asher, and he hated her for it almost as much as he hated her for dropping him and Chris like unwanted trash.

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