“Needs oiling,” Ghost stated.
“Leave him alone,” Lori retorted. “He’s my baby.”
“Damn big baby.”
“Says the man who lives with five cats.”
“My five make his one.”
“Don’t be mean.” Crossing to the table, Lori cooed over Dougie, who closed his eyes in bliss.
Grinning, Adam tickled him under the chin, enjoying the purring. Maybe he should get a cat, he’d been thinking about it for awhile now. Being around Matt and Ghost’s cats made him realise just how empty his house was when he got home after work. A cat was easy to care for, able to be on its own while he worked.
Yeah, he’d think seriously about it, maybe go visit the local vet and see if she had a stray that needed a home. To give a stray cat a loving home appealed to him. He had enough room.
Glancing up, he caught Barbie watching him. As soon as their gazes collided, she looked away.
Ali placed the tray of fresh scones on the table, along with small plates and knives, a container of cream and a jar of strawberry jam. Matt called Dougie over to the other side of the bench and gave him a bowl of tuna before taking his mug of hot drink and sitting down at the table.
Cutting open a scone, Adam lathered it with jam and cream, biting into it with relish. Man, it was warm, soft, sweet.
Kind of like Bar- stop right there. What was wrong with him?
“You all right?’ Ghost queried.
“Fine.” He took another bite. “Awesome scones, Ali.”
“Barbie made them, actually.” Ali licked some jam off her finger. “Delicious.”
Nods went around the table.
“Thanks,” Barbie said. “Mum taught me to make them.”
There had been some changes. Adam slanted her a look. What else had changed? How much had she changed?
“Now, you’d know.” Ali turned to Ghost.
“More than likely,” he replied. “I know everything.”
“So modest.”
“Just being truthful.”
“Whatever.” Ali waved her hand. “This is about a haunting.”
Interest perking up immediately, Ghost’s eyes lit up with that familiar gleam. “Yeah?”
“You’d think he’d get enough of that writing horror stories for a living,” Matt commented to Adam.
Grinning, Adam shook his head. Nope, Ghost not only wrote best selling horror stories for a living, he spent his spare time dragging Ali all over the countryside investigating haunted hotspots. Or rather, he set up his camera then kicked back and relaxed, waiting leisurely. No high tech equipment for Ghost, he always reckoned it spoiled the atmosphere. He just loved the stories and wanted to know if he’d see anything or capture anything on film. Set-up, relax, and wait was his motto. He got a lot of fun out of it and so did Ali, who’d’ been accompanying him since they were teenagers.
“What haunting are we talking about?” Ghost queried.
“Barbie’s house,” Ali replied.
Ghost looked at Barbie. “Your Great Aunt’s house or your house in the city?”
Adam watched her.
“Well,” she answered slowly, “my Great Aunt’s house. But I don’t know if it’s really haunted.”
“The window?” Ali raised her eyebrows. “The thuds on the veranda?”
“I could have left the window open,” Barbie began.
“You remember seeing the rain running down it.”
“Yeah, but I could have gotten confused. I was opening and closing all the windows upstairs.”
Adam’s attention sharpened. “You’re hearing strange noises?”
She glanced at him. “A few thuds, but it was probably the tree branches.”
“Is it haunted?” Ali asked Ghost.
He stroked his jaw. “Hmmm, well not that I’ve heard.” At his fiancés disappointed face, he added, “Doesn’t mean it’s not, though. It’s an old house.”
Not liking what he was hearing, Adam turned partially in the chair to face Barbie. “What did you see?”
“Nothing.” Reaching for a scone, she cut it in half. “One night I thought I saw a face in the window, but I think I was imagining it.”
Lori’s gaze switched from her to Adam and back again. “What did the police say?”
“I didn’t call them.”
Adam’s brows drew together. “Why not?”
She buttered the scone. “It was nothing, just…”
“What?’
“My imagination.” She reached for the jam. “It’s an old house, there are bound to be noises from old floorboards and things.”
