Page 29 of Trick or Treat with the Mountain Man
I rubbed her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “That’s the saddest story I’ve ever heard.”
The floorboard thumped, and Ava jumped again.
“Looks like our ghost agrees,” I told her.
Ava swallowed. “I work in dispatch. Have I already mentioned that? And I hear sad things that happen every night at work. But this… this is worse somehow. It sounds as though they really loved each other.Truelove. And to be separated from the person you love for your entire life?” She looked up at me, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “That’s the worst thing I can imagine.”
“You’re a romantic,” I said as I kissed her forehead.
“I’m not. Not really. Maybe I am. I don’t know. Maybe you’re bringing it out in me. Or maybe this place is.” She looked around the room as though the ghost was going to pop out at any second.
My chest felt warm where my heart usually sat. This woman was doing things to me.
“You know what we should do?” I asked before I took time to think it through. “We should find her descendants. Wallace might not be alive anymore, but if he had kids, they might like to know about their great-great grandparents.”
“But… how?”
I kissed her again. “I still have some contacts in the military. Let me ask a few of my friends.”
Her eyes popped open wide. “You have friends?”
I shut my mouth. Then carefully measured my words. “I do. I may have driven some of them off recently, but they still have my back.”
Ava grinned, “Look at you, coming out of your shell.”
Grinning back, I said, “Don’t push it. I’m not ready to go to a party.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “But maybe you’ll go see Abby and Silas with me? The Ferrel cemetery grounds must be on their property.”
And this is how it starts.
I’d gone from a peaceful hermit’s life, content to live out the rest of my days as an old surly bastard. Now instead I was going to find myself traipsing over to the neighbor’s house for a little chit-chat time. It was all Ava’s fault.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s a date.”
She beamed up at me. “We can go tomorrow before work.”
I shook my head. “Tomorrow is my therapy day.”
“The next day then.”
“Yup, that’ll do.”
Ava peered up at me. “Do you think we can find time to see each other tomorrow, even if we’re not going to Abby and Silas’ until the next day?”
It looked like my pretty Ava was turning me into a habit.Good.
“Of course you’re coming over tomorrow,” I drawled. “How else would your sweet pussy get licked?”
She started laughing, then groaned when she glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “I really do have to go.”
I didn’t want her to leave. But at least I knew I was going to see her again tomorrow.
Chapter 12
Ava
