A Highland Ghost for Christmas: Gambling Ghosts Series (1)

by Jo-Ann Carson

  He tapped three times.

  “You’re over three hundred years old?”

  One tap.

  “Can I see you? Wait, that’s a stupid question. I can’t. Is there something I can do to see you?”

  Cullen spotted a pen and a pad of paper on the far side of the counter. He brought them both back to the table and started writing.

  “I am no deamhan. My name is Cullen Macfie, of the clan Macfie. I was born in 1720 in the Highlands of Scotland, though my ancestral home is the Inner Hebrides. You need not fear me. I am your friend.”

  Maddy watched as the pen flew over the paper. A Highland ghost! A friendly, Highland ghost.

  “Do you wear a kilt?”

  “Aye, mo nighean dubh, my brown haired lass, I do,” he said as he wrote, “with nothing underneath but my manhood.” CeeCee hadn’t said he had to behave.

  “A man in a kilt.” That was something to dream about. “Did you die in battle?”

  The page turned and the word, “No,” appeared. “A man caught me kissing his bride.”

  She laughed. “You are a bad boy, then.”

  He shrugged, but she couldn’t see that.

  “Why are you still here?”

  After a few seconds he wrote, “My shrink says I’m not ready for the big guy.”

  She laughed.

  “But that’s okay. I like it here. I play poker every day.”

  “Did they play poker in eighteenth-century Scotland?”

  “I’ve always been a betting man. I picked up the card game later in America where I was banished for poor behavior.”

  “I see.”

  Silence.

  “Well, you’ve certainly taken my mind off of my problems.”

  “I would like to run your horny toad through with a sword for hurting you.”

  She giggled. “But you wouldn’t.”

  He wrote nothing.

  “He’s not that bad a guy. We had fun, especially in the beginning.”

  “How long did you know him?” He didn’t really want to know about a man who was stupid enough to let this woman go, but he wanted to keep her talking and he wanted even more for her to get over Kevin. As in, well over.

  “Five years. We met at the university. We both liked watching film noir and playing tennis. We spent almost all our free time together. When we started our careers we had less play time, but we worked hard to maintain our relationship and planned to be married this spring.”

  Worked hard on their relationship? That sounded odd. “What did you like about him?”

  “Kevin’s good looking.”

  He shouldn’t have asked.

  “And witty.”

  He hated him.

  “And,” she sighed.

  “Sexy?” he wrote.

  “Yes, well, to look at.”

  Sexy to look at? What did that mean? “I don’t understand?”

  “He’s drool-worthy cute when he wears a suit, but not so great beyond that.”

  “I dunna understand.”

  “When he kisses me, the magic just isn’t there. You know. I used to think it would come with time, but it never did. I decided he was a practical choice for a husband. Together we could afford to own a home and raise a family. I want that more than anything. But, truth be told, he was more a buddy than a . . .”

  “Lover? Then it’s you who should be running. You don’t want to marry your buddy even if he has the right equipment.”

  “That’s not a problem now.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  She sighed and tears welled in her eyes. “We had planned to have dinner at his place. I got off early to surprise him. But boy oh boy was I surprised. I found him lying on the sofa with a blonde-haired bimbo all over him.”

  “I see.”

  Tears rolled down her face. “She’s not even pretty.”

  He said nothing.

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Mo maise, my beauty, he’s an idiot. No man in his right mind would cheat on you. He’s not worthy to breathe the same air as you.”

  Maddy smiled. Was it wrong to take counsel from a ghost? Maybe a little odd. But one thing for sure, Cullen made her feel better than she had felt for a long time.

  “Is it really true Highland warriors wear nothing under their kilts?” Her cheeks heated as she spoke, but it was something she had always been curious about. “Or were you just teasing me?”

  Before he had a chance to answer, someone pounded on her front door.

  “Let me in, Maddy. We have to talk.” The sound of Kevin’s voice pierced her heart with a sliver of ice.

