“Wow. Deep.”
I punched his arm. “I’m being serious.”
He raised his hands in defeat. “So am I. Sorry. Sometimes things just come out wrong. But what you said is great because I’m impressed that I was right.”
I punched him again.
He glanced down at his arm. “I’m going to bruise.”
“I hope so.”
He laughed and tugged me to him. “Oh, Blissful. I’m so glad you’re in my life.”
I opened my mouth to say the same thing when my phone buzzed from my purse. There were only two people who ever called me—Ruth or Alice—and usually it was about work.
They never called after eight, and since it was almost nine at night, I worried an emergency had happened.
I untangled from Roan. “I need to get that.” I picked up my purse, which I’d left dangling over a chair, and sorted through it until I found my phone.
“Hello?”
“Blissful!”
“Hey, Ruth. What’s going on?”
“I hope I didn’t disturb you.”
I shot a smile to Roan. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, I did. Didn’t I? Are you on a date? I hope you’re not on a date. I just hate to disturb you.”
I sighed. “Really, it’s fine. What’s up?”
“We just got a call.”
I couldn’t keep the worry lines from digging into my forehead. “This late?”
“They called the emergency number.”
“Emergency number? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“It’s my number.” Alice was apparently on the call as well.
“Alice, stop talking,” Ruth snapped. “You’ll confuse Bliss.”
“You won’t confuse me. Alice can talk.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “Okay. So someone called the emergency line. What’s going on?”
Ruth’s heavy breathing filled the line. “Blissful, these folks sounded scared.”
I hitched a shoulder. “They all sound scared. That’s what happens when someone lives in a haunted house.”
“It was more than that. They sounded like they’d done everything and were now coming to us.”
“Again there’s nothing unusual about that. That’s how everyone is when they make the call. We’re the last hope.”
“There was something different in these people,” Alice said.
“How so?” I shot Roan a smile. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Why couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow morning?
