The Best for Last

by Maria Geraci

  That’s my girl, he thought proudly.

  “Well!” Betty Jean huffed. “I…well, dang! What am I supposed to do for fun now?”

  “I don’t know and frankly, I don’t care,” Kitty said.

  Betty Jean’s jaw dropped.

  Alan Burke caught his eye with a stern fatherly glare. “If you have something to say to my daughter, then say it. Because we all want to hear it.” Beside him, Sharon nodded enthusiastically.

  “That’s right!” Pilar shouted. “Go on! We all have a vested interest here.”

  “Right.” He turned to face Kitty. “You want to know who Joanna is? I’ll tell you who she is. She’s my therapist.”

  Everyone stared at him. Not that they hadn’t been staring at him ever since he’d stood, but now they looked at him in complete confusion.

  “Your therapist?” Kitty said. “I don’t understand. Did you hurt your back or something?”

  “I’m seeing an excellent therapist for my busted knee,” Reverend Donalan chimed in. “But her name isn’t Joanna.”

  “She’s not a physical therapist. She’s more like a…shrink. I went to see her for you. For us.”

  Kitty blinked. Then she blinked again. “You’re seeing a therapist. For me?”

  He nodded.

  “But why?”

  “Because I don’t want to mess this relationship up. Because I want to…” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Because I want to be able to express my feelings when I’m around you.”

  “Oh my God…” She took a few steps toward him. “That’s…that’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me!”

  “Are you kidding?” he said hoarsely. “Kit, don’t you know I’d do anything for you? For us? When I told you last night that I liked you, I…you completely misunderstood. I’ve never liked any of my exes. Love is a word that… I’ve never been one of those guys who feels comfortable talking about his emotions. I thought you knew how I felt about you but I realize now you need me to say it. So this is me saying it. For everyone to hear. I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. You’re it for me, Kitty. There’s never going to be anyone for me but you. I’ve tried so hard not to screw this up between us and maybe…maybe that’s exactly what I’ve done anyway.”

  He realized then that while he’d been talking the two of them had been walking toward each other the whole time. He looked down at her, just inches away from him to see tears in her eyes. But instead of the sad tears he’d caught in her eye this morning, these were tears of happiness.

  “Can you say something now?” he asked quietly.

  “Do you realize that you’ve just told the whole world that you love me? And that you’re seeing a therapist?”

  “Why can’t you see a therapist for me?” Ginny hissed at Greg, loud enough for everyone to hear. The Gregger just shook his head, looking both confused and slightly hung over.

  Steve glanced around the riveted church. Everyone was still staring at him. No, not at him, at them. And instead of curiosity or shock, all he saw was happiness around him. And nothing in his whole life had ever felt so right.

  He got down on one knee.

  “Oh my God!” Betty Jean cried.

  “Where’s my cell phone?” Pilar shouted. “I need to record this!”

  He took Kitty’s hand and looked up into her beautiful face. “Katherine Burke, will you do me the honor of becoming my fourth, and last, wife?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes,” she said a little louder. Then, in voice so clear that it rang throughout the entire church, “Yes!”

  He got up and pulled her in his arms and in front of God and everyone, Bunco Babes and Betty Jean Collins included, kissed her like he was the happiest man on earth. Which he was.

  THE END

  Don’t forget to check out all the books in the Whispering Bay Romance series!

  The Best for Last: A Prequel Novella (Coming December 2015)

  That Thing You Do (Book One)

  Then He Kissed Me (Book Two)

  That Man of Mine (Book Three)

  Excerpt from THAT THING YOU DO

  Allie Grant aimed her flashlight at the padlocked door to the Margaret Handy Senior Center. On the surface, the abandoned building appeared like any other ranch style structure built in the nineteen-fifties. Lots of brick, lots of windows, lots of deterioration. But this wasn’t just any crumbling building. According to her anonymous source, this building was haunted.

