Cold As January

by Katie Graykowski

  “A picnic. I like it. Just for the record, I’ve tried repeatedly to see January, but the doorman at her building threatened to call the police, and the bouncer at her bar threatened to kill me. I haven’t given up. I just want everyone to know that.” He didn’t know why it needed saying, but he felt he should go on the record all the same.

  “Got to love Tony the Doorman and Big Barry working the door of the bar. They love January and would do anything for her.” Nina nodded. “I love those guys for that.”

  Everyone turned to her.

  “What? They were trying to keep her safe, and up until twenty minutes ago, so were we.” Nina shook her head. “How quickly y’all forget.”

  “Yes, but that’s different …” Laney closed her mouth like she wanted to say more but the meaning of the words that had just come out of her mouth had finally sunk in. “Oh, I see your point.”

  “So, everyone in favor of a low-key picnic possibly followed by a grander gesture, raise your hand.” Sweet Louise looked around like she was counting the votes.

  Since when did other people vote on his life?

  Then again, he’d really messed things up, so maybe he needed other people to tell him what to do—just this once. He raised his hand. “I guess a picnic it is.”

  “There are just a couple of tiny little details I feel you should know.” Charisma seemed like the planner and the details person for the group.

  “Okay …” What else could there possibly be? They’d already covered the scary brothers and the fact that January might kill him once they were alone together.

  “I expect that you’d like to spend the rest of your life with January, whether it be marriage or whatever the two of you decide on. I’m okay with whatever commitment looks like to the two of you, but you should know that with January you get so much more. You get a life with us.” Charisma opened her arms wide, gesturing to the group at large.

  “And her brothers,” Laney chimed in.

  “And the baby,” Nina added.

  “And Faye,” Susie said.

  “Okay, I understand that January comes with a family, and I’d love to get to know each and every one of you better.” He swallowed hard. “Even her brothers. And I’m very happy about the baby. He or she is lucky to have so many aunts. And January is lucky to have such good friends.”

  “You get it—that’s good. Most men don’t understand that women come with best friends. You may think of her as your bestie, but I’m sorry—women need female best friends.” Nina shrugged. “Just the way of the world.”

  “I’m prepared for that.” He took a couple of beats, absorbing the info. “Wait, who’s Faye?”

  “She’s the ghost who lives in January’s new house.” Sweet Louise hugged him to her.

  He laughed. “Did you just say ghost?”

  * * *

  Chapter 14

  * * *

  January dipped her foam paintbrush into the tester can of Hazel, which was supposed to be a light green. She stepped back and tried to like it, but it was too bluish and ugly. She picked up the color wheel and looked for something less ugly. It would help if she knew the sex of the baby, but she couldn’t wait to get something finished on the nursery.

  Instead of going back to the neutrals, she went all in and directly to the greenest green, which was called, not surprisingly, Direct Green. It was more like Kermit the Frog Green, but she guessed that for licensing reasons, Sherwin-Williams couldn’t call it that. She scanned that page on the color wheel. There was Humorous Green, Center Stage, Electric Lime, Direct Green, Envy, Lucky Green, and Greenbelt.

  Forget owning her own bar, she was going to sell it and go to work naming paint colors. Who wouldn’t want a wall covered in Envy? She looked at the color. No one was going to be green with envy at that color.

  Just for fun, she flipped to the purples. There was Wishful Blue, Breathtaking, Agapanthus, Awesome Violet, Dahlia, Gentian, and Valiant Violet. Was it her, or did the purples have more sedate names? Was that because they were girly? That was gender bias if she’d ever seen it. Women couldn’t even get equal strong color names, forget equal pay for equal work. As a paint color namer, she would make it her mission to create names that were gender neutral, like Violent Violet and Bruiser Bruise, and You Should See the Other Person’s Black Eye Purple.

  Then again, those probably wouldn’t have made it out of marketing.

  She flipped to the “Timeless” section. On one page there was Modern Gray, Colonnade Gray, Skyline Steel, Pussywillow, Pavestone, Sticks and Stones, and Palisade. She was down with Sticks and Stones, but Pussywillow was just asking for trouble. And how did that make it out of marketing when they would surely make her change Violent Violet to something more sedate?

  On to the “Historic” section. The most exciting name there was Sage Green Light. The color was hideous, but the name was okay. So far her favorite paint name was Obstinate Orange. Unfortunately, it looked like a dirty orange popsicle.

  Much to her dismay, there really was an Exuberant Pink.

  How did anyone ever choose a paint color? Was everyone sidetracked by the names?

  She held the color wheel up. “What do you think, Faye? Any thoughts on Hazel?”

  A door slammed twice.

  “Yeah, I don’t like it either.” January sat up. “Since you’re a spirit and everything, can you tell the sex of the baby? One slam for girl and two for a boy.” She listened intently. There was only the sound of Bru hammering in another part of the house and Big John sawing something in the driveway.

  “I guess you don’t know either. I’m supposed to find out tomorrow, but the suspense is killing me.” January felt a cool breeze ruffle her hair and she felt a presence. It had to be Faye. She turned around, but no one was there. “Why do I have the feeling that when Baby J comes, you’re going to be the fun aunt who teaches him or her to burp loudly and make armpit noises.”

