Page 43 of The Accidental Ghost

Ralph pulled her hand from his. “My ducks are fine. Now tell me what the hell you mean.”

Shamus’s glance was distraught but clearly resolute. “Being a psychopomp means you can choose to live here on this plane. Some things will be different, of course.”

“Like?” she snapped.

“Like you don’t need to sleep or eat if you choose not to?—”

“That’s a huge perk,” George interrupted with a smile. “And conversely, you can eat whatever you want and never gain any weight or have to worry about your cholesterol and your heart or anything! I eat chocolate cake by the slice and it doesn’t all go to my hips?—”

Now Dex cut her off, patting her leg with a loving smile. He whispered, “Read the room, babe, and let Shamus finish.”

Sorry, she mouthed to Shamus.

He dragged his hat off his head, letting it dangle in his hands. “Right. What George said, but it also means you’re immortal, and you can basically resume your life here on this plane except for when you’re needed in the afterlife.”

She blinked, unsure whether she should feel elated or angry, confused or outraged.

She was all the things.

“So what you’re telling me is, I can keep my bookstore, my apartment, Blanche Devereaux, my life? That my best friend Hazel’s been traumatized by my death unnecessarily?”

Shamus looked directly into her eyes and nodded. “Yes. But I didn’t know for sure what was going on. I couldn’t have prevented what happened to you before I met you. I was just trying to look out for you, Ralph.”

Yeah. Her mother used to say that, too.

I’m just looking out for your well-being, sweet girl. It’s better you don’t go to the school dance where they hide booze in the punch and someone could hurt you, or worse, rape you.

No, Raphaela, you can’t go to the roller-skating rink, and I don’t care how many parents are there. They’re not me, and I have to work. Do you know all the bad things people could do if someone isn’t watching out for you? It’s better if you stay home.

Not a chance on Earth will I let you go on a school trip to Washington, of all places, where the supervision will be slack at best and you’ll be gone for four days! Not a chance. I’m only looking out for you.

It’s amazing that you were accepted to UCLA, sweet girl, but it’s so far away. Don’t you think you’d be better off attending college closer to me? So you’re not so far away I can’t help if you need me? I’m just looking out for you…

The list of things she couldn’t do because her mother was just “looking out for her” had been endless. Eternal. Smothering.

And she’d allowed her guilt to keep her rooted in place. That was her fault.

Unfortunately, something snapped in her then, and for the first time, Ralph didn’t stop to think about the zillion-and-one consequences it might create or even that it might hurt someone’s feelings or that her anger was directed at the wrong person.

Instead, that piece of her, always restrained and careful, broke free.

Overwhelmed by her circumstances, exhausted from taking Kat and Drucinda to the afterlife, and in general, just wiped out, Ralph reacted.

She stabbed a finger at Shamus in accusatory fashion. “Fuck you, buddy,” she muttered, before floating off like a two-year-old.

Chapter

Fourteen

She plunked down on the floor in one of the many hallways of Nina’s big castle, somehow managing to stay seated.

Blanche made a brief appearance, walking straight through Ralph, sniffing the air as though she’d caught her owner’s scent before winding her way down the hall and into Charlie’s bedroom, where she’d made a friend in the toddler.

A sob caught in Ralph’s throat. That she might be able to touch her cat again, stroke her soft fur, made her happy. That she couldn’t bury her face in her fur and cry right now, feel all her feelings, made her heart ache.

But there was hope, if what Shamus said was true…

The sound of sniffing and snorting made her look down to the other end of the cream-color carpeting to see a small tan and black dog bounce his way down the hall.

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