She hummed in agreement, then ate another pickle chip. “Talk about the ghost.”
“Youngish. Male. Maybe thirties? Pushy. Entitled. Wasn’t about to take ‘no’ from a god, so he has guts, if not brains. Apparently murdered and looking for revenge.”
“So: trouble.”
“Aren’t they all?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a wink. “Some spirits aren’t too awful to have around.”
“Hey, now. I take issue with that. I was never a ghost.”
“Someone’s splitting hairs.”
“Someone wasn’t even on the same spiritual plane as ghosts. You know that.”
“I do know that,” she said. “But I like the look of you all bothered and grumpy.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I was not grumpy, realized how childish it sounded, and had the good sense to change my tack. I tugged her toward me. “How about I show you how bothered you make me?”
Her eyes were wide and not nearly as innocent as she thought. “Me?”
I grinned, then planted a kiss on her soft, smiling mouth. It was just a brief connection, but everything, everything I’d missed all these years.
“You taste like cherry soda,” I said, my forehead resting against hers.
“You taste like home,” she replied.
The voices at the bar rose and fell, and I just rested there, breathing, breathing.
“We don’t have to do what Bo tells us to do,” she said.
“Pretty sure we promised him we would.”
“We have free will.”
“Do we?”
“Of course we do. He can’t take that away from us. We can choose to look for the rabbit later. Take our time. He didn’t give us a time limit. We have the free will to choose our path forward, Brogan.”
Her tone was hopeful and exasperated. She wanted me to believe her. Wanted me to believe free will was enough against the gods.
“All right,” I said, even though she rolled her eyes at me. “We’ve got free will. If you think it’s smart to take our time looking for the rabbit, then I’m on for that.”
She rocked her face back and kissed me, quick, brief. “I think we get to make our own choices, and the gods can’t change that.”
I didn’t want to argue, but I didn’t see it the same way. “We made our choice. We chose to help him. In return for this.” I touched the side of her face.
“Hooray, free will,” she said.
I smiled. “Hooray.”
She stood. “Let’s hit the road. We have a lot of daylight hours left before we decide where we’re staying tonight.”
I grabbed up the last of the pickle chips and stuffed them in my mouth. “A motel.”
“You didn’t win our bet.” She dropped bills on the table and started toward the door.
I was right behind her. “And you did?” The early afternoon was hot, and sweat quickly gathered across my neck and between my shoulder blades. Leaves rustled in the humid breeze, and I could just make out the sound of the Big Piney rushing along under the bridge.