  Unfortunately, it was also locked up tighter than the Spanx she’d worn on her last date. Which was so long ago that Allie could barely recall the details, the only memorable part of the evening being when she took off those Spanx. Alone. Right before crawling into bed with a Snickers bar and the worn out copy of Anne of Green Gables Buela had given Allie on her seventh birthday.

  Allie stifled a yawn. She wouldn’t mind being in bed right now. It was nearly midnight and she’d been up since the crack of dawn. But she was a journalist in need of a story and a haunted building (as hokey as that sounded) was a potential goldmine in magazine advertising revenue. It was also the kind of story that could get a freelancer like herself a cover byline, but better yet, it was the sort of story that could land her a permanent job at Florida! magazine.

  She raised her flashlight above the door illuminating a huge NO TRESPASSING sign. The way Allie saw it, she had two options.

  The first involved going to her brother Zeke’s house, getting a decent night’s sleep, then waking up bright and early to seek out The Person In Charge. She’d make an impassioned (yet logical) plea on why she had to spend time inside the building, and The Person In Charge would comply, because, really, why wouldn’t they?

  Under normal circumstances, that’s exactly what she’d do. She simply couldn’t help herself. Buela taught her early that good girls finish first. A thought that had remained stuck in her head the way her Cuban grandmother’s lumpy cheese grits used to stick to Allie’s ribs on a cold January morning. Although she’d been gone over twelve years now, Allie could still hear Buela’s voice telling her what to do. But right now that voice was being drowned out by yet another sign stating that the building was scheduled for demolition at nine a.m. tomorrow, giving Allie basically zip time to contact The Person In Charge.

  Bringing her to option number two.

  An option Buela would definitely not have approved of. Not to mention Zeke, who also happened to be Whispering Bay’s current chief-of-police. Nope. Allie was beyond certain Zeke wouldn’t take too kindly to his baby sister committing a B&E.

  But was it really a crime to break into a deserted building scheduled for demolition in less than nine hours?

  A shiver skated up her spine.

  It wasn’t cold. Not really. It was October and still seasonably warm enough for the Florida panhandle, but the building was isolated from the rest of the ocean strip by at least half a mile. That on its own made it creepy enough, and then of course, there was that haunted thing.

  Maybe she should channel the lion from The Wizard of Oz and begin chanting I don’t believe in ghosts…I don’t believe in ghosts…

  But there was something to be said about Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and that whole pottery wheel scene.

  Hopeless Hollywood romanticism? No doubt. It was lovely to believe that even after death there was something so powerful about the feelings we had while we were alive that they pulled us back to the people and places we once loved.

  But all corniness aside, she was a journalist, and at the behest of Florida! magazine’s editor, Emma Frazier, Allie had just driven nearly six hours to investigate a story on what most people (herself included) would consider the flimsiest of leads. But if Emma wanted a ghost story, then that’s what Allie would give her. Impressing Emma Frazier was the key to landing her dream job, which happened to be Goal Number Three on Allie’s four part Life Plan. So despite the NO TRESPASSING sign, she wasn’t leaving until she got her story. A padlocked door was beyond her capabiliti
es, but no building this old could be burglar proof.

  Using her flashlight to guide her, Allie made her way through a patch of weeds to study the windows on the side of the building.

  Bin-go! Jalousie glass panes. Popular in Florida during the last century before central air-conditioning became standard. Those windows might provide excellent ventilation but they looked easy as all heck to break into. Not that Allie had any experience sneaking in or out of windows. Once upon a time, that had been Zeke’s forte. Before he’d cleaned up his act, of course. Nowadays, there wasn’t anyone more upstanding than her big brother.

  She noticed the window in the middle was missing several of its glass panes. Had someone already broken inside? Maybe. Or more likely those panes had fallen out over time, and since the building was scheduled to come down, it wouldn’t have made sense to fix them.

  Which brought Allie to her third option—it wasn’t really a B&E if she didn’t actually break anything. Yes, there was that big NO TRESPASSING sign but the window was practically open. Some people might consider that an invitation.

