“Tell me,” he said, holding her tighter. “Tell me anything. I’m not afraid.”
“The dark fog surrounding the manor... it’s gone. Completely gone.”
“It worked!” Joseph smiled. “You did it! You broke through.”
“It worked a little too well,” she said, her mouth still set in a frown. “Now there’s a brilliant beam of light in its place. It calls to me. It fills me up with love.”
Joseph’s stomach dropped. He knew it. This was it. This was goodbye. Their goal from the beginning, for her to find her way home and be a restless spirit no more. He held her even tighter and nodded.
“I can’t bring myself to go to it though,” she said, as another tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t want to leave. I can’t.”
Joseph shook his head.
“But you don’t have any more unfinished business,” he said. “The house, your art. Even your ancestors, it’s all settled. Carolina, youhaveto go to the light.”
Carolina trembled in his arms, her entire being shuddering and flickering. Her form remained solid and warm in his arms, so real to him.
“Oh but I do. I still have plenty of unfinished business,” she said, looking up at him with a sad sort of smile. “Joseph, my unfinished business is you.”
A warm sensation like orange blossom honey spread from Joseph’s chest all the way down to his toes. He smiled and laughed as their lips met again under the shade of the grapefruit tree, while a warm summer breeze whipped through the shady, ancient orchard. He breathed in her Carolina scent, reveled in the soft texture of her hair and the fabric of her dress beneath his fingertips. He didn’t care if she was real or not. To him, she felt real and alive in his arms.
“I love you Carolina,” he said. “I don’t want to lose someone I love again so soon.”
“You don’t have to,” she said in between kisses. “I love you, Joseph. I’ll stay as long as you want me.”
“Stay forever then,” he said, quieting her with more kisses. He held her tighter and tighter, still afraid deep down that she would turn to a ball of brilliant light again and disappear. She pulled away and gave him a reassuring smile.
“Forever isn’t such a long time,” she sighed, and met his worried, doubtful frown with another kiss and a smile.
The quiet was disturbed as a soft summer storm rolled in all around them, bringing with it the distant rumble of the sky overhead and the promise of a hot and humid afternoon rain. The smell of wet earth and jacaranda blossoms filled his senses as a warm wind whipped around them, and Joseph knew that he was truly home. Life had changed for him in the blink of an eye, and even though a dull sadness still dwelled in the dark depths of his heart, Joseph had found something special and beautiful again to call his own. There on the proud grounds of the manor that he was bringing back to life with his bare hands, and with a friend and a love anew in his arms, Joseph found in himself another reason to keep pressing on. For River. For Rachel. For Carolina. Joseph Moore had a whole lifetime of unfinished business ahead, and an unusual, exquisite love to see him through.
Chapter Fifteen
The once desolate andforgotten grounds of Jacaranda Manor were lonesome and haunted no more. The facade of St. Augustine’s crowned jewel had been polished and shone nearly to its original state, it’s water-warped wooden railing and weathered gables replaced, painted and proud once again. Jacaranda Manor was loved again; love lived within its walls again, and the once restless spirit that both protected and darkened the interior now filled the space with beauty and light.
Time began to pass a little more slowly for Carolina in this new phase of her afterlife, and she was no longer afraid to step outside her front door. Months used to fly by like days; years seemed like weeks. Now with Joseph at her side, the days ticked by again like a slow and steady heartbeat the way they used to. Only this time, she appreciated every moment even more.
