Free Spirits

by Linda Wisdom

  “What do you think I’m talking about!” Alex shouted back, throwing up her hands. “My parents have been living here since my birthday. Well, not living since they’re dead, but they’re here. And they refuse to go away!”

  She shook her head, a pitying look in her eyes. “Your parents are dead, Alex.”

  “I know that, you know that. Hell, even they know that, but that hasn’t stopped them from turning my life upside-down!” She looked wild-eyed. “They’re here because they want to see me married off properly, and right now Michael Duffy is their prime candidate. If they have anything to do with it, the man doesn’t have a chance.” Having run out of steam, she collapsed on the edge of the coffee table.

  “Now you’ve done it,” Patrick sighed.

  “Honey, your father is right. She’ll never believe you,” Marian chimed in.

  Alex was past listening to reason. “I don’t care. I just want to get it off my chest,” she argued, grasping her hair in her hands and pulling on it. “I don’t care if she calls in the men in white coats, just as long as I can have my say.” She turned to her friend. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you? Or that this is a repercussion from that time I hit my head. Well, it isn’t. What can I say? My parents came back as ghosts because they wanted to keep me from marrying Jason. And only Suzi Q and I can see them. Why do you think she’s always talking to thin air? She’s talking to my mother! Who, with my luck, understands everything that crazy cat is saying!” she shrilled.

  Beth looked wary. “Alex, this is serious. You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Maybe you need to talk to someone.”

  “I am talking about it, I’m talking about it to you. Think about it,” she implored. “You know my mother as well as I do. Isn’t this something she’d do?”

  Beth thought about it for a moment, idly chewing on a nail. “My mother would do it,” she said finally. “She’d come back to see me married off. But, Alex, what you’re saying is impossible. There’s just no such thing as ghosts.”

  “Who says there isn’t?” she challenged. “Lots of things go on that we can’t understand. Remember all the times Suzi Q used to carry on conversations with Mom? Who’s to say there isn’t a way for the deceased to come back and watch over the ones they love? To make sure they’re all right?”

  “You make a pretty good argument, kiddo,” Patrick complimented, settling down on the couch. “If I didn’t believe in me, I would now.”

  She blew out a gust of air. However badly she wanted to speak to her father, she didn’t. Beth was having enough trouble taking this in without seeing her best friend talk to the couch.

  “Alex, you have to get hold of yourself,” Beth begged.

  “Would it help if I picked up a pillow and let it sort of float around?” Marian offered bright-eyed, clearly getting into the “spirit” of things.

  “No, Mom. You’d probably only scare her half to death.” Alex jumped up and began pacing back and forth again.

  “If you’re talking about me, I’m already scared,” Beth told her, warily looking over her shoulder as if fearing a monster with glowing eyes and sharp teeth would jump out and grab her.

  “Think about it, Beth. Have I ever done anything this crazy?” Alex reminded her. “I’ll be the first to admit I’ve pulled a few nutty stunts in my lifetime, but have I ever done anything that would be this crass?”

  “Crass?” Marian made a face. “Darling, calling us crass is not nice.”

  “All right, so you’re not known to play Halloween early.” Beth ran her fingers through her hair, dislodging the tousled waves even more. “Look, Alex, I know you’ve had a lot of shocks lately, and you’ve been working too hard because you’re so compulsive about delivering your strip way ahead of your deadlines. Maybe if you tried to relax, get some rest and talk to someone.” Frank concern showed in her eyes and sounded in her voice. “Sweetie, I’m the first one to know how much you miss your parents, and with the way they were killed—well—it just wasn’t fair. But deluding yourself that they’ve come back from the dead isn’t the way to handle it. Especially with everything else that’s been going on in your life, what with Jason turning into a major creep and all.” She rested her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I want you to remember that I’m always here for you and if you need to talk, well, call, okay? Just, please, don’t say any of this to anyone else. They might not understand.” She kissed her on the cheek and left.

