~Farewell,~Curtis echoed.~Have fun.~
If Ethan hadn’t known better, he would have thought that there was a sly tone to Curtis’s voice – but when he glanced back, the ghost’s expression was completely innocent.
“Bye,” he said helplessly, as the bell tinkled overhead and the door slammed shut with a final, decisivebang.
Chapter 6
Ghosts are real. Magic is real.
Chloe did her best to keep a hysterical giggle from spilling out of her mouth, the – quite franklyinsane– revelations of the past half hour occupying her mind so much that she barely even registered the way she was dragging Ethan down the street.
What’s next? Dragons? Griffins? Unicorns?
She let out an undignified snort. No, that was too ridiculous, even by today’s standards.
Perhaps the excitement of moving across the country and starting her dream business in her dream location had gotten the better of her. Perhaps she needed to go home for a nap. Perhaps shewastaking a nap right now, and this was all some bizarre dream. It would explain an awful lot about just howweirdher day had become.
She spun on the spot – and, before she could think better of it, gave Ethan a pinch on the wrist. Not a particularly nasty one, but enough that he would feel it.
“Ow!” he yelled as he jerked his hand back, voice losing all of its usual coolness. “What the hell wasthat?”
“Sorry,” she said, though not overly apologetically. “Just wanted to check that I wasn’t dreaming.”
“That’snothow that works,” he snapped, and, as much as she would normally feel bad in this situation, something about seeing him getting riled up and losing control of his usual calm, self-assured demeanor was awfully entertaining.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said again, whilemaybeletting loose a small, giddy laugh. “But you have to admit, thisisall a bit strange. Or incredibly messed-up, really.” She narrowed her eyes. “Right?”
Because Ethan had taken this whole thing remarkably in stride. And while she supposed hehadhad some time to get used to being haunted by a ghost, the whole magic, witchy bookshop owner thing had come out of nowhere.
He’d been completely unfazed, though. Like witches and magic spells were something he was used to the idea of.
Ethan locked gazes with her for a moment, before turning away and staring resolutely ahead. “This isn’t something to discuss on an empty stomach. We can talk about it later.”
“Good point,” she muttered. Shewasravenous, which probably wasn’t helping matters… though she didn’t think she would’ve found the situation much more explicable even if she’d already eaten.
She jabbed her finger in his face, trying to ignore how incredibly unthreatening the gesture was when she had to reach up to do so. “But don’t think you can get away with just putting off this conversation indefinitely, you know. I’m onto you. You and your… weirdness. So don’t think you’re off the hook just because I’m hungry.” She shook the finger for good measure.
Ethan held up his hands in surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good.”
She started off down the street again, at a slightly more sedate pace this time. At the very least, she was no longer dragging Ethan along by the wrist. Not that she didn’t want to – the warm buzz beneath her fingers as they touched his skin had been intoxicating, and she desperately wanted more of him in a way that was almost shocking to her.
This kind of infatuation wasn’t like her at all. Her patients were her life. That was how she liked it.
In any case, she had at least calmed down enough to get a hold of herself, and now she was walking down the street like a normal person, enjoying the cool, crisp air as she inhaled, and the way that her breath fogged as she exhaled. The cold had always bothered her in the past, but it was just so – socharminghere in Girdwood Springs that she couldn’t help but enjoy it.
What shewasn’tenjoying, however, was the way that her shoes were sliding against the damp leaves on the sidewalk.
Her feet were shooting out from underneath her, in fact, the world beginning to rotate around her. She had a moment to contemplate how long she would have to delay opening her clinic for if she fell over and broke her butt – before she became aware of the big, strong,warmarms wrapping themselves around her, catching her before she could make devastating contact with the cold, hard sidewalk below.
She looked up, giving herself a moment to focus her vision – and found herself staring into Ethan’s ice-blue eyes, warm rather than cold, and wide with worry.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concern practically radiating from him.
“Fine,” Chloe said breathlessly, once she had found her voice. “Never better, in fact.”
They stayed like that for several long moments, Chloe simply basking in the feeling ofsafetythat she felt in his arms, before she snapped back to reality.
