Page 34 of Haunted Ever After

She scooped up the opened bottle of merlot on her counter and brought it and a glass back into the living room with her. “I bet you’ve never even seen reality television. Or any television at all, huh?” Now that she’d started talking to invisible people who might be listening, it was hard to stop. “Mrs. H, you’ve got a lot to catch up on. This show is called Romance Resort, and it’s the worst. All these hot people are living together in this island paradise. They say they’re looking for true love, but we all know better. It’s all about hookups and drama.” She pointed the remote at the television. “You’re gonna love it.”

The opening credits rolled, the bikini-clad people were impossibly gorgeous, and Cassie felt her brain click off. She needed this. She had no idea what the future held, but she could stick around for now. To help Sarah out. Nothing wrong with that.

Three episodes later, in the darkened kitchen, where there were no windows open and therefore no breeze, the wallpaper scrap twitched against its magnetic captors.

Sixteen

“Oh, I meant to say…” Libby handed Nick her debit card to pay for her lunch order. “Thanks for the referral.”

“You mean Cassie?” Nick kept his eyes on the card reader machine and tried his damnedest to sound casual, but the smile that played around his lips probably gave him away. He couldn’t help but smile when Cassie’s name came up.

Libby noticed. She clucked her tongue at him. “Of course I mean Cassie. You’ve been sending a lot of referrals our way that I don’t know about?”

“Nope, just the one.” He chanced meeting her eyes as he handed her card back, but the amusement in her expression only made his smile widen.

“Well, thanks again. Nan loved getting into the Hawkins House.” Libby tucked her card away. “She said the activity there was off the chain.”

“Your grandmother did not say ‘off the chain.’ ”

A laugh bubbled out of her. “Okay, you got me there. In any case, she couldn’t stop talking about it last night.”

“So Cassie’s got ghosts?”

“Oh, she’s definitely got ghosts,” she said in the matter-of-fact tone that someone who didn’t live in Boneyard Key might use to say a house had termites. Though around here the ghosts were definitely more welcome. “But get this.” She leaned her elbows on the counter, and even though Nick had at least three tables of customers waiting for their lunch orders, they could wait. Ghost gossip was the best gossip.

“Mean Mrs. Hawkins isn’t mean.” Libby raised her eyebrows. “Can you believe that?”

“Huh.” Nick wasn’t expecting that. “You sure it was her, then?”

“Nan was pretty sure. There were a lot of details about the house—the way it used to look inside, stuff like that. Who else could it be?” Libby straightened up again. “But Nan said the presence was gentle. Kind, even. She apparently talked about her roses, and that she misses them. That was like the main theme. Weird, huh?”

“Really weird.” Nick was taken aback. All his life he’d heard about Mean Mrs. Hawkins. How could all those stories be wrong?

Libby shook her head. “Sounded more like she was lonely. Happy to finally be able to communicate with someone. Kind of sad, you know?”

“Yeah.” The word lonely echoed in Nick’s head. A relatable notion. He thought about Mrs. Hawkins rattling around in that house, abandoned for however many years. About someone finally hearing her after all this time. He suddenly had a little more sympathy for Elmer and his incessant texting.

From behind Nick came Ramon’s voice calling “Order up!” along with the clatter of plates being deposited into the window. He really did need to get back to work.

“How did Cassie take the news?” He tossed the question over his shoulder on his way to delivering the roast beef sandwich to the guy in the far corner and a Cobb salad to the woman at the table by the window. More and more tourists every day, and it wasn’t even Memorial Day yet. It was shaping up to be a busy summer.

“She was kinda mad at first, Nan said.” Libby waited till he was back by the counter to pick up the conversation string. He grabbed the last plate—roast beef sandwiches sure were popular today—and practically threw it at the customer at the other end of the counter. All these lunch orders were interrupting this very important conversation. “She was more focused on getting Mrs. H out of her house as opposed to understanding why she’s there. Which…I guess that makes sense. I try and remember that not everyone grows up with this stuff. It’s a lot to take in when you haven’t been tapped into it all your life.”

“No, I get that.” He thought that Cassie had been making progress. Sure, he still remembered her stricken face when Sarah Hawkins had first made herself known, when Cassie had said she wasn’t cut out for this. But he also remembered her face as they watched the sunset together and talked about ghostly roommates. He thought she’d been coming around to the idea. Maybe he’d been mistaken. “I’m glad she’s okay, at least,” he finally said. “She was pretty freaked out when it first happened.”

Libby narrowed her eyes, studying him. “You like her!” She practically crowed the words.

Nick narrowed his eyes back, mocking her. “I like her fine.”

“Yeah, he does.” Ramon walked through the swinging door to the kitchen, take-out box in hand. He usually just threw them up on the ledge with the regular orders, but Libby ordered a BLT with extra crispy fries every time, and Ramon had a crush on Libby. Hence the personal delivery.

“I knew it!” Libby sounded triumphant as she took the box from Ramon, but she made no move to leave. Nick wished she would; he didn’t need his love life dissected in public like this. “This is great! Cassie seems really nice. I’m thrilled for you—”

“Don’t start.” He didn’t mean to interrupt her, but it was time to quash that line of thinking. “We don’t even know if she’s sticking around.”

“Well, of course she is.” Libby popped open the take-out box and selected a fry. “She just bought a house.” She said the words slowly, as though explaining a complex concept. “People who buy houses generally stick around.”

“Right,” Nick said. “But she didn’t know she was buying a haunted house. That changes things.”

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