“Ten chapters? Since I left?” Natalie asked.
It had taken her more like ten hours per chapter when she’d been working alone with Professor Perfectionist.
Lionel was going to blow his top when he returned and discovered Harper a—gasp—romance writer had worked on his book without him. If Lionel returned. Natalie still had that nagging fear that he and his body would never make it back to Liam’s lab.
But if Harper really was making such great progress, maybe it didn’t matter if Lionel didn’t return. They could get the book in good enough condition to submit to the publisher, on time, then let Lionel’s editor handle the rest.
“We might even be done by the time you get home tomorrow,” Harper continued. “Then you and I can go over it again together.”
“That soon?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’re on a roll.”
“Wow. That’s great...” Something struck Natalie as the scenery whizzed by the car window. “Wait. You keep saying we. Who’s we?”
She imagined Alice standing over Harper’s shoulder, rewriting Lionel’s words. The results of that should be interesting. Maybe it would be better if Lionel didn’t return…
“Gabe and Millie are helping me.”
Natalie drew back in surprise. “Really? How?”
“Hey! I was a history professor too, you know.”
Harper laughed. “That was Gabe. You’re on speakerphone. I think Gabe is insulted that you don’t think he can help.”
“Calm down. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just—I’m trying to picture how this is working.”
“Well, I upgraded my monitor set-up on my computer last year, so I have the research up on one screen and the manuscript up on the other. Gabe and Millie are helping with the proofreading. And since I can hear them when they’re together, they can tell me when they find a typo. I mean it would help if they could touch the computer keys too so I don’t have to do that for them, but I’ll take all the help I can get.”
“Wow. Okay. Good job. And thank you so much for helping. All of you.” Natalie knew Lionel was no one’s favorite person, yet both the living and the ghosts were pulling together to help. For the book. For the upcoming Mudville article. For her.
It warmed her heart.
“You better call me when you get there. I’m dying to know what it’s like pawing through Lionel’s things,” Harper said.
“He’s going to hate that. I can’t wait to tell him. It’s going to be great!” Natalie heard Gabe say.
“I’ll call. I promise.” As entertaining as it was speaking to her two best friends, one living, one dead, the GPS was suddenly talking.
They were getting close to their destination.
With the computer voice announcing the next turn making it hard to hear, Natalie said, “I better go. Talk later.”
After Harper and Gabe said good-bye, Natalie disconnected the call just as Liam flipped on the blinker and began to slow.
“Are we there?” she asked, hopeful. She could use lunch and maybe a fancy Starbucks coffee, extra whipped cream. Road trip calories didn’t count.
“Soon enough.” Liam nodded. “Everything good at home?”
“Good… for now. Harper seems happy. So I’m happy. If Lionel is going to be happy is another story.”
Liam shot her a sideways glance. “I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.”
“I won’t,” she lied. She lost sleep over pretty much everything.
Although last night it wasn’t worry that kept her up, but excitement.
What would they find?
