by K. J. Emrick
Matt gave him a half smile and another nod, and then stood up shakily from his chair. He looked like he wanted to say more, but finally he just walked out, and closed the door behind him.
Darcy sighed out a breath and rolled her head against the back of the chair. “Can we give him Marcia’s necklace?” she asked Jon.
“Not yet.” He got up, and went around to his desk where a clear plastic evidence bag sat, the triangular pendant and necklace tucked inside. “It’s part of this case for now. But, as soon as everything is cleared up I’ll be sure it gets to him. I have a feeling he deserves it more than anyone.”
“Yes,” Darcy agreed, “he does.”
He dropped the bag, and for a moment he just stood there looking at it. Darcy waited, sure that there was something on his mind. For days now he’d been telling her that he wanted to talk about something, but each time he brought it up they were in the middle of something else. Now that everything was settled and over, she went back to wondering what could be so important…
In just a few steps he was kneeling beside her chair, his arms around her, and his head against her shoulder. “I don’t want to ever lose you, Darcy. Not to a stupid fall at your bookstore, and not to some demented man who thought killing his sister would keep her from leaving him, and not to some psychotic ghost who is angry about the way her life ended. I don’t want to lose you.”
She feathered her fingers through his hair. “Jon, you aren’t going to lose me. We’re in this life together, you and me.” She adjusted her leg a little to keep it out of his way. “You and I are going to grow old together. I can’t promise you forever, I guess, but I can promise to stick around for as long as fate and God allow me to.”
He looked up into her eyes, and then he was kissing her, pushing up on his knees to reach her, their embrace tender and slow. She liked that he worried about her, and if anyone could understand the fear of losing the greatest love in their life it was her. Jon had died and come back to her. She would always treasure every day they had together from now until their dance ended.
“Jon?” she asked him a moment later. “Is there something you aren’t telling me? You don’t have, like, cancer or something do you?”
He laughed as he shook her head. “No. Nothing that bad. Would you still love me if I did?”
“Of course,” she answered without hesitation.
“Would you love me if I went bald?”
“Yes,” she said, running her fingers through his dark hair again. “I might start calling you Kojak if you went bald, but I’d do it with love in my heart.”
“What if,” he asked her next, “I lost my legs?”
“Yes.” This time her answer came a little slower.
“So you’d love me if I was different. No matter what?”
“Jon, can you just tell me what’s going on?”
“Okay. Well.” He stood up, and began pacing the floor. “First, it’s nothing bad. Let me just promise you that. It’s just something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. I need your opinion on something, and it affects the whole family, so I need to ask you what you think—”
A knock on the door to the office drew their attention. “Hey, Jon?” they heard Grace say. “You guys busy in there or can I come in?”
Darcy felt her face heat up when her sister asked it like that, even if maybe something like that might have happened in this office before. Once. Okay… twice.
Jon looked apologetic as he sat down in his chair again. “Come on in, Grace.”
Darcy’s sister opened the door just a little bit and then popped her head in. “Jon, this paperwork isn’t going to finish itself. How about a little guidance from our chief, huh?”
“You’re the senior detective, Grace.” He managed not to look annoyed, if just barely. “You can’t handle a few forms?”
“Oh, sure, sure. And I’ll just talk to the judge, too. He’s on the phone. Oh, and the reporter in the lobby. That Ciera Bodewell woman. I’ll just go and give her a statement and explain our chief is busy in his office with his wife…”
“All right, all right,” he said, laughing rather than mad. “Duty calls, I get it. Darcy… we’ll finish this later, okay?”
“You’re sure you’re all right?” she asked.
At the door to his office, he gave her a wink. “Actually, I think I’m better than I’ve been in a long while.”
He whistled as he went to handle the duties of a small town police chief.
Grace watched him go, leaning her back up against the door frame. “What was that all about?”
“If you’re expecting me to understand men,” Darcy told her, “then you’re going to be very disappointed.”
“Ha. So, Sis, survived another one, didn’t you?”
Darcy nodded. She expected that Grace would probably figure out the real reason behind her miraculous escape in the basement. Her sister was too smart to be fooled by the cover story they were telling. “I have survived, and now I think I’m going to go over to your apartment and see how Aaron’s getting along with the kids. Life goes on, after all.”
“Heh. Ain’t that the truth.” Grace chuckled at herself, and looked down at her fingernails, still standing in the doorway. “That… gift of yours comes in pretty handy, doesn’t it?”
“Sometimes,” Darcy agreed. “It’s a part of who I am, Grace. Sometimes it’s a hassle and sometimes it’s a pain being the only one in the room who can see a ghost, but yeah. For the most part I wouldn’t trade having the gift for anything. It’s saved my life and the life of those I love more times than I can count.”
That seemed to be exactly what Grace had wanted to hear. “You remember how my little girl has this gift, too?”
“All of us girls in the family do,” Darcy reminded her. “Not just Addison.”
“Sure, sure.” She stepped into the office now, closing the door like she didn’t want to risk anyone else hearing their conversation. “But me and Mom don’t have enough to speak of.”
“Addison does.”
