Page 196 of Zero Chance

I smiled, and tears immediately filled my eyes, already missing her and hating that she was never going to call me her sunshine again.

“Hey, Mom,” I choked out, wiping a hand over my face.“Woods here hasn’t been giving you too much work, has she?”

From the table, Faith scoffed but interpreted for my mother, saying, “She likes having something to do.”

“Well,” I muttered, heaving out a depressed breath as I flopped down on the tabletop opposite Faith and swung one leg sadly.“I’m gonna fix your boredom real shortly here.”

Faith’s gaze flashed up to mine, and her lips parted with realization.As someone who could actuallyseeghosts and hear them speak, she’d been the first person a little over a year ago to discover that my mother was still around and haunting this building.She’d also been here when I learned what it would take to help my mom move on.

At first, I’d been insistent on the idea that she leave the land of the living.I wanted her to be in some kind of heavenly paradise, getting served Mai Tai’s on a beach or whatever instead of stuck here where no one could touch her or truly interact with her.But after only a few weeks of being around her again, I grew attached to her ghost version just as much as I had the live one.

Now, I was torn between what I knew was best for her and what I wanted for myself.

I nodded once at Faith to let her know her suspicions were correct.I was finally picking my mother’s needs over mine, and I’d asked her here to be my translator.

“So I need to talk to you, Mom,” I started, swallowing as the pain came, already creeping over me and taking hold of my windpipe.

The chill of my mother’s touch followed.Her hands were in my hair, I could feel the cold seeping over my scalp and I closed my eyes, savoring it while I could.

“She wants to know if you’re here to talk about Waverly,” Faith told me, and my eyes shot open in surprise.But Faith cracked a grin.“She’s come up with a way to teach her how to shelve better.”

I sniffed out a half-amused, half-pained sound.“Well, you’re half right,” I noted.“Thisisabout Waverly.”

In answer, a dozen books came bobbing into sight and piling up on the table, all of them about cataloging.

Setting my hand on the top of the stack, I pushed the books slightly away.“But I don’t want to talk about library stuff.”

“She’s confused,” Faith told me.

“Yeah, I bet,” I muttered, turning in the direction I thought my mother was so I could address her directly.“Do you remember what you told me when I first discovered you were here?When you told me what needed to happen before you could move on from this place?”

“She says she can’t go until her purpose is complete, until you find someone who loves you as much as she did,” Faith informed me.“You have to experience true love.”

“Yeah.”I drew in a deep breath, then said, “So about that?—”

But I was cut off by a door opening and the clatter of footsteps until a breathless Waverly appeared at the end of the stacks, her hair flying out behind her.

“Sorry, I’m late,” she started, coming toward me, her cheeks flushed with color, probably from running in the February chill to get here.It made her look stunning.“The professor kept us late, and—oh!”She slowed to a stop when she saw Faith sitting at the table behind me.“Hi.”

Faith waved and sent her a sad smile in return.“Hey, Waverly.”

Reaching out, I took Waverly’s hand to draw her to the table where I was sitting on the edge.“You’re not late,” I assured.“You’re right on time.”And smiling softly, I lifted my other hand to play with her new bangs.

Gaze darting questioningly from me to Faith, she paused before slowly asking, “In time for…what exactly?”

Looking down at our connected hands and playing with her fingernails, I asked, “Did I ever tell you what was keeping my mom here?What her unfinished business was?”

When I glanced up, Waverly’s eyes were wide with surprise.Shaking her head, she said, “No.You never have.”

I winced.“Yeah.Well, there was probably a reason for that.I didn’t want you to know.”

While hurt flashed in Waverly’s eyes, Faith cried out an incredulous, “Keene!Way to be tactful about it.”

I lifted a hand to immediately calm Waverly.“Shit, no.I didn’t mean that in a bad way.I just—fuck, I’m really botching this up, aren’t I?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Faith muttered from behind me.

When I sent her a dark glance, she shrugged.“Well, you are.”

---