Wicked Garden: A Supernatural Romance Novella

by Bryn Donovan

  Aaron winced. “Another creepy song?”

  “No, she was happy then. It was nice. I’d heard this one before. I think it’s Irish.”

  “Could be,” he said. “Lots of Irish Protestants settled around here. Including my family.”

  She gave an incredulous laugh. “I remember all the lyrics.”

  “Sing it,” Aaron urged.

  She shook her head. “I used to sing. I’m way out of practice, though.”

  Interesting. There was a lot more to this girl than she let on—but then, Aaron had suspected that from the first. “And I’m obviously a music critic,” he teased.

  Her hunched shoulders relaxed. “It starts out like...” She sang a few lines.

  My young love said to me, my mother won’t mind

  And my father won’t slight you for your lack of kind

  Although she sang softly, and rushed it a bit, the sweet, pure tone of her voice riveted him. When she stopped, he said, “Go on,” a quiet order he knew he had no right to make.

  She sat up a little straighter and continued, her voice louder now.

  And she went away from me and this she did say:

  It will not be long now till our wedding day.

  She stepped away from me and she moved thru’ the fair

  And fondly I watched her move here and move there.

  And she made her way homeward with one star awake

  As the swan in the evening moves over the lake.

  Goosebumps broke out across his skin. Her clear voice, strong and yet vulnerable, cut through every defense and subterfuge he had. She was even more radiant when she sang, with warmth and life that lit her up from within. At that moment, every part of him wanted her.

  She finished, meeting his gaze, and then ducked her head as though its intensity was too much to bear. “What?” she mumbled, her cheeks staining pink.

  “Nicole, your voice is amazing.” He took her hand, and this time she didn’t flinch, not even when he moved closer.

  She raised her eyes to meet his again, and in their blue depths he read the same longing that filled him. Her lips parted. Aaron captured them in a kiss.

  Just one short kiss—that was his intention. Nothing that would make her guard go up again. But she pressed her lips more firmly to his, burying a hand in his hair. A tiny, almost inaudible whimper from her, and he damn near lost his mind.

  He urged her mouth open under his, delving in to taste her. God, she was sweet. His heart hammered in his chest.

  She broke off the kiss, drawing back only enough to look him in the eyes. “Ohh, this is too good,” she whispered. “I’m in trouble.”

  “Welcome to the club,” he murmured. “I’ve been in trouble since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  She took in a breath. “You know, I’m just getting over a really bad breakup.”

  “He was a jerk,” Aaron said promptly, making her laugh.

  “Can’t argue with you there.”

  “Where’d you learn to sing like that?” He changed the subject to avoid hearing her reasons why she shouldn’t be kissing him. Maybe he could get her to forget them.

  She gave a wistful smile. “I started out as a music major in college. But I didn’t make the chorus I tried out for, and the head of the program didn’t really like me, and...I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t as good as I thought. So I switched to legal studies. You know, just something practical.” She rolled her eyes. “After college I was a singer in a band for a couple of years, and we even put out an album and did this whole marketing campaign, and I quit one job because we went on this tour to promote it...and nobody bought the album. At all. And then we broke up.”

  “I want to hear it. Is it on iTunes?” He grinned. “Or do you sell CDs out of the trunk of your car?”

  Her shoulders hunched up again. “Don’t make fun of me.”

  “I wasn’t!” He should have realized this was a sore spot. To make up for it, he said, “You should do something with singing. You’re so good. Don’t give up after a couple of bad experiences.”

  “You don’t know how hard those things were on me. It’s easy for you to say I’m a quitter, but you didn’t have to go through all that.”

  “I didn’t say you were a quitter.” This wasn’t going well at all. And it had been going great a minute ago. “I just think you should give it another chance. You might love it.”

  “I’m not up for more heartbreak.”

  “Maybe it’s not always going to be heartbreak.” Damn it. What exactly were they talking about?

  “Why are you pressing me on this? You don’t even know me.” Nicole stood up. “You know what? I’m going inside.”

  Exasperation washed over Aaron. He got to his feet as well. “Come on. I’m not more annoying than Creepy Ghost Girl in there.”

  Her expression drooped. “Well, I’m going to have to go in there sooner or later. What else can I do?”

  “Move out and tell Francie it’s haunted as hell.”

  She folded her arms. “Yeah, I thought of that. Two problems. One, I don’t have money to stay at a hotel while I look for an apartment. Two, if I do that, Francie will tell my mom, and my mom will get all worried and come down here, and it’ll be a huge mess.”

  He couldn’t deal with the idea of Nicole stuck in that house. “You can stay at my place a little while.” She probably wouldn’t. He forged ahead anyway. “I have a spare bedroom. And I’m a gentleman. Not that you have any way of knowing that. But I won’t even be there tonight. I’m working seven to seven.”

  Nicole’s forehead creased. “I don’t know. You know what? I’m going to go to breakfast. Or lunch, I guess.”

  “I’ll take you somewhere,” he said.

  “No, I—want to clear my head. You probably need to get some sleep, anyway.”

  The truth was, he did, though he would have gone without it to spend more time with her. “Text me later.”

