Page 14 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“Why?” he asks.

“Because I don’t want to die again.”

CHAPTER 7

I didn’t want to cry, but at the same time, I needed to cry. The tears filled my eyes and then spilled over onto my cheeks. I wasn’t sure why I was crying, and it didn’t seem to matter. I was overflowing with emotion. Only a few hours ago, I was a ghost. My life was the exact same as it had been for over two hundred years. Suddenly, everything was different. I was once again alive, something I had prayed for for so long. But I was not in my world. My husband, my son, my mother, my friends, all of them had been dead for centuries. Even though I had watched this world develop, it was not my world, not my life. I didn’t belong here.

And yet, I would rather stay here than ever go back to being a ghost. I was alive. I was warm. I could eat food and drink coffee. I could interact with people. I was with family, even if we had been separated by generations. Beverly didn’t know me, but I knew her. I could feel my heart beating in my chest and tears on my cheeks. I was alive, and that was enough for me.

“Hey,” Beckett sayts, rubbing my shoulder, “what’s wrong. What do you mean? You aren’t going to die. I won’t let anything happen to you, okay?”

I chuckle at his naivety. He knew even less about what was going on than I did. My crying calmed down and I wiped the tear away.

“All humans seem to have this notion that if I solve my ‘unfinished business,’ whatever that is,” I say, using finger quotes, “that I’ll move on to…whatever is next.”

Beckett nods. “Well, yeah. Many people think that. But I don’t think anyone really knows why someone becomes a ghost or how to help them…not be a ghost.”

“Well, I don’t want to move on,” I say. “I died young, much too young. And then I was in limbo for over two hundred years. I was so alone, and I missed so much. This is my second chance. I’m alive. I just want to live.”

“I understand,” he says. “I don’t want anything to happen to you either.”

I look up and realize in the light of day that he has such lovely sea-green eyes. They are just as calming as the ocean, too. I wonder if he has that effect on everyone he meets.

“What did Sophia mean when she said aliens were your thing?” I ask, wanting to change the subject for a bit.

“Oh.” He blushes red, all the way to his ears. “It’s…it’s nothing.”

“Tell me,” I say. “What brough you to Mystic Cove.”

He clears his throat. “Well, I was a detective back in my hometown. Cold cases. But one night, when I was driving, I saw something that… Well, I couldn’t explain it. Lights in the sky. A ship. I even saw…them.”

His pupils shrink, and I think even the distant memory of whatever he saw still terrifies him.

“I lost several hours,” he goes on. “I had called my girlfriend right before, to let her know I was on my way home. Then I saw the lights and other things. The next thing I know, it’s four o’clock in the morning. She’s been calling me for hours, worried sick. Called my coworkers to look for me. They even went down the same road I was on and never saw me.”

“You were abducted,” I say.

“I think so,” he says. “Me and the whole dang car. Anyway, I get home, tell her what happened. She doesn’t believe me. Says I must have gone somewhere and didn’t want to tell her the truth. Same thing with my coworkers, the others on the police force. No one believes me. They think I must have fallen asleep at the wheel or something, gone off the road where they couldn’t see me.”

“That must have been frustrating,” I say, “for no one to believe you.”

“It was soul crushing. I was depressed about it for a long time. It affected my job, my relationships. After my girlfriend and I broke up, I knew I needed a change, to go somewhere that no one knew me or my past.

“But it turned out that my past was what got me the job here in Mystic Cove. The sheriff wanted to add a detective to the department to work on cold cases or more complicated problems. But he needed someone open minded about…well, everything. There are no aliens in Mystic Cove. At least, I haven’t come across any. But at least no one here judges me for having seen them.”

I nod. “There are far too many strange things in this world for anyone to think we know everything.”

“Exactly. And since I believe in aliens, learning about vampires and werewolves and stuff wasn’t that much of a stretch. So, here I am.”

“That’s a great story,” I say. “It’s wonderful that you were able to find a home and acceptance in a new place.”

“Yes,” he says. “Mystic Cove is… I hate to say a magical place. That’s a bit cliché, isn’t it? But I guess it’s true. Once you are able to gain the trust of the locals, it’s like no other place on earth. Or at least in the US.”

“Indeed,” I say as we wander back toward the front of the store. “There are other haven towns out there, but not in America.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

Beverly and Sophia look up at us as we approach. Their heads had been close together, as if they were gossiping conspiratorially, but they are at full attention when they see us.

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