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I swallow. And bite my lip, trying to think of something to say. ‘I’ve never met a ghost before.’

‘I gathered,’ he snarks.

‘You’re rude,’ I snark back.

‘You’re invasive.’

Ditto.

Walker throws down his jacket on trajectory with the back of the couch where I was just sitting. It disappears. I frown and fight the urge to go and check to see if it just fell off the back.

‘Prove it,’ I say, the words leaving my lips without consent.

Walker pins me with ice-blue eyes. ‘Prove what?’ he over-annunciates.

I get to my feet and give him my most authoritative stare, chin tilted and looking down my nose – which is actually rather difficult considering how much taller he is than me.

‘Prove that you’re a ghost,’ I demand, straightening my lime-green pin-stripe pyjamas that barely cover my bodacious booty. (Note to self: buying pyjamas two sizes too small does not encourage dieting, in fact, it only works to ensure the crease between arse and thighs is fully visible for anyone within a kilometre radius.)

Walker rolls his eyes.

And then he’s gone. Evaporated into nothing, not even a trail of smoke left behind. Completely disappeared, van⁠—

A chill licks up my spine the second a warm breath of air touches the shell of my ear, and a low voice drawls, ‘Satisfied?’

I jump a few feet away, narrowly avoiding another run in with the coffee table.

I screech.

Again.

The house trembles.

Again.

Walker straightens his cuffs, looking entirely unimpressed. ‘Grow up.’

The cheek of this guy. Now what? An exorcism? An expulsion? Do I fricken sage the space?

‘If you’re a ghost, shouldn’t you have, I don’t know… moved on?’

‘Oh, the irony,’ he drawls, looking pointedly at me.

I’m not fucking moving. I have nowhere to move.

‘So?’

‘So, what?’

‘So, what are we doing about this? Also, how long have you been here? Have you been spying on me? Shit, I’ve been walking ’round naked! Have you⁠—?’

‘Calm down, I only just got home. The hysterics are completely unwarranted.’

I scoff. Hysterics. I double scoff. Home – like he pays the rent. Shit. How am I going to deal with this? I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a couple deep breaths, trying to centre myself. Come on, Miller. Pull it together.

The house is still slightly shaking.

I look up at Walker through my lashes. ‘Is that you?’