Page 35 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Well, that was quick,” Asher replied. “It only took you about twenty-four hours to decide I’m a hopeless case.”

She grimaced and rolled onto her side. Asher was sitting next to her, his elbows resting on his bent knees. Even with his gray aura, he looked like a heartthrob from some cheesy romantic comedy. Meanwhile, Riley was sure she looked a mess in her most comfortable pair of baggy shorts and with her hair falling out of her messy braid.

“I didn’t really mean I’m giving up,” she explained with a sigh. “I just meant…”

“That you need a break?” Asher filled in for her.

Riley nodded. “I’ll start again in a minute,” she promised, already feeling guilty.

“Why don’t you have a swim or something?” he suggested. “Get some fresh air.”

“I don’t know. I should probably get back to the research.”

Asher gave her a look that said she was being ridiculous. “Your laptop isn’t going anywhere. Go have a swim before your mind explodes from an overload of information.”

Riley narrowed her eyes playfully. “Do you think so little of my brain’s capacity for new information?”

Asher’s lips pursed into an unimpressed line. “No. I know that you got less than four hours of sleep last night and only took one break to shovel some breakfast down. You can’t keep going like this.”

“I suppose,” she said with a sigh. She knew he was right, and she also knew she needed to eat something. So, Riley sat up with a tired groan. Black dots instantly invaded her vision with her new upright position, telling her she was way overdue on some food. “Woah.”

“What’s wrong?”

Riley blinked until her blood pressure returned to normal, and the spots receded. “I’m okay. I just really need to eat.”

“Didn’t you eat a big breakfast?” Asher asked, frown lines marring his face.

“Uh, yeah.” She’d had two slices of toast with peanut butter, a banana, and a bowl of granola with yogurt, to be specific.

Being around a ghost almost constantly meant her abilities were running on full power, or however it worked, so she was burning through her energy more rapidly.

“Right.” Asher drew the word out into a question. He frowned. “Do you have diabetes or something? Or whatever the opposite of diabetes is?”

Riley sighed as she toed on her flip-flops. “I have problems with hypoglycemia. I tend to burn a lot more calories than a normal person.” She shrugged and gestured to him. “Especially when I’m near ghosts. Don’t ask me why or how it works, but my blood sugar levels drop faster than normal when I’m around a ghost for too long.”

His eyebrows flew up. “Are you saying I’m the reason you nearly passed out?” He sounded horrified, and Riley scolded herself for not explaining it better.

“No, you’re technically the reason I got a head rush,” she corrected him. “I wasn’t even close to passing out. Besides, I should know better. It’s my fault for not getting a snack or eating lunch on time.”

“Do you need me to leave?” he asked, getting off the bed and backing away from her as though putting that small distance between them would help. “I can come back later after you’ve eaten and feel better.”

“Asher,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m fine. Just wait here while I grab some food. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be right as rain as soon as I eat something.” It wasn’t entirely true, seeing as she usually felt tired and achy if she got this way, even after getting her sugar levels back up. But Asher didn’t need to know that. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

He still didn’t look happy, but he nodded. “Yeah, alright.”

Riley left the pool house, doing her best not to let her dizziness show as she closed the door behind her with trembling hands. As soon as she was in the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of orange juice, the sweetness exactly what her body was craving. Almost as soon as the liquid gold hit her tongue, she felt better, but it took her another minute or two before her hands stopped shaking enough for her to make herself something more substantial.

After checking in with Hugh to ask if he needed anything—he didn’t—Riley made herself a sandwich, grabbed an apple and a handful of almonds, and went back to the pool house and Asher. He was unusually quiet as she ate her food, and she almost wished she’d eaten in the main house to avoid being observed so intensely while she ate.

“You can relax,” she told him after she’d finished most of her sandwich. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“I’m really sorry,” he told her.

She shook her head as she finished chewing the last bite of her cheese and ham on wholewheat. “Don’t be. You couldn’t have known, and no harm was done. I’m honestly used to it. My dad and gran would get the same way, and we learned to deal with it.”

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