Katie knew Mel was right. All this time she’d been beating herself up because she didn’t call her mother enough before she died. She’d been upset because her mother hadn’t called her, either.
But, when her mother’s spirit needed someone to listen, it had been Katie she called on for help.
Of course, through her death Katie’s mother was aware that doing that Katie was a sort of ghost magnet, but her mother couldn’t have known--or expected--that would happen.
Her mother loved her. That was what mattered.
“There,” Mel said, seeing the way Katie’s expression had changed. “Now. you take that with you, all right? You keep it in your heart, and you go do what you do best. Go take care of your mother’s house.”
“But--” she started to argue.
“Nope. No arguments. I’ll be along whenever the doctors get around to kicking me out. Hey, if I’m lucky, I’ll get lunch out of this place, too!”
They laughed some more, and then Katie hugged her friend.
“I love you, Mel.”
“Aw.” Mel hugged her back. “Love you too, Katie.”
Chapter 15
The house looked good.
It was several days later. Mel had gone home already, back to the boyfriend who had called her every day she was in the hospital. Now it was just Katie in Fount Azure.
Her, and Riley Harris.
She held a cup of lemonade in one hand now as she watched him working up on the roof. His shirt was off and sweat glistened on his muscles as he finished putting a row of new shingles in place.
It was a very nice view she had from here.
“Hey,” he called down when he noticed her. “Give me a sec.”
It was just him working here today. They’d given the rest of his guys their final paychecks because what was left to do didn’t require more than Riley’s capable hands. He swung his legs over the edge of the roof and shimmied down the ladder, his leather toolbelt swaying with his hips.
Katie’s eyes watched every step.
When he got to her, he took the lemonade from her hand, holding the cool side of the glass up to his forehead. “Thanks.”
“Anything for my hardworking contractor. You look very fine up on that roof, Riley Harris.”
He leaned in close to her, and set a lingering kiss on her lips.
“And you,” he said when the kiss finally ended, “look very fine down here, Katherine Pearson.”
No one called her Katherine anymore. No one, except Riley.
All of this had taken both of them by surprise. After being released from police custody, after listening to how his sister had done all those awful things and then died an accidental death in the freezer trying to kill Katie, Riley had shown up on her doorstep. They’d talked for hours, and cried together, and when the sun came up he was working for her again.
Two days later, they woke up in the same bed.
They both knew this was heading somewhere serious. They just didn’t know exactly where. There were so many issues to work out still. All Katie knew for sure was she had her mother to thank for this. If her mom hadn’t called her home, she never would have started falling in love with Riley.
“Thanks Mom,” she whispered.
“What’d you say?” he asked, the ice in his glass clinking as he finished his drink.
“I, uh, said I want to go visit Mom. Her grave, I mean.”
He smiled at her. It was an expression full of patience and understanding. “Give me a few minutes to shower. I’ll come with you.”
“Really?”
“Sure. The roof’s done. All we’ve got left is a few minor things inside. I’ve got time.”
What he didn’t mention was they still had a freezer door to take care of. Not that it had given them any more trouble after her mother’s spirit had disappeared, but neither of them could bring themselves to go in there the way it was. Riley’s plan was to remove the door altogether and just turn it into a walk-in pantry. The little freezer above the refrigerator would be enough for anyone, he argued.
She couldn’t agree more. Whoever bought this house from her would make their own memories. Katie would take hers with her when she left.
“All right,” she said to him. “I’d love for you to come along. Um. Maybe it would go quicker if I helped you shower? You know. Wash your back, or whatever.”
“Hmm. I like that idea.”
He put his arm around her, and she felt the heat from his exposed skin against hers. This time their kiss led them inside, and upstairs.
The graveyard was quiet today. No cars. No caretaker, either.
“I wonder where Everson Millsap is?” she asked as Riley pulled his truck to a stop.
He looked at her oddly. “You mean the old man who used to take care of the cemetery?”
“Yeah, him. I thought maybe he would--wait, what do you mean, he ‘used to’ take care of this place?”
Riley shrugged, and then opened the door on his side. “Everson died almost a year ago.”
She sat in the truck for a moment after he got out, processing that. Everson was dead. Which meant...the Everson she saw and spoke to was actually a ghost.
Then she smacked her forehead with her palm. “Of course he was. Once “spiritual” Mom realized Katie could connect with others that had passed, she made it so that every ghost from here to Timbuktu wants to talk to me. Fantastic. So what do I do now, Mom?”
She didn’t answer, of course. Her mother had moved on, leaving Katie to figure out things for herself. One thing was for sure. Her life was never going to be boring again.
When she joined Riley on the path up to her mother’s grave she noticed that the cemetery wasn’t as quiet as she thought it was after all. There were a few people visiting different graves. None of them seemed to notice her, and she didn’t want to bother them, either.
At her mother’s grave, Katie suddenly felt awkward. Was she supposed to say something? She stood there for several long seconds, just staring at the headstone with the date of death and the inscription ‘Loving Mother.’ The silence stretched until she realized the person she really needed to talk to wasn’t her mom.
