“You think so?”
Danny shrugged. He hoped so because that would help in his mission to get Travis to understand what had happened the night he died. “Perhaps Katie would be a little more open than he is, though. Of course, they both heard me whistle at Angus, before convincing themselves it had been done by the other one. One way or another, I’m going to get through his thick skull.”
Ben nodded. “I believe you will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an equally stubborn woman in Oregon to pay a visit to.” He slapped Danny on the back. “If I strike out with Gail and you do with Travis, however, we’ll go to plan B.”
Whatever that is.
* * *
After pulling himself away from Danny, Ben had instantaneously found himself in the kitchen of Gail’s Portland bungalow. She looked worse than the last time he’d been there, dark circles under her eyes and a row of pill bottles scattered across the beat-up tabletop. She wasn’t staring at those, though. Instead, she had a photo in her hand. He drew closer to see who it was, having a feeling he already knew.
Kate.
Strangely enough, it was from the same day as the birthday photo Kate had held onto all these years and had taken out tonight. Their daughter wore her Sunday best and a smile as wide as Kentucky. The joy in her eyes as she looked up at her mother in this one gave him another pang of regret.
“I was so wrong, Gail.”
“About time you figured that out, you bastard. A little late, though.”
“Bullshit. Kate will welcome you back in a minute.”
“We went over this last time. I’m not going to mess up her life at this stage in the game. She probably thinks I’m dead by now, anyway.”
“No, she doesn’t. She’s just afraid to get her hopes up and search you out only to be rejected.” He almost said again, but caught himself in time. Gail had never rejected their daughter. She’s just been a lost soul herself.
Gail stood, the maple chair scraping against the linoleum as she made her way to the sink to fill a glass of water from the tap. Her blonde hair was held up by a clip. She’d always worn it loose when they were married. He’d loved her hair. While Kate had inherited his brown hair, Chelsea’s was exactly like her grandmother’s.
“Write her another letter,” he begged. “You can find her address on a computer somewhere. It’s not a rural route address any longer but has a road and house number. I promise no one will intercept this one.”
She shook her head as she carried the glass back to the table and started opening the pill bottles. “I wouldn’t know where to start. It’s better she hates me for deserting her than to be ashamed of me for what I did to survive.”
He didn’t like hearing the despondency in her voice. She’d always been lighthearted and carefree. “Don’t do anything stupid with those.” Danny’s story about mixing pills and booze made Ben nervous, although she didn’t seem to have any alcohol nearby.
She grinned wryly. “These are just for diabetes and high blood pressure, you old coot. I’m not planning to off myself, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Good, because I met up with a fella on this side—a fellow Army vet—whose death looked like a suicide to his friends. Says it wasn’t, but the folks left behind don’t know that.”
A thought suddenly occurred to him. Would Gail’s death trigger a next-of-kin notification for Kate? He was afraid to ask, but if he couldn’t get her to reconnect with Kate while alive, he didn’t want Kate to get word from her mother only after Gail had crossed over to this side.
Dammit, he needed to get the two of them together sooner than later. “Don’t you even want to see your granddaughter? She looks more like you every day.”
Gail stared at him, wrinkling her brow, and he caught the first spark of light in her eyes. “I didn’t know Kate married.”
“She didn’t, but she has a twelve-year-old daughter who’s the spitting image of you.”
Her eyes grew bright. “That’s incredible. I would love to see her. Is she on Facebook?”
“What’s Facebook?”
“An online social media thing.”
He drew a deep breath. She only wanted to see her on a computer screen? “How the hell would I know? I never even used a computer. But I’d guess most of her social life is at school and church.”
Gail shook her head. “You never could keep up with the times.” She stared at her hands a moment, then whispered, “I’ve tried to find Kate there, but she must not be into that stuff, either.”
“Too busy running that farm.”
Gail gave a lopsided grin. “She surely didn’t inherit my vagabond genes, did she? You were always so connected to that land. Her roots run deep there. I’m beginning to think having roots isn’t a bad thing anymore.”
“I wish you’d get in touch with her. You don’t need to spend your last years all alone when you have family out there to love you. You moved around too much.”
“I’ve been here in Oregon for eight years and nine months.” Apparently, she could settle down in one place if she wanted to. “Only reason I’m here is that I held my last job here. I can’t work anymore but got on subsidized housing.”
Ben sighed. “I bet your daughter would put you up in our old bedroom and take care of you the rest of your life.” Were her days numbered? Obadiah had hinted that someone’s were, and Kate looked a lot healthier than Gail did.
Gail waved him away. “Go back wherever you came from, Ben. Leave me alone.”
How was he going to be able to convince Gail to reunite with her daughter in case time was running out? Kate didn’t have much to go on, either, to locate her mother. As a kid, she’d only been taught that her parents were Gail and Ben Michaels, in case of emergencies. Her birth certificate in the bank box would give Kate her mother’s maiden name, but the damned woman stopped using that when she left Reno years ago. Of all things, she went by the made-up name Serenity Chula now.
