Page 77 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

Heavens above, let there be more!

He stopped at the door between the guest room and the panic room. “See you soon?”

“Yes,” she said, perhaps a little too firmly.

With a grin, he gathered his things and headed for the shower.

Noah didn’t want to leave Annabelle, but he hadn’t been joking about needing a shower. He hurried down the hall to the bathroom he shared with the other guest room. There was no sound coming from Rochelle and Katrina’s room, so he could only assume they were fast asleep. Part of him wanted to wake Rochelle and explain himself before telling her how much he regretted going behind her back. But she needed her sleep, and his apology would keep until morning.

Besides, he couldn’t wait to get back to Annabelle.

He made fast work of showering and was in the middle of shaving when Therese appeared again. She looked ecstatic.

“Well done!”She did a speedy little finger clap in front of her face as she grinned at him in the mirror.

Noah set the razor on the edge of the sink for fear of accidentally slitting his own throat.

“Please tell me you weren’t watching,” he groaned.

“Just a little bit.”Her ghostly form patted him on the back. He felt nothing.“You did great.”

“Therese,” he said with long-suffering, “if you want me to move on, you can’t hang around watching me with other women. It’s creepy. Plus, I don’t need my dead wife grading my work.”

“Who said anything about women?”She glared at him.“What? You’re going to go wild on me now? I gave my approval for Annabelle. Nobody else.”

“Listen to yourself.” He picked up the razor and made quick work of finishing his jawline before splashing water on his face. “I don’t need you interfering in my fledgling love life.”

“Sure, you do. Without my interference, you’d still be crying alone at night, wondering if your libido died along with me.”

“Not funny.” He patted his face dry.

“But true.”She twirled her hair.“You’re going to bed with her now, right?”

Noah cringed. “This is so wrong. I’m not discussing this with you.” He spun toward her, pointing a finger. “And don’t dare hang around to critique anything that may or may not happen.”

She looked sympathetic.“I get it. Performance anxiety. It’s been a long time for you.”

Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. “Therese, please, I’m begging you. Go harass the triplets or something. This whole situation is hard enough without worrying about my wife’s ghost watching me.”

“Like I’d do such a thing!”She sniffed indignantly, fooling no one.“I don’t want to watch you with another woman. That’s just icky.”She batted her eyelashes with feigned innocence.“But I do believe you’d benefit from a few pointers beforehand. I mean, we don’t want nerves getting in the way of you sealing the deal. I’ve put a lot of energy into this for you, and now that I’m invested, it would be great if you didn’t screw it up.”

“Do not say another word.” Noah grabbed his gear and stalked out into the guest room.

The door between his room and the panic room was ajar—as usual.

“I just thought I’d remind you about the stuff you do that really works,”Therese said.

It was official: Noah was completely insane. And there was no switching it off; otherwise, he’d have pressed the silence button on his wife long before now. He pulled on some sweatpants and stalked over to Annabelle’s door. She was already in bed, Wonder Woman pajamas on and covers tucked around her waist.

“I need to pop downstairs to tell Rodrigo something. I’ll only be a couple of minutes. Are you okay with that?”

Her smile was sweet. “You don’t need to update me on every second of your day, Noah. Of course I’m okay. Rochelle and Katrina are just down the hall, and Violet’s pacing out in the loft.”

“Okay.” He nodded, still uncertain yet also very aware that he was behaving weirdly. The last thing he wanted was to take a detour before going to bed with her. But there was no way in hell he’d go anywhere near Annabelle with his ghostly shadow in tow.

He left Annabelle and stalked through the loft to the stairwell. Violet barely acknowledged him as he passed.

“Where are you going?”Therese demanded.“Get back upstairs and finish what you started with that woman!”