Page 38 of Ghost Town Boogie
He wouldn’t call a spirit back to this world where they no longer belonged, not even for Anna, so he didn’t address that issue. No, he skipped right over that part. For now. “I like you, too, more than I expected.” More than I’d hoped for. “You’re going to stay?”
Anna nodded. “For a while, at least. I called my boss and told him I’d be away longer than I expected. He didn’t take it well. Told me to be back by next Monday or to look for another job.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to rent my apartment to a friend who’s been looking for a place. The lease is up in three months, and if I decide to stay I can have my stuff shipped here.”
“If you don’t stay?”
“Then I’ll go back to Nashville, write some songs, and get another job as a bean counter to pay the bills. We’re always in demand.” She smiled a little then backed up a couple of steps. “But first, I need to go shopping.”
“What do you need?”
“A couple of suitcases.”
“If you’re not leaving, why do you need suitcases?”
“They’re for Mom. I had hoped to get away with sending her things in a couple of bags, but she went wild at Dawn’s Radiance, so she’ll need more packing space than her shopping bags will provide.”
“I have suitcases.”
“Thanks, but I don’t want to…”
“I’ll never need them. Even if I do, I have several suitcases in a few different sizes. You can have your pick.”
“Okay. I might take you up on that.”
“They’re in a closet upstairs in my bedroom.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go.”
She’d expected a rustic style in Colt’s room above the depot’s main space, but that’s not what she got. He’d completely remodeled the second story space of the old depot. It wasn’t just a room at all. There was a bedroom, a living room, a decent sized bathroom and a small kitchen, all clean and new looking. No, no rustic here. No chaos. No rough green walls, like the ones downstairs. He gave her a very quick, very casual tour.
The furnishings didn’t exactly match — it was what her mother had always called “Early Married” style — but his second story home was comfortable, spacious, and had an air of Coltrane Hart in his personal turntable and records, the fancy coffeepot and assortment of mugs, the bookcase filled with hardbacks. Thrillers and Sci-fi, mostly, a couple of true crime books. There were even a couple of cookbooks mixed in.
“Why on earth did you move to the house on Pine Street?” she asked. “This is much nicer.”
“There are currently no ghosts in the Pine Street house,” he said. “Well, there weren’t any until your Mom and Jack moved in.”
“Will he… will Jack go to Florida with Mom?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Anna looked around the room again, double checking shadows and corners. She saw nothing, but then she never had. Didn’t want to, either. “Are any of your depot ghosts here now?”
“No, but they do visit on occasion. I moved out because I needed a break. I wanted to be alone for a while.”
Anna took a step back. There it was; that was the big issue. He wanted to be alone.
It was as if he read her mind. He gave her a smile. Not his brightest, but it would do. “It’s the ghosts I need a break from. Not you.”
That was a relief. Why? Colt was supposed to be a fling, and they hadn’t gotten far even with that. One night, before everything blew up. One night was all they’d had. So far.
She was serious about staying for a while. Colt could be a part of her time back in Seawolf Beach, no matter how long it might last. He could be a part of her life in a hundred ways. Not in the ways she’d imagined as a child, but as a friend and lover, a person she could rely on. A man she could be there for, when he needed it.
Colt needed her. He needed someone who would accept who he was, ghosts and all.
Was he her person? She’d heard that phrase a time or two, or twenty. The meaning had never resonated with her, until now. He was hers, and she was his. She didn’t want to let him go, ever.