  Ha. Her brother would call that delusional thinking. Fuzzy morality, at best. But what were her options? Despite the late hour, she was now fully awake.

  She sent up a silent apology to Buela (Zeke, she would deal with later) and went into action. With the flashlight tucked beneath her arm, she knocked the flimsy metallic screen out of the way. Balancing her bottom on the open window ledge, she lowered one sneakered foot inside—when the tinny-sounding ring tone version of Adele’s Rumour Has It startled her into falling butt first onto a hard wooden floor.

  Her cell phone flew out of her shorts pocket. Allie scampered on all fours to retrieve it, causing her right knee to come in contact with something sharp. Ouch! She ignored the pain and glanced at her cell phone’s caller ID telling her (warning her) that it was her roommate, Jen.

  “Where are you?” Jen asked.

  “Check the fridge.” Allie had purposely left Jen a note taped to the refrigerator door. It was the first place Jen always went when she got home from her evening shift at the hospital where she worked as a respiratory therapist.

  After a slightly too long pause in which Allie imagined Jen not only finding the note, but last night’s leftovers as well, Jen said, “You’re in Whispering Lakes? Isn’t that where you grew up?”

  “Yep, but it’s Whispering Bay.” Allie went on to explain about the email that had caused her to jump in her car and make the six hour drive to her hometown.

  “So, let me get this straight,” Jen said. “Someone sent you an anonymous email telling you there’s a ghost inside the building? And you, what? Jumped in your car and drove up there? Just like that?”

  Yes, just like that, she wanted to say, but something warm and wet trickled down her shin, distracting her. She pointed the flashlight on her leg to investigate. Blood! The sight of blood (especially her own) made her light-headed. Allie took a shaky breath. “Are ghosts attracted to blood?”

  “That’s zombies. Or is it vampires? Yep, it’s definitely vampires. Wait. Did you say blood? Allie, whose blood are we talking about here?”

  “Mine. I kind of cut my knee going in through the window.” No need to mention the knee incident had occurred as a result of Allie’s own clumsiness. Of course, that clumsiness had been caused by Jen’s poorly timed phone call, but Allie wasn’t one to point fingers.

  “Ooh! You broke into the building? How very Woodward and Bernstein of you. But if you get arrested, don’t expect me to bail you out of jail.”

  Jen was right. Allie didn’t normally go this far to get a story. Yes, pleasing her editor was a large part of her motivation, but the fact was, despite its run down appearance, there was something about the old building that called out to her.

  “The thing is, I have a hot date tonight and driving all the way up to Whispering Pines to save your butt isn’t on my agenda,” Jen said.

  A hot date at this time of night was code for a booty call from Jen’s boyfriend, Sean. For the first time this evening Allie was glad she wasn’t home tucked away in bed. She wasn’t sure what Jen and Sean were into, but they’d met at a Tarzan yodeling contest. If Sean spent the night, it meant Allie didn’t get any sleep unless she wore earplugs.

  “It’s Whispering Bay,” Allie said, unable to stop from correcting Jen. Allie hadn’t called Whispering Bay home since she was eighteen, but the only family she had in the world lived here, and she still visited frequently enough that she was on a first name basis with most of the town’s population. It was only natural she felt protective of the place.

  “Whatever. You’re so uptight. You know, you could use a hot date yourself. Hey, maybe the ghost is male,” Jen added.

  “And probably like eighty-years-old. This place used be a senior center. Plus, I kinda like my guys alive. Jen, listen, I really have to go—”

  “Alive does come in handy. So…the reason I called is we just got a notice saying our electricity is going to be turned off in two days. Didn’t you pay the bill?”

  “I thought it was your month to pay the bill.”

  “No, I paid it last month.”

  Allie was positive she’d paid the electricity last month, but without checking her online bank statement, she had no proof.

  “I’d pay it, but I’m kind of short,” Jen said. “Plus, you know, it is your turn.”

