Page 94 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Because of Edith, but also because of my dad. I felt like I’d be betraying him if I let myself be happy here.”

Asher’s eyes softened, filling with sympathy. “You know he would want you to be happy, right? You wouldn’t be betraying him if you liked it here.”

She let out a dark chuckle. “The funny thing is that he wanted me to be happy here. He was hoping I’d make amends with Edith so I’d have family I could rely on. So I wouldn’t be alone.” She explained her dad’s final wish and how he had only moved on once she’d agreed to move in with Edith and Hugh.

“So, if it was what he wanted, why won’t you let yourself have it?” Asher asked once she was done.

“Because even if he didn’t see it that way, I feel like fitting into this family will mean I’ve replaced him, and I don’t ever want to do that.”

“No one could ever replace your dad, Riley.”

“I know.” She breathed out a sigh. “God, I know that, but how can I just move on and find happiness with Edith’s family when he and my grandparents were the only real family I ever had?”

“Finding happiness doesn’t mean you’re forgetting them or that you’re choosing Edith over them. You can find your place here without losing what your dad and grandparents meant to you. They know you love them.”

Riley nodded, knowing he was right even if she couldn’t quite believe the words yet. “You’d be a great psychologist,” she told him.

Asher smirked. “That’s good because if all goes according to plan, that’s exactly what I’m going to be.” His smug expression slowly dissolved, leaving a thoughtful look on his face. “Will you promise me something?”

“Anything.” Her reply was reckless, but she didn’t think she could deny him anything he might ask.

“Find me so I can do this for real,” he said before pressing his lips to hers. He pulled away abruptly, his eyes wide. “Not that I don’t think this is for real,” he assured her frantically. “I just meant—”

“Asher, I know what you meant,” Riley told him with a chuckle. She fisted his shirt and pulled him closer, shutting down whatever he was going to say next by crushing her mouth to his.

He smiled against her lips and returned her fervor with his own. Riley sank into the kiss, and it dampened the buzzing of a thousand worries and doubts and fears in her mind. There was so much uncertainty surrounding Asher’s situation, but she didn’t want her fear that they might not find him in time to stop them from having moments like these.

The kiss was fierce, but there was a tenderness underlying Asher’s touch that softened the near-bruising force of his lips. She could feel how much he wanted her in the way he dug his fingers into her waist. She could feel how much he cared about her in the way the fingers of his other hand painted light brushes against her cheek. It was a heady combination, having both his desire and his affection.

Maybe she was paving herself a path to heartbreak. Maybe she was leading with her heart instead of her mind. But Riley wouldn’t have it any other way.

25

“So, we’re just going to fall asleep like this,” Ella whispered into the darkness, lifting their joined hands. “This isn’t weird at all.”

Riley tried not to laugh, but it was impossible. “This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever done,” she admitted. “And I once broke into a dead woman’s house to find a copy of her will so that her greedy daughter didn’t get the money she’d left for her grandkids.”

Ella sighed. “That is so…incredibly badass.”

“This, on the other hand, is just plain weird,” Riley joked, tilting her head toward Asher. Riley’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and she could make out his grinning face. “I’ve heard of little spoon and big spoon, but being a middle spoon is a new one.”

Asher’s gravelly chuckle filled the room, and Archie’s ears perked up. The Yorkie had sniffed at his legs earlier, and Asher had told Riley that he’d always been able to sense when he was around. Riley was just glad that Archie didn’t feel the need to bark at him. Instead, the dog seemed only wary of Asher’s spirit.

“I’ll happily spoon you,” he said. “But I think if you start spooning Ella, things will have crossed into a territory of weird I don’t want to enter.”

“Noted.”

“Huh?” Ella asked.

“Asher’s just making jokes about the three of us spooning,” Riley explained. She and Asher hadn’t discussed whether or not she should tell his friends about them, and she wasn’t about to reveal it then by relaying Asher’s exact words. Before having that conversation with his friends, she needed to know what she and Asher were doing.

Between trying to finish her book and getting to Ella’s house, she and Asher hadn’t had much time for a discussion where they made things official. Or where Asher politely informed her that he wanted to keep things casual—because, for all she knew, that was what he wanted. Nothing serious.

There were far more important things to be done than discussing their relationship status, and until they’d had that conversation, Riley was more than happy not to have Ella, Noah, and Chris know that she’d spent a large chunk of her morning making out with their missing friend.

Ella hummed. “Not dirty ones, I hope.”

“Nope,” Riley replied, but her cheeks grew flushed as an image of Asher spooning her appeared in her head—it would have been an innocent enough picture if they weren’t both naked in it, his bare chest pressed against her back and their legs tangled together in a very non-platonic way.

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