“Jackson, please take good care of him.” She winked and then she was out the door, dashing down the apartment stairs and out of sight.
I closed the door behind her and smiled at Pete. “So, that went well.”
Chapter 11
Pete
Mom’s face when Berlina had yelled at her to get her ass out of here had been priceless. She’d been fuming in front of the TV, daring Mom to ever set foot in Jackson’s apartment again without an invite. It was hilarious. Even Sven had stood with his arms crossed and shook his head in disappointment. They were not okay with Jackson and me being interrupted on our first day together, and I had to agree with them.
“Did you remember to turn off the stove?” Jackson asked.
“I did,” I assured him before walking into the kitchen and grabbing our dinner. “Want to eat in here or in front of the TV?”
He grabbed both our plates and without answering, just walked back into the living room. I smiled, shaking my head as I followed behind.
“He’s so adorable,” Berlina gushed as I passed her. I shot her a grin, unable to answer that,yes, he definitely was.Sexy too.
Jackson placed our plates on the coffee table and patted the couch cushion next to him. I sat, still smiling like a loon. And just then the light began flickering.
“Oh fuck,” Berlina muttered and then Sven disappeared, likely to find the reason.
“That’s weird,” Jackson said, getting up from the couch. He seemed wary, like he was afraid, or worried it would be something bad.
“I think it’s just the power that had a slight malfunction or something,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t worry too much. He’d told us back when we first met that he was afraid of ghosts and flickering lights were often something people associated with ghost activity. And I had a strong suspicion that it actually was what had caused it this time.
Sven returned and shook his head. So not a ghost then. Thank fuck. I really didn’t want to deal with a newly passed right now. I was truly thankful I had Berlina and Sven’s help. They would’ve easily helped the newly deceased so I could focus on Jackson.
“Do you think I need to check it out?” Jackson asked from the hallway.
“Nah, it was just a flicker.” That seemed to reassure him and he returned to the living room.
“I’m sorry I’m being all weird about it.”
I cocked my head. “You’ve already told me about your fear of ghosts, and flickering lights could be triggering. I get it.”
He sat down next to me and looked vulnerable, almost defeated. “You don’t find it weird that a grown man is afraid of ghosts?”
I shook my head. “I know people have their fears and phobias and no one likes feeling afraid, so why would I find it weird? You’re only human.”
“I guess my father’s words still make me believe I’m different,weak, for fearing something you can’t see.”
I decided I needed a bit more information, and I finally had the perfect opening for it. “If you don’t mind telling me, whathappenedback when you were a child?”
He sighed. “My grandma lived in this huge old house in the countryside and… so many things happened, Pete. Like sounds and things moving on their own. And I even caught her talking to herself as if she had a full conversation with someone who wasn’t there. The scariest part was that once I overheard her speaking about me, so I snuck in closer to hear what she said, and then it was as if she had eyes on her back, because she twirled and found me spying on her. I’d made no sound, but she knewrightwhere I was.”
Okay. I had to admit that sounded scary as hell. I also suspected that his grandma was a medium. We tended to have a lot of ghosts around us, some we collected from other people they were bound to, or they’d attached themselves to us and followed us home, something they could only do with mediums.
“I wouldn’t have liked that experience either,” I said. My upbringing had been different, since I couldn’t remember not ever seeing or hearing ghosts. But what Jackson had described would traumatize anyone. And the fact his grandma hadn’t helped him dealwith it made me angry. Yes, he'd been a child and she could hope he would one day forget, but in our line of work we knew better than to brush off the fear of ghosts just because we were used to them ourselves.
“You wouldn’t?”
“Hell no. It sounds creepy as fuck. But you said you’d been in therapy?” He nodded. “Something you think would be good to do again?”
He shook his head. “I still believe I got what I could out of it. But this one experience at my grandma’s wasn’t my only experience. I… I’ve repressed a lot of them, and I don’t want to bring them forth again.”
“I respect that. Thank you for telling me.” It couldn’t have been easy on him, and I found I fell for him even more because of it.
“First day of dating and we’ve already faced mothers and phobias. We aren’t wasting our time,” he said, grinning. I joined in and then we began eating the now cold pasta.
