Dead People
Page 29
She shuffled along with him. Cassie tagged after them. Isabel had disappeared. She was probably admiring the new furniture in her tower that she’d picked out from a JC Penney catalogue.
As Darleen walked through the front doorway, she speared Cassie with a sudden look. “Thank you for letting me talk to Mrs. Shay. Sometimes you just gotta have closure.”
Luke was closing the door on her when the phone rang.
“I’ll get that.” Cassie hurried in case it was Erin. Maybe it was too soon after Tricia’s breakdown and Vanessa’s appearance for Erin to sleep away from the house at a classmate’s birthday party. She seemed fine, but so had Tricia, and look what happened there.
It took Cassie a second to recognize the voice on the other end of the phone. “Father,” she said.
“I heard what happened to you,” he said. “It was on Entertainment Tonight. Why didn’t you call me?”
She resisted the urge to hang up the phone. “You’re supposed to be a smart businessman. Maybe you can guess.”
There was a silence that she didn’t break. Finally he cleared his throat. “I suppose you heard what I said to the Sheriff.”
“Yes, the Sheriff apologized to me for not investigating my poisoning further.”
“I was...wrong,” her father said.
“Yes, you were.”
He cleared his throat again. “Can you forgive me?”
“Why do you want forgiveness now? Because my name is on TV, linked with a celebrity?”
“Of course not, how can you say that?” He spoke so fast, she knew he was lying.
“You told me often enough that you’re ashamed of me. Now it’s my turn, I’m ashamed of you.” He started to object, and she talked over his sputters. “You made my mother miserable while she lived. You’ve lost the power to do that to me.”
“I’m your father! You can’t talk to me this way.”
“You’re right. I don’t have to talk to you that way—or any way. Goodbye. Don’t call again.” She hung up and turned to Luke. Without a word or a question, he pulled her against his chest.
She didn’t cry, she was all cried out on this subject. But an ache remained inside her. Darleen had talked about closure, but hanging up on her father hadn’t brought it. She still hurt inside as if hell had ripped through her. Would it ever go away?
A smell drifted into her nostrils. Cinnamon and sugar, like the cinnamon buns her mother had loved. Something feathered across her cheek, a warm kiss. But it wasn’t Luke, and they were the only two people in the room. Definitely not Isabel. Isabel was more pleasant lately, but she was never subtle. In any case, her touch would be cold.
Cassie pushed away from Luke and looked around. “Joe? Is that you?” Even as she asked, she knew it wasn’t him. Subtlety wasn’t part of Joe’s nature either.
“What is it?” Luke braced his feet, ready to fight.
A figure came slowly into focus. A woman about the same height as Cassie, with hair more golden and a smile Cassie had never forgotten.
“Mom!” Joy filled her. She stepped forward, but her mother held out her hand, palm out, stopping Cassie.
“I love you, darling,” her mother said.
“I love you too.”
“You won’t always hear me, but I’m always here when you need me.”
Cassie placed her hand over her left breast, feeling her heart thump.
“You’re going to have a wonderful life.” Cassie’s mother put her fingertips to her lips and blew Cassie a kiss. The next instant she was gone.
“Did you see that?” Cassie turned to Luke, hearing the awe in her hushed voice.
He shook his head, his brow puzzled. “I felt something.”
“It was my mom. She said I’m going to have a wonderful life.”
He gave her a smile that made her throat choke up and drew her to him, as he’d done so many times in the last five days. “We’re going to have a wonderful life.”
Passion by Luke Rivers
Who knows what life is gonna bring?
A kick in the ass or a diamond ring?
Some people say life is preordained
I say life is ours to do or to change.
Who’s right or wrong, it don’t matter
Some people get thinner, some get fatter.
Whatever you choose will probably happen.
Whatever you do, do it with passion
-The End-
Dear Reader,
I’m delighted that you’ve read DEAD PEOPLE. I’ve written a Haunted Hearts short story sequel. One of these days I plan to write Joe’s story, but right now I’m concentrating on my Miracle Interrupted series, where a miracle is prophesied in a Wisconsin village with a population of 629. In almost every story, someone thinks the miracle applies to him or her.
MUST WORSHIP CATS and STARDUST MIRACLE from the series are available now. MIRACLE LANE will be out soon – possibly by the time you’re reading this. Two more Miracle Interrupted novels are planned, with more on the way.
Read on for an excerpt from DEAD PEOPLE IN LOVE, a Haunted Hearts short story, and STARDUST MIRACLE.
