by Liz Schulte
“I sort of remember Ashley. Why did they stay here for school and you didn’t?”
“My mother couldn’t stand me.” I laughed bitterly. “I’ve thought a lot about this. Perhaps she believed if I stayed, I’d fall in love with someone local and shame the whole family.” I shrugged. “I guess she thought my brothers would be easier to control.”
“Your father seems nice.”
“He is, in a spineless sort of way. Do you mind if we don’t talk about my family?” I tried to take a dainty bite of the wrap, but it was impossible, so I put it back on my plate, figuring I’d embarrassed myself enough for one evening. “Tell me about the hospital.”
“What about it?”
“I want to know about the ninth floor.”
Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head. “That’s all nonsense.”
“Seriously, I’m intrigued. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it at the hospital.”
“That’s because it’s against the rules. You’re told on your first day you get one warning and on the second offense you’re fired. We can’t have nurses or doctors spreading panic. Hospitals are places for science, not ghosts.” He took a giant bite of his wrap and looked at me curiously while he chewed. “Aren’t you hungry?” he asked after he swallowed.
“Starving.”
He looked pointedly at my untouched wrap as sweet chili sauce dribbled down his chin.
I laughed and leaned over so I could wipe his chin with my napkin. “Too messy. I’ve been humiliated enough tonight.”
Jack smiled and eased toward me, making my breath catch. My cheeks warmed in anticipation. “I didn’t think about that,” he whispered, the tip of his nose brushing mine.
My lips parted slightly and the next instant his soft, full mouth was against mine, gently testing the water. My heart pattered as I struggled to think. Jack wove his hand into my hair and deepened the kiss. I wanted so much to let go, but my brain finally caught up with my actions. I pulled back, missing the contact immediately. “I’m sorry, Jack. I can’t.”
He leaned back and took off his glasses. “Too fast?”
I nodded. “I just got out of a relationship. It didn’t end well. I’m not ready to jump into another one.”
“I’m not going to lie, Ryan. I like you a lot, but we can take it slow if that’s what you need.”
I looked into his warm, caring eyes and wanted to kiss him again, but fear smothered the urge like a wet blanket. Damn you, Briggs. “Really slow.”
“Whatever you want.” He took my hand, his thumb rubbing against my skin.
“The nurses seem to believe in the haunting.”
His thumb traced a loose figure eight, the eternity symbol, on the inside of my wrist, over and over again. “I thought you hadn’t heard anyone else talk about it.”
“I haven’t—or not like this at least. I asked that nurse Leigh about it, and she seemed to be a believer.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She said she’d move Bee if she were me.”
Jack laughed and shook his head. “Superstitious nonsense. I thought Leigh was smarter than all of that. She’s lucky no one else heard her. They take ninth floor talk very seriously.” He leaned in a little. “Now when you say slow, how slow are we talking?”
“Turtles will be flying by us.”
His lips tilted, making his eyes crinkle. “I can handle that,” he said, lifting my hand and brushing his lips against my knuckles. He was so inviting; it would be easy to forget about Briggs with him. I closed the distance between us a little, nervous and excited.
His phone rang, killing the moment.
Jack stood up and went out on the balcony to answer it.
I grabbed my plate and ate my chicken satay with my fingers. A thousand thoughts ran through my head. Not the least of which was I shouldn’t get involved with Jack. There was too much going on. He was a distraction—a cute, sweet, patient distraction—that I didn’t need.
“I’m sorry,” Jack said, returning to the room. He knelt down in front of me and kissed me softly. “I have to go to the hospital.”
The tension vanished from me and my shoulders relaxed. Time to think about all of this was a good thing. “It’s okay. Sort of comes with the territory.”
He glanced back a couple times on his way to the door, smiling. “See you tomorrow.”
I waved, feeling bad. I was already planning how I could avoid that very thing.
Chapter 8
I ate my lettuce wrap and both of our desserts. After I cleaned up, I lounged on the mattress with the old, somewhat musty blanket, but I couldn’t sleep. The moon was too bright, and my thoughts were too many. I tossed and turned until my cover was a twisted clump. I climbed out of bed and paced. I needed to do something, anything. I headed down to the store to make sure there wasn’t something I could do, but Vivian was doing wonderfully and there was nothing left for me to worry about. I went back up to the apartment and looked around the living room, picturing where all the furniture would be. No matter how I envisioned it though, the mattress on the floor had to go, and I needed somewhere to sleep.
I opened the bedroom door closest to the bathroom and pulled out three ridiculously heavy boxes. Sitting on the floor, I opened the first one. It was filled with photo albums. One was red and embossed in gold with the initials A.B.S. The front flap had a family crest and the name Augusta Bonnie Scott. The next page contained her birth date and all the stats. I flipped through the rest of the book quickly—just photos. I rested the book on the floor to my right—my keep pile.
The next box held high school yearbooks. Again I shoved it to the right. The third was filled with old books. At this rate I’d have to put everything into storage. I grabbed more boxes, going through each with a single-minded determinedness. By dawn I had thirteen boxes for donation, seven for trash, and sixteen for storage elsewhere. Only the photo albums, family papers, and yearbooks were stowed away in the coat closet so I could look at them later.
