The Ghoul Next Door

chapter Six

Now that I thought of it, I’d seen a witch’s ball at Karyn Bentley’s home. She was the former coven leader who had moved away after another witch had attacked her with a nasty black magic spell. Karyn had wanted me to take her place as coven leader. I still hadn’t agreed to it—but I hadn’t flat-out told her no either. Just because I’d successfully cast a few spells didn’t mean I was a witch. She claimed I had natural talent. I had talent at baking cakes too—that didn’t make me a baker. I should officially turn down the offer soon. It wasn’t fair to lead them on and have the coven believe I might take the position.

No doubt about it, the witch’s ball was very pretty, but I had no idea who had sent it. And that little detail would drive me bonkers. I’d go over and over the matter in my mind ad nauseam. Yes, I was a tad obsessive-compulsive, but hey, we all had our issues. I picked up the box again. The package had no a return address and no distinguishing marks.

Was it a gift from my mother? Callahan had just left. Had he meant to give it to me and forgotten? Maybe he didn’t want to disturb me and decided to just leave it at the door. But someone had knocked. He wouldn’t do that, nor would my mother. She’d give her last chocolate truffle to snoop around in my house. She did exactly that at every opportunity she got. Regardless, obviously it was a gift, so when I had time, I’d hang it in the kitchen and let the light reflect on it. Right now, I had to get to Book Nook.

After placing the ball back in the box and ignoring the ghost who had reappeared after only two minutes, I slipped on a pair of black slacks and a pink sweater and made my way out the door.

When the last set of ghosts had converged on my house, I’d prepared a sort of orientation talk with the spirits. Setting boundaries and letting them know what they could and couldn’t do was harder than you’d think.

For the time being, I wouldn’t give Mr. Fine the dos and don’ts of haunting me speech just yet. I’d wait until I was sure he was hanging around before I went to all the trouble. I’d learned the hard way that it was necessary to lay out rules for the spirits. If he was hanging around long, then certain rules would be absolutely necessary—like bedrooms and bathrooms being off limits.

My fingers were crossed that Mr. Fine would take a hike, although I didn’t want him to head back to Mindy’s. Apparently, it was a go-to move within the ghostly world to ride shotgun with me. Mr. Fine sat in the seat next to mine with his hands folded in his lap waiting for the ride.

“Back in my day we’d sit down for a big breakfast. I hardly think one of those pre-packaged meals is enough to get you through until lunchtime.” He shook his head at me.

The ghosts were never short on opinions either.

“Well, Mr. Fine, I’d love to sit down for a big, delicious meal, but who’s going to cook it for me? I certainly don’t have time.” I pulled out onto the main road.

“Where are we headed?” he asked as he gazed out the side window.

I sighed. “I’m headed to work. I’m guessing you’re going with me.”

“Looks that way.” He clucked his tongue.

Mindy was standing on the sidewalk leaning against the bookstore window when I pulled up to the curb. She had a bag of doughnuts from my favorite shop in one hand and a couple Diet Cokes in the other. Callahan was going to stop being so tolerant of us patronizing his competitor’s shop if we didn’t stop flaunting those doughnuts in front of him.

Callahan owned the coffee shop right next door to my bookstore. That was how we’d met. Don’t get me wrong, I was a sucker for his pastry any day, but there was something about those blueberry doughnuts that I just couldn’t resist. But I’d better learn to resist soon though or I would be shopping for a bigger pants size.

Speaking of shopping, I threw my hand up in a wave at Cooper Garrett who was standing by the door of the boutique across the street. He’d recently come to town to take over the upscale fashion shop, High Fashion. His cousin, Brianna Garrett, had been run out of town by the coven for practicing black magic. She’d placed a love spell on Callahan and they’d almost ended up in marital non-bliss. I still wasn’t sure what they’d done with Brianna. Did they have some kind of secret island where all the magical misfits went? It didn’t help that Cooper looked like the male version of his cousin either—short blond hair and sharp blue eyes. Yeah, any woman would consider him a hunk.

