Page 3 of Madly Deeply

"Shug would see the light." She pulled her knees closer to her chest. "He'd come investigate."

He bit his lips together for a long moment, then nodded once. "Then let us return to the car and go."

Alexandra's head snapped up. "But...but I thought... You can't leave here, can you?"

He glanced away, guilty, then his eyes met hers again. "I've been with ye from the start. Just to see, mind." He waited for the news to sink in. "When the light came for me, I turned away. I'd done it before. It worked just as well the second time."

"You just turned away?" She had to know. "Why?"

He seemed surprised. "For ye, o'course. Because I couldnae bear to leave until I was certain ye'd get through the worst of it." He glanced pointedly around the property. "But it seems--"

"I'm not handling it well. I know."

He sighed and shook his head. "Makes me wonder."

"What?"

"If my stayin' nearby is the reason for it."

"Yeah, well, maybe I'd have been worse without you."

"Hard to believe that."

They smirked together.

"I know, right? I think they stopped renting out the room next to mine."

He nodded, still smiling, but the crinkles to the sides of his eyes told her his heart had broken for her. If her heart had broken a thousand times in the weeks since the wedding, she suspected his had done the same.

"Oh, Spreag." She leaned toward him, then stopped and let her chin fall to her chest. Trying to touch him would just break their hearts all over again. It had to be enough that he was there, that she could see him, talk to him, tell him how much--

"I love you." She looked up again. "I love you so much."

"And I love ye, lass. Far more than Heaven, it seems." He lifted his hand and ran it down the side of her cheek, slowly, as they both remembered how it felt and pretended they could feel it again.

She tried to suppress the shiver that wracked through her, but failed miserably.

"We have to go." He got to his feet and waited for her to do the same. "Got to get ye warm again."

"You promise not to disappear? I...I don't think I could survive it if you did."

"I vow I shan't disappear. In fact, I shall stay with ye as long as ye like."

Alexandra closed her eyes and wet tears flowed freely down her face. "What if that turns out to be forever?"

His eyes crinkled again. "Then forever it is."

CHAPTER THREE

The night clerk's jaw dropped when Alexandra breezed past the front desk. "Good evening, Jock."

"Evening, Mrs. Tulloch," the young man stammered, both surprised and relieved to see her smiling, though she could still feel the tight lines on her face from the night's tears.

"The lad watches ye too closely," Spreag murmured as they waited for the elevator.

"Hey, I was grieving." She jabbed a finger in his general direction. "He's just kind, that's all. You try losing the love of your life and see how you handle it."

"Point taken." He grinned. "Though, to be fair, I did lose ye as well. Turned me into a right bastard of a ghost, but with no one as witness."

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