The Good Girl

by Barritt, Christy

  “I just want some answers, an explanation for the things happening at my house. I don’t even feel safe there.”

  She picked up a folded fan with an oriental design across it from the table behind me and waved it on her face. “I believe in God too, you know. Just because I psychic not mean I no believe.”

  My face flushed in surprise. “Do you believe Jesus Christ is God?”

  “There no one god but many.”

  The doorbell rang, and she snapped her fan shut. “My client here. You leave.” She jerked her thumb behind her in one big “get out” motion. She obviously hadn’t learned the art of being subtle.

  “About Danielle...”

  Miss Mystic grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door, her iron grip making my arm ache. “Ask her what happen yourself.”

  I slammed on brakes. “Ask her myself?”

  “Come back and I ask Danielle what she want from you. For fifty bucks, that is.”

  I was out the door, passing a woman with short gray hair and wearing a business suit. And Miss Mystic had all but forgotten about me as she greeted a woman who’d actually pay her—I assumed. Gone was the woman’s pushiness. I looked behind me and saw a bright, charming smile across her face.

  Christians weren’t the only ones who could be two-faced, I supposed.

  Chapter 14

  On the way home, I pondered our conversation. How much difference was there between someone who believed in God and one who believed in ghosts? Both required a level of faith. But why was I so sure I was right? Or was I?

  I pulled the Hummer up in front of Lana’s and, instead of going inside, decided to go on a walk. The day was warm and some exercise sounded good—better than going into the house and keeping company with beings unseen.

  As I paced the sidewalk, I couldn’t help but note that the neighborhood was beautiful with sidewalks and massive trees that provided shade. All the streets were neatly laid out in blocks with strategically placed parks and ball fields. Lana was basically living the American dream. I, on the other hand, had woken up in the middle of a modern-day nightmare.

  I shook my head and decided to replay my conversation with Miss Mystic instead of pondering how unfair life was.

  Jeremy a churchgoer. Not type believe in crystal balls.

  Would a churchgoer kill his wife? Christians had done worse. Would Jeremy have been so humiliated by his wife’s beliefs that he viewed killing her as the only solution? Sounded drastic to me. I supposed people had been murdered for lesser reasons, though.

  Of course, for a fee, Miss Mystic could conjure up Danielle’s spirit and find out for sure.

  Uh-huh.

  I closed my eyes and pictured it all unfolding. I could see Danielle’s face blurred in the crystal ball while Miss Mystic spoke her broken English into the sphere. “What you have to say, Danielle?” she’d asked.

  I’m still here.

  I opened my eyes at the memory of the note I’d found when I arrived and swallowed hard. No, that just wasn’t possible, no matter what people thought. Danielle was not trying to reach me from the grave.

  The next thing I knew, I’d be finding out she played guitar. I chuckled, but the sound quickly died as a cold fear crept in. What if she did play the guitar? No, I couldn’t think about that.

  I looked up as a brisk wind fanned my face. A line of clouds was coming toward me. I didn’t care. I kept walking, past homes in all shapes and sizes. The tree-lined street made me feel warm and cozy, despite all the craziness at Lana’s. Ahead, I spotted an ice cream truck. Ice cream. That sounded like a good idea. I jumped in line, waiting amongst talkative kids still sweaty from playing in the park across the street.

  I ordered a snow cone and then turned around, nearly colliding with someone with a broad, solid chest who smelled faintly of baby shampoo and spearmint. I looked up and saw piercing blue eyes squinting at me.

  “Tara?”

  I swallowed, my throat burning. “Cooper?”

  He ordered two Popsicles. Austin stood beside him. Then he turned back to me, his eyes narrowing. “Your hair. It looks...good.”

  I shrugged and tugged a piece behind my ear. “I wanted to try something different.” I looked down at his son and found the perfect topic for a subject change. “I thought Austin would be at the sitter’s today.”

  “We’re both playing hooky today.” He rubbed the boy’s head.

