Page 16 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“Exactly,” I say. “Though, I worked at the bookstore when I was alive. I suppose I could start there if Beverly needs the help. I know she has you and Dianna working there.”

“Oh, I just hang out there more than anything,” she says. “I have my own boutique to run selling potions.”

“As for a place to live…” I shrug. “Beverly’s cottage is a bit small. I suppose I’ll need to find my own place. But for that I’d need money. So I would need a job.”

Sophia waves me off. “You’re family. Don’t worry about it. We will get that all sorted out, I’m sure.”

“Hmm. Family. It’s so strange.”

Sophia is quiet for moment. “You had a son, right?” I nod. “So you watched him grow up, have his own family. You saw him…”

“Die?” I ask. She nods, her eyes wide. “Yes, I was there. I held his hand as the life went out of him. He saw me there, at the very end. It was a peaceful death at least.” I wipe away a tear that escapes my eye.

“What happened to your husband?” she asks.

“I’m not exactly sure,” I say. “By the time I woke up, he was gone, had left Mystic Cove. When my son came back and worked at the shop with Mother, he didn’t speak about his father much. I know he remarried. Perhaps my son didn’t really feel like he was part of his father’s new family. I don’t know. I just wished him well and hope he was able to find happiness.”

“That’s very magnanimous of you,” Sophia says. “I told Jacob that when I die, he can never remarry.”

“That seems a bit selfish,” I say jokingly.

She waves me off. “We are soulmates; he’ll never find anyone else anyway. Beverly set us up, you know.”

“I know,” I say. “I was there.”

“Now that you are alive again, and basically a widow, you might have a soulmate out there,” Sophia says. “You should ask Beverly to set you up.”

I shake my head. “No. I’m not interested in that.”

“Why not? Were you not happy in your first marriage?”

“I was,” I say. “But…it was a different time. It was expected of all young women to marry. So, I did as I was told. I married young, I was only eighteen. It was right after the war started. I wanted to do my part to help out. So I volunteered as a reporter for one of the newspapers in Boston. But my husband, he didn’t like that very much. It was a relief when he finally gave into the pressure himself and enlisted.”

“He fought in the war?” she asks.

“Not exactly,” I say. “He served more of a diplomatic function. He went to Philadelphia to work on trade and peace negotiations, prisoner exchanges, things like that. But since he was away from home, he wasn’t there to keep me from going out and talking to soldiers and generals, getting war reports. Of course, by then, I was pregnant…”

I look over and see that Sophia is staring at me. “What is it?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she says. “I’m just riveted. You should write all this down. Write a book.”

“I suppose I should,” I say. “People are very interested in the colonial era nowadays aren’t they.”

“Thanks to Hamilton, yeah,” she says. “But, anyway, so I guess what you are saying is that you want to be single for a while.”

“Oh, right,” I say. “That’s what we were talking about. Yes. I would like to experience life as a single woman for a while. Take advantage of living in this new modern age.”

“I respect that,” Sophia says. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun on the side.”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw the way Detective Dawson was looking at you,” she says. “He’s handsome, isn’t he? If I wasn’t already married…”

“Oh,” I say, feeling nervous and flustered for some reason. “Yes, he is nice. I suppose you heard that he is the one who found me when I woke up.”

“I heard,” she says. “See, you have a connection already.”

I shake my head. “I’m not planning on being anything more than friends.”

---