Page 25 of A Ghost of a Chance

“Family expectations can be difficult to meet.”

Walking slowly, they talked of many things; shared hopes and dreams, childhood memories, ruins Rafe had explored, even favorite songs. They reached the main road where the celebrations had wound down in favor of people gathering around firelight to tell ghost stories.

At one tiny cottage, Mrs. Larkin stood on her doorstep holding candles and peering out into the darkness. “John. Frank. If you’re here, I want you to know that I miss you and I love you. And I forgive you.” She choked and a tear slid down her cheek.

Osanne looked around. The Larkin boys hovered nearby, staring at their mother, more quiet and sober than Osanne had ever seen them.

To her knowledge, her own parents had never called to her. They simply left and turned the house over to strangers.

As he continued walking, Rafe sighed softly, his expression turning mournful.

“What is it?” Osanne asked.

“It’s almost sunrise.”

He was right. Faint light spread over the land, dissipating shadows. How quickly the night had flown!

He reached for her but as last time, his hand went through her. “If only I could touch you....”

She gave him a sad smile. “Thank you again, for a wonderful night. Coming here to be with me was a great gift.”

He twisted his mouth into a mixture of grimace and smile. “I couldn’t stay away—and not merely to satisfy myself that I hadn’t imagined or dreamt you.”

She gave him her cheeriest smile. It might very well be her last, and she wanted his final memory of her to be a sweet one. “Be well, Rafe. I’ll never forget you.”

“Sleep well, Osanne.”

They reached for each other at the same time. Their hands passed through each other. Still, they held that position, imagining what it would be like to really touch.

That familiar column of light opened up between her and the sober Larkin boys. An invisible pull tugged on her. Unresisting, John and Frank glided towards the light. The instant they reached the column of light, they vanished into nothingness.

Nothing!

Osanne let out a strangled scream as terror closed in over her.

“What is it?” Rafe asked, wide-eyed and grasping for her as she began to float upwards.

“The Larkins are gone!”

Her vision distorted until everything became a watery reflection.

“Osanne?”

All the landscape, and Rafe, darkened. She fell once more into dreamless rest.

Chapter Seven

Rafe stared into the air where Osanne had been reaching for him a moment ago. Anticipating her disappearance took away the shock, but it failed to soften his loss. In fact, the emptiness came more quickly and profoundly than before. Of course, it did. After spending additional time with her, he cared even more about her than he did last year.

How foolish he had been to think seeing her again would cure him of his obsession. Over the past year, memories of her had frequently crept into his ruminations.

He feared now she would inhabit all his waking thoughts.

She had not been a dream; she had been real. But a ghost. Knowing that had satisfied his curiosity. Now what? She was still a ghost. Fate had finally sent him a woman for whom he had true feelings, but cruelly, one he could never have. No woman had ever been so far out of his reach.

Perhaps it came as a fitting punishment for his past sins. He had not loved any women he could have touched. Now, the one he might one day grow to love was a woman he never could.

Either that, or he was mad as a March hare.