Cameron looked over at him. “Would you mind coming over here so I can talk to you both at the same time?”
He pushed away from the wall and strode toward Joy, takinga stance behind her chair and to the right. This close, he could smell the sweet peppermint scent emanating from her. It reminded him of when he was a little boy. He’d loved candy canes back then, often eating them all off the tree before Christmas day.
The last thing he needed was to be reminded of his early years before he knew what awaited him in the world. “What is this assignment you havefor us?”
“Us?” Joy turned around to look at him.
Was that merely surprise or fear he saw in her eyes? He couldn’t be sure because she turned back to face Cameron.
Their supervisor nodded. “Yes, this is a difficult assignment, and I need two very good spirit guides on it.”
Joy sat a little straighter at the compliment. “I’m happy to help.”
He wanted to tell her Cameron was playing on her ego,but he kept silent, more interested in their task than in edifying his partner on the ways their boss manipulated spirit guides.
Cameron sighed deeply before glancing from him to Joy, but he kept his focus on her as he spoke. “Your assignment is my wife, Holly.”
He chuckled, loving the irony of the importance of his last assignment to his boss, but he didn’t miss Joy’s complexion fading to apasty white.
Cameron didn’t notice as he turned his focus on him and scowled. “This is no laughing matter.”
“You can’t tell me you don’t see the irony of this. If I’m not successful, not only am I a failure, but you are too. It forces you to want me to succeed. You actually have to hope you get to keep me around.”
Cameron shook his head. “I hold nothing against you, Malcolm. If it was my choice,you’d continue for as long as I’m here. I’m not thrilled with your methods, but you do accomplish your goals.”
His boss’s unexpected endorsement both surprised him and made him more nervous. He knew howCameronworked, but those who pulled the man’s strings were a complete unknown. This was one time he wished he could see the future of those in the afterlife.
“What happened to Coco?” Joy’svoice surprised them both.
Cameron stood and walked around his desk. “She has moved on.”
That was as ambiguous an answer as any he’d heard in all his time as a spirit guide, and from the look on Joy’s face, she recognized it for the brush off it was.
His boss continued. “Holly will be expecting you on Christmas Eve.” He pushed a file across his desk. “Everything you need to know is in here,but…” The man stared at the packet of paper beneath his hand as if he wished he didn’t have to let it go. “This is confidential. No discussing it with other guides or trainers or anyone except me.”
Ah, the man’s personal relationship to his wife was revealed inside. Malcolm couldn’t wait to read it.
Joy leaned forward and with her long, polish-free nails pulled the file from Cameron’s hand andset it on her lap. “What is our goal for Holly?” Her voice, which had been smooth as silk before, had a scratchy undertone now. She obviously knew more than he did about this assignment and from her serious face, it wasn’t good.
Cameron smiled. “I need my wife to be open to expanding her horizons, deepening her connections to others.”
“That’s a bit broad. Anything or person in particular?” Hedidn’t want to lose his position over semantics. He wanted specifics.
His boss leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “No, nothing in particular. It’s more a mindset than anything else. She has accepted my death and begun to live, but only at the surface level. She stays within her comfort area, what she already knows, like our Christmas Shop and the Deervale community. I need her to beopen to going beyond what she knows and feels now.”
“So, you want her to start living her own life separate from you.” Joy’s face had relaxed, and she appeared a bit more confident.
Every person he’d ever known had no problem moving beyond a break up or divorce. He didn’t see much difference with the death of a spouse. “What am I missing here? Why wouldn’t she be doing that anyway? Why wouldyou need two spirit guides for that?”
Both Cameron and Joy looked at him with wide eyes, before Cameron’s mouth lowered into a frown. “Because my wife and I loved each other.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but Joy interrupted him. “Malcolm, where have you been? Cameron and Holly were soulmates.”
Schitz. Just his luck. He was far too familiar with the trouble with that.
~~*~~
Joy finishedreading the file on Holly and carefully returned all the papers back in order. Rising from her kitchen table, she strolled into her living room where Malcolm waited.
