Page 28 of Spark
His inner cat stirred, and made a silent huffing sound.
Just ask her out on a real date, it advised.Just the two of you, and no games. We already like her, and she could make a good mate, even if she is an Ordinary.
Well, that sure knocked him for a loop.
Mate?He thought incredulously. His cat spirit thought that Sophie wasmatematerial?
His cat rarely spoke up about anything, except when Chris was out for a ramble around the ranch or adjoining National Park in sabertooth shape, and his cat side was temporarily in charge.
Even then, most of its input was about hunting and interesting scents, not commentary on Chris’s human friends or dating life.
Chris noticed his dad watching him with an odd expression, and forced himself to tear his gaze away from Sophie and her too-tempting lips and tongue.
He concentrated on his own dessert, while his thoughts raced, circling around the inside of his head like those chariot races in the old movies that Aunt Margaret liked to watch.
He really wanted to spend more time with Sophie.
I really want to kiss her.That set off a furious internal debate.
Should he yield to the temptation, and maybe scare her off? Not to mention that it would probably piss off Matt if his best friend ever found out?
Chris knew that Matt was totally interested in her, even if he hadn’t gotten around to making a move yet.
How about just a goodnight kiss when she gives us a lift back home tonight?suggested his inner cat.
Oh, yeah.Chris was totally on board with that idea.
If she didn’t react like he’d hoped, he’d just restrict himself to a peck on the lips. Nothing that could be taken as coming on too strong. It would be the perfect opportunity to see whether she had firmly friend-zoned him despite her physical attraction to him, or whether she might be open for more.
Suddenly, he couldn’t wait for dinner to be over, so that he could find out whether her mouth tasted as good as he’d been fantasizing about.
* * *
Grizzly Creek Ranch
Two hours later
“Which one of them do you think is haunting the hotel?” Chris asked as Sophie pulled off the highway and drove through the gates of the Swanson ranch. “Him or her?”
She and Chris had spent most of the twenty-minute drive from the Cougar Lake Ranch discussing the long-ago murder of Laura Tringstad, and the subsequent arrest and suicide of her newlywed husband, Silvio Ornelas.
“Laura. The thing that attacked Javier looked female,” Sophie replied. “And it looked like it was wearing women’s underwear, all torn up and bloody. The newspaper article said that she’d been stabbed a bunch of times.”
As her car bumped along, its headlights illuminated the narrow gravel road that led up to Grandma Elle’s big yellow Victorian ranch house and the other houses, where Mom, Mitya, and her younger sister Athena lived, as well as Dane and Annabeth, Caitlyn and Mark, and Ash and Dr. Nika.
Chris and Matt lived a mile or two further up the road, in Aunt Margaret’s old Queen Anne Victorian house, located behind the first set of hills.
“I’ll ask around during my shift and breaks tomorrow, and try to find out whether anyone who isn’t an Ornelas has ever had anything spooky happen to them,” Chris promised.
“Thank you,” Sophie told him. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done to help me out with this project.”
“Anything to help you out.” Chris smiled. “Besides, this is really interesting. I’ve been hearing about spooky stuff happening at the hotel for years, but Saturday was the first time I ever experienced it for myself.”
After years of hoping that people would forget she had ever mentioned being able to see ghosts, it felt really nice to know that at least a few people believed in her ability.
They drove in a comfortable silence for a few more minutes, until she’d followed the road around the base of the hills that separated Chris and Matt’s house from the others.
Matt had once told her that this house was located so far from the others because of friction between one of the Swanson wives and her mother-in-law way back in the early 1900s. To keep the peace, the husband had built his bride a house just as grand as the one that belonged to his mother, but out of sight and far enough away to keep the peace between the two feuding bear shifter women.
