Page 4 of Paper Ghosts

“Our housekeeper taught me how to cook when I was a boy, a skill that saved me in college.”

Terrence’s father had died when he was a baby. Wills had met his mother once, and she was definitely a cold fish. Wills had always wondered how she’d managed to raise this sweet man. But maybe she hadn’t. Maybe the housekeeper had. She didn’t actually know very much about him. They were third or fourth cousins, so far removed that calling themselves family was a stretch. After a flurry of correspondence with people she knew, Gram had landed on him as a suitable candidate to marry Wills, partly for his disposition, but mostly because his name was Wester. Gram didn’t want her direct line to lose their name. He’d been raised in Charlotte, but had gone to college in Chapel Hill. He’d graduated last year and now worked in a bank. The first time Wills met him, she felt nothing at all. Gram said that was exactly what she’d intended. She believed that when a man made you feel too much of anything, it changed something inside you. And women already did too much changing in relationships. She once said, Even if everyone says you’re special, the wrong man will make you doubt it. Wills had the feeling Gram had been married to one such man. She never talked about him.

They’d just rounded the block and Wills had taken off her uncomfortable loafers when she caught sight of Jani’s car heading toward them. Jani slowed to a stop and reached across the seat to roll down the passenger-side window.

“You got your Datsun running,” Wills said.

“Yeah. My dad did something to it when he got home from work,” Jani responded vaguely. “I’ll pick you and Dorothy up for school like usual tomorrow. Hello, Terrence.”

“Good to see you, Jani.”

“You better put on your shoes, Wills. This may be a dead zone, but your grandmother would have a fit if she knew you were barefoot in public.” Jani then took off, breezing through the stop sign at the corner.

“What did she mean by dead zone?” Terrence asked.

“Nothing.” Terrence nodded and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, not pressing her. That made Wills sigh. “Gram has a way of finding out if I’m doing something she doesn’t approve of, even if it’s just going barefoot on the sidewalk. So ever since I was little, I’ve cataloged places she hasn’t found me out. This street is one of those places. Piece Goods Shop downtown is another. So are the school auditorium, the student parking lot, and the east field of the Holloway farm.”

“Places where you can breathe,” Terrence remarked, and she was surprised he understood.

“If I had a car, I could probably figure out more. But I don’t mind too much.”

“I won’t say a word to your grandmother.”

And because it was Terrence, she knew that was true. He was safe. She could trust him.

There had to be something wrong with her. He was smart and handsome and probably the most decent person she’d ever met. Why wasn’t she attracted to him? She’d been more attracted to that young man in the band today, even though he was clearly not suitable, and maybe even a little bit dangerous.

Not that it mattered. He was long gone by now.

And she would always be here.

The next morning, Wills stood from the front steps when she saw Jani’s car come up the street. Gram always slept in, and she hated when Jani honked her horn.

She ran down the steep steps of the hill where the Wester House sat, and got to the sidewalk in time for Dorothy to get out of the passenger seat and hop in the back.

When Wills got in and Jani took off, Dorothy leaned forward and said, “You’ll never guess what Jani just told me.”

“What?” Wills turned to Jani.

Jani smiled, letting the tension stretch for a moment before she said, “So, you know how there was a catered lunch backstage for the band yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, my source told me—”

“What source?” Wills interrupted.

“Her aunt,” Dorothy said. Jani’s aunt was the school secretary.

“My source told me—”

“Told you, or your mother?” Wills asked.

“Jani secretly listened on the extension,” Dorothy explained.

Jani sighed and nearly sideswiped a car parked on the street. She was a terrible driver. Her next accident was going to bring down real trouble on her, and her parents’ insurance was already through the roof as it was. “Do you want to hear this or not?”

If only because she wanted them to get to school in one piece, Wills said, “Go on.”