Page 26 of Ghostly Bother
"I know. What a horrible name to have, too. Named after some insane guitarist." She rolled her eyes.
"Yet you're named after a garden. One that was supposedly beautiful and peaceful. I sure don't see any resemblance in you. They should have named you Hades." Lance pulled back the covers and climbed into bed. He hated sleeping in sweatpants, but with Eden around, he wasn't about to get naked.
"How dare you." She glared.
"You want to insult my boyfriend, I can toss it right back at you. Now go away. I'm going to read for a bit. If Angus has news, he'll wake me when he gets home." He pulled his e-reader from the nightstand drawer and turned it on.
Eden sat down on the foot of the bed and started singing.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Eden paused singing and looked over her shoulder at him. "I loved singing to my girls when they were little. I learned a lot of songs. I bet I could sing them all night." She started to sing again.
Lance wondered if he should run out and get noise canceling headphones to sleep in. They'd be uncomfortable, but probably not as horrible as listening to Eden sing all night. He was furious with her, and one thing was for sure, no matter what happened, Lance would not get up to talk to Angus when he got home. The woman could wait until morning to get information, even if that meant Lance didn't get any sleep at all.
CHAPTER TEN
Angus woke, surprised to find himself alone in bed. He hadn't gotten in until after midnight and had showered and slid into bed beside Lance. They whispered their hellos, kissed softly, then Angus had fallen into a deep sleep. He almost always heard when Lance got up, so it showed how tired he'd been that he now lay alone in their bed.
He didn't want to start the day, but there was just too much to do. He had a meeting with everyone working on the case at eight and needed to be up and alert for that. Still, he wished Lance was there beside him for a quick make out session before he forced himself to get out of bed.
He forced himself out of bed and quickly dressed for work, wondering what had Lance up so early. It was rare they didn't both get out of bed at the same time. He smelled the coffee as he made his way down the hallway, and the bacon a moment later. Curious, he raised a brow as he walked into the kitchen. "Hot breakfast on a workday?"
Lance smiled. "I needed something to do. Figured I'd surprise you." He walked over and gave Angus a soft kiss. "Morning."
"Morning." Angus kissed him again. "You know, as much as I love a home-cooked breakfast, I missed waking up beside you. Is everything okay?"
Lance glared across the room and Angus guessed there was a ghost there. He'd learned to read the looks and gestures from years of being around his mother, who always seemed to have a ghost or two around. Lance turned away and went back to the frying bacon.
"Who's here?" Angus poured himself a cup of coffee.
"A screeching banshee that sat in the bedroom all night singing. She was pissed because I wouldn't call you for information last night. I told her that's not the way we do things." Lance held up a hand. "And before you say anything about Eden's case, don't. I refuse to give her any information or speak to you for her. After last night, I'm done being nice. She can ride with you to the station this morning and learn on her own what's going on."
Angus was stunned. "You're kidding me? Why didn't you tell me? I would have done something to make her stop."
Lance shook his head. "You couldn't do anything other than give her what she wants, and that's the last thing I want to give her. She needs to learn that being a bitch isn't going to get me to help her. You and I both know I'm willing to do anything to help most recently deceased figure things out, but Eden's pushed me beyond angry. I'm not doing another thing to help her. She can sing every night, but I will not help her. She's on her own." Lance glared across the room again, then shook his head before refocusing on breakfast.
"Fair enough. I won't bring up the case unless you ask about it." Angus tried to think of how he could help Lance, but there really wasn't anything he could do. He couldn't see or hear Eden. He could get his mother involved, but he hated the idea that Eden might bother his mom the same way. He really didn't want to let Eden know that there were other living humans who could see and hear her. "Did you get any sleep?"
"Cat naps. She claims she sang to her kids, but if that's the truth, someone needs to make sure her kids are okay. Listening to her sing might have caused some kind of trauma." Lance glanced over to where Angus was sure Eden was standing.
Lance was never rude like this, and that alone told Angus how angry Lance had to be. So far, Lance had only met nice ghosts. Angus knew ghosts could become troublesome, andhonestly, Eden wasn't as bad as many his mother had come across. She seemed more annoying than troublesome, but that could easily change. He needed to keep an eye on Lance so he could get his mother to intervene if it got worse. "How are things going with Sam on vacation?"
Lance seemed to relax and the change of subject. "Not bad. It's been slow this week. We only had one case yesterday and I had two call outs yesterday afternoon. We'll do those autopsies today. Unless Mac got busy last night, things are kind of quiet." Lance plated scrambled eggs and bacon, then put a small plate of toast on the table. "Gretta is revamping the front office and updating the filing system. Carrie and Kyle have been helping her while Brayden and I push through paperwork. I have to admit having Brayden there to help with things has been a huge bonus. I forgot how much paperwork Sam does every day."
"I'm glad things have slowed down this week. I was worried with Sam gone, you'd be pulling late nights and getting called in at all hours of the night." Angus reached for a slice of toast. "God, this is so good. Thanks. I needed this to give me the energy to get through the day."
"Thanks. Figured I had the extra time today, and hopefully, it will help keep me awake today since I slept so little last night." Again, Lance cast a glare across the room.
"Well, let's not let that happen again." Angus frowned.
"I'm buying some noise canceling headphones on the way home tonight." Lance grinned.
"Let's hope you won't need them. If Eden wants to know what is going on, we have a meeting at eight about the case. She can learn everything she needs to know then." Angus picked up a crisp piece of bacon. "What got her so upset last night? Just the fact you wouldn't call me?"
"Pretty much. She was angry you arrested Lucas Jenkin and was mad her information got him arrested." Lance shrugged.
"Lucas wasn't arrested. He was detained for throwing an empty vodka bottle at Franks. His attorney had him out of there in no time. We've got another interview set up with him this afternoon." Angus sighed. "If she saw us detain him, she could have just stuck around the station to figure out what was going on."