  Alex slumped on the couch, a weary sigh escaping her lips. She grabbed a throw pillow and pressed it against her face to muffle her scream of frustration.

  “I’m sorry, honey, but we knew she’d never believe you,” Patrick spoke up. “After all, this is the kind of story you see on ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ or ‘Twilight Zone.’ Not in real life.”

  “It isn’t right she didn’t believe you,” Marian fretted. “After all, she’s your best friend and has known you for years. Not to mention you’ve never been a good liar.”

  “She also knows I had a concussion not long ago, and she thinks that and stress have made me lose my mind,” Alex had to concede. The light bulb went off over her head. “Of course!” She jumped up and ran into her office. “The brownies.” She hurried out, carrying the plate Marian had taken in there earlier.

  A confused Marian turned to Patrick. “What do my brownies have to do with anything?”

  Patrick grinned. “Your brownie recipe is very special. Beth would recognize it right away.”

  She was suspicious of his glib reply, but decided to let it rest.

  Ten minutes later, Alex was back, looking more dejected than ever. “Why she thinks I’d make brownies like this is beyond me,” she muttered, taking the plate into the kitchen.

  Patrick walked over and gave her a hug. “There are some things logical-minded people can’t understand, Alex. Ghosts are one of them.”

  “It would have been so much easier if you had haunted Aunt Harriet. Everyone expects her to live with ghosts,” she sighed. “After all, she had her dog freeze-dried and set him in his basket.”

  “Harriet has already had six husbands. She doesn’t need our help in finding another.” Marian sat on the couch with Suzi Q curled up beside her. “Besides, your father is allergic to dogs, remember?’

  Alex’s need to be alone while she licked her wounds grew greater with every second.

  “Back to work.” A weary Alex entered her office and closed her door.

  “Things would be so much easier if she and that nice Dr. Duffy would get together,” Marian commented. “Chloe’s convinced he’s very attracted to her. She told me he’s her favorite nephew.”

  “Chloe also thought that idiot son of hers was a reincarnation of Charles de Gaulle,” Patrick pointed out.

  “She thought he looked like him around the eyes, dear. That’s all.”

  “This is crazy, Duffy.”

  Michael stood outside Alex’s apartment building, his hands stuck in his pockets as he stared at the entrance.

  “All you have to do is go inside and take the elevator upstairs,” he told himself. “You’ve done it before. There’s no reason for you to be uneasy about it now.” Yes, there was. In the beginning he merely considered Alex a sexy-looking lady, a bit wacky, perhaps, but someone he enjoyed being around. There was the time spent at the mall while she ran from store to store picking out linens, prints for his walls and various accessories to brighten up his apartment because she insisted he needed color in his life. He had to admit he’d enjoyed waking up to his new cheerful surroundings in the mornings. She had told him she would add color to his life and she’d done just that. In more ways than one. She had also got under his skin, and he didn’t want to see her gone.

  Besides, his brain reminded him. She’s in your custody, right? Okay, so it was a joke. She knew it and he knew it. But she sure didn’t seem to mind the linen closet. His rapidly aroused body hadn’t minded it, either.

  “So, go up,” he ordered himself. “Find out for sure if what happened at the ho
spital was a fluke or not. Make sure you weren’t just trying to prove something to yourself. Andrea may have said you weren’t the romantic type, but Alex didn’t seem to see it that way. Go on.”

  Placing one foot in front of the other, he did just that until he stood in front of her door. His hand reached for the doorbell, then was about to reconsider when he felt a gentle but firm pressure on his finger against the buzzer.

  Alex’s face showed pleased surprise when she opened the door. “Michael, I didn’t expect you so early.” She took his hand and drew him inside.

  “Luck was on our side. It was actually quiet when I left.” He eyed her red-and-black tiny-checked oversize shirt and black leggings with frank male appreciation.

  Alex slid her arms around his waist. “Well, Doctor, you are most welcome,” she murmured, lifting her face. “After all, I did invite you over here after you got off duty, didn’t I?”

