Page 79 of Ghostlighted
“What?” He looked up while shoving his hand into his jacket pocket. His expression was almost… shifty. “No. Nothing.”
“Okay.” I joined him again and gestured to Sofia. “Do you think she’d like company?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. She’s still not saying much, though.”
“Then we don’t need to talk.”
I waited until he rose from the chair and then started for the butler’s pantry. I hadn’t gone two steps before I froze. I looked down at my hand.
Ricky’s fingers were twined with mine.
“Is this all right?”
“Mmmhmmm.” I couldn’t have made words right if I’d tried.
Because Ricky was holding my hand.
Despite ex damage on both our parts, he’d taken that leap. The least I could do was meet him at that level, and trust that someday our foundation would be sturdy enough to support more.
When we stepped out onto the back porch, I automatically checked behind myself and flinched.Gil’s not here.I don’t have to block an escape attempt.
Ricky must have felt me tense—and correctly identified the reason—because he said, “We’ll find him, Maz. Taryn posted it on Ghostline. Everyone in town is looking for him.”
“Sure.”
So far, nobody had reported so much as a glimpse of him since he’d disappeared. He hadn’t pinged Avi’s proximity radar even once. I forced a smile and headed down the steps. Ricky let me drop the subject and kept pace with me, our hands still joined, as we walked across the lawn to Sofia.
She smiled at us, but it was clearly a reflex, because she didn’t say a word, just returned her gaze to the garden. With a jolt, I realized she was looking at the scarecrow. I glanced sidelong at Ricky. Maybe it was time to ask his cousin to give the scarecrow a makeover.
Ricky squeezed my hand once before letting go to sit on the top step next to Sofia’s chair. She rested her palm on his shoulder for a moment, gave it a pat, then clasped her hands in her lap again. I settled on the step below Ricky, close enough that he could press his knee against my shoulder. If, you know, he wanted to do something like that.
Luckily, he did.
The three of us sat there for a moment until suddenly there were four of us. I straightened up, because this was the first timeAvi had left the house since that night, even though I always carried Oren’s ring with me, just in case.
Avi jerked his head at Sofia and beckoned to me.Ah. Right. Ricky knew about him, but Sofia didn’t. She might not take it well if I suddenly started talking to what appeared to be empty air.
I stood up and cleared my throat. “Just going to, um, see how the tomato plants are doing.” When I joined Avi next to the garden, I made sure to face away from the house so Sofia wouldn’t see my lips moving. “What is it? Is something wrong?”
“First, I wanted to apologize.”
I glanced at him sidelong. “For what?”
“For invading your privacy.” He shoved his hands deep in his cardigan pockets. “I don’t have to be visible, you know. When I’m manifesting.”
I blinked. “I’d forgotten that. But you were invisible when you stuffed Carson’s gun barrel.”
“I haven’t done it much since then. Until, well, today.”
“Oookay.”
“I overheard you talking about love languages,” he said in a rush, his eyes clenched shut. “I used the Smith Corona and wrote a note for Ricky. I passed it to him just now.” He cracked one eye open and peeked at me. “With yours.”
I frowned at him. “With my what?”
He faced me fully, his hands on his hips. “Your love language, of course.”
“Mine?” I almost threw up my hands until I remembered that checking on tomatoes probably didn’t call for such a dramatic gesture. “I don’t even know what mine is. Greg certainly complained enough when I didn’t offer proper homage to him.”
