“As a matter of fact, yes.” It truly was a pretty location. Out farther from the main house and closer to the pond that sat on the back end of the property line, Chance had placed a pretty bench long enough for two, or three if one of the people was a child, in the midst of a small section of wildflowers. Up near the small mansion, the landscaping was more structured and orderly, but he wanted a place where flowers natural to the environment could flourish.
“Mhm. I believe you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Like you’re one to talk.” He’d totally been up Mr. Harry’s ass, playing like he needed to be taught to dust and vacuum so he could be close to the older apparition. I had to give it to him—it had worked.
He tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean? I don’t stalk Kingston.”
“Grrr. Neither do I.” Ignoring his laughter, I refocused on Kingston. “I can’t help it. He’s so beautiful, isn’t he?”
“I guess I can see that. He’s a little too tall for my taste.” Buck and Kingston were shaped remarkably similar, except whereKingston was all lean muscle, Buck was big and bulky. “I prefer my men more handsome and stately.”
“That describes Mr. Harry, alright.” The older gentleman was from a different century. Until Buck’s influence, he’d dressed formally in a butler’s suit with nary a wrinkle in sight or a hair out of place.
Buck grinned widely. “It does, right? It’s funny because when I was alive, I liked my men little bitty with lots of personality and sass.”
Turning toward him, I gave him my best jazz hands. “You mean like me?”
He laughed loudly, boisterous in the way I’d come to expect from him. “Yep. Exactly. But there’s something about the commanding way Mr. Harry moves through life.”
More like the way he moved through death, but whatever. “Yeah, Kingston’s not my normal jam either. I usually prefer my men a little more self-assured, but I don’t know. There’s something about him.”
Buck nodded knowingly, and we both looked back out at the pond where Kingston was sitting on a large log talking to a female ghost I’d never seen before. She wasn’t solid like Buck, but a mere wisp of colors that I had to focus on to see. I was pretty sure that meant she was new to death and hadn’t figured out how to manifest all the way yet. She only looked to be in her early twenties or so, and my heart hurt for how short her life had been cut. Kingston spoke earnestly while the girl’s blonde hair cloaked her face as she cupped her cheeks in her hands. Poor thing.
“It’s his heart,” Buck said.
“What is?” I asked, unable to move my gaze from the crush of my life comforting the newest spirit.
“That’s what has you so captivated, even though he’s not your usual type. We can see it, you know? My kind.”
“You mean…” I trailed off.
“Dead?” He chuckled. “You can say it, Skylar. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. I know I’m not alive anymore, and let’s face it, my afterlife is amazing. But yeah, I don’t know a lot about magic or all those things Elyse is teaching you, but I’m pretty sure I can see auras, or something like them. And Kingston…he shines so brightly. He has this genuine curiosity about us, but he wants to help. It’s not some weird fixation or whatever. I think he probably feels like that about living people, too, but he gets nervous expressing himself when talking to someone with a pulse.”
A giggle escaped me. While observing how verbose Kingston was when chatting with ghosts, it boggled my brain how tongue-tied he got when speaking to…well, someone with a pulse was a pretty damn accurate description.
“Don’t give up,” Buck whispered, then he vanished as quickly as he’d appeared.
Transfixed, I watched as the girl’s head came up. As she wiped what I assumed were tears from her cheeks, she laughed. A small smile appeared on Kingston’s face, and I saw exactly what Buck had meant. For now, at least, the pond was the girl’s home, and she’d probably cry many tears while she adjusted to her new existence. But Kingston had stayed, talking to her until her heart lightened, putting a smile back on her face.
Buck didn’t have to worry about me giving up. I gave one last wistful look out at my future man, then headed back to the manor to meet with Elyse. We’d work on spells and herbs and things, but in the back of my mind, I’d be working on a plan. Kingston would be mine.
Chapter
Two
Kingston
“Kingston,you need to get some shut-eye tonight, son,” my grandmother said in a crackling voice.
I pushed back from my computer, turning toward the door where she leaned on the door jamb. “I will. I promise.”
She tutted and shuffled into the room in her favorite slippers, which were a rub away from falling apart. She wore an old white nightdress that had seen better days on her frail body, with a black knit shawl draped over her hunched shoulders. Her gray hair, which still had a few strips of its original black, framed her face in a tangled mess, hanging down to the middle of her back.
When I was a child, she’d been known as the town eccentric. There’d been a lot of speculation that she was a witch. To me, she’d been my grandmother, mother, and father. She was the only person I could rely on. The only one who treated me as if I had any value or showed me any love after my parents died. Granted, she was a little kooky, but she never hurt anyone, and it wasn’t like she purposely tried to scare people.
The days of her leaving the house were a thing of the past now, though. The last time she’d gone anywhere was when I graduated from high school. I tried getting her out more, but she refused to go or tell me why. It worried me. The glazed absence in her eyes scared me, too. I didn’t know how I’d survive without her. But hadn’t I been losing her for a while, anyway? She’d become a shell of herself, and I had no idea how to help her. “Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you, my little prince?”
I grinned at the old nickname she’d bestowed on me when my parents named me Kingston. I’d been a preemie, and she’d insisted that such a little guy needed a better name, so I’d become her little prince. She only called me that now when she was worried about me. Seeing as how I’d basically grown up to be a giant at well over six feet, it didn’t really fit anymore.
