Page 36 of Ghost of a Chance
“That explains it,” Jasper said, his voice deflating.“I’m a bit disappointed.I mean, I wasn’t sure it would work.But still.”
“You should have said something, Jasper.If anyone has doubts it makes the spirits leery of showing up.”
She’d read that on the wiki.It resonated with her.
“I thought that was obvious.”
“How?You have a haunted book and brought it on live TV.Sounds like you believe in it to me.”
“Oh, well when you put it that way,” he said dryly.
“Most of the things I do are predicated on belief.So if you’re not into it, say so.It can have a big impact on the environment around me.”She was in this lie so deep that she was swimming now.If anyone was at fault for a lack of belief, it was her.
He nodded; his forehead creased in thought.“Sorry.I didn’t know.”
“I’m just cranky.I should turn in.See you both tomorrow.”She left as they both were saying good-night.
From the beginning she’d known this was going to be hard.She had no way of freeing a ghost from a book.Of talking to the dead and bringing someone peace.That was more apparent than ever.Yet…
Two things haunted her as she made her way up the stairs.That voice warning her not to lie.And Jasper’s kiss.
It was going to be hard to keep her distance from him.Relationships weren’t really her thing.She didn’t trust anyone except her mom.Probably it was down to her dad abandoning them sprinkled with the few guys she’d dated in college.
No more kisses after dark.Tomorrow she’d be her most buttoned-up self.All business.She would solve this mystery whatever it was and get the fuck out of Vermont and away from Jasper Cotton.
* * *
Chewie lay across the bottom of Jasper’s bed, snoring.He should be sleeping himself, but he couldn’t get that last voice message from Paul out of his head.His phone pinged.
Night, Jaspy.Love you.
Goodnight Mom.?
They’d had a fight earlier that day about Jasper’s grades.He’d been close to flunking two classes.Focus had been hard to find while working with Paul to finish that sci-fi short story of his dad’s.He hadn’t wanted to admit that he couldn’t do it.It was the first time he hadn’t been able to do something his dad had done.Paul also worried Jasper spent too much time at the frat house and not enough at the library.
Having flunked out of one college, Paul had been determined to make the most of his second chance at UVM.He was also a year older than Jasper.Like a big brother watching out for him.
But after a lifetime of being watched and helicopter parented by his mom, Jasper hadn’t been interested in that.Had started to choke on the chains of family.He didn’t need to be told by another person that he only had four years to figure out the rest of his life.
From his earliest memory his mom had been warning him to make the most of every day.
He tried.
Until Paul’s death.
Then everything shut down.He pulled himself back from experiencing new things, buckled down, got his degree, and then fell into the job with Bri.A real job.A grown-up job.
As he absently scrolled online, his phone started playing “No Such Thing” by John Mayer.A song that he personally didn’t like, but it was on a playlist that his mom had made for him.She was inspired by watchingGuardians of the Galaxyand seeing videos online of a parent and son who exchanged playlists.She got her best ideas from seeing what other parents did.She’d told him that more than once.
“Not tonight.”
The music shut off and he fell back sideways on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.No closer to finding answers now than he had been the day he worked up the courage to ask Kirsty for help.
Unbidden the memory of her face when “Batshit” had started to play…a little startled but then totally into it.He liked that nothing seemed to faze her.Guess that was par for the course when she could communicate with the dead—butnot talk to them.
Laughing a little at the remembered firmness in her tone.Which he’d been reading as stress.God knew she had to feel the pressure of getting Paul to leave the book.No amount of kissing and hugging was going to make up for his part in that.
Still no regrets.If not for Paul then he wouldn’t have spent a rainy afternoon walking around town with her.He still wasn’t sure why he’d hadn’t suggested hanging out tonight.
