Page 37 of Ghostlighted
Avi rolled his eyes. “Why I can go outside.”
I waggled my fingers at the floor. “You’re not outside now.”
“Yes.” A verbal eyeroll this time. “Because the ring is inside.”
“The ring?” I lowered my hand, uncurled my fingers, and stared at Oren’s wedding band. “You think the ring has some kind of unlocking mechanism? I’d think a key would?—”
“Not the ring by itself.” Avi huffed and ran both hands through his hair. “Look. Could you humor me for a minute?”
“Sure. Anything you want.”
He pointed to the Mission-style console table that sat inside the front door. “Put the ring there, please.”
I did, much to Gil’s interest. I pointed at him. “You are not to touch this.” He gave me a slow blink.
“Don’t worry about him,” Avi said, shooing me toward the front door. “If he steals it, I’ll watch where it goes.”
“If you say so.” I opened the door and walked out onto the front porch. “Is this far enough?”
He nodded, his chin set determinedly. He paced toward the door, but when he tried to step over the threshold, he blinked back to the foot of the stairs where he’d been before, startling Gil into bouncing away sideways.
Okay. That was… interesting.
He beckoned to me. “Now come back and get the ring.” I did. “Back outside, please?”
I stepped onto the porch.
He joined me. We met each other’s eyes. I don’t know which one of us started to laugh first, but suddenly we were both doubled over. Which was a good thing, because that meant I was in the perfect position to grab Gil when he made a dash for the lawn.
“Oh, no you don’t.” I set him inside and closed the door. When I turned, Avi was standing under the maple tree, gazing up through the leaves. I leaned against the porch rail, watching him. “So. Got any ideas on why the ring is the thing?”
He nodded. “I do. Not sure you’ll like them.”
“Hit me.”
“Well…” He lowered his gaze from the leaves and met my eyes. “You’re a little bit Oren.”
I held up my thumb and forefinger, a hairsbreadth between them. “A very little bit. A third cousin bit.”
“Maybe that’s all it takes. Maybe that’s why I can talk to you and no one else. I couldalwaystalk to Oren. About anything. Even that last time, when I… When we…” Avi’s chest heaved and his voice dropped to a whisper. “When we fought. I still told him all the reasonswhyI was so upset and he didn’t dismiss my feelings. We never hid anything from each other.”
I glanced down at the ring gleaming in my palm. “Except this.”
“Yes.” He moved to the foot of the steps. “Except that.”
Oren hadn’t told Avi about the plans for a trip to Canada to get married, but I think we could both give him a pass on that one. You could hardly spill the beans on a big wonderful surprise if you wanted it to stay, you know, a big wonderful surprise.
“If it’s the ring plus me, though, why did you blink inside earlier?”
He shrugged. “Maybe there’s a proximity limit? We can test later.”
“Good idea. I think we should test to see if it works with somebody else holding the ring, too. Somebody you and Oren both knew and trusted.”
“That would probably be Ricky or Saul.”
I winced. “Yeah. Ricky’s probably got a little too much on his mind right now. Saul and Jerry are out of town until Monday.”
“We can wait on that.” He spread his arms. “For now, this is enough.” He ducked his head and peered up at me, almost shyly. “Maybe tomorrow we could take a walk down Main Street?”