I was dead tired, but the bedroom was mostly cleared out. If I painted it tonight, then Vivian could find me a bedroom set, and I’d be well on my way to having a home. I looked at the piles in the living room and wondered how I was going to get them out.
I started carrying the keep boxes down to my car, noticing the sky was pink and the crickets were chirping. I loaded as many as I could fit and drove out to Bee’s house. The stuff was hers, so it made sense to store it in her garage. I was unloading when I heard a car pull up. I turned wearily, expecting Ashley, but was surprised by Blair.
“You look like hell,” he said.
“What the hell are you doing up so early?”
“Up? I never went to sleep.”
I laughed. “That makes two of us.” A little knot of guilt felt hard in my chest. “I’m sorry I ruined your evening.”
He waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t just you. Dad was pretty mad at Mom when you left. He really misses you, you know?”
“I’m just not a good fit with this family, Blair.”
“That’s the beauty of family. You don’t have to be a ‘good fit.’ We love you anyway. You’re a breath of fresh air. Something we all need.”
“So you forgive me?”
“Nothing to forgive.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the boxes still in the car. “Moving in?”
“Nope. Moving Bee’s stuff to her house so I can make the apartment over her store livable.”
“Need help?”
“I can handle it. You should go home and get some sleep.”
Blair ignored me and grabbed two boxes. Together we moved everything into the garage in no time. I thanked Blair for his help.
“Is this all?” he asked
“No. I have to go back and get a couple more, then I’ll figure out what to do with the other ones.”
“I’ll come with you.” I started to protest, but he cut me off. “That’s what families do. It’s time you and Mom started acknowled
ging the fact that we’re all a family.”
He followed me back to the apartment. We carried the trash boxes to the dumpster, loaded the donation boxes into my car, and put the few remaining keep boxes into Blair’s so he could drop them off on his way home. I gave him a hug and thanked him again. My little brother had turned into a good man while I was away. It made me a little wistful that I had missed it. “How did you manage to turn out so sweet?” I asked before he left.
He scrunched his nose and looked off into nothing. “I think it must’ve been my big sister who took the time to play with me every time she came home even though she was much too cool to hang out with a kid like me.” He flashed a grin as he drove off.
I wiped a tear from my eye and drove the opposite direction to the Goodwill. I made it to the hospital by 7:00 and headed up to see Bee. I noticed a couple nurses whispering urgently to each other as I approached. I tried not to make eye contact so they wouldn’t notice me.
One of them whispered, “But it kept calling my name all night. Patient lights kept going on and off—and room 1009 felt like a freezer. “
“You won’t say a word about this if you want to keep your job,” an older nurse said sternly.
“I can’t work like this,” the terrified girl hissed.
The other lady cleared her throat and smiled at me. “Good morning, Ms. Sterling.”
“Good morning,” I said, my cheeks coloring because I’d been caught eavesdropping. Why on earth would people be fired for just talking about ghosts? It seemed suspicious, like there was more to the story. I didn’t think rumors of a little haunting would cause quite the hysteria Jack said it would. Perhaps there was something to this story. I chewed on my lips as I considered my options and opened Bee’s door. Bee was still asleep so I crept in and sat next to her bed. I could start freelance writing. It would be a shame not to use the story right in front of me. I just had to do a little investigation, maybe some interviews.
The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. All I had to do was find some old hospital employees who could talk about what they knew and go from there. The only thing I was lacking was time, but since I was living here and had no immediate plans to leave, that shouldn’t be an issue either. There was a knock on Bee’s door that woke her up, and a nurse brought in a tray of food for her. Bee was on a highly restricted diet. She wasn’t allowed to have sodium, protein, vitamin k, or carbohydrates. It didn’t leave her with much to eat or interesting choices, but Bee didn’t have enough of an appetite to complain. Her smile was weak, and the skin on her face looked as thin as paper.
“How was dinner with your family, dear?”
“I didn’t make it past the cocktails. Mom and I got into it immediately.”
Bee shook her head. “The thing about your mother is she’s very easily threatened. She needs to be the apple of everyone’s eye.”
“Then maybe she shouldn’t be such a bitch.”
“Ryan—”
“Sorry, sorry.” Bee didn’t like me to call Mom names, but let’s face it, the woman deserved it.
“Your mom does love you in her own way.”
“You keep telling me that, and I keep waiting for her to show it.”
Bee shook her head and looked like she was going to say something else but stopped when the door opened. My father peeked his head into the room, smiling when he saw us. He entered with a large vase of breathtaking flowers. I hopped up and stopped him before he could get close. “Bee can’t have flowers or plants. Her immune system is very weak right now. Sorry. I’ll take them out to the nurses’ station for you.” He gave me another sheepish smile and let me take the vase.
I didn’t return his smile. My dad had always been nice, and he loved me, but he never stood up for me with Mom, not once. I wanted to forgive him, but every time I looked at him I saw the man who let me be sent me away because he didn’t want to make waves. I felt a familiar stab of disappointment.
