Still, I did need to get away. Why not?
“Whoa! Looks like it might be time to get this guy a new home.”
I followed Lucas’s voice into the kitchen and squealed when I realized what he was talking about.
There in the kitchen window sat the small potted plant I’d tried to enchant the night before.
Only, instead of occupying a three-inch terra-cotta pot, the leaves had tripled in size and were spilling down the sides and hanging off the shelf, dangling over the kitchen sink.
“You been feeding this thing plant steroids?” Lucas teased.
I tried to smile, but couldn’t do anything but stare. I guess now the question was answered.
“I can’t believe summer is almost over.”
Lucas pulled his gaze away from the sunset and smiled at me from his place across the small bistro table. We were having our final dinner together al fresco at a quaint waterfront eatery that overlooked the mouth of the harbor where it fed into the sea. “There are still a few weeks left,” he said.
“Well, not for you.”
He reached out and took my hand. “It’s not going to be easy to say goodbye to this place, to you.”
My eyes burned as I swallowed hard to drive down the lump in my throat. “Nine months is a long time,” I said quietly. “Are we being naive here?”
Lucas squeezed my fingers. “Don’t think about that right now.”
I knew he was right. Dwelling on it all night wouldn’t change anything and would sap away the joy left in the time remaining to us. His plane left the following afternoon and it would be best to simply enjoy each other. But it was hard when the thought of saying goodbye brought tears to my eyes. Somehow, against all odds, Lucas had found a way into my heart and even though I still had no idea where it was all headed, it was getting harder to imagine life without him around.
But for now, our time together was nearing an end. Whether we wanted to or not, we were heading into uncharted waters.
Lucas ordered us two more glasses of wine and we settled in to watch the last lingering minutes of the sunset.
“Should we toast to something?” I asked when the server returned with our wine.
Lucas lifted his glass and held it toward mine. “Safe to say that we’re making this thing official?”
“This thing?” I repeated, grinning up at him. “Now that’s romantic.”
“What can I say? I’m a real smooth talker.”
“I’ve noticed.” I fidgeted with the stem of my glass.
Lucas’s eyes darkened. “Scarlet, you know where I stand.”
I nodded. “I do.”
He paused, waiting for me to fill in the space, but my tongue tangled together and knotted up on the words I wanted to say. After a moment, he cleared his throat. “Maybe we should just toast to the summer?”
“Lucas, I— “
“Scarlet, I’m not going to rush you or ask for something you don’t want to give to me.”
“No, no!” I waved a hand. “That’s not what this is. I’m just …” I drew in a shaky breath. “I’m just terrible at this stuff.”
I looked past his shoulder, finding a rare moment where I actually wished there was a ghost hovering over us. At least maybe they could have fed me lines.
“Lucas, I know this is going to be tough. Time apart is rough on even the most established relationships. We’re probably a little crazy, but hey, that’s where I live. Crazyville, USA.”
He laughed. “Sounds fun.”
“I’ll send you a postcard sometime.”
“Scarlet,” he said, stroking his thumb over my knuckles. “The best thing about living lives like ours is that we’ve learned to be really flexible. I’m not looking for ordinary and I know you aren’t either. Sure, it might get messy and complicated, but I’m thinking we’re both already good at handling the hard stuff. You don’t travel the entire world and not know how to improvise.”
“That’s true.”
“I get breaks every six weeks in between shoots. I can come here or you can fly to me. We’ll figure it out.”
I smiled. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.” He lifted his glass a second time. “Cheers to that?”
I smiled as relief flooded my stomach, driving out the pit of fear that had been camping out there for way too long. After Kimberly and Ruth were sorted out, Lucas and I found that the earlier hiccups in our relationship started to fade to the background, and despite the more-than-occasional ghostly interruptions, we ended up having a summer for the record books.