  In another room, a door slammed.

  “I kinda love that about you.” January smiled.

  “Who are you talking to?” Bru stood in the doorway, looming over her.

  “Just Faye. She’s helping me pick out a wall color for Baby J’s room.” January would have been grateful for the help, but right now Faye wasn’t being that much of a help.

  “Faye the ghost? Sure.” Bru was a nonbeliever.

  “Faye, he doesn’t think you exist. Let him have it.” The door to the closet right next to January slammed. “See. She’s real and this is her house so you better be nice to her. The last people weren’t, and she did her best to drive them crazy. In her defense, they had it coming.”

  “That was a draft.” He pointed to the door.

  “Just keep telling yourself that. Faye’s awesome. She’s known as the Mother of Demolition Derby and she was a pilot in World War II. She’s a veteran and we’re losing World War II veterans at an alarming rate. We’re lucky to have her.” She looked around the room for some sign of Faye, but there was only air. “Faye, have you ever been to the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg? It’s also called the National Museum of the Pacific War.”

  The closet door slammed twice.

  “The museum’s really interesting. They do reenactments of battles and have several really interesting exhibits. I’ll text the girls and we’ll take you this weekend.” January pulled out her phone. “It’ll be fun.”

  The closet door slammed twice.

  “Why, don’t you want go? Oh, can you not leave the house?” January put her phone down.

  The closet door slammed once.

  “Oh no, I’m so sorry. I tell you what, I’ll pull up their website later and let you see it.” January smiled at Bru. “Still think it’s a draft?”

  He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again.

  “That’s what I thought.” January loved having the last word.

  Bru took a full minute to get over his shock and then pointed to the back wall. “Did I tell you it was okay to paint that wall?
”

  “My house, my wall.” She held up the color wheel. “Help me find a good color for Baby J. Faye and I can’t decide.”

  “Shouldn’t you wait until you find out if the baby is a girl or a boy?” He ignored the color wheel.

  “I’m bored. Since you took my job away, I don’t have anything else to do.” She grinned and waggled her eyebrows. “I refuse to suffer boredom alone. I’m going to bother the hell out of you until you finally admit that fourth-hand smoke isn’t a real thing.”

  “Freakin’ crazy homeowners.” He shook his head. “This is why I don’t do remodels.”

  “Come on, you love me.” She fanned out the color wheel and blew him big smooch kisses. “You fix up houses all the time. What colors do you use?”

  “I don’t need a color wheel. I use three colors—tan, gray, or white. I like to rotate them. I go in that order—tan, gray, white. Having three options breaks up the monotony from house to house.”

  “But don’t you ever use all of them in one house?” She was alarmed when he shook his head. “So in your white house, everything is white from the floor to the ceiling?” She shuddered. That was way too much white.

  “Yep. I like to keep things simple.” Bru was a pretty simple guy. And apparently other people were too, because he’d never had trouble selling one of the houses he’d remodeled.

  “Sounds boring. Don’t you ever want a pop of color?” She knew that he often sold his flipped houses in less than thirty days. She used to think it was because he took something ugly and made it pretty, but all he was doing was taking something ugly and making it monochrome. Clearly, that was what people wanted.

  “I leave the pops of color to my home stager.” He pulled a screwdriver out of his tool belt and used it to point to the closet door. “If you want to help, take all of the hardware off the doors and put it in a box. The hardware needs to be repaired and cleaned before I put it back on the refinished doors.” He stepped out of the room and came back a minute later. “Here’s a box, some tape, and a marker. You need to mark which hardware goes with which doors so we can put them back on the correct doors.”

  “What do you say, Faye, feel like taking the hardware off the doors?” January rolled onto her knees and then felt a fluttering in her belly. There it was again. “Oh, I think Baby J just moved. Come here and feel.” She grabbed Bru’s hand and pressed it against her belly. “Feel that?”

  “Yes.” He looked uncomfortable but also a little awestruck. “Baby J is lively.”

  “Yep, sure is.” Feeling her baby kick for the first time had made it real. Her whole body smiled. “I’ve been reading about it, and they’re not usually this active this early. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just unusual.

  Bru grinned like an idiot. “It has to be a boy. Feels like he could kick a field goal right now.”

  “She could also be a field goal kicker.” There would be no gender bias for her might-be daughter.

  He dropped his hand and stepped back. He still looked awestruck. “You better get on that hardware, it’s super important.”

  “Is this like all of the super important jobs you always gave me as a kid just to keep me out of your way?” It was sweet that even as a kid, he’d made her feel important.

  “Yep.” He backed out of the room and went back to whatever he’d been working on.

  “Okay, Faye, let’s get the hardware off the doors. Apparently it’s busy work, but it’s better than being bored looking at endless paint colors.” January took the screwdriver and carefully unscrewed the screws holding on the doorknob. She labeled the knob and put it in the box. She eyed up the intricate hinges. “Are these strap hinges?”

  One cold tap to the left shoulder.

