Page 18 of Ghostridden
“Triple,” Ricky said. “Minimum.”
“I’m sure it can’t be that bad. I’ll head over there tomorrow to start sorting through everything.”
“So if it’s not the contract, what is it?”
I chewed on my lower lip, my gaze drifting from one of them to the other. “What if my house reallyishaunted? I mean, people have been driven out of their homes by vengeful spirits—”
“Allegedvengeful spirits,” Ricky said.
“Okay,allegedvengeful spirits. But whether they were real or not—”
“They weren’t,” Taryn said. “Never been proven.”
“Fine. Real or not, they still drove people out of their homes, and guys, I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“Oh, Maz.” Taryn set her glass down with aclink. “You’re part of the town now. One of us. You won’t be homeless.”
“Yeah, but I’ve ridden the couch surfing wave before and I really don’t want to dive back into it. I want a house. I want ahome, and I really thought I’d found one. But somebody or something doesn’t want me to have it.”
Taryn studied me, her head tilted to the side as she drummed her fingernails on the table. I noticed her nails were on the short side, but her manicure was perfect, with a jeweled pattern on her thumbnail. An interesting blend of practical and stylish, Taryn. “We don’t know that. Nothing hurtyou.”
“Yet,” I muttered, and took a gulp of my margarita. “I’m kind of afraid of what I’ll find when I go back.” I’d agreed with Saul and Patrice’s request to install a ribbon in the Smith Coronaafter we’d found a stash of them in the library desk and roll in a fresh sheet of paper, but I really didn’t want to wake up and hear the keys clacking overhead.
“Do you want someone to stay with you?” Ricky asked. “Either one of us would be glad to do it.”
I considered that through my margarita haze. I still hadn’t given up the notion of a completely human answer to the vandalism, and as much as I liked Ricky and Taryn, they were still two of the people who could have had perfectly ordinary, non-ghostly access to the house.
“No. It’s all right. I’ve got to get over myself sometime. Besides,” I reached for my margarita but diverted to my water at the last minute, “maybe nothing’ll manifest if I’m not alone in the house. After all, we don’t know what the trigger was. Heck, maybe it was Gil. I mean, the house was pristine. Maybe the Force objected to cat fur contaminating every available horizontal surface.”
“I still can’t figure out how the housewasso clean,” Ricky said, reaching for the last tortilla chip. “If Taryn didn’t hire a service—”
“I didn’t.”
“—then it should have collected a decade’s worth of dust, let alone spiders and rodents.”
“Ugh.” I shivered. “Don’t say rodents.”
He shrugged. “Sorry. But you know what I mean.”
I sighed. “I do.” I shifted to one hip and reached for my wallet. “What’s my share of dinner?”
Ricky held up both hands. “This one’s on the house for both of you.”
“I can’t let you—”
“My family’s restaurant. My treat.”
Taryn favored me with a crooked smile. “Don’t bother arguing with him. You won’t win.”
Heat rushed up my neck because it went against the principles my parents had drilled into me from childhood—pay your own way; don’t be beholden; don’t take advantage—but I really didn’t have the cash to spare.
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.” I scooted to the edge of the banquette and pushed myself to my feet. “But now, I should go home. I don’t want to leave Gil alone for too long.”
“Afraid he’ll get spooked by the spirits?” Taryn asked with a smirk.
I glared at her. “No. I’m afraid he’ll scare them away and your dad will never forgive me.”
She laughed, but I wasn’t entirely kidding. Gil was a force of nature.