Mr. Fine pointed at Mindy. “There’s that woman. She wasn’t easy to live with, you know. I’m hoping you will be easier. I think if you keep the music down and keep that boyfriend from spending the night, then you will be fine.”

I pulled the key from the ignition. “Okay. We might as well get this talk over with right now. You are not living with me. You can’t stay. Haven’t you ever heard of that ‘go into the light’ business?” He stared blankly, but I continued, “Yeah, that means you.”

He shook his head. “Nope. I have no reason to go and have no intention of moving into any light.”

“Well, I have no intention of you staying with me,” I said.

He let out a sigh. “I guess I’ll have to go back to her house.” He gestured toward Mindy with a tilt of his head, then folded his arms in front of his chest.

Mindy scowled and motioned for me to get out of the car. I jumped out and slammed the door behind me, wishing that Mr. Fine couldn’t glide through the door without even opening it. I’d lock him in if I could.

“What are you doing here so early?” I asked. “I didn’t even have to bribe you to get doughnuts. Plus, I ate breakfast at home.”

She shrugged. “If you take more of my pole fitness classes you can afford to eat two breakfasts.” She flashed a wide smile. “Besides, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned all night worrying about that ghost coming back. I swear, Larue, I don’t know how you deal with it. I kept wondering if he was watching me in the shower or something.”

Mr. Fine puffed out his chest. “I am a gentleman. I never watched her in the shower. I may have accidentally caught a peek while she was dressing, but never when she was in the shower. I have my limits.”

“You pervert,” I yelled.

Mindy’s eyes almost popped out of the sockets. “What the hell are you talking about, Larue?”

Uh-oh. Now I’d have to tell her that the ghost was standing next to us. I didn’t want to divulge the little detail about his Peeping Tom tendencies. I moved past her and shoved the key in the door. Maybe she’d drop the subject.

“Larue, is that ghost here now?” she demanded.

Gulp. There was no avoiding the question. She’d hound me until my dying day. I shoved through the door with Mindy hot on my heels.

“Maybe,” I said as I walked toward the counter in the middle of the room.

Book Nook had always been my safe haven. The smell of all those books, the cozy fireplace with leather chairs placed in front to relax in… not to mention the warming honey color painted on the walls. It didn’t feel as safe at the moment though.

“He’s here. Oh my God. He’s stalking me. I have a stalker ghost. It’s not bad enough that I attract the living freaks, but now I have the dead ones hunting me down too. He was watching me in the shower, wasn’t he?” She shivered.

“What?” I waved off her concern as I tossed my purse under the counter. “Of course not. You may want to get dressed in a hurry though until I can get him to cross into the light.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked around the room as if she’d be able to spot him. Her face grew red and she started to point around the room. “Look, you—you freak, I may not be able to see you, but I’m not going to put up with your crap.” She spun around waving her hand through the air.

It wouldn’t do her any good though, because my new ghoul friend was perched on top of a shelf. He was lying on his side, stretched out with a wicked grin on his face.

“This is so much fun,” he said.

Mr. Fine was more devilish than I’d thought.

“Mindy, you need to calm down. Just take a couple deep breaths and slowly let them out.”

Her bottom lip dropped and her eyes glazed over as if the waterworks would start at any second. “I’m not cut out for this ghost-busting business. I may be tough, but I can’t handle this stress right now.”

“Honey, here, come sit down.” I took her by the arm.

Mindy was one of the toughest women I’d ever met. Maybe the toughest besides my grandmother. I’d never seen her this frazzled before. I guided her to the stool behind the counter and she plopped down.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on that has you so upset?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s just everything… worrying about my business, the magic spell that I just got over, ghosts, dating, and paying bills. You know how it is.” She wiped a tear from her cheek.

I draped my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “I know how it is, sweetie.”

Before I could offer more advice, Callahan burst through the door, the bell above the door jangling until I thought it might fall right off. His eyes were wide as he hurried over to us.

He pointed toward his coffee shop. “There’s a ghost in my store.”