Page 62 of My Sweet Dollie, You Have to Love Me
“We’d appreciate it. Thank you.” Shane says because he’s too much of a fucking coward to go up and close it himself.
“No problem. While I’m doing it, you should dry yourself off. This house knows how to hold a chill.”
“Yeah, I will. I took a quick shower while I waited for you.”
Oh, so that’s why the cop didn’t question my dripping shower. Thank you, Shane. Prick.
Ignoring the cop and his trek back upstairs, I stick with Dollie, moving to the reading room.
A ruffling sound makes me wonder what on earth she’s up to as I press my ear to the wall.
“What are you doing?” Shane asks, and for once, I’m grateful for his existence because curiosity was tickling me.
“There’s something in this house. And I don’t know that it’s human. On the first night here, I heard my dad. The cop can’t find anyone. Maybe he just can’t see them. I can’t stay here with all these ghosts, and we can’t afford to bring in someone else to decorate.”
“So, setting rosemary on fire is gonna do what exactly?”
“It’s not rosemary, it’s sage. It gets rid of bad spirits.”
“What, you think your dad is a bad spirit?” Shane laughs.
Tension bleeds through the walls as she freezes. I can’t see her, but I know her. The delay in her reply confirms this.
“No,” she replies in a sad tone. “I love my dad, but he could be angry.”
“Yeah, with your fucking dickhead brother, not you. You were his princess. Besides, he’s not here because he’s not alive, Lancie.”
There he goes again, saying things that will get under Dollie’s skin. I’d bet money that nickname does it, too.
“I still think he needs to move on to somewhere peaceful. I’ll do a full ritual tomorrow. Can we go into town and get some stuff?”
“No, tomorrow we have to paint again. You can do your full ritual the next day. Maybe you can help rid the fumes as well as the spirits.”
His faith—or the lack of it in her beliefs is infuriating. I can’t say I believe her witchy rituals will rid spirits from this house, not without lying, but they’ll rid her anxiety. They always have, and that’s good enough for me.
“All done. I’ll see myself out. Come and lock this door. If you need anything else, you know who to call.”
Shane and his smelly slippers move to the door, dragging his feet with each step. There’d be no chance of hearing this if my senses weren’t constantly on alert to everything he does.
He irritates me that much.
I stay put on one side of the wall while Dollie is on the other. The fumes of her little burning herb are starting to make their way into my secret passage, and the nostalgia that brings takes me back in time thirteen years for the second time tonight, to us both in her bedroom, where I lit the sage for her because she was struggling with the lighter.
I blink that thought away to the sound of her voice here and now. It’s almost inaudible, but I catch her whisper while she’s alone.
“I wish you could understand that I just need a little protection.”
Shane doesn’t hear her. No surprise, as he doesn’t seem to listen half of the time when she’s standing at his side.
I wish I could tell her just one thing as my head slumps against the wall, and I ignore the pain that feels something like heartbreak.
You’ve got it.
I place my hands on the wall, desperate to touch her. To be closer to her. To tell her that she’ll always have me, even if she hates me for whatever reason.
Fuck, that hurts.
I push the thought away, hoping to transmit another to Dollie.