  “Okay.”

  After she left, he realized he never gave her his number.

  Aaron woke at twilight to find Nicole standing at the foot of his bed.

  “Hey,” he said, sitting up. Strange that she would just barge in, and he thought he’d locked the door. Considering what she’d been through lately, though, he wasn’t inclined to judge. “What’s going on?”

  “You upset me today,” she said, her voice trembling.

  “I—What?” He’d taken out his contacts, and he peered at her, trying to make out her expression.

  “You only kissed me once. And then you backed away.” She choked on a sob. “I’m so lonely.”

  In the dim room, she seemed to glow. That wasn’t right. In a low tone, he asked, “Who are you?”

  “I am her.” The voice sounded petulant. Not Nicole’s voice. “We’re lonely.” She flickered, becoming the girl in the garden and turning back into Nicole again.

  “Stop that,” Aaron said. “Polly.”

  At the sound of her name, she reverted back into her true form, shimmering more than ever. “Do you hurt her? Do you hit her?”

  “What? No!” The accusation shook him, stirring the horrors deep in his brain.

  “I just want to be loved. I get so cold.” The words reverberated in an unearthly echo.

  Adrenaline crashed through Aaron’s veins. “You need to leave her alone. You hear me?”

  The ghost disappeared.

  Aaron launched out of bed, flipped on the light, and looked wildly around him, expecting to see the apparition in the mirror or in the hallway. Nothing.

  What the hell time was it? Was he late?

  He stalked over to the alarm clock. Six-thirty. It should have gone off at six-ten, but maybe he’d forgotten to set it.

  He had enough time to get ready and get to work, but not enough time to worry about anything else.
Unfortunately, seeing Nicole right away was out of the question. He wasn’t even sure what he’d say to her, but they needed to talk.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The next morning when Nicole came back from the coffee shop and pulled into the driveway, Aaron was sitting on the front porch swing with Mack at his feet. Maybe that was weird, him waiting for her like that, but just the sight of him lifted her spirits.

  She got out of the car and as she came up the sidewalk, Aaron stood. “Where were you?” Then he pressed his lips together, as though regretting his demanding tone. “I was worried about you.”

  Warmth curled in her belly. It was nice to have a handsome man worry about her. “I’m okay. I just went out for a latte.” She joined him on the porch. Mack trundled over to her, wagging his tail so hard it looked like it might fly off. She scratched him behind the ears.

  Yesterday Aaron’s kiss had flustered her, and then his comments about her failed musical career had struck a raw nerve. For a while, she had carried extra CDs of their band’s album in the back of her car, in hopes of selling them after shows. No one had wanted them.

  But he hadn’t meant any harm. “I did some research last night,” she told him. “Found a Frank Shepps who bought the house with his wife Polly in 1931.”

  Aaron’s eyebrows lifted. “How’d you track that down?”

  She couldn’t help but grin. “If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s dig up legal documents. He got arrested a couple of times, fights with other guys. I found his death certificate—some accidental death, really sketchy, when he was in his sixties.”

  “Not surprising.”

  “It didn’t list a surviving spouse, but I couldn’t find a death certificate for Polly. And he didn’t get arrested for what he did to her, either. He must have dumped the body somewhere.”

  “Yeah.” Aaron squinted back at the house.

  “I’m going to take you up on your offer of staying over.” She’d regretted not doing so several times over the course of the night.

  “I don’t know if that’s a solution.”

  Maybe he didn’t like her so much, after all. She tried to pretend like it wasn’t a slap in the face. “Okay, well—”

  “Don’t get me wrong. You’d be more than welcome.” He touched her arm briefly.

  Her body thrummed at the simple contact. All night, she hadn’t been able to forget his kiss. She’d envisioned what else she might like to do with him—and to him. Unfortunately, she had a very good imagination.

  He paused before continuing. “Polly visited me last night.”

  “She can get into your house?” Maybe this wasn’t so surprising. He was right next door.

  “She woke me up after sundown.”

  Nicole’s jaw dropped. “A ghost woke you up, and then you went to work with crazy people all night?”

  His expression closed up. “Don’t use that word.”

  “I’m sorry.” Clearly, he was a real professional who respected his patients, and she should do the same. “It’s just that I would’ve been scared out of my wits. You’re hardly scared of anything.”

  He gave a humorless laugh. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  “I can’t believe all this,” Nicole said. “I guess I thought ghosts were sort of on house arrest. How far do you think she can roam?”

  Aaron pressed his lips into a grim line. “No idea.”

  “I’m sorry she’s bothering you, too.”

  “Not your fault,” Aaron said, and added vaguely, “Or not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Uh...” He glanced back at the house, as though it could hear him. “You want to take a walk? There’s a park a few blocks down.”

  “That sounds nice.” Honestly, as reluctant as she was to spend time there, she probably would have taken him up on a field trip to the city dump.

  He touched the back of her arm, directing her down the porch steps. As they walked, he said, “I was getting some sleep before my shift, and I woke up with her standing at the foot of my bed.”

