He ducked his head, hiding a bashful smile, just as I gasped and turned. I’d almost forgotten about Dr. Mayfield. She was still holding down the carpet by an oak filing cabinet, a look of sheer terror lining her face.
And we’d made a mess. A costly one. No telling what that pile of glass that used to be a vase would cost me.
I could chalk this case up to another entry in the red column after I paid for the damages. I totally wasn’t pulling my weight. While my husband was earning enough in interest alone to buy a small country—daily—I was still struggling to earn enough to buy toothpaste and pay my assistant at the same time. One simply had to go. And I could hardly be expected to live without toothpaste.
But I was bound and determined to make my own way in the world. Right after I bought that yacht I’d been eyeing. And those thirty-seven pairs of boots I had in my wish list on Boot Bliss. After that, it would be all me, baby.
“Dr. Mayfield,” I said, easing closer to her, “are you okay?”
She was shaking visibly, her eyes wide and wild and more than a little panicked.
“It’s a lot to take in,” I said.
“How…? I don’t … when…?”
“Breathe.” I knelt down and scooted closer. “Just breathe, Doctor.”
She took in a deep breath before she realized the fruitlessness of her endeavor. “It doesn’t do anything.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just, the act tends to calm some people down. I’ve actually seen a departed hyperventilate. No idea how, but it happened. But once he got his breathing under control … well, you get the idea.”
She continued to pant, to force air in and out of her nonexistent lungs. The boys calmed down the minute they realized Dr. Mayfield was having difficulties. They knelt beside us, and Logan took her hand.
“Dr. Mayfield?”
She let her gaze travel slowly toward him.
“It’s just makeup,” I assured her. Just in case. “He’s not really a vampire.”
“Oh. Okay.” She nodded, then recognition dawned on her pretty face. “Wait.” Her gaze traveled the length of the boy. “You’re … you’re Cynthia’s son.”
I had no idea who Cynthia was, but the doctor had apparently nailed it.
The kid nodded and flashed a nuclear smile that shot straight to my heart. “You helped her so much after the accident … after I died, I wanted to help you, too.”
Both hands flew over her mouth as she studied him. “You really are … you really were … you’re here. She said she felt you.”
“Yep. And instead of telling her she was crazy like everyone else, instead of making her feel stupid, you went with it. Even though you didn’t believe her, you helped her work through her grief.”
“It was what she needed at the time.” She took his hand again. “I’m so sorry I doubted her.”
“But she didn’t know that. That’s all that matters.”
“Oh, my God,” she said, pulling him into her arms. Her shoulders shook with her newfound knowledge. Her new circumstance.
Angel and I stood to give them a moment. It didn’t take him long, however. It never took him long.
“So, we gonna make out now? All the cool kids are doing it.” He gestured toward the pair on the floor.
“You’ve been hanging out with me way too long.” I took a good, long look at him. He still wore the clothes he’d died in, as did almost all departed. And those that didn’t flummoxed me. He wore a dirty A-line T-shirt, the blood from a gunshot wound still on his chest. His jeans rode too low on his hips and the bandanna he wore rode too low on his brow, but he was an absolutely gorgeous kid. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?”
He was supposed to be tailing my curmudgeonly uncle. What good did it do me to have minions if they didn’t … min?
“Swopes is on it. I couldn’t miss this.”
“Of course not. How are you?”
His lashes narrowed in suspicion. “Good. I’d be better if we made out.”
“How’s your mom?”
He lifted a shoulder. “She’s good. She’s dating a really nice guy. It’s weird.”
I laughed. “She deserves a nice guy.”
“She always did.”
I raised a hand to his jawline. Stroked my fingers over the dark peach fuzz there. He had barely begun life when he passed. His death was so senseless. So utterly needless.
He took my tenderness as a cue. Stepped closer. Buried his face in the crook of my neck. Pressed in to me, then let one hand drift around my waist. After a minute, it drifted some more. Lower and lower until it rested on my left ass cheek.
I rolled my eyes and tried not to laugh. The kid would try anything, but he was thirteen. It was in his adolescent DNA. And hugging him pretty much made my day. I felt like an older sister even though, if one counted the fact that he’d died at thirteen in ’95, he was older than I was.
Before he could protest—or molest me further—I wrapped my arms around him and hugged. Hard.