  Argh. Why did money (or the lack of it) always seem to pop up at the most inconvenient times? At this point in her life, Allie should have been well on track with Life Goal Number Three—a permanent job with benefits. But Life Goal Number Two had taken her longer (and been more expensive) than she’d originally thought, putting her woefully behind schedule. Which meant she was still freelancing, which meant she lived article-to-article.

  Translation: Paycheck-to-paycheck.

  Hence, she had to supplement her income with the second oldest profession known to womankind. Waitressing. Weekdays, she lived her dream job. Weekends? Not so much. But the tips she made waiting tables at The Blue Monkey, a hipster Vegan restaurant in downtown Tampa, had saved her carnivorous butt from starving on more than one occasion. There was no way around it. She’d have to transfer money from her dwindling savings and pray she didn’t break her neck trying to crawl back out the window.

  The sound of crunching gravel made Allie stop in her tracks. “Jen,” she whispered into the phone, “I think I just heard something.”

  “Like what? Moaning? Chains rattling?” Jen’s voice hitched with excitement. “Sounds like my kind of place. And why are you talking so low? I can barely make out what you’re saying. It’s not like the ghost couldn’t hear you if it wanted to. It can probably even read your thoughts.”

  If Allie hadn’t been so creeped out she would have laughed. “What are you, a ghost expert?”

  Another sound. This time it did sound like a chain rattling.

  Blimey. A ghost after Jen’s own kinky heart!

  “Jen, I gotta go—”

  “But the electric bill—”

  “I promise I’ll pay it tomorrow online.”

  “Okay. Awesome! So, good luck with that ghost. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” She hung, up leaving Allie to wonder exactly what those last words meant.

  Keeping herself as still as possible, Allie slipped the cell phone back into her shorts pocket. The building was now eerily quiet. No gravel crunching. No chains rattling. Had she imagined it? Probably. Allie let out a pent up breath. She didn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed. Both, maybe.

  She waited a few minutes so that her vision adjusted to the darkness. Years ago, she’d been inside this building. Buela had brought her here after Allie had graduated high school, proud of the granddaughter about to go off to college that she’d raised almost single-handedly. Back then the senior center had been alive. Full of noise and energy. Now, the place just looked sad. Empty, with bits of scattered trash strewn on the floor.

  Something small and dark
scurried past her.

  Correction: Not exactly empty.

  Cockroaches!

  The place was probably crawling with them. Allie was a native Floridian, so she should be used to all manner of creepy crawly things, but sorry, she’d never get used to cockroaches. Best to get this over with as quickly as possible.

  “Hello?” she called out. Unable to help herself, she giggled. More out of nerves than a comedic response, because it wasn’t as if she expected someone to answer.

  A chain rattled—louder than before—followed this time by a distinct clang.

  This was no product of her imagination.

  Her mouth went dry. She squeezed the flashlight in her hand, nearly cutting off the blood flow to her fingers.

  She tried to concentrate on the rattling sound but all she could hear was the soft whoosh of waves lapping onto a beach. Was her mind playing tricks with her? Because it would be impossible to hear the ocean from inside the building.

  Then she remembered the window she’d crawled through.

  Of course. The sound was coming though the now open window.

  A rush of air swept through her. But instead of the cool night air she’d expected, this was a warm tropical breeze. A pleasant smell assailed her nostrils. Slightly sweet, and vaguely comforting. Lemons, maybe? Her arms erupted in goose bumps. But strangely enough, she was neither cold nor frightened.

  A door slammed behind her. She spun around just in time to see a shadow dash across the room. The warm lemony smell vanished, replaced by a voice inside telling her that she was in big trouble. The door was padlocked. Which meant that whatever had gotten inside the building had bypassed the lock. Which was…impossible.

  Allie tried to scream, but her throat wasn’t cooperating.

  Luckily, her legs weren’t so chicken shit.

  She turned to run but something charged at her, smacking her solidly in the chest. The air flew from her lungs. Her last thought before hitting the floor was that ghosts weren’t supposed to make physical contact. They needed Whoopi Goldberg for that.