Grace took the seat next to her. “I know. I’ve known since you told us but me and Aaron didn’t really know what to do about that. We want her to have a normal life, you know?”
“I’m normal,” Darcy protested.
“Sis, you’re a lot of things. Normal isn’t one of them.”
Darcy started to argue, but then she decided not to bother. “I guess you’re right. My life has never been normal.”
“No, but you’ve still been able to marry a great guy, and have amazing children, and make a life for yourself that just about anyone would be jealous of. All that, and you’re always helping people who need your… special kind of help. You’re a good friend and a good neighbor and that’s exactly the kind of life I want Addison to have.”
Darcy stared at her sister in disbelief. “What are you saying?”
Grace rolled her eyes, lifting her hands up and dropping them again dramatically. “I want you to teach Addison how to use the family gift. There. I said it.”
Exhilaration bubbled up inside of Darcy at the thought of her sister trusting her with this. It had been a hard decision, she could tell, but now Addison would be able to learn about her real family heritage just like Colby had.
It would be like Darcy was giving something of herself to a new generation, just like Great Aunt Millie had done for her.
She tried to push herself up out of the chair to give Grace a big sisterly hug but of course her leg got in the way and the both of them ended up on the floor, wincing in pain and laughing hysterically. Grace started to help Darcy up, and they fell to the floor again, which only made them laugh harder.
“Hold on, hold on,” Darcy finally said. “Just let me lie here on the floor for a bit, okay? I need to… oh, man… I need to catch my breath.”
“You’re insane.” Grace told her, lying there on the floor next to her. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Just another Sweet family trait,” she said.
/> Which set them off in gales of laughter again.
Chapter 10
For three days—ever since the school break had started, actually—Colby had been helping her mother decorate the house for Thanksgiving. There was orange and brown garland strung along the fireplace mantle in the living room, and over most of the doors. Cardboard autumn leaves in reds and yellows and pale greens had been taped to the walls. Styrofoam turkeys in pilgrim hats sat on shelves.
Darcy had thought twice about those. Anything that reminded her of the pilgrims brought up bad memories of the Pilgrim Ghost. Well. The Town Hall had been rebuilt very nicely after that fire, so she supposed a lot of good had come out of that nasty bit of business after all.
And this was a season of thanksgiving. She wasn’t going to dwell on the past. She was going to count her blessings here in the present, and look forward to the future.
There had been cooking going on in the Sweet household all day long. The aromas of slow roasting turkey and garlic-onion stuffing filled the kitchen, along with the sweet smell of baked bread and muffins, and the rich scents of steamed carrots and corn on the cob and sweet potatoes.
After weeks and weeks of dragging her feet, Darcy had thrown herself into the preparations for this day with a gusto that had surprised her family. Jon had helped her with the cooking, which meant that he mostly did everything she told him to do while she sat at the table in the kitchen and supervised. They weren’t going to eat in here, of course. There was no way there would be room. Instead, Aaron and Grace had come over early this morning and with a little help from Colby and Addison, they had cleared the furniture in the living room over to the walls and set up three folding tables, end to end. With green tablecloths draped over them they created one long table where everyone would be able to sit and enjoy each other’s company.
Fat cranberry candles had been put down the center of the tablecloths with lots of space between for the food to go once it was ready. Darcy had dug out the turkey salt and pepper shakers from the cabinet, and the white porcelain gravy bowl, and everything looked absolutely amazing.
From his playpen, watching everything happen, Zane gave constant instructions, some of which almost sounded sensible. This was going to be a special day for him, too.
Darcy had even dressed in a sleeveless black dress, with her cast poking out the bottom, to feel more festive. On her wrist was her ‘Mother’s Bracelet’ that had been a gift from Jon and Colby two Christmases ago. It was one of her most prized possessions and she’d caught both of them smiling to see her wear it. The bracelet was a beautiful piece of jewelry with its bangles dangling and swaying every time she moved. There was also a little gold heart, a quarter moon with a smiling face, two cats, a gold circle with the words “Live, Laugh, Love” on it, and several others. “You just going to sit there all day?” Grace asked her as it got to be almost three o’clock. Dinner was supposed to start at four, to give everyone enough time to eat as much as they wanted to, but still have time afterward to let the food settle. As it was, there was four kinds of pie available for desert, even if three of them were store-bought. This feast was going to take a while. “Come on, Sis. Just because you’re still healing doesn’t mean we should be doing all the work.”
“Ah, poor Grace,” Darcy said with mock sympathy. “Remember, you get to be the one to break their leg next time.”
Whatever smart reply Grace had come up with was drowned out by the sound of the front door opening and Izzy McIntosh cheerfully greeting everyone. Darcy had decided to invite her friend, because they were right next door to each other and she considered Izzy to be a part of her family.
Izzy was carrying a casserole dish full of scalloped potatoes. Jon took them from her and set them aside on the counter next to several other dishes waiting to be brought out to the tables. Then he stuck his hand out to welcome the young man behind Izzy.
Connor Gless came through the door looking so grown up that Darcy could hardly believe it was him. He’d shot up half a foot since going off to college, but the growing up had less to do with his new height or that scruffy beard he’d managed to grow and more to do with the way he carried himself… and in the way he looked at his fiancé.
