Page 4 of Catching My Dreams

“I know you want this,” Brett whispered against her neck when her scream ended in a choked sob. “I know you—"

Someone closed the salon door harder than necessary, and Ella flinched as the slamming sound jarred her out of her memory—if one could call something from a dream a memory. The smell of nail polish and acetone burned her nostrils, grounding her in reality.

Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she let out a shaky breath that did nothing to calm her racing pulse. “Sorry, Penny,” she apologized when she saw the splash of emerald now covering most of her thumb.

Ella’s gran had chosen the color because it matched Ella’s sweater, and the dark green stood out vividly against her lightly tanned skin.

“That’s okay, honey,” the young woman replied, wiping the nail polish from Ella’s finger without so much as a sigh of frustration.

“What has you so jumpy?” Ella’s gran asked from the station beside Penny’s.

“Nothing.” The lie came automatically. “Just tired.” And battling against a migraine that had been hounding her for nearly four months straight.

Her gran hummed. “Right. So it has nothing to do with the stalker who kidnapped your best friend three months ago, who tried to stab you when you and your gang of hooligans rescued Asher from his basement, and who has yet to be found by the police?”

Ella choked on her spit as Sophia, the woman painting her grandmother’s nails a matching dark green, and Penny traded wide-eyed looks.

It was nothing they hadn’t heard before. Her gran had a habit of oversharing while their cuticles were pushed back and their nails were filed, buffed, and painted, but the bluntness of her words was a bit shocking, to say the least.

When Asher had gone missing, Ella hadn’t even suspected Brett. She hadn’t been able to face searching for Asher in the spirit plane for fear of her former friend finding her while she was there, but she’d never thought he would go after her best friend in a roundabout attempt to get at her. She still hated herself for not seeing through his plan.

Maybe if she’d realized it was him, Asher wouldn’t have had to spend five weeks disconnected from his body and thinking he was dead. If Riley, the woman he’d since started dating, hadn’t been able to see ghosts and, therefore, see him, Ella wasn’t sure if they ever would have found where Brett was keeping Asher’s body.

But had she known it was Brett behind the kidnapping, would she have ever found the will to go into the spirit plane? After all their other options had been exhausted, could she have done it? Would she have been brave enough to go there, knowing he could have been waiting for her?

Only good timing had ensured that she hadn’t bumped into Brett when she’d spiritwalked and found Asher in that basement. She still couldn’t bring herself to wonder what would have happened if luck hadn’t been on her side that day.

The universe hadn’t been on her side when Brett had decided to move across the country and transfer to Georgetown University or when he’d spotted her on campus. But at least fate had decided to intervene on her behalf when she finally gained the courage to search for Asher in the one place she’d avoided like the plague for over three years. It had come far too late, but she was grateful for that small dose of luck.

Ella cleared her throat and forced herself to focus on her gran. “Gang of hooligans?” she asked, battling between being amused or hurt by the woman’s harsh delivery.

“Band of misfits. Posse of rule-breakers. What is your preferred name?”

Okay, so maybe Ella shouldn’t have been so honest about her, Noah, Chris, and Riley breaking into Brett’s house in a move that was technically illegal but entirely necessary and justified. Her gran had loved hearing about how Noah had kicked in the basement door a little too much.

“You could just call them my friends.” Though friends was maybe a bit of a stretch.

Asher, the reason they’d been there in the first place and the person Brett had targeted to get to her, was her best friend. But Riley, the girl who’d played an integral role in them finding Asher, was more of an acquaintance than a friend. Chris had never liked Ella much, and Noah…Well, Noah was a whole other messy story, but they were about as far from friends as two people could possibly be.

Her gran nodded regally. “Okay. So, are you saying your skittishness has nothing to do with your stalker who tried to stab you when you and your friends rescued Asher from his basement?”

“Thanks again for the reminder,” Ella drawled as the throbbing in her head intensified. Based on how the lights of the salon were searing into her retinas with brutal force, she’d have to take another one or ten painkillers when she got home.

Her gran let out a weary sigh and pinned her with a knowing look. “Can it be called a reminder when it was what you were thinking about already?”

Ella’s lips pinched together. Her gran was an infuriating human being. One-hundred percent correct. But infuriating nonetheless. “I guess not.”

“You know it’s perfectly normal for you to be scared, don’t you? You’re allowed to admit that you’re afraid.”

“I know,” Ella replied, the half-truth rolling seamlessly off her tongue.

“Do you?”

“Yes?”

“Are you sure?”

“Certain,” Ella practically growled.

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