“Creepy.” Lori shivered.
“If you think you see something outside, you should call us,” Adam told Barbie.
“For a wild goose chase? No.” Forgoing the cream, she took a bite of scone.
Concerned, he studied her face. “But there have been more disturbances since?”
“No.”
“Yes.” Ali shrugged when Barbie shot her a look. “What? The open window, the thuds, the face at the window. Could be ghosts.” She turned to Ghost. “We could set up a camera.”
“We could.” He looked at Barbie eagerly. “Can we?”
“Let me think about it,” she hedged.
Elbow on the table, Adam leaned forward, forcing Barbie to look up at him. Staring her right in the eyes, he ordered quietly, but forcefully, “You see anything, you hear anything, you ring the station. It could be nothing, it could be something. But call.”
He could almost see her bristle. “I’m not ringing for nothing.”
“If you see something-”
“It’s nothing, all right? Just the wind, a few fallen branches-”
“A window open that wasn’t,” Ali supplied, unfazed by Barbie’s annoyed glance.
When she picked up the mug without answering him, Adam laid a hand on her arm. “Barbie.”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll call.”
Like hell she would, he could see she had no intention of it. Matt shook his head slightly, concern in his eyes. A small frown appeared on Ghost’s forehead. Lori and Ali exchanged glances Yeah, Adam wasn’t the only one who knew Barbie was lying.
Getting up, he walked across to the phone, taking a yellow sticky slip from the pad and writing down his phone numbers. Returning to the table, he sat down and dropped the paper in front of Barbie. “That’s my phone number. If you won’t call the station, at least call me.”
Slowly, she picked up the paper. “Call you?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a cop.”
“Off-duty if I’m calling your home or mobile number.”
“I’m not off duty to those I care about.”
“You don’t care about me.” The words fell into a suddenly silent room. Clearing her throat, she placed the note back on the table. “I - I mean, you don’t know me as a - a friend.”
There was no denying that, but he could step around it. “I dated your sister years ago, I think that qualifies me.”
She swallowed. “Uh…”
“Just call. I mean it.” Frowning, he turned back to the table to find Ali, Lori, Matt and Ghost all looking from him to Barbie.
Damn it. At his scowl, they all looked away.
Lori, bless her gentle nature, filled the silence. “Barbie mentioned some rose bushes behind the house. They’d have to be old.”
“I’d say so,” Ghost replied. “They’re planted on the graves.”
That had Barbie’s head whipping up. “What?”
“The graves.” At her wide-eyed look, Ghost stopped eating. “You didn’t know?”
“About graves? No.” She looked decidedly pale.
“Shit. Sorry.” He put the scone down. “They’re family graves, if that makes it any easier.”
Adam rolled his eyes.
“Hey, man,” Ghost said. “I’d have broken it to her gently if I’d realised she didn’t know.”
“I didn
’t know,” Lori said. “Whose graves are they? And how did you know about them? This is the first I’ve heard.”
“Yeah, me too,” Ali agreed.
“Adam knows,” Ghost said, as if that made all the difference in the world.
“Penny told me,” Adam explained.
“So what about the graves?” Barbie asked Ghost.
“They’re her Uncle and Aunt’s graves. They died young, one from pneumonia, the other from what appeared to be some kind of leukaemia, it was never really discovered by the later generation.”
“There are four graves,” Barbie pointed out. “Has to be. Four rose bushes, four graves.”
“One of those is an empty grave. Penny loved a man she met in the war, a soldier, but he went MIA. He parachuted out over France when the plane he was in was attacked by enemy aircraft and was never found. Probably taken POW and died in a camp, or was shot. Maybe didn’t even make the jump.” Ghost traced his finger around the top of his mug. “Penny loved him. She never married, never forgot him. The rose bush is in memory of him.”
“Wow,” Lori said softly, “that’s so sad.”
