Page 63 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

It wasn’t lost on Noah that Annabelle, Sammy, and Jacob had forgotten he existed. Even from a distance, he could tell she was completely absorbed in explaining her work to the boys, and they were equally enthralled by everything she told them.

“Good luck getting their attention after this,”Therese said from beside him.“You’re lost to them now. Nothing you do will ever be as cool as being a comic book artist.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Annabelle was clearly in her element. Her enthusiasm and delight were contagious, and her skill was evident to anyone. And judging by his sons’ excited questions, they were just as thrilled as she was.

“The kids like her,”Therese said.“And I like her. When are you going to admit that you like her too?”

Noah scowled at her, noticing for the first time that she wore her wedding dress. “What the hell?” he muttered.

Her grin was smug.“After giving birth—twice—I could never get back into this, but now I’m dead, it fits perfectly.”She smoothed her hands over the white lace minidress that clung to her curves like a second skin.“Only a teenage bride would think this was classy. Still, I always thought it was a shame that wedding dresses are worn only once. I mean, they cost a fortune, and you should be able to get your money’s worth out of them.”She gave him a mischievous grin.“When you marry Annabelle, tell her to buy something she can wear again. She won’t regret it.”

“Marry?” Noah blurted before he froze, waiting for Annabelle’s reaction to his outburst.

But she was far too involved in her impromptu lesson to pay him any attention, which was a relief.

He glared at his dead wife. “That’s not funny,” he whispered. “And I keep telling you—she’s just a client.”

“No,”Therese said.“You keep tellingyourselfshe’s just a client.”

Noah got up from the bar stool and strolled toward the living room windows on the pretext of checking security. All the while, he mumbled to the ghost haunting him.

“Don’t you have something better to do than harass me? Isn’t there a light you can walk into? Look hard. I’m sure you’ll see it.”

“See?”Therese said, sounding pleased.“This grumpy attitude is a sure sign you’re ready to move on. You never would have suggested I ‘go into the light’ a year ago. Back then, it was all: ‘I miss you so much. I’m lonely without you. How can I raise our kids alone?’ Admit it, Noah, you’re at the stage where you want to let go; you’re just too stubborn to do it.”

“You may not have noticed, being dead and all, but I’m in the middle of a dangerous op here. Now isn’t the time to be thinking about romance.” He peeked out from behind the shutters to find quiet, empty streets.

“Uh, please.”Therese waved a dismissive hand as she dramatically rolled her eyes.“Nothing has ever distracted you from ‘romance.’”She made air quotes around the last word.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he growled.

“I lived with you through lots of ops, cases, missions, whatever, and you always had time for sex.”She shrugged.“You’re good at compartmentalizing.”

“I’m not talking to you about sex,” he hissed, aware Annabelle wasn’t that far away.

“Why not? We always talked about it. After we turned thirteen and suddenly noticed each other’s bits, it was all wecouldtalk about. You’ve never had a problem talking about sex.”

“With you. I mean, talking to you about having sex with you.” He glared at her, wondering if she was being deliberately obtuse. “I’m not talking to you about sex with other women.”

“Uh,” Rodrigo said from behind him. “That’s good to know.”

Noah ran a hand down his face while Therese laughed her head off.

“Sorry, man,” Noah said. He probably should have felt embarrassed but he didn’t. At this point, he was beyond humiliation. He was in a whole other zone. “I never heard you come up.”

“Who were you talking to?” Rodrigo said. “I don’t see a phone.”

Oh, what the hell, Noah thought. He’d made an ass of himself anyway. Being honest couldn’t possibly make it worse. “My dead wife, that’s who.”

He expected Rodrigo to back away slowly before running to Rochelle with the information that Noah had lostallof his marbles and shouldn’t be on the streets, let alone on the team. They’d recommend a nice padded cell. One with soothing pipedmusic. Not to mention wall-to-wall appointments with a whole team of psychologists.

Instead, Rodrigo nodded sagely. “Is she giving you dietary advice?Mi abueladoesn’t shut up about healthy eating.” He shrugged. “Hey, where I’m from, we see all kinds of stuff other people don’t.”

“And where would that be, exactly?”

“South of here,” Rodrigo said with a grin, covering a lot of territory with his reply. “So, you’re arguing with your dead wife about sex. You do know you can’t do that with a ghost, don’t you? I mean,hermano, that’s just not right.”