Page 67 of Just This Once

“What do you mean; what about her? She threw fucking books at people. She’s never done that before. What if she’s, like, turning violent?”

“I thought you said the assholes deserved it.”

“Hell, I don’t know if they deserved it or not. But she can’t exactly be trusted to make those kinds of ethical decisions on her own, can she? She’sdead. What if she decides to push a whole bookcase on someone just because they refused to pay a late fee or some shit? She can’t just start exacting whatever form of vengeance she wants to.”

“Ah, Jesus,” I groaned, tipping my head back to look up at the night sky. But all the stars up there looked peaceful and happy, so I scowled at them and returned my attention to Keene. “You already know what it’s going to take to send her on.”

He scowled because his mother had made it explicitly clear she wasn’t leaving this plane of existence until her baby boy found true love. And Keene liked banging different women way too much to ever settle down with justone.

Sighing heavily because I didn’t blame him—I had no intentions of falling in love either—I finally suggested, “Just talk to her, bro. She’ll listen to you more than anyone else. If you tell her to stop throwing books at people, I have a feeling she’ll stop throwing books at people.”

“Maybe,” he agreed thoughtfully, chewing on his lip. “But what if someone really does deserve a little punishment? Like they’re hurting someone else, and she can actually stop them?”

“Then give her parameters. I don’t fucking care. Why are you askingme?”

He pulled back in surprise. “That’s a good question. WhyamI asking you?” Jerking his phone from his pocket, he added, “I’m calling Thane.”

“Stellar idea,” I droned dryly. “May I be excused now?”

“What?” Preoccupied with his phone, Keene scowled at the screen before glancing up briefly. “Oh, yeah. Yeah.” He waved me on. “See ya, man.”

I shook my head, amused by his easily-distracted attention. “Later, kid,” I told him, even though I’m sure he didn’t even hear me.

And with a long exhale, I turned away, wandering through the dark toward my truck.

It wasn’t until I slipped my hands into my pockets and felt the cool glass of the ghost amulet that I remembered, shit, my problems had only escalated.

Hope might actually be dying.

Not only that, but she was also looking for someone to fuck her senseless before she did. And if I didn’t stop her, she might just take her request to someone else to get her wishes met.

That was a lot to unpack.

If I was smart, I’d dump all of this information on Alec and wash my hands of the whole clusterfuck.

But she’d come tome. I couldn’t ignore that.

Which meant I had a shit ton of decisions to make.

17

HOPE

My poor, oblivious brother. I’d come to town on a Monday, and it had taken him until Wednesday to even think to ask, “How long are you staying in town, anyway?”

And I’m sure it only occurred to him to ask because this was the third evening in a row that I’d hogged all his free time. I’d gone to the movies with him, out to eat, and now we were taking a walk on Bridleway, the town’s biggest pedestrian trail. He probably had homework and all kinds of production shit he wanted to work on.

Burrowing himself alone in his room to create video art was Alec’s happy place.

With a shrug, I gazed toward the horizon and took in the sunset, mesmerized by all the pretty colors and affirming to myself that coming home had been a good idea.

“Not sure yet,” I answered before immediately distracting him with, “Hey, how’s the new roommate working out? Have you been able to poop since she moved in?”

He sent me a dry glance. “Ha ha.” Then he shrugged. “Actually, she seems pretty nice so far. She’s kind of quiet, though. But I think she’s still majorly bummed about losing her boyfriend. When she saw my movie collection in the front room,she asked if she could watch one. And I told her sure. But then…” Wincing, he sent me a sympathetic glance. “She asked for recommendations for the best movie to watch after a breakup. Can you believe that? She really misses him. I feel so bad for her.”

I watched his face as he talked and could tell he actually cared about her pain.

See, this was why he was the best person I knew. He had such a good, compassionate heart.

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