“What about the fourth rose bush?” Barbie asked.
“Well, no one really knows.” Ghost shrugged. “One day someone noticed it, but your Great Aunt refused to say anything about it, nor did her mother. It wasn’t long after the war.”
“What a mystery,” Ali murmured.
Matt smiled reassuringly at Barbie. “I’ve not heard anyone mention the house is haunted. I’m sure it’s not.”
“So you don’t believe in ghosts?” Lori asked him.
“Well…”
They all looked at him.
“I’ve never seen one,” he finally admitted.
“Come with me on a ghost hunt,” Ghost offered.
“Have you ever seen one?”
“Heard a few things, had encounters with some cold spots. Got some beaut orbs in photos.”
“Dust on the lens.”
“So says a true sceptic.”
“So says a true fanatical believer.”
“Boys,” Lori said sternly. “Stop fighting.”
“Or what?” Matt turned to her. “You’re going to spank us?”
She pointed at him. “Don’t push it.”
“Ooohh, I’m all delightful shudders!” Matt closed the gap between them to give her a smacking kiss on the side of her neck, making her giggle and blush. “Let’s go home and you can punish me.”
“We are home.” She laughed.
“Then we’ll boot everyone out and you can spank me. I can’t wait.”
“Sweet baby Jesus.” Ali sighed.
Adam smiled, but he was aware of Barbie sitting tensely beside him. Very tense, even though her lips were curved in apparent amusement. No one would have known, but he did because he knew why.
Knew why because he remembered it so vividly.
Leaning back in the chair, he rested his hands on his thighs. Yeah, he remembered.
Barbie shifted uncomfortably, picking up her mug of tea with hands that trembled slightly. Yeah, she remembered that night, too, and to be in the same room with her now…talk about awkward.
“Speaking of spanking,” Ghost began, “we had a discussion on the internet the other day.”
“Good grief.” Ali shook her head. “The things you get into.”
“It was a discussion, honey, not a fetish.”
“I’m starting to worry about you.”
He leered.
“Anyway, continue.”
Adam wished he wouldn’t, but Ghost wouldn’t know that, and if he did he’d wonder. They all would, but no way in hell would he ever tell them.
He glanced at Barbie, who was listening with seeming politeness while her hand gripped the mug in a white-knuckled hold. What was she thinking? Feeling?
Deciding to head off what could turn out to be a disastrous discussion, he opened his mouth to change the conversation, only to have Matt ask, “What about your discussion, Ghost?”
“Spanking. One of the other writers, David, had been watching an old John Wayne movie and he mentioned a spanking scene in it. Funny that it was accepted in those days, yet nowadays you’d never see it on TV.”
“Or in comics,” Lori added. “Remember those old romance comics we found at the second hand bookshop back when we were kids, Ali? There was a bit of the old over-the-knee happening in some of those.”
“It’s now pretty common in erotic romances, or straight erotica, too,” Ali replied. “Consensual.”
Ghost looked at her. “What have you been reading?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yeah, I sure would.” He looked her up and down with a gleam in his eyes.
She held up one hand. “Back off. No funny ideas.”
“We could class it as research.”
“I think one threat was enough.”
Sitting as silent as Barbie, Adam looked sharply at Ghost. “You threatened Ali with a spanking?”
“Hey,” Ghost protested, “it was only once. And I didn’t actually carry it out. Besides, Matt did, too.”
Jesus, was he hearing correctly? Adam switched his gaze to Matt.
Matt held up one finger. “Once. Just once, I swear. And I didn’t carry it out, just for the record, Officer.”
Lori was blushing, but Ali just grinned.
“Seriously,” Adam said. “Would you have really done it?”
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Barbie stiffen even more, staring down into her mug. Her other hand slipped down to rest in her lap, fingers fisting. He had to fight the urge to cover her hand and squeeze gently. Bit bloody late for that now.
Bit late for her, bit late for her sister, bit late for him. Bit late all the way around.