“Take care of yourself, Gail. But don’t be surprised if you hear from Kate one of these days.” He needed to lay some groundwork, though, to get the girl to embark on the search. Travis had mentioned having two sisters who found missing people. Maybe they could help—not that Kate was one to ask anyone for help.
He and Danny would just have to shake loose that last letter. Perhaps Kate would pick up on the clues to Gail’s current identity if she read between the lines.
As he receded back into the limbo he was stuck in, she faded away.
His first attempt at manipulating the physical world was busting down the springhouse door to slow things down between Kate and Travis. Danny was probably right. He needed to butt out. At least this time, he’d be doing something for good. What could be more noble than to reunite one lonely daughter with her mother?
Chapter Thirteen
The night before what would be one of the most monumental days of her life, Kate was restless. She flipped her pillow and punched it several times before trying once again to fall asleep.
“Trust him.”
Kate jumped at the sound of a strange man’s voice in her bedroom and reached for the nightstand to turn on the light, wishing she had a weapon she could use against the intruder. If only Travis was sleeping down the hall, she’d scream. But when she turned on the light, the room was empty.
“Trav’s the salt of the earth. You won’t find any man better.”
The disembodied voice seemed to be coming from near the window, but she was on the second floor, and that window was shut tight while the central air ran.
Had she fallen asleep without realizing it?
“Who’s there?”
“The name’s Danny.”
Who on earth was…wait. Danny? Travis’s friend? His dead friend?
Clearly, she was losing her mind…or dreaming.
Kate lay down again and closed her eyes. First, she’d thought she heard him in the springhouse, and now this. Perhaps if she focused on something else, her imagination would stop playing
tricks on her or she’d switch to a more interesting dream. For a moment, she tried to work out how to implement a new technique she planned to show Melissa and Miss Pickles tomorrow.
“Travis will make a great dad. You have nothing to worry about.”
Short of stuffing her fingers in her ears and chanting lalalalala the way Chelsea used to do, Kate didn’t know how to block out the disembodied voice. Maybe she could test him to see if he truly was Travis’s Army buddy haunting her bedroom.
“Sure you can. My left leg was blown off above the knee by an IED in Iraq. Just ask Travis. He’ll tell you it’s me, because I know he didn’t reveal that to you the other day when he talked about me.”
He was reading her thoughts? She remembered back to that conversation. Travis had mentioned Danny’s recent suicide, but nothing about an amputation. How was she supposed to ask Travis something like that without a good reason—something more rational than that a ghost had told her.
“Correction. It wasn’t a suicide,” the disembodied voice interrupted, again as if reading her thoughts.
“I didn’t say it was,” Kate argued, then shook her head. Now she was talking to herself…or whoever this “Danny” was.
“I know that’s what Trav told you, but he’s dead wrong. You can help him understand I didn’t think it through. Just needed some relief from the pain and mixed booze and pills.”
“I’ve never met you before. Why would he believe anything I said?”
“He trusts you. I can tell.”
She’d done nothing to earn his trust and was about to shatter any chance of him trusting her in the future.
“Look, you’re good for him. I’d seen him around my buddy Craig’s kids, and well, when I saw how miserable Trav has been blaming himself for my death, I decided he needed a distraction.”
Is that what she was?
“When I found you and Chelsea, I knew you two would help him to move on.”
Danny had been spying on them? For how long?
“You have to tell him about Chelsea, Katie.”
She sat up in bed and shouted to the wall across the room. “My name is Kate, and I don’t have to do anything.” Apparently, he couldn’t read her mind, because she’d already made that decision.
“No disrespect, ma’am, but you’re running scared and basing your decisions on some things your dad told you that, well, weren’t completely true.”
“How could you possibly know anything about him? I’ve never met you before in my life—or yours.” Did souls gain universal knowledge of life events while on the other side?
“Let’s just say your dad and I have talked a time or two.”
“Prove it.” She couldn’t believe she was challenging a ghost.
“He uses the smell of his pipe tobacco to let you know when he’s near. Most recently, he did that in Neptune’s stall.”
Okay, there’s no way he could know that, was there? Still, she wasn’t ready to concede that he really communicated with Daddy on the other side. “What was the name of his first childhood horse?”
“Hmm. That hasn’t come up in our conversations. Hold on. Let me ask him.”
He was silent a moment. Was he gone? She hoped so. She couldn’t believe he actually had gone off to consult with her father on this. Until he said, “Tigger.”
How could he have known that? Who was this guy?
“Is that right?” he prompted.
“Yeah. Tigger bounced around and bucked him off so much at first, that’s the name he gave him.” Daddy had shared lots of stories about his first horse. Sadly, the horse had suffered a ruptured aorta when only five years old. Daddy had mourned that horse a very long time.
“Now will you listen to me?”
“What exactly do you want?”
“I want you to give Trav a chance. Take a leap of faith. Tell him the truth. He deserves to know about his daughter.”
“Did Travis send you up here?”
Danny laughed out loud. “Hardly. He’s like you, trying to pretend I’m not really talking to him.”
