Page 1 of Ghostlighted
Chapter One
“What?” My arm jerked, but luckily the tea that slopped over the rim of my mug hit my jeans, not my laptop. “Crap, that’s hot.”
“Sorry.” Avi, my housemate, waved his hand and a napkin wafted through the air and settled on my thigh over the spill. “I didn’t think that suggestion would cause a spit-take.”
I blotted the wet spot on my jeans and scowled in his direction. He was standing in front of the window, which meant I took in the lanky, brown-haired man in a shapeless cardigan as well as the view of my neighbor’s house that I could see through him. Over the last month, Avi’s presence had gotten a little more solid, but he was still mostly transparent.
Because Avi was a ghost, the only one here in Ghost, Oregon. Most of the town’s residents would give an arm, leg, or first-born child to catch the briefest glimpse of a spirit. I had never had that ambition myself, yet here I was—the town’s newest arrival, actually sharing living space with one.
Which… wasn’t as alarming as it sounded. Avi, who, under the pen name Jake Fields, had been one of the most successful thriller writers of this century, and was surprisingly good company.
Except when he nearly made me spew hot tea all over my laptop.
“Not a spit-take, thank goodness. Just a slosh-and-gosh.” I crumpled the wet napkin and set it on the table next to my mug. “And my jeans took one for the team.”
“Clearly not for the first time,” Avi murmured.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing. Let’s get back to your previous overreaction.”
“I didn’t overreact.”
He lifted an eyebrow above the rim of his wire-framed glasses. “Your jeans would beg to differ.”
“I’m sorry, but what did you expect after that comment? You told me to use your money to buy a car. I can’t do that!”
“The money isn’t mine anymore, Maz. It’s yours.” Avi’s tone implied that he was being completely reasonable, and I was being ridiculous. “Considering I’m dead and all. That’s how inheritance works.”
“I didn’t inherit this place from you. I inherited it from Uncle Oren.” Technically, Oren wasn’t my uncle. He was my mother’s second cousin once removed, and I’d never even heard his name until Taryn called to let me know I was his sole beneficiary.
“Yes,” Avi said patiently, “since I left everything to him, you’re, shall we say, my heir once removed? It still counts.”
I poked at my keyboard, frowning. “Except usually people don’t inherit from somebody who’s still around.”
“Technically, I’m not still around. Not to anybody except you.” His gaze cut to his feet, and he smiled fondly at my cat, Gilgamesh. “Well, you and Gil.”
Gil twined around Avi’s ankles as though they were corporeal, which, to Gil, they might be. Who knew? Certainly not Avi or me. As far as his life—or rather, his afterlife—was concerned, we were still in the discovery process.
“Besides,” Avi continued, “getting new wheels for you is totally selfish on my part. If your car breaks down and you crash, what will happen to me and the house?”
I squinted up at him, his body not blocking the sun streaming in through the window at all. “That’s a little dark, don’t you think?”
He shrugged. “What can I say? Who better than a ghost to snark about death?”
“I suppose that’s fair.” That reminded me that I should probably make a will of my own, now that I had actual—and significant—assets. “At the very least, Gil would need to hijack somebody else to supply him with tuna and kibble.”
“Are you talking to yourself, Gil, or Avi?” Taryn Pasternak-McHale, my friend and attorney, wandered out of the butler’s pantry, holding a bagel.
“Avi,” I muttered, trying to make sense of the garbled text on the laptop screen.
“I’m guessing from your scowl that either he’s telling you that you’re being ridiculous about your inheritance, or whatever is on your laptop is worse than usual.”
“Both.” I shot a glare at her over my shoulder. “Why are you mooching bagels from my pantry, anyway? Your girlfriend literally owns a bakery.”
“Co-owns, and they don’t serve bagels. Yet.” She grinned as she opened the refrigerator and rummaged around until she found the cream cheese. “I’m conducting market research for their expanded product line, so thank you for your service.”
“Any time.”