I gave the nurses the flowers and went to wash my hands. I walked out of the restroom as Jack came out of the nursing station. He smiled and nodded toward the end of the hall. I turned and went in the direction he indicated, happy for a reason not to go back in the room with my dad. When I got to the window at the end of the hall, I waited for him to catch up. He cleared his throat and headed for the stairwell. I paused a heartbeat then followed behind. My pulse quickened at the subterfuge. I couldn’t imagine what he was being so secretive about, but my interest was definitely piqued. When the door clicked shut, he took my hand and led me down a flight of stairs, still not saying a word. Once we were on the landing of the ninth floor, he tugged me toward him and his mouth grazed over mine once before coming back for a deeper, longer kiss that made my toes curl. My fingers found their way to his soft hair while his hands ran down my spine to the arch of my back where they slipped beneath my shirt.
He pulled back slightly, but our noses were still touching and his hands were still rubbing circles on the bare skin of my back. “Good morning,” he whispered.
“This isn’t slow,” I whispered back before I feathered a kiss across his lips, which curled into a smile at my words.
“I guess I’m still confused. Do you mean slow like this?” He met my lips again, only this time it was a long, languid kiss that stole my breath and made a sigh lodge in my throat.
The sound of a nearby door opening made us pull apart, though our lips were swollen and it would be obvious to anyone what we were doing. I smoothed and straightened my royal blue shirt as we waited for footsteps but nothing echoed in the stairwell. I looked at Jack.
“It sounded like it was from up there,” I whispered. Jack went up a level to check. I crossed my arms, my cheeks flaming as I pressed up against the wall. The doors on our level were chained shut. So strange. Part of me wanted to find out why, but the more practical part said there was enough going on with Bee and I didn’t need to run off on a wild goose chase.
Jack came down the steps with a curious expression. “Whoever it was must have gone back. I didn’t see anyone.”
“I don’t think exit doors are supposed to be chained shut, are they?”
“I told you the floor was closed.”
“I thought you just meant no one was on it, not that it was physically locked up.”
He shrugged.
“Isn’t the hospital building a new wing because they need more space? How can they not use one of the floors just because of a ghost story?”
Jack shushed me. “Don’t even say the word. We’ll talk more about it tonight if you’re free?”
“I need to do some painting.”
“Would you like company?”
I didn’t fight my smile. “Well, yes, doctor. I think I would.”
Jack sent me out into the hallway, saying he’d go down to the eighth floor and would come back up on the elevator. I laughed but enjoyed the covert nature of whatever was happening between us.
On my way to Bee’s room, I passed Leigh, who was wheeling an oxygen tank in the same direction. “I know about the ninth floor,” I whispered when we were side by side.
She stopped and looked over at me. “What?”
“The ghosts.”
Her face blanched and she pressed her lips together. “Whatever you think you know, you don’t.”
“Then tell me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear.” With that, she hustled away, and I entered Bee’s room. Dad was in my chair, and Bee laughed at something he said.
“We were about to send a search party.” He stood up as I came in, gave me a hug, and held me an arm’s distance away. “Look at you. You’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman.” Tears brimmed in his eyes.
I gave him a tight smile for Bee’s sake. I didn’t want to cause her any more stress. “How have you been, Dad?”
“Well, other than missing my daughter all these years, excellent.”
“Hmph.” I bit the inside of my lip against a retort. If he missed me
so much, the phone worked two ways. He could’ve called, or emailed, or done anything in the last eight years, but the only person I heard from was Bee.
“Bee was kind enough to keep us informed about your well-being. I believe there’s a boyfriend you were pretty serious about. Walter Burke’s son?”
“You know Briggs’s father?”
My father nodded. “Nice family. I know your mother approved.”
“We broke up.” Even if we hadn’t, Mom’s approval could have been the kiss of death.
“I thought as much when you brought the doctor to the house last night. I’m sorry to hear that, Ryan. You’re too young to settle anyway.”
“You mean you don’t think Dr. Sadler and I should elope?” I asked innocently.
Bee smiled, my dad looked nervous about how he should answer, and a throat cleared behind me, making my cheeks heat.
Jack raised his eyebrows at me with a small grin before he walked around to Bee with his typical charming smile. “How are you feeling today, Bee? I see you have visitors.”
Jack went through his normal barrage of questions: her pain scale, energy, swelling, stomach, etc. When he finished, he joined me, leaning against the window ledge on the opposite side of the bed as my father. Dad and Bee watched us, and I was careful not to look at Jack.
Jack cleared his throat again. “Thank you for having me to your house last night, Neil. I’m sorry the evening ended so abruptly.”
Dad shifted uncomfortably.
“We’ll have to try again,” Jack said, and this time I did look at him, but it wasn’t puppy love in my eyes. I wasn’t going back there, and I didn’t appreciate him intimating that I would.
What the hell.
Chapter 9
Jack escaped from Bee’s room before my father left so I couldn’t tell him what I thought about him promising things on my behalf. I hoped Jack was comfortable with my family because he was visiting them alone. When it was just Bee and me again, I casually asked if she knew anything about the hospital.
“It’s a very good facility, Ryan. I don’t need to be moved to a larger city,” she said patiently, misunderstanding.
