Page 54 of Chasing Your Ghost

“It makes me feel sad,” Olivia said.

“It’s the colors I used,” Francesca replied. “They’re all cold.”

Noah leaned closer, his eyes raking over the canvas. “It reminds me of the ocean.”

Francesca nodded, looking pleased. “As it should. The sea was my inspiration.”

“It’s beautiful,” Riley said, meaning it. Though she knew little about art, she knew she was a bigger fan of abstract art than other styles.

“It’s great, Mom,” Noah agreed, stepping back and pulling Francesca into a side hug.

Riley looked at them, her chest aching when Noah looked down at his much shorter mother, concern making him look years older than he was. One wouldn’t know it from her happy energy and positive attitude, but the woman was clearly not doing well. Riley wouldn’t have needed Noah to tell her that to know it was true. It was in the pallor of her skin, the dark circles under her eyes, and the boniness of her frame.

But despite the woman’s ongoing battle with cancer, she didn’t stop smiling and laughing throughout the night, her bubbly personality infecting all of them and making sure they had a wonderful evening.

Riley wasn’t sure if it was normal practice for them, but Noah and Olivia didn’t even blink an eye when they ended up back in Francesca’s art studio after dinner, paintbrushes and paint cans in their hands and a huge blank canvas on the floor in front of them.

Noah’s worry seemed to ease as they all embraced the spirit of Jackson Pollock, and as sad as the implications were, Riley had never seen Olivia as happy as she was that night. Riley didn’t even care that one of her favorite concert T-shirts ended up splattered with eggshell blue paint—she was having far too much fun to get upset over anything.

Unfortunately, all nights have to come to an end, and this was no exception. But Riley wasn’t as disappointed to leave as she should have been. Asher would most likely be waiting for her in the pool house, and the promise of his company made her far more excited than was reasonable or responsible.

15

Asher wondered if it would ever not feel like his heart was being pulled from his chest excruciatingly slowly when he visited his parents. He wasn’t sure what broke his heart more: when their eyes looked right past him or when he was forced to watch his mother’s shoulders shake with sobs while his father held her.

All it would take was one word from him to fix the heartbreak causing their tears, but that word would never be heard—at least not by them.

He could understand why Riley had said that ghosts didn’t last long before they lost their minds. He could almost feel it happening to him, his mind beginning to fragment and deteriorate as he stood unobserved in his parents’ living room. At least Riley could see and hear him, but having his mom and dad feet away, yet entirely out of reach, was maddening.

He stayed only a few minutes longer, even that short time enough to have a dark cloud roiling unpleasantly above his head when he appeared outside the pool house. Thunder rumbled in his mind, his dreary mood clashing with the swell of anticipation he always felt when he knew he was about to see Riley.

He could have lied to himself and said that his excitement was solely due to the fact that she was the only one who could see him, but he knew it was more than that. There was no point denying it.

In a move that might have been comical if the circumstances were different and he hadn’t just come from his grieving parents, Asher stuck his head through the guest house door.

After catching her in nothing but a towel that first time—a memory that he was ashamed to admit haunted his daydreams like a pleasant scent that lingered long after contact—he was more careful about making appearances in her bedroom. But all was clear that morning.

She was fully clothed, and there was nothing scandalous about the way she was lying on her bed, tapping away at her keyboard. She lifted her head when the rest of his body moved into the room, and a smile lit up her face.

“Hey,” he greeted her while trying to ignore the way his stomach swooped because of that smile.

“Hey. I was just thinking of going for a dip in the pool. Think you’re up for another swim?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

Floating in a pool shouldn’t have been much fun when he couldn’t feel the water, but he could pretend, and when he was with Riley, that was easy to do. Of course, the fact that Riley looked spectacular in a swimsuit was a bonus. Not that he’d noticed or anything. Except, well, he kind of had.

It was hard not to notice how the fabric had molded to every curve of her body, not to mention all that pale skin that had been left exposed. He’d never thought of shoulders as sexy before, but hers had made Asher change his mind. And he wouldn’t even start on her toned legs, thin yet somehow so strong. He wouldn’t even think about the milky white skin of her thighs, which he’d been tempted to run his hands over, his fingers brushing dangerously close to—

Asher cleared his throat. Though he didn’t need to breathe, there were certain things that his incorporeal body was evidently still capable of doing, and he didn’t need Riley to notice the reaction he was having to her simple suggestion of a swim.

“I’ll meet you out there,” he managed in a slightly tight voice.

She nodded, and a strand of lavender hair fell from her loose braid. “Sure.”

Asher pictured himself striding forward, brushing that piece of hair behind her ear, and slamming his mouth against hers. He wondered what she would taste like. Mint toothpaste? Or like the berry lip balm he’d noticed her use more than once?

She would taste like nothing because you’re dead, he reminded himself before he could let his imagination run any wilder.

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