“We met six months ago today. I couldn’t let the day pass without a little celebration.”
“Do people celebrate six-month anniversaries? Is that a thing? I feel terrible I didn’t get you anything.”
“Freckles,” I said, closing the distance between us, “you’ve given meeverything.I just wanted to do a little something to show you how much I love you.”
“Oh wow.” She pulled the box out of the refrigerator and noted the name of the bakery. “You’ve been talking to my mother, haven’t you? I bet that was an adventure.”
“Jackie Miracle is an incredible woman who adores every freckle on my Freckles. She was happy to help me since I’m still learning all there is to know about you.”
“Babe, I’m a woman. You could know me for a hundred years and still not know everything about me.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “I look forward to trying then.”
“This is a peaches and cream cake, isn’t it?”
“Jackie said it’s your favorite.”
“It is.” Maegan breathed in deeply, a lot like I had when my nose was pressed against her pussy. Of course, that reminded me of the second part of thepunishmentI had planned for her.
My phone rang as soon as I turned back to the sink to start handwashing the crockpot. “Do you mind seeing who that is?” I asked Maegan.
She set the cake down on the counter and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “It’s your mysterious caller again,” she said. I could tell by her expression she was thinking about answering it.
“Please don’t, Maegan. There’s nothing I want to say to whoever is calling. They’ll eventually get sick of being ignored and give up.” I hoped but wouldn’t hold my breath.
“Okay, Elijah,” she said softly, slipping the phone back in my pocket. She rose on her tiptoes. “Thank you for the cake. It’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever given me.”
“You’re welcome, Freckles.” I leaned in for a longer kiss, but I could hear Memphis and Lyric coming back downstairs. They had some ivory and gold jar-like thing with them.
“Oh cool! A pipe tobacco humidor,” Maegan said when she saw it. “That’s a large one too.”
“It smells like the tobacco wafting through the air whenever Anthony is around,” Memphis told her.
“Really? I wonder if this is the item he’s attached himself to.”
“It would seem so,” Lyric told her. “Especially since we think it holds his remains.”
“Whoa!” I said. “His what now?”
Maegan slowly opened the lid like she expected something to pop out and get her. We peered into the humidor for a few seconds before she closed it. “Looks like cremated ashes to me,” she agreed. “The question is: how’d they get here?”
“And when?” I asked.
“I hope to find those answers for you and more while I’m in San Francisco,” Lyric said. “I’ll be in touch when I find something out. In the meantime, what would you like to do with Anthony’s ashes?”
“I’ll put them in a place of honor on the mantle above the fireplace, of course.”
“Whoa, Freckles, can we talk about this?” I asked, following behind her.
“We live with his ghost, babe. What’s the harm in placing his ashes on the mantle?” She set him right in the middle of the mantle then rearranged other antique items belonging to Bliss House around it. I had to admit it looked lovely but still…
I heard Memphis say, “We’ll just show ourselves out,” but Maegan and I were too busy preparing ourselves for battle to respond, knowing we could apologize for our rudeness later. “Yeah, I know,” I replied. I don’t know why an urn sitting on our fireplace skeeved me. “How do you know Anthony wants them there? Maybe Anthony thinks my softball trophy should go there.”
“I don’t see a trophy to put on the mantle, Elijah,” Mae said, turning to face me. She placed her hands on her hips, and the raised brow told me she wasn’t going to compromise or budge about the placement of the urn. “Anthony, do you mind if I keep your urn on the mantle for now?” The answer to her question came in the scent of tobacco smoke floating through the air. “He approves, and you haven’t even won that first-place trophy.”
“Yet.”
“Yet,” she agreed. “We’ll talk about it when you do.” My cell phone rang again just then. “Babe, it seems to me that its past time you deal with some ghosts too.”