Not unlike her father’s spirit in the springhouse earlier. “So was my daddy trying to talk to me in the springhouse tonight?”
“How should I know? I had other things on my mind.”
“I just thought all you ghosts hung out together and could read each other’s thoughts.”
“Sometimes, but I don’t belong on this side. I wasn’t finished with my life contract there. So the less time I spend with dead people, the better.”
Her head hurt trying to figure out what he was talking about.
“But Travis truly knows nothing about Chelsea. You need to tell him. Just like you need to tell him I didn’t off myself.”
“Why don’t you tell him yourself?”
“Tried, but he ignores me.” As an aside, he said, “Give me another minute, Obadiah. This is important.”
Who was Obadiah? “Okay, tell me what really happened that night, Danny.”
“New contract? All right, all right.” He sighed. “Sorry, Katie, but apparently, I’m needed elsewhere. Remember what I said. Tell Trav about his daughter. No more delays or excuses. And about me, too!”
“I already planned on telling him tomorrow.” The silence in the room was deafening. “Wait! You can’t just disappear like that! We weren’t finished talking!” Still nothing.
Kate plopped back onto the pillow, wide-eyed and staring at the ceiling. “I can’t believe I was just yelling at a ghost to come back so we could talk more.”
What just happened? Could she have dreamed it? Was she hallucinating? His knowing about Daddy’s tobacco smoke didn’t really prove anything she didn’t know herself. This could all be some elaborate half-awake dream her mind had cooked up to handle the stress of the last few days.
But there was one piece of information she didn’t know already that Travis could corroborate—did Danny lose a leg to an IED in Iraq? Which one did Danny say it was? Left? Regardless of whether she remembered that part correctly, she could try and get that information from Travis to find out if she was losing her mind or had actually been visited by a ghost.
She rolled over, stared at the empty pillow beside her, then reached out, and placed her hand on it. Having him here the past few days gave her a glimpse at what might have been if she hadn’t broken it off with him. Travis should have been here next to her all these years.
And would have been, if she’d told him about Chelsea when she’d gotten pregnant.
Tomorrow, the safe, predictable world she and Chelsea shared would be blown apart when Kate confessed her secret.
* * *
Kate had slept fitfully the night before and had gone through the morning’s lesson on automatic. She’d begged off taking Travis sightseeing, knowing she couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. But, after checking to be sure she could eat out, Travis suggested they go to Midway for a late lunch.
Now that she’d decided to tell Travis about Chelsea, she wasn’t as concerned about people in Midway seeing them together, so she jumped at the offer. But she had no intention of creating a scene in public.
Coward.
The sound system played an old Sinatra song in The Grey Goose as they were guided to a secluded table in the back. Travis held her elbow as she took her seat. She’d expected him to take his on the opposite side of the table, but instead, he chose the chair next to hers. Trying to study the menu and pretend she wasn’t aware of their arms brushing each other’s blew her concentration. Good thing she knew by heart what she wanted, because all she could think about was his scent and the warmth emanating from his body.
“What do you recommend?”
That you sit on the other side of this table.
“Um, they’re well-known for their burgers. I usually have mine without the bun, but I’m not in the mood for one today. I’m going for one of their unique pizzas. The pesto one is delish.” Her glucose was under control, and their pizzas were thin crusted, so she should be fine.
“Or you might prefer a steak, Travis. No matter what, though, we’re getting their beer cheese as an appetizer.” She was rambling, but couldn’t shut up.
“You’ve hardly looked at the menu. Did you memorize it?”
She laughed. “I’ve missed coming here, but I guess when something works, it doesn’t need to change.”
“Why don’t we share a pizza then?”
“Sure. And the beer cheese.” She loved that stuff.
He grinned. “I think we can manage to polish off both. We worked hard this morning.”
He ordered a beer and she a water with lemon as she tried once more to calm her nerves.
“I’ve had a great time with you this week, Katie.”
“It’s been nice.” Her fingers nervously rearranged her silverware.
“Spending time here with you has given me more peace than I’ve had in a long time.”
She’d enjoyed herself, too. Much more than she’d expected to when she’d first learned he was on his way here. His phone call seemed like ages ago. “I haven’t allowed myself to go for a hike or a horseback ride or even out to lunch like this in a very long while.”
“I’d love to keep stealing you away from work.” He wrapped his arm around the back of her chair, and she sat ramrod straight. Her body warmed as her breathing became shallow. Tucked away in the quiet corner with him, she wanted nothing more than to rest her head on his shoulder. But this wasn’t a date, even if he was treating it like one. Also, she wouldn’t send out signals like that just before telling him…
They sat in silence a few moments. Then he said, “Do you have any students headed to Louisville in August to compete during the Fair?”
“That depends on how well Melissa does in Lexington. She’ll have enough points, and her parents certainly can afford it. She might at least ribbon if her class is split into three groups of twenty-five, which has been the case in recent years. Still, that’s only nine ribbons for seventy-five riders. A lot of expense for such a risky outcome.”
“It’s a shame that girl you told me about the other day can’t afford to compete at the level she’d like if she’s that good,” he said.
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