  Michael wasn’t about to turn down the invitation. He framed her face with his palms as his mouth lowered to hers. His mouth covered hers with the hunger of a man remembering teasing kisses, which had rapidly warmed to deeper caresses, in a dark closet. His arms circled her body, pulling her closer to him.

  “I can’t believe she’s doing this in front of us,” Patrick groused. “Marian, do you see where his hand is!”

  “Shut up, dear,” Marian beamed as she watched the embracing couple.

  “Go away,” Alex mumbled, between nibbling kisses as she snuggled up closer to Michael’s lean body. His tongue thrust into her mouth, stroking every moist comer with the same kind of hunger he displayed at the hospital. The kind of sincere hunger a red-blooded woman dreamed of. Now a part of Alex’s dreams had come true.

  “Hmm?” Michael wasn’t sure he heard right.

  “I’m talking to the cat.”

  “Afraid she’ll be corrupted by what she’d see?”

  “Corrupted?” Patrick roared. “More like shocked. I can’t believe my little girl is doing such things.”

  “Come on, Patrick, let’s give them some privacy,” Marian insisted, grabbing hold of his hand, but he resisted her efforts.

  “Are you kidding? Who knows what could happen if we leave?”

  “Exactly.”

  Alex didn’t have to open her eyes to know her parents had pulled their disappearing act. Considering where Michael’s hands were now, it was just as well her mother had taken her father off to never-never land. She sighed with pleasure when the buttons on her shirt were parted and the front clasp to her bra was released. A rush of cool air tightened her nipples just before his warm palms covered them, causing an ache deep inside. His whispered words were dark, the kind spoken between longtime lovers instead of two people who, so far, had shared little in the way of intimate secrets.

  Alex, who usually proceeded cautiously, felt as if she’d gone up in flames under Michael’s touch. His fingers gently kneaded her aching flesh before trailing down to the elastic waistband, slipping under to draw circles around her navel.

  “I’d like to say we’re moving too fast,” Alex said huskily, tipping her head back and to the side as Michael’s mouth found the sensitive skin behind her ear.

  “But?” he asked in a rough voice.

  “But I have an idea I’m not thinking very clearly where you’re concerned.” She breathed sharply through her nose when his fingers explored lower.

  “Do you want me to stop?”

  She seriously thought about tearing his clothing off right where they stood. “Are you kidding? Although I wouldn’t mind if we got a bit more comfortable.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as my bedroom. It has a nice large bed in there, where we could stretch out. It might not have the ambience of the linen closet, but it does have clean sheets and subtle lighting.”

  His hand stilled. “Are you sure? This could get complicated, Alex. Are you ready for that? Ready for what will be said when others realize we’re a couple. What Sommers might try to pull? No matter how much I want to drop into that bed with you and make love with you for the next week, I want you to think about what it involves. I don’t take things lightly.” He pressed a butterfly kiss against her closed eyelid as he spoke softly. “I should have known I was in trouble when you opened your big blue eyes in the emergency room. I was the guy who was going to bury himself in his work, but I was really thrown off the track when you blew into my life.”

  “I was unconscious when I first blew into your life,” she reminded him, tracing lazy patterns across his bare chest. She wasn’t fond of men with overly hairy chests nor of men with no hair at all. The sandy brown hair dusted around the pale brown nipples and arrowing down to his waist to thicken in a coarse darker brown nest was just right for her. It tempted her to draw pictures on his skin.

  “It didn’t matter. I was still lost to a pair of blue eyes and a lush mouth that knocked my socks off.” His fingers traced their own patterns across her bare shoulders and down to the tops of her breasts, just missing taut nipples which tightened even further in reaction. “I just want you to realize what will happen after tonight, because I have a very strong hunch after we make love I won’t be able to let you go.”

  Alex smiled at Michael’s suggestion to stand back and take a breather. Most men would have taken immediate advantage of her weakened condition, but not him.