  “They’re really amazing. They look handmade. Did you pick them out?” January liked having someone to talk to, and it really didn’t feel odd that the someone she was talking to happened to have died decades ago.

  Another single tap.

  “You have very good taste. I’d like to restore our house back to its original glory, but I need to modernize the kitchen and bathrooms. It was pretty forward thinking of you to have two bathrooms built instead of just one. Most houses from this time period only have one.” She squatted down and unscrewed the screws holding the door to the hinge, and then she did the same for the top hinge. She picked up the door, which was surprisingly heavy, and gently laid it against the wall. “Is it okay if I modernize the kitchen and baths?”

  One tap.

  “Thanks. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but the year is 2018. I don’t know if time works the same for you as it does for me, but I thought you’d like to know.” She unscrewed the bottom hinge from the doorframe and then did the top.

  One cold tap.

  “You’re welcome.” She started on the doorknob for the door to the room. “I texted Laney and she’s researching how to get you out of the house—”

  A cold breeze slapped her in the face.

  “Not to leave forever, just to get you out of the house so we can take you places. Wouldn’t you like to see what’s changed? Nina’s a commercial pilot and she’s dying to show you the cockpit of her Boeing 777. Laney’s a pediatric oncologist—that’s a doctor who treats kids with cancer. She wants to take you to the hospital and see if the kids can see you. She read an article about how children are more open to the spirit world than adults, and she’s dying to find out if it’s true. Susie teaches eighth-grade science and she wants you to meet her students and possibly watch them and tell her who’s cheating on tests. Charisma is convinced that you need to get into shape, so she wants you to start running with us in the mornings. We all tried to explain that you don’t have a physical body, but she wouldn’t listen. Sweet Louise just wants to go barhopping with you.” Now that she thought about it, it sounded like a lot. “Sorry if it’s overwhelming, it’s just that we’re excited to add a new friend to our group.”

  A cold hand patted her shoulder.

  “I guess we should have asked you if you wanted to be a part of our friend group.” It might have been a little rude to just assume. “Do you want to hang out with us?”

  One tap.

  “Awesome. We’re so excited to have met you.” She moved on to the bottom hinge. “I don’t know how you feel about leaving the house, but based on how you lived your life, I’d say you’re up for a little adventure.” She unscrewed the top hinge and set the door next to the closet door. She labeled the hinges and the knob and put them in the box.

  “On to the next room.” She tossed the screwdriver, tape, and marker in the box and headed to the master bedroom. After setting the box down under the window, she started on the closet doorknob. “We need a way for you to write us messages. I’d love to have the names of the house’s original paint colors, if you can remember them.” She moved on to the bottom hinges and then the top. She caught the full weight of the door. It was heavier than the other. “Is this one heavier than the other closet door?” January struggled to hold on to it.

  “Who are you talking to?” Giles stood in the doorway holding a huge basket.

  January nearly dropped the door.

  “You shouldn’t be lifting—”

  The master bedroom door slammed back in his face and then slammed shut.

  Score one for Faye.

  * * *

  Chapter 15

  * * *

  Giles dropped the picnic basket and tried to open the bedroom door. January shouldn’t have been lifting anything over ten pounds, and that closet door looked like it weighed more than that.

  A loud crash came from the other side of the door, and Giles started to panic. He couldn’t get this damn door to open. He tried the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. He put his shoulder into heaving it open, but the wood didn’t so much as groan.

  “What’s going on?” A stocky man in his thirties ran down the hall toward Giles.

  “The door won’t open. January was holding a closet door and I think it might have fa
llen on top of her.” He threw his body weight against the door, but it didn’t budge. “Help me get this open.”

  “Stand back.” The man tried throwing his body weight against the door, but that didn’t work. “On three, we both go. One, two, three.”

  They both threw their bodies against the door. They both bounced off of it. The door didn’t so much as shimmy.

  “Let’s give it another try.” Giles repositioned himself. “One, two, three.”

  The door was like a brick wall.

  “This has got to be the strongest door in the history of doors.” Giles looked around for an ax or something, then again, why would anyone use an ax to remodel a house. What about a chainsaw? That could be used in a remodel.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to do this.” The man leaned against the door and said, “Faye, please open the door. We need to make sure January is okay.”

  Who was Faye? Oh wait, was she the ghost? Did everyone believe in ghosts but him? So now they were bargaining with ghosts?

  Giles didn’t have time to laugh about it. The door swung open on well-oiled hinges.

  January stood there looking pissed as hell. Her hair was longer than Giles remembered, and she had the cutest little baby bump. She was wearing maternity overalls with a formfitting red T-shirt underneath. Was it his imagination or were her breasts larger?

  He couldn’t wait to reacquaint himself with her body. He hoped she would give him the chance.

  “What are you doing here?” There was nothing but hatred in her eyes.

  Nerves turned his stomach into a boxing match. Damn, she was beautiful.

  He’d known this would be hard, but he hadn’t counted on hatred. Actually, he’d kind of hoped she would just fall into his arms and they’d live happily ever after. He should have known that something so precious took work.