Page 32 of Ghost Town Boogie

He ended the kiss and stepped back.

Anna frowned at him. “Why do you do that? When I gin up my bravery and kiss you, you back away. Am I not allowed to make the first move?”

“I love that you make the first move, now and then. But…”

“But what?” she nudged when he faltered.

“There are things you need to know about me.”

“Secretly married?” she asked. “Engaged to the woman who makes those cinnamon rolls? Dying?” Her face fell. “You’re not…”

Colt took Anna’s face in his hands. “No to all that.”

She might run when he told her. Hell, he didn’t know how to tell her in a way that didn’t make him sound like a nutcase. Best to just get it done.

“I see ghosts.”

Not what she’d expected him to say…

“I died a little, after the accident,” Colt said.

“How do you die a little?” She didn’t mean to sound hysterical, but there it was.

“I was dead for a few minutes, they say. A paramedic brought me back. Ever since, I see ghosts.”

Anna closed her eyes. Impossible. The man she was falling for hard and fast was, as her mother had insisted all along, squirrelly. “There’s no such thing as…”

“You asked me a few days ago if I believed in ghosts, but you never said why,” he said. “What happened?”

Anna made herself remember the floating picture, the broken plate… “It’s just not…” Possible? Likely? Natural? “Are you saying my Dad…”

“Jack,” he said too quickly, as if he had to force the name from his mouth. “I haven’t seen your dad, maybe he moved on like he was meant to, but Jack has been making the house shake. You’ve experienced it, haven’t you?”

“Jack’s not dead.”

Colt wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry. He’s been gone five years. He never left Seawolf Beach.”

One minute she’d been focused on nothing but the physical, on Colt, on pleasure. He might as well have knocked her to the ground. “But his text, the PI who tracked his phone…”

Colt shook his head. “I can’t explain everything, I don’t know what happened. But believe me, Jack is gone. I didn’t want to tell you any of this, but I couldn’t…”

“You didn’t mind last night!” she snapped, but she didn’t step away.

“I did mind, but maybe not as much as I should’ve. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted you so bad and I reasoned it was temporary; a one night stand.”

The fling she’d been looking for.

“And today?”

“Today I think this might be more, and I can’t keep lying to you.”

This was too much to wrap her head around. She wanted to say he was lying, or crazy, or both, but then she remembered the way that photo had floated through the air. The shaking. The spinning plates. “Is Jack here now?”

“No. He’s… His spirit is attached to your Mom. He was here when I left. I’ve seen him at your house a few times.”

That first day, when she’d watched him stand on the sidewalk and curse, he’d seen Jack.

Another unpleasant reality smacked her. “You’ve known for days that Jack’s dead, and you didn’t tell me?”