“You’re stunning.”
“Thanks.” She tried to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, like she always did, but couldn’t because there wasn’t a single flyaway hair. Hetty had done her hair in an elegant half-up chignon.
Magnus stepped to the side and she walked in.
“Well, at least she looks more presentable. Like a lady.” Lottie the ghost sniffed from where she hovered near the front desk area.
“She always looks nice. You’re too hard on her,” Sal, a gangster, remarked. “Looking good, doll. Try to relax.”
She grinned stiffly at the ghosts and wanted to tell them to bugger off.
“You have a weird expression on your face,” Magnus said. “You okay?”
“Just some uninvited guests to our date,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m going to try to ignore them, but they can make it difficult for me.”
“Well, I would take my pants off since it scared them off before, but the thing is, I don’t want to scare you off either. I want to do this right.”
“How dare he suggest getting unclothed in front of ladies,” Lottie screeched.
Sal snickered and disappeared, but Lottie remained, muttering under her breath about indecency, making Mercedes laugh softly.
“Ghosts?” he asked. “Or are you laughing about my nudity? Ireallyhope you’re not laughing about that.”
“No, not that. Ghosts. You have insulted them. One left, but one is lingering and she’s the one who thinks you’re a bit of a brute.”
“He is!” Lottie said with indignation before spiriting away in an ectoplasmic ball through the wood-paneled lobby wall.
Magnus laughed and then took her hand, leading her toward the dining room. “I wanted to be thought of as a bit of a brute in my raiding days. I guess we all did.”
She frowned. “Oh, I hate hearing that.”
“Well, not that bad. Trust me. It’s a bad rap that Vikings get. We weren’t all like that and I wasn’t, but I did have a reputation for being a womanizer. So I suppose that’s what she means by brute. I did more exploration than raiding if I’m honest.”
“And now?”
“There’s only woman I want to womanize.” His brow furrowed. “That sounded way better and way more romantic in my head.”
She chuckled and squeezed his hand. “I get it.”
And she did.
This is why she’d fallen for him in the first place. All those funny awkward texts. She relaxed a bit. Tonight was going to be just fine, as long as the ghosts kept their distance and nothing exploded.
Chapter
Twelve
Magnus let go of her hand and opened the sliding door to the dining room. She gasped when she saw the beautiful setup. She’d been in the dining room before, cleaning it, but it was something different with the beautiful china on the linen table cloths, candles burning in silver candlesticks. The dark wood walls and the fireplace with a crackling fire added ambiance to the room.
Everything shone and sparkled under the crystal chandelier.
“Well?” he asked.
“It’s beautiful.”
“I wanted to outdo Finbar’s first date with Margaid,” Magnus said smugly. “And I wanted to make up for our bad first date.”
“I think this does it.”
