She hesitated. “I’ve tried to avoid seeing them—or else I tell myself that I don’t see them. But of course Malachi always knew and when I needed someone to talk to about a ghost or...when I was scared, I talked to him.” She smiled. “You may already know this, but Malachi has a live-in ghost who’s friendly, charming and interesting. I’ve always seen General Cunningham, but I guess I usually pretend I don’t. None of this is easy.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. So, tell me about the jerk who left you. Did that have to do with you seeing ghosts?”
“Ouch!” she said, straightening. “He’s not a jerk. No, it had nothing to do with ghosts. He never suspected I saw anything...unusual. He’s in music, like your sister. A producer. He had fabulous opportunities in Austin. He asked me to come with him, but I knew our relationship wasn’t really going anywhere. We were...comfortable together. That’s all we were by then. So, what about you? Did the love of your life slap you down in public for being too inquisitive?”
He laughed, setting down his fork. “No. No love of my life. In high school, I became involved with the police because I’d seen a ghost. Naturally, I didn’t tell them that.” He hesitated and then shrugged. Her life had been laid bare for him; no reason not to tell the truth. “I was dating the high school prom queen, the puppy love of my young life, when I met Sarah Sharman. She’s dead, by the way, and she was dead when I ‘met’ her.
“She was standing outside the alley where I’d wait for my sister. I’d pick her up after her private music class. So I talked with this young woman who seemed very sad. After I’d seen her a few times, I guess I wound up having an adolescent crush on her. I said I wanted to take her out somewhere, make her happy. She said, ‘Oh, Dustin, don’t you understand? I can’t go anywhere. I just stay here, and I watch and I wait and I try to help.’ Turns out this killer was kidnapping women and taking them to a derelict meat plant, and what he was doing before they died is...not dinner conversation. Anyway, she gave me some details that I passed on to the police, and they caught him before he could kill the next girl. I claimed I’d overheard a conversation in an alley. It all turned into a big deal, and I tried to hide from it. In the midst of talking to the police and the whole thing, I missed some school, missed some games...and my high school queen ended up with the quarterback.”
“That was your last affair?” she asked dubiously. “If affair’s the right word.”
He grinned. “The last one that broke my heart, anyway. I was seeing someone in Savannah for a while. But I was restless, and I wanted to go to the academy. So I guess I’m the jerk. I felt I had to leave. We split up.”
“And that was it?”
“Well, there were a few brief interludes. We never exchanged numbers.”
“Ohh,” she said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means...oh.”
“You don’t approve.”
“I don’t think it’s any of my business.”
“You’ve never wanted to have a wild, fantastic night with no obligations?”
“Sounds...meaningless.”
He laughed. “Well, it is meaningless. That’s the point.”
“I guess it’s not me.”
“You’re never lonely? You’d never like a night where you were with someone, no commitment? Or where you just go out?”
She shrugged. “I—I’m boring, I guess. I don’t just go out. We don’t have that many places to just go out.”
“You never come to the city?”
“We do. Sometimes we all go to the Ryman Center for a concert, or come in to see a movie or...we go bowling.”
“Bowling is fun.”
“Bowling is fun!”
“Hey! I’m agreeing with you. So, let me get this straight. The guy you weren’t really in love with went to Austin. And you decided to remain unattached. Single and celibate?”
“No. Not that it’s your concern, but I haven’t decided anything.”
“Ah.”
“Ah, what?”
“Online dating!” he said. “That’s the answer.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “No, but don’t knock it. I do have friends who’ve found the loves of their lives through online dating.”
“I always wonder what happens when everything looks perfect but you meet someone and you just don’t gel.”
“Then you part ways. Maybe you should try online dating.”
“And what do I put? ‘Must love ghosts and be willing to spend long evenings waiting for them to appear’?”
She smiled at that and smoothed her napkin on the table. “Speaking of ghosts... We’ve got ten minutes to make the downtown ghost tour.”
“You really want to do it?”
“I really do.”