For several moments, Lilly McIntosh was the center of everyone’s attention. Darcy and Grace insisted on seeing her engagement ring, and then talking to her about college and teasing her about what a great couple she and Connor would make. It was when Grace asked her when they could expect her to start having children that Connor came to the rescue. Hooking his arm through Lilly’s he led them both into the living room, where they were immediately attacked by Addison and Colby with a million questions. At least none of those were of the deeply embarrassing, personal sort.
“You’re a bad person,” Darcy whispered to her sister.
Grace feigned innocence. “What? All I did was ask when she was going to start a family. Kids are very important, you know.”
“Oh, yeah? So then tell me. When are you and Aaron going to have your second child?”
The corner of her sister’s mouth quirked, and she winked.
Darcy couldn’t help it when her jaw dropped. “No… You are? You’re sure?”
Grace nodded, but then held her finger up to her lips. “Secret, okay? Just for now.”
Darcy agreed, putting a finger up to her own lips to seal the promise. She could understand wanting to wait to tell everyone because there was always that fear in the back of a woman’s mind that if something was going to go wrong, it would happen in the first three months. What she wanted to do was scream out loud about how happy she was for her sister. Instead, she agreed to keep this a secret until Grace decided it was time to tell everyone else.
Maybe a few family secrets were to be expected at any big family dinner. And, maybe some of them weren’t so bad.
It wasn’t much longer after that when their mother and step-father arrived. Colby spotted their car first, and was running out of the house before any of the grownups could even make it to the front door. She came back inside carried in the arms of James Bollinger, Darcy’s step-father, talking his ear off about all the things that had happened since the last time the grandparents had been here.
Some of it Darcy wished her little girl would keep to herself. Not that Colby ever said anything to James about the ghosts who populated her life, but the parts about Darcy being chased around the house by a very bad man… yeah. She could have stood for Colby to leave that part out.
“Don’t worry,” her mother said to her as she leaned down to kiss Darcy’s cheek. “I’ve already read all about it in the papers. Not that a phone call from my daughter wouldn’t have been nice.”
“Mom…” Here Darcy was, a grown woman, and she still felt like she was never doing enough to please her mother, the great Eileen Bollinger.
“That’s all right, Darcy.” Eileen smiled to show she was only joking as she sat down with her daughter. “Just promise me you’ll call if you ever die, and we’ll call it even.”
Eileen Bollinger had changed so much over the years. When Darcy had been young her mother had been so uptight, so afraid to let anyone see just the slightest hint of imperfection. She never would have made a joke like that when Darcy was younger.
Now she was silver haired, and wrinkles had begun to show at the corners of her eyes, but she was relaxed in her own skin in a way that she wasn’t years ago. Darcy attributed most of that to her meeting James Bollinger, and getting married, and finding real happiness. James was a good looking man, with a square chin and thick wavy hair, but his real charm was his heart. Darcy liked that he was the one to bring a sense of love into her mother’s life.
“Now,” Eileen said to her. “Where on Earth are those cats of yours? I’ve brought some treats for them.”
“Your mother,” James said from the other side of the kitchen, “has become a big cat person. We have two of them ourselves.”
Darcy was surprised to hear that. “Really? I didn’t think you l
iked cats, Mom.”
“I’ve changed my mind. You should see our two rascals, Darcy. A big old Siamese, and a tiger-striped cat. Both of them are just the cutest things ever.”
“Nuh-uh,” Colby argued from her perch in James’ arms. “Tiptoe is the cutest.”
“Well, then where is she, dear?” Eileen asked her granddaughter. “Let’s see this amazing cat of yours.”
“I think she and Smudge are hiding upstairs.” Darcy hadn’t seen the two of them for hours now. “All the people down here are freaking them out a bit, I think.”
“Well,” her mother said brightly, “then I shall just have to spend all of my time until dinner doting on my grandchildren. I see you in there, Zane! Nana’s coming!”
“Darcy,” Jon said, shutting the oven after giving the turkey another basting. “Do you want to come upstairs with me and look for those cats?”
She felt her cheeks heating up. “Um. We have guests.”
Aaron snickered, and James gave Jon a very dubious look.
“I mean,” Jon clarified, “that I want to talk to you.”
“Oh.” Darcy felt foolish, but she also knew that if she said anything else then it would just make things sound worse. “Well. Lead on, sir.”
He helped her up and through the living room, where Connor and Lilly were talking to Darcy’s mother about how things were going at college while Addison looked at both of the young twenty-somethings with wide eyes and a wistful expression, longing for the day when she would be all grown up and in love and starting out on her own road.
Now that life would include the use of her gift. Darcy hadn’t talked to Grace about how they would approach Addison about it, but she knew it would include Colby. The cousins could learn the gift together, becoming stronger together.
Zane needed a little attention from his mother as she passed through, but he was quickly distracted by everyone else again. Jon took her crutch from her at the stairs, and let her hold onto the railing while he supported her other side, and soon they were upstairs and in their bedroom, where she could sit down and rest again.
