Page 18 of Down and Dirty

He grinned. “Do you go to the ER a lot?”

“No, well, technically, I’m a klutz, but I never hurt myself enough to go to the hospital. I hate the hospital.”

He glanced my way as he pulled out onto the highway. “Because of the ghosts?”

“Exactly,” I said.

He cleared his throat as if this conversation made him uncomfortable.

“Have you lived here long?” I asked.

“Six months. I moved here after I lost my wife,” he said.

My heart clenched. What was I supposed to say to that? “I’m sorry.”

“Hope and I had been separated for a year before she died. I loved her, but I wasn’t in love with her. We grew apart. We were both so engrossed in our work that we didn’t realize the toll it was taking on our marriage.”

“I can only imagine with hospital hours.”

He shrugged. “I love my work. I love helping people.” He pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot. He parked and killed the ignition but didn’t move to get out of the car. “I do have a confession.”

I raised my brow. “Okay.”

“My son, Reggie, lives with me now that his mother is gone.”

“Oh well, I know plenty of people with kids,” I lied. I could count the number of kids I knew on the one hand, and one of them was a ghost.

“He’s sixteen.”

“Wow.” My eyes widened. “You must have been young when you had him.”

“I was twenty, and Hope was eighteen.”

“That must have made going to college tough and then med school,” I said as he got out of the car and so did I. He took my hand and led me to the restaurant’s doors.

“We had a good support team. My parents and Hope’s helped out.”

My heartstrings tightened. I wouldn’t know what that was like with the loss of both of my parents when I was so young. Thank God for Grams taking all of us crazy girls in. She was the one who deserved a medal.

Brandon gave his name to the hostess after we entered, and we were quickly whisked away to a secluded table. If I had to guess, he’d probably paid extra or the doctor in front of his name had these people pulling out all the stops.

Dinner was disappointing, even if the company wasn’t. The food was miniature sized and stuff that I was hesitant to try, but I did. Thank God it was miniature, because I wasn’t going to take more than a single bite.

The rest of the evening I sipped my wine and nibbled on bread from the breadbasket they’d brought out to every table. I understood why now. They needed the patrons to leave feeling full because they definitely weren’t going to get it by eating the main entrees.

We had a comfortable conversation as he drove me home. He was a nice guy. A good-looking guy. Not the pompous ass that I’d sort of been dreading. When we arrived, I said goodnight and got out of the car, and he followed.

“I’ll walk you to the door.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” I said and smiled.

“I picked you up at the door, and it’s where I’ll leave you,” he said and waited for me to unlock the door.

“Goodnight,” I said, staring up at him without inviting him in.

He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss on my cheek. “Goodnight, Faith.”

I watched him return to his car, climb inside, and pull out of my driveway. The spark I’d been expecting wasn’t there. Had it been because it was just a peck on the cheek? I stepped inside and was about to close the door when I spotted Elenore across the street, sitting in a lawn chair in her yard in the dark.

---