  “Kevin!”

  Peace in her World

  Maddy opened the door and burst into laughter. There sat Kevin the toad looking dazed, with red wine dripping off his chin.

  “What the hell?” he mumbled.

  “Serves you right,” she said between laughs.

  He rubbed his head and looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened. “I came to apologize. I made a mistake.” He squinted with wine-soaked eyelashes. “Several mistakes.”

  “Yes you did, but an apology won’t make that right. No words will ever erase the image of you and that . . . that woman on our sofa.”

  “I know it was wrong.” He stood up slowly.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

  That’s what they all say. “You couldn’t keep it zipped, eh?” The night before he had told her he was too tired and that doubled the hurt.

  “No. Listen. You need to let me come in to explain it all. Give me a chance. Then if you want to throw me out, you can.”

  Maddy eyed him narrowly. They had been together for five years. The wedding had been set for May. They had monogramed napkins for the reception and she had in her closet the wedding dress of her dreams. Shouldn’t she at least listen to him? “Okay, come in.”

  Kevin rubbed his head one more time and collected the smashed roses. As he entered the house he handed her a bunch of broken, long-stemmed flowers missing petals.

  She put them directly into the garbage, which now smelled of coffee and roses. Cullen took the door from Kevin’s hand and slammed it shut.

  “What the?”

  “Never mind the door. It does that sometimes. Wind currents or something.”

  “Since when?”

  “What did you want to tell me?”

  “Oh. That. The day you walked in on me with the other woman . . . it had been a horrible day at the office. I lost a big account and Jenkins threatened to . . .”

  The fruit bowl on the counter turned upside down, emptying all the apples. It then floated through the air to the sink. Kevin stopped talking and watched. His Adam’s apple went up and then down. The tap turned on, the bowl filled with water and then it headed through the air to him.

  Kevin ran from the house screaming, with the bowl following a foot behind his head. He didn’t look back.

  7

  Angels and Highlanders

  “Well you certainly got rid of him.”

  Cullen strutted to the kitchen and picked up the pen on the counter. “There is no excuse for what he did. If you forgave him, he would only do it again. You don’t need him.”

  “Will you let me see you now?”

  He frowned. “I am what they call a 2B—a class two—benevolent ghost. I can’t appear whenever I want to.”

  “They classify you?” Unbelievable. But then everything about this night was beyond her imagination.

  “Aye, they do. Class ones appear anytime they want, anywhere they want, but class two’s have less talent. I can only appear in the pre-dawn light for thirteen minutes and then I fade away. Ye ken? But I can move things around with my ghostly energy any time I want.”

  She nodded. “Will you appear for me?”

  “Aye, if you would like to see me.”

  Maddy smiled. “But I can’t touch you.”

  “No, mo maise, if you try to touch
me you will feel only air. I no longer have a body, but I still have a heart.”

  “And a mischievous spirit.” She winked. Conversing with air felt awkward.

  “Aye.”

  “What do you want with me?” She had to ask.

  Cullen hesitated before answering. Was it too much to ask a lady for her company? Things had changed over the centuries. How men and women interacted had changed. Not the best stuff, of course, but the dance before it. Ach, it gave him nightmares. He didn’t want to scare her away and being a man of honor, he didn’t want to lie to her. “Just your company.”

  “Okay.”

  If he still had lips, he would have kissed her right then, but he didn’t, so he flew over to her wind chime and made it ring.

  She laughed. “You can stay the night. I would love to get to know you and you can tell me all about your ghostly realm and your ancestral home. And then, when the sun peaks over the horizon, I will finally meet you.”

  Cullen picked up the spoon from the table, the pen and the pad of paper with his writing on it and moved them all to the table in the living room. Maddy followed and sat on the sofa opposite the Christmas tree. She curled her legs underneath her.

  What a sight she was to behold. He found himself locked on her full lips wondering how they would taste, and then he realized they were moving.

