Page 5 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Please,” Edith pleaded. “I just want to talk.”

Riley sighed, her gaze moving between her father’s beseeching eyes and her mother’s tear-filled ones. “Uh, I guess.”

Edith sent her a brittle smile. “Great.” She looked at the spot Riley’s eyes kept moving to and gulped. “Your dad is here, isn’t he?”

Riley bristled, wondering if her mother was about to scream and run back to her house for safety. “He is.”

The corners of Edith’s lips tipped up into a sad excuse of a smile. “He asked you to come here, didn’t he?” she asked knowingly.

Riley answered with a single nod of her head.

The woman stared at the spot where the ghost of Riley’s dad stood for several seconds longer, her skin looking far paler than it had seconds earlier, before turning her attention back to Riley. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this. I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you.”

“Are we going for lunch or not?” She didn’t want this woman’s apologies. She just wanted to get this over with and go back home.

Edith’s eyes flashed with hurt. “Give me a minute to grab my keys and tell Olivia and Noah we’re going out. I’m sure they’d love to see you if you’re up for it when we get back.”

“We’ll see,” Riley replied, not wanting to make any promises. She wasn’t sure she was emotionally or mentally prepared to see her half-sister or meet her step-brother. Meeting her stepfather seemed plenty enough after the last two weeks of emotional turmoil.

Edith retreated up the path, looking over her shoulder more than once before disappearing inside the house. Riley’s stepfather hesitated in the doorway, looking uncertain and a bit lost, but when their eyes met, he straightened and walked down the path toward her.

“I’m Hugh, by the way,” he said once he was in front of her. He held his hand out, and Riley shook it.

“Nice to officially meet you, Hugh.”

“He seems like a good guy,” Riley’s dad noted.

Riley wasn’t able to reply because she didn’t think Hugh knew about her abilities, but if she could have, she would have told her father that Hugh seemed nice enough, but Edith had downgraded—nobody could compete with her dad.

“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first,” he apologized again.

“It’s really no problem.”

“Thank you for saying yes to lunch. Edith has wanted to meet with you for a long time.”

“Sure,” she murmured, and that was pretty much the end of their small talk.

She and Hugh were eventually saved from the uncomfortable silence when Edith returned with a pair of car keys. “Alright, we’re all set. Any preference for where we eat?”

Riley shrugged. As someone who had problems with her blood sugar levels dropping if she didn’t eat regularly—a problem that was exacerbated when she spent too much time around ghosts—she usually tried to eat well-balanced meals, but she wasn’t picky. She would eat pretty much anything put in front of her. With the obvious exceptions of things like livers and kidneys, of course. “Anything is fine.”

“How about Panera?”

“Yeah. Sounds good.”

She followed them to a dark gray SUV, pretending not to notice the enormous grin her dad was sporting. As far as lunches went, this was sure to go down as the most awkward one in history. They all got into the car—Riley, her estranged mother, her stepfather, and a ghost. It was either a disaster in the making or the start of a terrible joke. Riley’s bet was on the disaster.

2

“You can’t leave yet.” Riley’s voice cracked on the last word. “I’m not ready.”

“It’s time, Riley. You’ll be moving in with Edith and Hugh tomorrow, and we both know I can’t stay with you forever.”

She did know it, and she hated it with every fiber of her being. She’d attended his funeral and heard the reading of his will, but she wasn’t ready to say goodbye, to admit that he was gone. She shook her head and stood up from the couch, the otherwise empty New York apartment taunting her with its barrenness. All their other furniture was gone, sold off because she couldn’t afford to store it, and now her dad wanted to leave too.

“Just a few more days,” she pleaded.

“I can’t stay any longer. I would if I could, but you know that’s not how it works,” he told her gently. “I’ve made my peace with everything. You have to let me go.”

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