Phineas spun around and his heart did a jump seeing Pearl standing in front of him. He was distracted today. Everyone wassneaking up on him. Hands clasped in front of her, she smiled up at him tenderly.
“Hi,” he said. “I didn’t expect to run into you here.”
Great conversation starter.
“Clearly, but I remembered that my appointment with the hospital human resources department isn’t quite yet, so I thought I would pick up a coffee at Cool Beans. I saw you talking to Flo and Mercedes, and I thought I would come over and ask if you’d like to join me?”
He did and he didn’t, but he also could never resist her.
“Sure.”
“Good.” She tucked a strand of her shimmering hair behind her ear as she fell into step beside him. “How have you been?”
“Good.”
Pearl shot him a look of disbelief. “Really?”
“What?”
“Good is the only thing you’re going to say to me? We’ve barely spoken in a year and all I get is good?”
“Good is an apt update of my life. Good is…”
“Don’t say good!”
“It’s a fine word.”
“I can tell when someone is lying, remember?”
Phineas sighed, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “It’s better than telling you it’s been boring and uneventful. Unlike you going off to the city and learning.”
“I find it hard to believe nothing has happened to you this past year. So much has changed in Harmony Glen. Like my brother marrying Margaid. Magnus and Sven’s curses are broken. There are visible ghosts in Room with a Tomb.”
Phineas shuddered. “Don’t remind me.”
Pearl cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t like the ghosts. Okay, granted Mario’s nudity is a bit shocking but?—”
“It’s not that I don’t like…oh, who am I kidding. Yeah, I’m not particularly fond of the spirits of the dearly departed.”
Or the fact that there was a portal to the other side in the basement of Room with a Tomb. It was a fact Magnus and Sven didn’t advertise, or they’d be constantly overrun by people looking for connection to the afterlife.
Too many strangers in town, which had him on edge.
His father always taught him to be wary of newcomers, and it was one thing being able to see ghosts, but it was another to mess with the veil between life and death.
Maybe you could see your parents?Phineas shook that thought away. He hoped, wherever they were, they were at peace. What he knew of their life before coming to Harmony Glen had been far from peaceful, and they hadn’t liked talking about it. In fact, the only family photo he had of them from when he was an infant was torn and tattered.
His mother had said it got ruined when they were fleeing during a storm.
Still, he’d often catch her touching that torn edge, like she was grieving. There was something his parents had never told him, and now no one was left to explain why his parents were isolated and scared.
“You’ve gone somewhere else,” Pearl said softly.
“Pardon?” He blinked a couple of times to dispel the memories of his mother.
“You completely zoned out.”
“I’ve had a lot on my mind this year.” Which wasn’t a lie. He did.