  I smiled down at Austin and offered a wink. “It’s nice to be at home with Daddy sometimes, isn’t it?”

  “I like your hair.” Austin licked his Popsicle and looked up at me with those big blue eyes of his.

  “Thanks.”

  The three of us escaped the crowd of children around the truck and began walking down the sidewalk toward the park together. Awkward silence fell.

  Cooper was the first to speak. “Anything strange happening at the house lately?”

  I took a bite of my rainbow-flavored snow cone, which lived up to its name because I could only taste the ice, and shrugged again. “Not really.”

  We paused by the playground. Austin ran off with some friends, leaving Cooper and me standing there. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Look, Tara, about the other night...”

  I waved my hand through the air, swatting away a fly in the process. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He lowered his chin. Another chilly breeze swept through, ruffling his hair. “I offended you, and I didn’t mean to.”

  “You did rub me the wrong way.” Wow, it felt so good to be honest instead of covering up my true feelings in the interest of being polite. “But I’m a big girl. It’s okay.”

  “I was out of line.” He tossed his Popsicle wrapper into a nearby garbage can and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

  “I’ve heard worse. Much worse.” I sucked in a deep breath, my nose ring suddenly begging to be itched. I ignored it, wiggling my nose instead and trying to focus on the conversation. “To be honest, Cooper, I keep trying to shake off the old me, but I can’t seem to do it. What you said reminded me of who I used to be.”

  “What was wrong with the old you?”

  “The old me was all about rules.” Of course, the new me was making up an entirely different set of rules. Bad Girls Rule #6: Neurotic thoughts will make people think you’re more interesting.

  “Being all about rules is bad?”

  My nose twitched again. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I’d like the chance to.” His gaze was so earnest that for a moment I wanted to pour out everything. But fear stopped me. He thought he’d understand if he knew the truth. But would he? Or would doubts about my innocence always linger in his mind?

  I shook my head, glancing down at the cracked sidewalk at my feet before looking back up. The sun peeked through the approaching clouds for a moment and illuminated Cooper’s hair, almost like a halo. “I’m a mess, Cooper. I’m like a house made of cards. I looked great for a while, but then the wind blew and everything fell down. I’m still picking up the pieces.”

  “I could help.”

  I shook my head. “I wish you could. I really wish you could. But sometimes I’m not even sure that picking up the pieces is possible.”

  “I hope you’ll come to realize that it is.”

  I smiled, but it was a sad smile. “I hope you’re right.” I nodded toward the house. “I should go.”

  “Look, are you still interested in that security system?”

  Maybe it was just the solution I was looking for. Besides, I was running out of options at this point—options short of Miss Mystic coming over and speaking to the spirits for me. I’d already borrowed Candy’s gun, so I could be all Lara Croft: Tomb Raider when the bad guys showed up. But would I really be that brave? I doubted it. “I’d like that.”

  Cooper’s gaze latched on to mine, making my heart beat double-time. “I’ll stop by later then. Is that okay?”

  I nodded, my throat burning with some kind of unwelcome emot
ion. “Thanks, Coop. That would be great.”

  With a wave, I turned and walked away.

  A new rule came to mind. It wasn’t a Good Girls Rule or a Bad Girls Rule. It was a protect-your-heart kind of rule. Maybe the most important kind of rule.

  The rule’s boundaries were clear: Stay away from Ben Cooper.

  Chapter 15

  The first raindrop hit me when I was two blocks away from Lana’s. I kept my slow, lazy pace and, by the time I reached the house, rain poured down in sheets. I started toward the front door but stopped in the middle of the yard.

  I stood there, letting the rain fall over me. I lifted my head toward the drops. Moisture ran down my cheeks, my neck, my arms.

  I wished rainwater could flow over my heart and wash it clean. Take away all of the bad stuff, all of the hurt that made me act and think in unappealing ways. Wasn’t that what the blood of Jesus was for? Wasn’t it supposed to wash me whiter than snow? Then why did my soul feel so stained and bruised?