It was Riley.
“I’m going to be leaving soon,” she said without turning to look at him. “I have to get back to my life.”
“Doing what you do best,” he offered.
“Yeah. I mean, Mom’s house looks amazing now and I could stay here, I guess, but it just...wouldn’t feel right.”
“It wouldn’t be your home anymore.”
“Right. That’s it, exactly.”
“I understand.”
Her eyes flicked over in his direction. “Do you?”
“I do.”
“Um. How are you with long distance relationships?”
“Terrible.”
Well, that wasn’t the answer she had been hoping for. “Oh. I see.”
Katie turned her face away so he wouldn’t see her disappointment. In the direction she was looking, an elderly man stood over a grave, under the shade of a big tree. As she watched him, he began slowly walking back and forth like he wasn’t sure which way to go.
She knew how he felt. Falling for Riley hadn’t been part of any plan, to be sure, but now that she had him in her life she wasn’t sure she wanted to let him go, either. Could there be a solution that would work out for both of them?
“I don’t suppose,” he asked suddenly, “you’re looking to hire a contractor full time?”
Now she did look back at him, searching his eyes. “You mean, someone to travel around with me and go wherever I find a house to flip?”
“Right. Exactly like that. I mean, if you were looking for someone to do that with you, I’d like to apply for the job.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. “There’s only so much work here in Fount Azure. I’m sure when you hire someone to work on your houses it cuts into your bottom line and if we were wo
rking together...”
If they were working together, they could be together.
She threw her arms around his neck and held on tight as he spun her around and around. This was perfect. Riley was just the sort of guy she needed in her life.
Maybe you could come back home again, after all. The trick, she thought to herself, was taking the best parts of home with you when you left.
She laid her head against his shoulder as he held her close. Looking off into the graveyard again, wondering what changes this would bring to her life, she saw the old man she’d been watching just a minute ago, pacing by that grave.
Then she watched him walk straight through the tree.
Katie gasped. Now that she looked at the other people in the graveyard, she realized they weren’t really there, either. They were ghosts.
Every single one of them.
“What is it?” Riley asked her.
She shifted in his arms, and turned him to face the old man walking out through the tree again. “Do you see him?”
“The old guy?” Riley asked. “Sure. Why?”
Her jaw dropped. Riley could see the ghosts, too.
Oh, yes. Her life was going to get very interesting. Very interesting indeed.
The Haunting Of Twilight Ridge
Dedicated to Ray Bradbury
Chapter 1
Whitney Houston sang on the radio. The convertible top of the rental car was down and Katie Pearson turned up the volume as she drove along the open highway. She loved this song. It was so sad that they didn’t have the musical talent of Whitney to make songs anymore.
Maybe Whitney was haunting some stadium somewhere, giving concerts from the afterlife.
“Stop it,” she told herself, catching her hazel eyes in the rearview mirror. “This is a vacation, remember? No thinking about death and sad stuff.”
She’d had quite enough of death in her life. Not that she’d had a lot of people in her life who died. She was an only child, and her mother had passed not that long ago but other than that, death wasn’t something she had much experience with.
It was the ghosts of people who were already dead who kept interrupting her life.
Her profession was flipping houses. Buying them cheap, sprucing them up, selling them for a lot more than what she put into them. It used to be a simple life. Sure, it was lonely, but for a time she’d liked it that way. Easy. Simple.
Somehow, she kept finding herself in haunted houses. Places where the ghosts were all too real, and she always found herself in the middle of some crazy horror story.
Well. She wasn’t going to think about that now. Not while she was cruising the roads across the country looking for escape.
Enough of that. For the next four days she wasn’t going to think about houses, haunted or otherwise. She was on vacation. That was it.
She was good at what she did. Very good, in fact. Just this year she’d made enough money that even after paying her share of taxes to the government, she wouldn’t have to work for the rest of the year if she didn’t want to.
Katie had decided that she definitely didn’t want to. It was time for a break. Better to enjoy it now while she had the money, and the time. If she waited too long she might never get the chance again.
She was just sorry she had to take this trip alone.
Next to her on the passenger seat, her phone rang.
She couldn’t hear the ringtone over the sound of Whitney hitting the high notes but the screen’s flashing told her she was getting a call. Picking it up, she set it into the cradle on the dash and looked at the name on the caller ID.
Just like kismet, she thought to herself. Think of the one who matters most to you, and then there he was.
The Bluetooth piece went into her ear and she pushed the button to accept the call, with a little smile on her face.
“Hey there, babe. Miss me yet?”
“I missed you the second you walked out the door.” His voice was strong and masculine and it brought a picture of his face to mind, cute and sexy, like Ryan Gosling mixed with Bradley Cooper. “You’re missing me too, right? Picturing my face?”
“No, I’m not.” She felt her face heating up with the lie even though he couldn’t see her. “I’m not a silly school girl, you know.”
