Page 61 of Chasing Your Ghost

His eyebrows pulled together. He looked reluctant to let it go, but he did so with a nod. “Alright. Edith’s car is giving her trouble, so I need to pick her up from her office. It shouldn’t take more than an hour, but can I ask you to go inside and stay with Olivia? It will just be the two of you here since Chris and Noah aren’t back yet.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Olivia will be fine by herself if you’re not up for it.”

“It’s fine. I just had a tough day is all. I can handle an hour with her.” With Asher not wanting to continue the search, she had all the time in the world, and after turning down Hugh’s offer for her to help him in the garage, Riley felt like she owed him.

Again, he looked like he wanted to press her for details, but thankfully he didn’t. “Alright. Thank you, Riley. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“There’s no rush,” she told him after closing the pool house door behind her. “I’m sure Olivia and I can manage an hour together without killing each other.”

Hugh grinned over his shoulder as he started toward the house. “Let’s not push it too much. You teenagers are a scary sort.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Ye of little faith.”

“She’s in the living room watching tv,” he said when they stepped into the main house. “I already explained the situation.”

“Cool.”

“Good luck, and try not to burn the house down while I’m gone.”

“No promises.”

Hugh shook his head in amusement before heading into the living room. Riley followed after him and watched as he leaned down to press a kiss on top of Olivia’s head. “Be good.”

Olivia smiled up at him, her arms cradled around a gigantic bowl of popcorn. “Aren’t I always?”

He sighed wistfully. “Oh, how I wish that were true.”

She narrowed her eyes at her father and chucked a piece of popcorn at him, which he skillfully caught and popped into his mouth.

“Have fun,” he called over his shoulder as he made his way into the entrance hall.

Riley heard the sound of him picking up his keys before the front door opened and closed behind him. An awkward silence hung in the air after his departure, and Riley tried to ease it by approaching the couch and sitting next to her half-sister, leaving a sizeable gap between them.

“What are you watching?” Ballerinas danced on the screen, but Riley had no idea what movie it was—she enjoyed ballet but didn’t live and breathe it as Olivia seemed to.

“Center Stage,” Olivia replied after chewing a mouthful of popcorn. “It just started. I’ve watched it before, and it’s pretty decent. Not my favorite though. A bit too boring for my tastes, but I’ve seen worse. I watched it with Amy, and she fell asleep ten minutes in, but she was sick, so I think it had more to do with the medicine she was taking than the movie itself.”

“Right,” Riley replied, unable to contain her smile. Olivia could be a bit of a chatterbox, and it was surprisingly charming.

“Is this what you want to do after high school?” Riley asked after they were more than halfway through the movie. “Dance for a ballet company?”

Olivia nodded. “That’s the plan.”

“The plan or the dream?”

She shrugged. “Both, I guess. I don’t hate it, and it’s also one of the only things I’m good at.”

“I doubt that’s true.”

Olivia didn’t take her eyes off the tv screen, but Riley could see her attention was no longer on the movie.

“Besides my math classes, dance is one of the only subjects I’m doing well in at school. I barely scraped by in the others. Amy always jokes that I was gifted with numbers and rhythm, but God stopped there because giving me more would have been unfair to the rest of you. But she’s just being nice because she does well in everything.”

“Getting good grades isn’t the only way to be good at something,” Riley told her. “Maybe you’re just better at more practical or creative stuff. Have you tried drawing or painting?”

Olivia looked at Riley then, and she looked so young, her light blue eyes wide and unsure. “Only in middle school. I don’t know if I’d say I’m good at it.”

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