  A car door slammed. I looked over and saw Cooper and Austin running from the truck toward their house. Cooper paused and raised his hands up as if to say, What are you doing?

  I waved him off. “Don’t worry about me!”

  He grinned, shook his head, and kept running.

  I kept standing there. My clothes clung to my body. My hair clung to my face. And I didn’t care. I let the rain saturate every part of me. No one could see my tears as they mixed with the droplets from the sky—and mix they did. Rivers ran down my cheeks, but no one was wiser to my pain.

  As quickly as the shower came, the rain faded. I stayed on my spot in the middle of the lawn until the spattering turned to random fat drops. When the rain stopped, I wiped my eyes with my hands and blinked at the world around me. I didn’t even care if anyone had seen me or that my new hairdo was ruined. For the first time in a long time, I just didn’t care.

  A noise on the street drew my attention to a sedan parked in front of Cooper’s. A younger woman jumped from the car, casserole dish in hand, and ran toward Cooper’s place. Cooper opened the door a moment later and invited her inside.

  Cooper had a girlfriend, I realized. Why did my heart feel heavy? He should be dating someone. He was a great guy. And I wasn’t interested in dating, so the fact that a cute blonde was bringing him dinner should be endearing. My heart still sagged with unreasonable grief.

  It was time to get cleaned up and dried off. I turned to go back inside when something made me pause. Eyes. Watching me.

  I looked over my shoulder, just in time to see the strange man across the street staring out of his second-story window. Directly at me.

  ~*~

  Unrest sloshed in my chest as I walked toward my front door. Why was that man watching me? Why did it bother me that a woman was at Cooper’s, especially since I’d just vowed to stay away from him? And was I really living here alone, or was a dead woman still lingering between these four walls?

  It was enough to give any girl a headache.

  I deposited my keys on the table and started toward the bathroom for a shower when a knock pounded at the door. Who now? The creepy man from across the street? Or maybe the casserole fairy was making her rounds throughout the neighborhood and I was next on the list?

  I pulled the door open, and on the other side stood two men wearing golf shirts with “Safeguard Security” embroidered on them. Cooper certainly didn’t waste any time sending them over.

  They introduced themselves, told me it would take a couple of hours to install everything, and that they’d also be changing my locks and putting up new shades.

  Why was I so disappointed that Cooper hadn’t come himself?

  I knew the answer. Cooper, in all of his kindness, had ignited that spark of hope in me—one that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Since Peter, all my romantic aspirations had died. I didn’t want to believe in love again. Cooper had somehow managed to break through that barrier, against all my wishes. And it appeared I was only setting myself up for more heartbreak. Yippee.

  While the guys worked, I changed from my wet clothes and plopped on the couch, determined not to think about Cooper or the girl at his house or what they were doing. I refused to ponder whether he was as protective of her as of me or if Austin hugged her leg and looked up at her with those big eyes. I blocked out thoughts of her and Cooper sharing secret glances and having whispered conversations.

  Yeah, right.

  Jealousy...it did terrible things to your complexion. Good Girls Rule #9, but who cared? I was breaking all of the rules lately anyway. What would a bad girl do? They’d say, “Life is short so break the rules!”

  I heard some commotion at the door and craned my neck to see what was happening. My eyes lit up at the familiar faces there. “Cooper. Austin. You’re here.”

  I looked behind them, waiting to see the cute blonde. She appeared to be absent, however, which filled me with too much relief for comfort. My neighbors stepped inside, wiping their feet on the mat there.

  Cooper’s warm gaze met mine. “I hope you don’t mind. I like to keep an eye on what’s going on.”

  “You had this set up before you talked to me, didn’t you?” I’d calculated how much time it should have taken to get a crew here, and either they were extremely under-worked or Cooper had arranged this without my permission. I knew I should care, but I didn’t.

