“What about the chill? Did you feel that too? No? Well, you must have been too far away if the Ghostly Presence was up on the top of the lighthouse and you were all the way down here.”
“So what’s the diagnosis, Iva?” Juanita said, brushing crumbs daintily from the corners of her mouth.
“Definitely haunted. There’s significant supernatural activity—I canfeelit. I suggest,” Iva went on, looking at Teddy and Oscar, “that you spend the night at the top of the lighthouse again—as soon as possible—and see what happens.”
“Yeah, no,” Oscar said flatly.
Teddy looked at him. “But—”
“You can spend the night up there if you like,” he said, patting Iva’s hand. “We’ll even block the door open so you can’t get locked out.”
“Well, now, Oscar, dear, you never struck me as the sort of young man who’d be—shall we say,nervousaround a flimsy little ghost,” Iva said, fluttering her eyelashes. “Just like my dear, naive Gideon. He swore there wasn’t any such thing as a ghost until he met it himself, under very extraordinary circumstances.” Iva smiled at him. “You never know, I may just take you up on it, Oscar. Of course, I’d want Hollis to join me—I imagine it’s very romantic up there, watching the sun go down, isn’t it?”
Maxine snorted and rolled her eyes, and that was when Oscar took the bull by the horns, so to speak. “Well, the open-air gallery is available for your camping-out pleasure any time you like, Mrs. Bergstrom. But for now, I’m afraid it’s time for Teddy to get back to the final touches on her book—you know, she’s not reallydoneyet,” he added in a confiding whisper.
The ladies all gasped and gaped at Teddy accusingly.
“But we thought you were—”
“We never would have come by if we knew you—”
“Do you mean it’s notdone?That’sfalse advertising.” Maxine, of course, drowned out everyone else.
Oscar’s tactic had the desired effect, and after allowing Bruce Banner to lift his leg and water the climbing rosebush on the side of the cottage, the three elderly ladies piled back in to Maxine’s SUV.
“Thank you, Oscar,” Teddy said, slipping her arm through his. “I really do need to get a little more work done—make sure the flash drive transfers, and setting up the new laptop.”
Though he looked a little disappointed, Oscar didn’t argue. “Just go finish the book. Then you won’t have anything on your mind except…other things.” His grin was filled with promise. “Because when I get my hands back on your butt, I don’t want you thinking about anything but that.”
She laughed and gave him a warm, sensual, body-rubbing hug. “Sounds like a plan.”
And she disappeared to her bedroom office.
* * *
While Teddy spent the rest of that day working on her laptop, Oscar had his own things to attend to.
He’d had a brilliant idea for a new research project and written up the specs for his grad students, and decided he’d open it up to some of the undergrads as well. Why not?
He also did some more research on types of alga and moss that grew on the west side of Michigan. He was determined to identify whatever the glowing entity was.
He went for a swim in Lake Michigan, which, surprisingly, was invigorating and not freezing.
He hadn’t set his lab up fully since the break-in, but he did do a little hiking to collect more water samples for some basic study. None of them except the hot spring had the crystalline snowflakes in them. And that continued to niggle at him.
The next day was much the same, though Teddy wasn’t cloistered away as she’d been before. She brought her laptop out to work on the porch, and they decided to grill a couple of steaks and fresh corn on the cob. So he ran into town to grab the groceries and a good bottle of red.
And that was good—to give himself that little bit of space. Because as much as he wanted to plant his hands back on that enticing ass of hers, he managed to keep them to himself. He hadn’t been kidding when he said he didn’t want any distractions.
He wanted her attention onhim, andonlyhim when he finally got her into bed—and undressed. Because once he got her there, he wasn’t intending to let her leave for at least a day.
He grinned to himself at the thought, and talked his hormones down for the fiftieth time that day alone. It would be worth it.
* * *
Oscar hadn’t looked at his phone all day, so it wasn’t until he was just about to prep the steaks for the grill that he noticed the text message.
It was from Marcie.