Riley had actually known her in school, even though he hadn’t given her the time of day back then. She had such a crush, too. Now that they had reconnected, their relationship was everything it could have been back in high school, and more.
Grownups had all the fun.
“Wish you were here,” she said to him.
“Me too. This place isn’t the same without you.”
“Aw,” she chuckled. “You’re sweet. Corny, but sweet.”
“That’s me. Where are you now?”
“New Hampshire. It’s beautiful out here. Just a little lonely.”
“Oregon could be beautiful, too, you know.”
“I know. I just needed a change of scenery. Sure do have it out here. I’ve never seen this many trees in my life.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It’s just the long road and me.” Katie whipped her long black hair back in the breeze. As fun as this was, it would have been more enjoyable with Riley here. “You know I could have delayed coming out to New England until your latest house project was done. I’ve been looking forward to this antiquing trip forever but it could have waited,” Katie told him.
“No, we talked about that, remember?” His voice faded in her ear as the reception wavered, then came back echoing with static. “The repairs on this two story ranch we’re renovating are taking longer than we expected. No telling when we’ll be done. You can’t live your whole life waiting for me.”
“What if I want to?”
He laughed. He had a nice laugh. “A gentleman never makes a lady wait.”
Katie had reconnected with Riley when she came back to her hometown, to her mother’s house, and needed to hire an experienced contractor. The two of them being in different sides of the real estate business had brought them close to each other.
When she found out that he could see ghosts, just like she did...well, a girl didn’t find a guy like that every day.
“Well,” she said to him, “I’ll be back home in two weeks. Think you can live without me for that long?”
“I’ll try my best. Hey, if you get the...you should...”
“What? Hey, Riley you’re breaking up.”
“...said, if you... Katie? Can you...me...?”
And then the call cut out. Her phone flashed again and the “no signal” icon came up on the screen.
Katie sighed and turned off the Bluetooth, pulling it out of her ear and tossing it onto the seat next to her. Great. Beautiful scenery, zero cell signal. No wonder hardly anyone lived in this part of the country.
It was starting to get chilly. Katie pulled over to the side of the road and put the roof back up on the car.
All around her, on both sides of the road, there was long stretches of trees and hills and nothing but nature, so it wasn’t surprising that cell service was going to be spotty. What she needed was a town where she could stop and stretch her legs and find a real phone. It was almost lunchtime, too, so a restaurant would be nice.
As she started down the road again, the little yellow icon for the gas gauge started blinking at her. She wasn’t going to get much further without some fuel.
Chapter 2
It took another twenty minutes, but she finally found a roadside gas station with a little convenience store and a sign that proclaimed they were the last gas for thirty miles. Good enough for her.
She pulled in and up to the single pump, getting out to fill the tank herself.
“Hold on there, hold on!” An elderly man with skin the color of faded chocolate and wearing gray overalls came hustling out of the convenience store, waving to her with an oily rag in his hand. “I’ve got that for you, pretty lady. I’ve got it.”
Katie
smiled. The people in New Hampshire were always friendly. This guy probably saw a whole ten people all day long at this place, and he was probably happy to see each one.
He whistled as he opened her gas tank and set the gas pump in place. Then he winked at her. “How much you looking for?”
“Fill it up, please. I’m not sure how much further I have to go.”
“Oh? Seems an odd thing for someone to be driving down the road and not know where they’re going.” He chuckled to himself. “You must be one of those free spirits.”
Katie had to laugh at that. “Hardly. I’m a business woman. I’m just on vacation.”
“Well, do tell.” He checked the pump and saw the numbers were still spinning. “What sort of business do you have for yourself? Seems like a pretty woman like you ought to be happy doing just about anything.”
The compliment was an odd one, but it left Katie with a little smile. “I buy and sell properties.” That was the simplest way of putting it, anyway. “I came out here to do some sightseeing and maybe look at buying some antiques. I’m from Oregon. Not a lot of antiques out there.”
“Whoo whee,” he said to her. “You sure did come a long way to visit with us. Hope everything’s going the way you want it to.”
“Actually, not so much.” Katie took out her cell phone and shook it back and forth for him. “I lost cell service down the road.”
“Yup. Not much good for cellphones out this way. What you need is a good payphone. Got one around the corner of the store, if you like.”
“Um. Thanks, but I don’t have any change with me. I’ll just wait until I get someplace with a hotel.”
That made the man laugh. “Hotel? Sweetheart, you’re in the wrong part of the world to find a hotel. You’ll want to drive back the way you come and go to Whitefield or Lincoln, if you want to spend the night in a hotel. All we got around here is folks in their nice warm homes and a few motels.”
Katie’s spirits sank. Well. She hadn’t come out here to find a day spa or anything. “That’s fine,” she said, although she didn’t quite feel like it was fine. “I’ll just wait for the next motel, I guess.”
Sight Unseen Complete Series Box Set Page 36