  Cooper’s guilty smile was all the answer I needed. I stood and approached them, winking at Austin as I got closer. The boy blushed and hugged his father’s leg. I nodded toward the men working at my back door. “How am I ever going to pay for this? It looks like a seriously expensive system.”

  He stepped closer, his eyes sparkling with more clarity than the nighttime sky in Thailand. I’d seen that beautiful sight before—on a mission trip, to be exact.

  His head tilted. “There is a way.”

  Please don’t say I have to go on a date with you. I don’t know that I’m strong enough to resist. It didn’t matter how many times I told myself to throw caution to the wind—something habits were just hard to change. “What’s that?”

  “Go to church with me sometime.”

  I blinked several times, sure I hadn’t heard him correctly. I hadn’t pegged Cooper as a churchgoer, for some reason. “Church?”

  He smiled, crinkles forming at his eyes. Crinkles that I’d imagined examining while on our date, which had merely been a pipe dream. “Why do you say it like it’s a dirty word?”

  I shook my head, trying to shake off his words in the process. “I didn’t. Did I?”

  “You kind of did.” His expression was apologetic.

  I had to buy some time and, to do that, I went with the truth. “I didn’t know you were a Christian.”

  “I kind of thought you might be.”

  My throat burned as I wavered between my old life and my new life, between what I’d thought I’d known and the place of uncertainty where I remained now. “Why would you think that?”

  “Just the vibe I got.”

  Interesting. I was still giving off that vibe, huh? I took a step back. “I don’t know. I’m not really a big fan of church right now.”

  “Will you think about it?”

  “Yeah, I’ll think about it.” I cleared my throat, deciding this was a good time for a subject change. “Cooper, you said that you had a mutual friend who knew the couple who lived in Lana’s house?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Why?”

  “Do you think I could talk to him?”

  He nodded slowly. “I could probably arrange something. Why?”

  “I’m just trying to find out some more information. I know it probably sounds weird, but I wonder if everything going on here has something to do with her death.”

  He continued to bob his head in thought. “I’m actually going to stop at his place tomorrow after I drop Austin off at his grandparents. You want to tag along?”

  “Would that be weird?”

  His gaze pierced mine, que
stions dancing in his eyes. “Why would that be weird?”

  “I don’t want to put you in an awkward position with your girlfriend.” As if him sleeping on my couch and having me over for a cookout hadn’t already.

  His head wobbled. “I don’t have a girlfriend.” He pointed outside, his gaze registering my assumptions. “You mean that girl that stopped by?”

  I nodded.

  He shook his head. “We’re just friends.”

  “A friend who brings you dinner?” I couldn’t stop the sparkle from glimmering in my eyes.

  A smile stretched across his face. He’d been caught. “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you about it tomorrow on the ride up. You game?”

  “Will that be awkward if I’m there when you drop off Austin?”

  His hands went to his hips. “Do you always overthink things?”

  “Yes, I do, actually.” I didn’t even have to overthink that answer.

  “You’re worrying too much. It’s going to be fine. I’ll tell them you’re new in town and needed a ride. No big deal.”

  “I’m game then. Thanks. Again. I just can’t seem to stop saying that to you.”

  “It’s settled then. Now, let me go check on the work these guys are doing. With this alarm, you’ll finally get a good night’s rest.”

  ~*~

  I was fairly certain that I would never get a good night’s rest again.

  Even with the alarm—which Cooper had painfully explained to me, detain by detail, how to work—I wasn’t sure anything would change.

  As per my normal nightly routine, I lay in bed with the covers pulled up to my chin. My muscles were stiff and tense. My breathing was shallow, and my mind wouldn’t turn off.

  What would happen tonight? What would I hear and experience?

  Gaga curled beside me in bed. I waited, aware of my every breath, my every heartbeat. The alarm clock beside the bed made a tiny purring noise with each minute that went past.

  That’s when I heard the first creak.