“Deal,” she said with a smile. “I takeVenmo, PayPal, orCashApp.”
Ghost blinked. How fucking old was he that he’d been contemplating finding an ATM to fulfill his end of their bargain? Shaking his head, he pulled out his phone too.
“What’s your name?” she asked after their transaction was completed. “I’m Sandy.”
“Ghost,” he offered, standing to help her down off the stool.
“Okay,let me see if I have this straight,” Sandy said around her latest spoonful of ice cream. They were sitting on the king bed in Ghost’s room with their shoes off and backs against the headboard eating the ice cream sundaes Ghost had ordered them through room service. Sandy had also removed her black wig to reveal her strawberry blonde hair underneath that clashed horribly with the red dress she was still wearing. “You recognize this woman from her voice on a podcast and fall for her as soon as you see her. Only to realize she’s the bride of the wedding you’re supposed to be attendingandyour best friend’s little sister.”
Ghost licked his spoon, nodding. “Yup.”
“And somehow, in two days but really one day because you barely spent any time together on your first day, you start to get feelings for each other. But you never do anything inappropriate.”
Ghost’s jaw ticked. “I may have pinned her up against the side of her house in the middle of the night and then kissed her head wound.”
“Which turned out not to be an actual head wound because the bandage was gone the next day,” Sandy reminded him with a wave of her spoon. Ghost begrudgingly gave her that. “And then you spend all day in the car with her today, and fall evenharderfor her, only to have her reject your offer to drive off into the sunset with you.”
Ghost hid his flinch at her blunt ending to the retelling of his story. “She feels something for me, I know she does.” When Sandy raised an eyebrow at him, Ghost put his head back, hitting it on the headboard harder than intended with an audiblethunk. “Yeah, I hear it. I sound like a twelve-year-old girl.”
Sandy laughed, spooning another scoop of ice cream into her mouth. She’d gotten the double nut fudge with extra peanut butter while Ghost had gotten the mint chocolate chip with extra whip. They’d swapped for a couple of bites, but mostly stuck with their own.
“Honey, my dear, dear, sweet man, you sound like someone who has finally been touched by Cupid’s arrow and has no idea what to do with those feelings.” She licked a bit of chocolate fudge off her pinky finger. “Look, regardless of the wedding, do you feel like she actually loves her fiancé?”
Ghost shrugged, the ice cream turning sour in his mouth at the thought. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never met the man and only overheard that one conversation. I think she thinks that she does,” he forced himself to admit out loud. “But I also know that I can give her so much more. Not money,” he clarified, “but timeand adventure and kids and justlife. At least,” he scraped the sides of his tall glass, “I want to.”
“Then why, for the love of God, are you sitting in a hotel room with a sexy asfuckhooker eating ice cream?” Sandy demanded on a laugh.
Ghost turned to her. “Don’t call yourself that.”
“I can call myself whatever I want,” she argued. “You,” she flipped the end of her long spoon at him like a sword, “cannot.”
He supposed he had to give her that. “Do you like your job?”
“Don’t change the subject,” Sandy snapped. “And yes, I love my job. Especially nights like tonight. Now answer my damn question.”
Ghost put down his tall sundae glass. At this point, he was just using it to hide in anyway. “I offered her a chance to be with me and she said ‘no’. What else did you want me to do? Kidnap my best friend’s little sister?”
“Before I answer that,” Sandy turned to put her ice cream glass down on the nightstand on her side of the bed, “tell meexactlywhat you offered her. And not what you just told me. I want word-for-word what you told her.”
Ghost had to think back to that very painful conversation in Becks’ cage. Christ, had that only been twelve hours ago? It felt like a century. “I told her that I wouldn’t be a second choice, and that she shouldn’t want to be either. Then I told her that all she had to do was say the word and we would drive in any other direction than the airport.”
As he spoke, Sandy turned on the bed to face him, leaning her shoulder against the headboard. “Seriously? You didn’t tell her that you were falling for her or how much she means to you in such a short period of time?”
Ghost’s cheeks flushed. Jesus, he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d blushed. He’d been teased relentlessly for how red his face got as a kid, in addition to being a foster kid. Hecouldn’t control one of those things, but he learned to control the other. It took a lot of discipline but eventually he was able to keep himself from blushing at the slightest bit of attention. “I told you, she feels something for me too.”
Sandy stared at him for a moment, picked up one of the pillows that was on the bed between them, and then smacked him in the face with it. She did it so casually too that Ghost didn’t see it coming. Despite the softness of the pillow, Sandy added some muscle behind the swing, causing Ghost’s head to actually whiplash. “Why the fuck are men so stupid? I thought you were supposed to be smart or something? You said you were a SEAL. I highly doubt they allow stupid people into the SEALs.”
Ghost was still trying to gather his thoughts from being attacked by a pillow. “Iamsmart.”
“No,” Sandy argued. “You are very, verydumb. Ghost, this woman is about to get married. That’s something every woman dreams about, and the ones who say they don’t are lying to cover the fact that they don’t think they’re worthy of getting married. She has asure thing. Yes, divorce rates are extremely high in this country, but I can’t really complain about that because it keeps me in business. But that’s beside the point,” she added when he glared at her for going off on a tangent. “What I mean is that you didn’ttell herwhat you want or what you feel. How does she know that you didn’t just want to do a fuck and dump? She’s not a mind reader. Her feelings for you aside, how can you say you offered her an informed decision withouttelling hereverything. Offering to run away with her isn’t the same thing as telling her that you’re falling for her or want to start a family with her or anything that you,” she pointed at him, “just told me.” She pointed at herself.
Ghost frowned at the implication. “I wouldn’t have offered to run away with her, to take her from her own wedding, if I didn’t have feelings for her. I don’t get my kicks by stealing brides, andyes, I’ve only had one-night stands in my life, but that’s not what I want with her. And I’d never fuck her over like what you’re insinuating.”
“Doesshe,” Sandy pointed out the window, “know that? Did you tell her everything you just told me?”
Ghost swallowed hard. “No.”
“And when did she graduate from the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters with a degree in Telepathy?” Sandy quipped at him.