“Dunno,” Ghost said, only to yelp when Ali punched him on the arm. “Ouch!”
“You better answer that with a no,” she warned him.
“No,” he said. “No, I wouldn’t have done it.” He looked sideways at Ali. “You scare me.”
“You arse.”
Grabbing her around the waist, he hauled her across his lap to sit sideways, laughing as she struggled. Hugging her tightly, he assured her sweetly, “I wouldn’t hurt a hair on your pretty head, honey.”
Immediately she softened. “Oh, Ghost.”
“Oh, gag,” Matt muttered.
Ghost looked over Ali’s shoulder at him. “You mean you would?”
“Depends on the circumstances.” He slanted a glance Lori’s way, capturing her hand and raising it to his lips. “There’s a rule in our house. My sweetie doesn’t run herself down. That’s the only thing that would make me come after her.”
Lori blushed again. “When did this rule come in?”
“I just thought of it.” He grinned. “You like?”
“No, I don’t.”
“We can discuss it later.”
“What about a rule for you?”
“You can spank me anytime.”
“You arse.” She shoved him.
Laughing, he leaned over and kissed her, this time on the lips, a long, lingering kiss.
Looking at his friend in a new light, Adam wondered if he’d really do it. Somehow, seeing the way he was putty in Lori’s hands, he doubted it very much. Nope, seeing the teasing glint in Matt’s eyes, he knew it. Matt wouldn’t spank his beloved Lori.
But as for himself…
Thankfully the conversation turned to the latest escapades that Ghost’s cats had been up to, which was always entertaining. Barbie relaxed, laughed a little, and appeared to enjoy herself, but by the time a pleasant hour had passed she was making moves to leave.
“I’ll just get my car keys, Barbie.” Ali stretched leisurely before getting off Ghost’s lap.
“You didn’t bring your car?” Now Adam realised that he hadn’t seen the Ford Laser in the driveway.
“I was driving past and picked her up,” Ali explained before she could reply.
No. It was time, well beyond time, that he was alone with her. “I’ll take you home.” Adam stood. When everyone looked at him, he added, “I’m going home anyway, so I can drop Barbie off at the same time.”
“Oh, really, I-” she began.
“Let’s go.” He pulled the keys from his pocket. Then, because she didn’t make a move, he picked up the piece of paper with his phone number on it and handed it to her.
He knew she wouldn’t object, not with everyone in the room, not when it made sense not to put anyone out of their way. There was no way to object without making it uncomfortable, and Barbie, he was fast realising, was no longer the kind of girl who enjoyed doing that.
There were some major changes in her life, real changes, and he wanted to know more. Plus the conversation of the afternoon had given an opening into the past, one he wanted - needed - to discuss. He’d never wanted to rake up old hurts, old pain, but now he was going to do it, had to do it, even if it was for his own peace of mind.
It had bothered him all these years, the memory having grown dim and buried in the far reaches of his mind until Barbie turned up and brought everything to the forefront in glaring clarity. She was never far from his thoughts now, the scene played out so long ago disturbing his sleep almost every night since she’d arrived in Peeron.
The thought had him frowning slightly, and when he looked down as Barbie crossed the room, she met his gaze, her cheeks paling.
Yeah, she was uncomfortable and he knew why.
Everyone bid them farewell, and then it was just he and Barbie on the veranda. Cupping her elbow, he ushered her down the steps and across to the four wheel drive, unlocking the door and holding it open while she got inside.
Shutting her door, he got into the driver’s seat, checked she had her seat belt on, started the car and reversed into the road.
Silence filled the cab as they turned out of the street onto the highway leading to her home on the other side of town.
Slanting her a glance, Adam studied her. Her gaze was straight ahead, her hands clenched tight in her lap, the piece of paper with his phone number on it crumpled in her grip. The jumper hugged her breasts, her slacks hugged her hips, and he could inhale her scent all day.
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