  “Cullen? Cullen? Are you still there?”

  He tapped once with the spoon.

  “Tell me about your life. Were you married? What was it like to live in the eighteenth century?”

  Cullen wrote a paragraph at a time, telling her about his uncle’s castle in the Highlands. She had many questions and he enjoyed the conversation, until she asked, “Why were you kissing a married woman?”

  Not even CeeCee had asked him that. He took a minute to think about how to explain himself. “Bronwyn was my childhood sweetheart. I loved her as long as I can remember. But she was betrothed to an Englishman. Many people thought intermarriage was the way to bring peace to the land, in those days. She obeyed her father, but I know her heart was always mine.”

  “So the Englishman killed you.”

  “Yes, he killed me and, as I lay bleeding out on the ground, he killed her.”

  “Oh, my. Both of you. Is she also a ghost?”

  “Ach, no. Bronwyn was always pure of heart. She passed directly to heaven.”

  “And you have a black heart? I find that hard to believe.”

  “With my dying breath I cursed the Englishman and swore to all that was holy and unholy that I would avenge Bronwyn’s murder. That hatred has kept my spirit alive.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “I’d rather talk about you. Do you have plans for Christmas?”

  Maddy couldn’t remember enjoying a man’s company as much as she enjoyed Cullen’s. He was so easy to talk to. Granted, she couldn’t see his expression, and for all she knew he could be sticking his tongue out at her, but their conversation was so darn comfortable and interesting, the way she had always thought it should be between a man and a woman. He didn’t interrupt her once. She sighed. “Christmas. I love everything about the season.” She told him about her plans to drive north to visit with her family.

  “I haven’t finished my tree yet,” she said. “Would you like to help me with the decorations?”

  One tap.

  Two unopened boxes of tinsel lay on the quilted skirt beneath the tree. She picked up the first box and he took it from her. She laughed as the tinsel came out of the container and flew on to the tree. She had always thought tinsel magical, the way it reflects light and gives the tree a shimmering look. Decorating with a ghost made it all the more magical.

  “Are you getting tired?” he wrote. “You can go to sleep. I’ll stay here until morning, in case the toad pops up again.”

  The thought of him saying “toad” in a thick Scottish brogue started her giggling. Yes, she was tired. “But I don’t want to miss seeing you in the morning light.”

  “I’ll wake you,” he wrote.

  8

  Christmas in her Kitchen

  Maddy woke to the sound of her alarm clock. She had missed the dawn. Scrambling as fast as her feet would take her, she ran to the living room. On the table, Cullen had left a note.

  “Mo Luaidh, I will see you tonight. You looked so beautiful sleeping, I couldn’t wake you.” Maddy googled the Gaelic, because he didn’t translate it for her this time. It meant, “my darling.” The warm feeling of friendship he had ignited in her heart the day before notched up a few degrees. Oh poop. It was just her luck to fall for a ghost. Wonder what he looks like. She threw on some clothes and walked Booker around the block, thinking of nothing but the Highlander.

  On the way to work she called Ellie. “I have to thank you. Thank you. Thank you, for the best Christmas present ever.”

  “A bad tea-leaf reading in a house with gamblers, guns and ghosts?”

  “You gave me a Highland ghost.”

  “What?”

  Maddy told her all about the night she spent with Cullen.

  “Well, at least you can’t get pregnant.” Ellie, ever the thoughtful friend, always saw the bright side. “And I like that he clobbered Kevin with the flowers.” She laughed. “But a ghost? Really? You might want to think twice about getting involved with one of them.”

  After work Maddy went straight home, eager to spend time with Cullen. On her kitchen table sat an enormous vase of large pink peonies. Her breath caught in her throat. She had mentioned they were her favorite flowers and he had remembered.

  Booker lay amicably under the kitchen table, chewing a long piece of rawhide. Obviously the boys had bonded.