  “Oh my God.” Nicole put her hand to her heart. “I would’ve started screaming. What did she look like?”

  “Like you.”

  “What!” For a moment, she thought he was teasing her. “You know I didn’t break into your house, right?”

  “Yeah, I know.” He moved around her to walk on the side closest to the street. “At first she looked like you, but she was—flickering. And glowing. When I called her by name, she sort of mutated back into the girl I saw in the garden.”

  Nicole shivered. “Why would she look like me?”

  “It’s like she thinks you two are the same person. Maybe that’s why she’s showing up now.”

  “In the dream, I was her,” Nicole said. The back of her neck prickled.

  As they walked, their hands accidentally touched. She couldn’t help but be aware of his nearness—his strong, vital body next to hers.

  “What else did the ghost say?” she asked. Calling Polly Shepp by name made her too real.

  Aaron’s jaw tensed. “Something about Frank hurting her. I think he was abusive before he killed her.”

  Nicole’s heart wrenched. “That makes sense. I guess peaceful people don’t suddenly bash their wives’ brains in.”

  “Sometimes they do,” Aaron muttered.

  Oh, yeah. He’d worked with violent criminals. Nicole couldn’t imagine the things he must have heard.

  He gave her a troubled sidelong look. “I’ve got to ask you something.”

  The intensity of his tone alarmed her. “What?”

  “The way she identifies with you...you weren’t in an abusive situation before, were you?”

  “What? No.” Relief coursed through her. “Nothing like that.”

  He exhaled. “Good. You moving down here by yourself, it just got me thinking.” Then he added under his breath, “That saves me a trip.”

  Nicole blinked. “What?”

  “Up to Chicago to kick someone’s ass.”

  She laughed, and then saw by the look on his face that he wasn’t even remotely joking.

  He said, “Still, this ghost thinks you’re heartbroken like she is.”

  Nicole’s ears burned. Oblivious to her discomfort, he continued. “Maybe because you’re about her age, or maybe because in her day, it would have been strange for a woman to live alone.”

  “Or maybe because I’m legitimately heartbroken,” Nicole blurted out.

  He straightened and looked at her. “Bad breakup. Right.”

  It sounded so mundane. “Sorry.”

  “Nothing you need to apologize for.”

  The silence that followed almost made her squirm. Finally she broke it by saying, “I just thought he was the one.”

  Aaron regarded her without saying anything. Nicole was positive he wanted to ask her what happened, but he didn’t.

  Somehow, that made her want to tell him.

  “We took this road trip out to Seattle so I could meet his family. And then—right before we left, I was looking for a pair of headphones in his suitcase, and I found a diamond ring in a little box. I thought, ‘This is going to be the best Christmas of my life.’”

  “Right,” Aaron said in a low voice.

  “And you know, I was imagining the trip would be so romantic and cool, like we’d stop in little towns and eat at funky diners, and I’d have all these quirky pictures for Instagram.” God, he must think she was the most shallow and naïve person in the world. “But we kept fighting. I forgot my phone in one hotel, and we had to drive fifty miles back to get it, and he was furious. And then when we got to another hotel really late at night, he got super mad at me because he didn’t think I did enough of the driving.”

  Nicole’s throat tightened, but she wasn’t going to cry over him. She’d already d
one too much of that. “It was the way he’d yell at me, like he couldn’t even stand me. We had fights before that—I mean everybody does, right?—but these were so bad, and so close together.”

  Aaron’s pace had slowed, and his head was slightly bent and inclined in her direction. It was like he was listening to her with his whole body.

  “By the time we got to Seattle, he could barely look at me,” she continued. “His family was so confused. He and his brother played video games for hours and I was just stuck there, trying to pretend everything was fine, and then I’d go in the guest room and cry. On Christmas morning he didn’t have a present for me.” It had been the worst Christmas of her life.

  Nicole gave a bitter laugh. “And I kept thinking, you know, the trip just stressed us out, but we’ll get on the right track again. As soon as we got to my place, he broke up with me.” She looked up at Aaron. “Sometimes I wonder what he did with the ring. Is he just saving it for when he meets the right girl?”

  The corner of Aaron’s mouth tugged up. “Oh, you mean the lucky girl he’ll yell at on all his other road trips?”

  She hadn’t exactly thought about it like that. “I don’t know. I thought the fights were my fault.”

  He cast her a dubious look. “You’re pretty easy to be nice to, Nicole.” He drew the words out, as though this were the understatement of the year.

  Then he gave her a conspiratorial wink, again so quick she almost missed it. “Maybe I should go to Chicago and kick his ass, after all.”

  Nicole laughed. “No. Thanks for offering.” She hadn’t meant to get into all that. “I should really be asking you more about the ghost.”

  He looked away. “She, uh—she was mad at me for only kissing you once.”

  Nicole’s mouth dropped open. “You’re lying.”

  He gave an uneasy chuckle. “I’m not.”

  They reached the park and headed down a broad paved walkway. The branches of live oaks stretched overhead, Spanish moss dangling like icicles of smoke.

  Aaron tilted his head toward a park bench and they both sat down. Mack stretched out on the grass under their feet.