Page 14 of Paper Ghosts

“Don’t say it.”

“My not saying it isn’t going to make it less real,” he said with a smile. “You’re still going to marry Terrence.”

She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his chest and he rubbed her back. “How much longer?” she whispered. How much longer would she be awake, happy, seen?

“Weeks? Months?”

“Promise me that when the time comes, you’ll leave and never look back,” she said against his shirt. “I want you to go out in the world and be happy, Jack. Promise me.”

“Wills?” she heard Dorothy call from the auditorium on the other side of the curtain. “Band practice is over.”

Her grandmother wasn’t home when Wills got in, which was odd. Mrs. Orr was skulking around in her usual manner, taking every smudge on the furniture as a personal insult, and when Wills asked where Gram was, Mrs. Orr said, “She tells me what to cook and what to buy and what to clean. She doesn’t tell me her social schedule.”

So Wills went upstairs to her room and started to study for finals, though she didn’t get far before she began to chew on her pencil and stare out the window. Jack staying meant that things could be different for a while longer. A temporary reprieve, yes, but she began to wonder if he stayed long enough, and if she kept putting things off with Terrence, maybe she wouldn’t have to take a stand with her grandmother. Maybe her disinterest would make Terrence fade away. And eventually her grandmother would be gone, too. Then there would be no barrier to being with Jack. She could visit him on the road any time she wanted, and he could have a home base here with her.

Maybe, Wills thought for the first time in her life, she could have it all. And without having to make a single choice.

She was startled out of her daydreaming by the doorbell chime. Her desk overlooked the street, but there wasn’t a car outside to indicate who it was. After a moment, Mrs. Orr knocked on her door. “Your grandmother would like you to join her in the living room.”

“Where has she been?” Wills asked, standing. “And who was at the door?”

“She asked me not to say.”

Wills should have seen that for what it was, a portent. She left her room and walked down the stairs, where she could see her grandmother sitting on the couch, glass in hand. She was looking at someone in a chair across from her. Wills took a step into the living room but froze when the person came into view. What was he doing here?

It was Jack. Her beautiful Jack. He looked so out of place, a wildflower in a manicured garden.

“Sit down, Willamena,” Gram said seriously. Wills knew not to play her hand too soon. Not until she knew what this was about. If she went to sit beside Jack, Gram would find that telling, so she took her familiar place by Gram and waited.

“I’ve spent the better part of today going around town, asking my sources what they know.” She referred to them a lot. Her mysterious sources. “I’ve managed to piece together where you’ve been, and what you’ve been doing. Are you seeing this man behind my back?”

Wills’s eyes shot to Jack, but he didn’t so much as flinch. “You mean you don’t know all the details?” Jack asked with polite surprise. “From what I’ve heard, you’re supposed to know everything. No secret is safe from Alice Wester.”

What was he doing? Standing up to Gram was never the answer. Wills had learned that if Gram didn’t know the details, then don’t give them to her. It was the only chance they had of getting through this unscathed.

Gram sucked in her breath. She wasn’t used to people challenging her. “I know that you often walk the streets in this town late at night. And you always stop in front of my house, looking up at my granddaughter’s bedroom window.”

Wills turned to him, surprised. She didn’t know that.

“I don’t understand,” Jack said, sitting back and crossing his legs. “Is this supposed to be the frightening part?”

“Jack,” Wills finally said softly, a warning.

“And I know Willamena goes into the school auditorium while you’re giving lessons, and she doesn’t come out until well after they’re over. What are you two doing in there?”

“The logical assumption would be guitar lessons,” he said.

“I also know you left Principal Penwell’s house on Sunday night, headed toward the Holloway farm. The same night Willamena asked to stay at her friend Dorothy Holloway’s house.”

“That sounds like a coincidence.”

“And she’s been more buoyant than I’ve ever seen her this week.”

“There you have it. Something must be wrong. Because she has no right to be that happy.”

“Stop this right now, young man!” Gram said sharply.

Jack shook his head. “I know a con when I see one.”