  Cullen turned on the tap and poured water into the kettle. He was making her tea. Could he be any more thoughtful? They chatted about her day and his poker game. Apparently the pirate had won most of the games so, unlike the day before, she didn’t shoot anyone. Cullen said he didn’t mind losing because he had tonight to look forward to.

  “I was planning on baking shortbread,” said Maddy. “I always take home a few cookie tins filled with my favorites. Would you like to help me?

  “I remember the taste of shortbread,” Cullen wrote. “I would love to. Do you have an apron I could wear? That way, you’ll know where I am.”

  “Great idea, but I only have one, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

  “Did you want to wear it?”

  “No, no. I wasn’t planning to, but I don’t think you’ll like it.” Heat rose to her cheeks and she bit her lip. “It’s was a gift from Kevin.”

  “Ach, the toad. I’ll do my best to stain it. Maybe I can even light it on fire.”

  What the heck. She pulled it out of her drawer and handed it to him. When he unfolded it, she expected him to decline. But not Cullen. He put it on and flew around the room.

  Her mind reeled with the image of a Highlander in a kilt underneath the pink apron covered with tiny, red hearts. And the best part was the saying on the bodice: “Caution. Extremely Hot.” She laughed. Hanging out with Cullen rocked.

  After he had circled her a few times, he stopped by the table and wrote: “I like hot.”

  Maddy sighed. Why couldn’t she find a guy like him? Of course it would be better if he breathed. “Guess we should get started.” She pulled the butter out of the fridge and put it on the counter.

  Cullen opened every cupboard in the kitchen and dirtied all her spoons. He was more a menace than a help, but she didn’t care. Flour flew through the air more than once and by the time the dough was complete, she had flour in her hair and all over her face. Cullen’s playfulness knew no bounds. After the pie plates filled with batter went into the oven, she turned towards her ghost in the pink apron.

  “That was fun.”

  “Aye. You deserve to be with a man who makes you happy. What’s the saying? A man who makes a mess of your lipstick, not your mascara?”

  “Ever thought of writing for a greeting card
company?”

  “Maddy, sweet Maddy, you know in your heart I’m right. Kevin is a scoundrel. He’s not just black hearted. He’s stone-stupid. You deserve much better.”

  She exhaled slowly. “Yes, you’re right. I should have ended it long before I found him in another woman’s arms. But I didn’t . . . I don’t . . . want to be alone.”

  “A woman as beautiful and kind and charming as you will never be alone for long.”

  “Most men don’t notice me the way you do.”

  “But you don’t want most men. You want a real man who knows how to treat his woman.”

  She nodded. “That would be a dream come true.”

  “So find him.”

  “Will you let me see you in the morning?”

  Cullen took a step back. Did he dare? Her eyes shone with hopefulness and, damn, he didn’t want to disappoint her. She had had enough of that. “In the pre-dawn light,” he wrote.

  9

  Not so Merrily on High

  “In the pre-dawn light?” CeeCee hissed in his ear. “What are you doing, Highlander?” She said all of this as she sucked his spirit, with her supernatural, vacuum lips, back to her office between realms.

  “The lass wants to know what I look like.”

  “Madison Jacobson is falling for you, hard, and you know it, you stupid old Scot.”

  Cullen sighed. “What if she is. She needs a good man.”

  CeeCee stared at him.

  “Okay, maybe I’m not so good. But you know what I mean. I would never break her heart by cheating on her. I will bring her flowers. Hell, I even baked cookies with her.”

  CeeCee continued to stare.

  “We have fun together.”

  Her eyes glowed red.

  “It’s been good for her to have me around. She’s smiling again.”

  Steam flowed from CeeCee’s ears.

  Cullen put his hand to his chin. Perhaps he hadn’t really thought this through. He rambled around the shrink’s sterile office filled with the latest books on ghost therapy. CeeCee’s steam warmed the room to an uncomfortable level and gave it a sulfer smell, which reminded him of the preview he’d been given of the lower world. He paced.