The past six weeks with Lucas had been something out of a fairy tale—or, at the very least, a really good rom-com. Late night conversations on the sand surrounded by a blanket of stars, fancy dinners at some of the area’s finest restaurants, and casual nights in with a pizza and Netflix. The road trip down the Washington coast into Oregon went off without a hitch, filled with good food, campfires on the beach, and the best part—instead of coming home to a pile of cinders and some majorly pissed off ghosts, I found that Lizzie had kept the shop up and running without a hitch.
My glass met his with a tiny clank. “Cheers to figuring it out.”
We each took a sip, smiling at each other over the rims of our respective glasses. When Lucas set his glass aside, he shifted in his seat and then reached into the interior of his casual suit jacket. “In that case, there is actually something I wanted to ask you.”
My heart surged into my throat and for one panic-attack-inducing moment, I thought he was reaching into the pocket of his jacket for a ring box. Instead, he retrieved a white envelope. With a smile, he handed it to me and sat back while I opened it.
“What is this?” I asked, even as I sliced one fingernail under the flap.
“The first reno of the season is of an old hotel down in NOLA.”
I dumped out the contents of the envelope and found a printed boarding pass for a flight to New Orleans. The dates were three weeks out with a week in between the departure and return flight.
“I want you to come visit me on set. See what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into.”
I raised an eyebrow. “In New Orleans? AKA the ghost capital of the world?”
Lucas chuckled. “Well, I did consider the possibility that the hotel the Carter’s have purchased might have an infestation and that it would be a good idea to have all hands on deck. Just in case.”
“Just in case?”
He laughed. “Come on. What do you say? We can have beignets and coffee and listen to some jazz. Get a tarot card reading?” He waggled his eyebrows.
I laughed. “What, did you read a tourist brochure before coming to dinner? There’s more to NOLA than pastries and voodoo.”
“You’ll have to show me,” he said. “It’ll be my first visit, oddly enough.”
“I see.” Visions of walking the French Quarter, drinking in the architecture and laughing together about some shared joke from the night before floated in my head.
If nothing else, a week and a half away from the ghosts would be nice …
“All expenses paid,” Lucas added, sweetening the pot.
“Okay,” I replied, with a nod. “You’ve got a date.”
After all, what better place that New Orleans to tell your boyfriend that you might have more magic powers.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Ghosts Gone Wild! I hope you enjoyed your return to Scarlet’s world and, of course, to Beechwood Harbor. I really enjoy writing about Scarlet and her ghost pals. Sometimes I imagine her as a ventriloquist who has lost control of the puppets—it’s all chatter, all the time! In the next book, When Good Ghosts Get the Blues, we will be hitting the road and heading to New Orleans for an extra magical story with some voodoo and a few new friends!
Grab your copy of When Good Ghosts Get the Blues. I promise you won’t want to miss it!
Until next time,
Danielle Garrett
www.DanielleGarrettBooks.
com
Acknowledgments
First of all, I would like to thank my parents, who fed my love of reading from an early age. My sister, for supporting my desire to tell stories since I started “over complicating” our Barbie doll’s lives.
For my handsome husband, you know how much I love you. I appreciate your daily support (and for listening to all of my writerly rants and keeping my caffeinated at all times).
Thank you to Theresa, my fabulous editor for all of your tips and kind words. And Keri, for the killer covers.
Writing can be a solitary passion, but with all of you beside me, it’s never lonely.
Thank you.
About Danielle Garrett
From a young age, Danielle Garrett was obsessed with fantastic places and the stories set within them. As a lifelong bookworm, she’s gone on hundreds of adventures through the eyes of wizards, princesses, elves, and some rather wonderful everyday people as well.
Danielle now lives in Oregon and while she travels as often as possible, she wouldn’t want to call anywhere else home. She shares her life with her husband and their house full of animals, and when not writing, spends her time being a house servant for three extremely spoiled cats and one outnumbered puppy.
For more about Danielle and her work, please visit her at:
www.daniellegarrettbooks.com
www.facebook.com/daniellegarrettbooks
Ghosts Gone Wild: A Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mysteries Book 2) Page 19