  “Michael,” she whispered, injecting pure seduction into her voice. “If you don’t finish within the next five minutes what you’ve already started, I will rip your clothes into shreds and make you my prisoner for the next month.” She jerked his polo shirt up to his armpits as an example of her intent, then allowed her hands to linger over the pale brown nipples, which stiffened under her light touch.

  She could feel his smile against her skin. “Any chance of a parole, warden?” he murmured.

  “None.”

  “Then I plead guilty as charged, and will take my punishment like a man.”

  She chuckled throatily. “Hallelujah.” She backed out of his arms and crooked her finger in a beckoning gesture as she continued to back her way into her bedroom. She was grateful she had made her bed, since she tended to be an active sleeper and her covers were usually tossed every which way in the mornings. She only hoped there was nothing to ruin the seductive image hanging in the bathroom. At the moment, her love-fogged brain couldn’t properly function.

  Once they reached the bed, Michael paused with a sobering thought. “Alex, I don’t have anything with me.”

  She smiled. “Everything is taken care of, Doctor.”

  By now Alex didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to be lost within this man for the next year. She hazily wondered if the hospital would miss him if she did keep him locked up in her bedroom. Um, the idea had its merits.

  Michael’s thoughts closely paralleled her own as he wondered how long they could hide away before the world intruded on something this special.

  The words they spoke were soft and loving. The touches not at all hesitant, as each learned what the other liked best. Even that wasn’t difficult, because each liked whatever the other did. There was no dominant partner as they both shared a magnitude they had never dreamed of. And when their voices rang out in the darkened bedroom, they knew their lives would never be the same again.

  It wasn’t until Alex opened her eyes and looked around the dark room that she realized she must have fallen asleep. A glance at the clock confirmed her suspicion. She wanted to stretch her arms over her head and purr like a well-satisfied cat, but she resisted the urge. She hated to move a muscle because she didn’t want to wake the man sleeping beside her in naked splendor. She carefully rolled over on her side and propped her head on her hand as she studied him.

  “Too good to be true,” she whispered to herself.

  “Believe me, it’s true.”

  Alex lowered her head and brushed her lips across his. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

  Michael opened one eye. “How long did we sleep? This time.”
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  She couldn’t hold back the blush tinting her cheeks at his teasing statement. “About an hour. And a half hour before that.” She rubbed her nose against his. “You are insatiable, Doctor. What kind of vitamins do you take?”

  “I think it has something more to do with the company I keep.” He wrapped a hand around her neck and kept her face close to his. His attention was diverted as a pungent odor teased his nostrils. “Are you cooking something?”

  Alex’s nose twitched just as her face grimaced in horror. “I can’t believe this.” She disentangled herself from his arms and leaped out of bed, snatching up the first thing her hands discovered and pulling it on over her head. Until the warm, musky scent swirled around her, she didn’t realize she was wearing Michael’s polo shirt which hit her mid-thigh.

  Alex skidded to a halt just inside the kitchen. Marian’s French toast sent up tiny spirals of smoke from the electric frying pan.

  “How could you?” she screeched, then swiftly lowered her voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Luckily, I got to the smoke alarm before it went off,” Patrick reassured his daughter.

  She stared at him in horror. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better? Make this disappear.”

  “We’re ghosts, dear, not magicians. I thought I’d make you breakfast, so you wouldn’t have to bother,” Marian told her, looking at the pan with a worried frown. “I don’t know what happened, dear. My French toast usually comes out so well.”

  A strangled sob clawed its way up Alex’s throat. “You don’t understand.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “I—ah—I.” How was she going to explain she had a man in her bedroom to her parents? While they weren’t prudes, she doubted they wanted to visualize their daughter as a ‘fallen woman’ who lured a man into her bed. Hm, the idea wasn’t all that bad. She settled for baldly stating, “I’m not alone.”

  “Darling, we weren’t born in the Middle Ages,” Marian chided. “We naturally assumed that nice doctor was with you. That’s why I’m making you my special French toast. Don’t worry.”