If you enjoyed DEAD PEOPLE, I would appreciate it if you would help others enjoy it by posting a review at your favorite places.
I love hearing from readers. You can reach me at edieramerbooks@gmail.com.
Author updates can be found at http://edieramer.com. You can also sign up for my newsletter and find samples of my other novels.
Happy Reading!
Edie Ramer
Dead People In Love
(A Haunted Hearts short story)
Edie Ramer
Some people will do anything for the perfect address...
Ghost therapist Cassie Taylor is hired to get rid of a ghost haunting an upscale Chicago condo. But the elderly resident doesn’t want her gentlemanly apparition to leave. She loves him and he loves her.
Too bad her grandson and his fiancée insist either the ghost goes - or she goes.
Too bad she’d signed the deed to the condo to her grandson to help him avoid inheritance taxes.
Too bad the fiancée has plans of her own.
Throw in a pretty neighbor, a dirty family scandal, and Cassie’s very new, very sexy and sometimes very grumpy husband, and anything can happen...even murder.
Excerpt:
Chapter 1
Cassie stared down the guy who was supposed to be her Happy Ever After and wanted to give him a good kick in the ass.
Sitting on a stool, holding his guitar as if it were a part of him, Luke Rivers stared back at her. Not giving anything away.
Neither was she.
“I’m going. You don’t have to come with me.” Standing in the middle of his tower studio in their pre-Victorian home, she took a quick glance around at his recording equipment, his guitars, the window with a view to the lake. The floor they’d made love on.
“Stay and brood about Erin’s visit with her mom.” She turned back to him. “I have a gig.”
He scowled. “Talking to a ghost.”
“That’s what I did before we married.” She looked up at the ceiling, as if their house ghost would appear any second. But, no, Isabel was probably gleefully eavesdropping on them, as if they were arguing just for her entertainment. “It’s what I do now. And it’s what I’m going to do, whether you come with me or not.”
Without waiting for a reply, she headed out of his studio.
“Where are you going now?” he called after her.
“To pack.” She stomped down the stairway to their bedroom on the second floor, not looking back.
“You think I’ll come after you?”
She still didn’t look back but she smiled. Yes, she did.
They weren’t on their honeymoon anymore. Not after seven months of living together. Five months of marriage. But they were still at the jumping-into-bed stage. Or the couch. Or the bathtub. Or the shower. Or the pier outside—until mosquitoes drove them indoors.
Sex wasn’t t
he best part about being married to Luke. Being loved and loving was. But Luke was as good at it as writing hit songs. So was she, as good at it as talking to ghosts. She’d like to say “taking them to heaven,” but she couldn’t get their own ghost to leave. Isabel said she was having too much fun watching them. A sad commentary on Isabel’s former life.
Cassie reached the landing when footsteps thundered down the steps behind her. She sauntered down the hall and could feel his gaze on her butt. Her butt was hard to miss, and lucky for her Luke didn’t want to miss it.
“I’ll go with you.” His voice was growly, like a bear that woke up in a bad mood. “I can look up some old friends in Chicago while you’re doing your ghost therapy thing.”
She whipped around and glared at his scowling face...then she smirked. “I knew you’d cave.”
His eyebrows lifted. And he did something that would surprise most of the people who knew him casually. He grinned. A grin that said it was great to be alive.
He took a giant step toward her.
She turned and ran. “Catch me if you can.”
If he didn’t catch her, she’d swing around and catch him instead.
She laughed from deep within her belly. Ghosts, sex and when they were in Chicago she wouldn’t have to cook one meal. Life was good.
Then she remembered Rose Bellington’s wobbly voice, telling her that she had to get rid of her condo ghost or her grandson was going to say she had dementia and put her in a nursing home.
A reminder that it wasn’t the dead people who did the worst things. It was the live ones.
Her laughter died. She knew all about being treated badly by the people who were supposed to love her. Making her feel that she was a freak. Unlovable and untouchable.
Two hundred years ago, she would’ve been the crazy relative locked in the attic.
Strong arms curled around her. “Got’cha! What happened? That was too easy.”
She twisted around and reached for his neck. “Hold me, Luke. Just hold me.”
His expression changed, his eyes gentling. Hugging her tightly, he rocked her. “Anytime, babe. Anytime at all.”
Her breasts flattened against his chest and her head smooshed against his shoulder. She breathed in his familiar scent and let it strengthen her, using it to stop tears from falling. Her self-pity changing to anger.
Raising her head, she gazed into his blue eyes that looked back at her with a mix of love and desire and caring. “What do you think about a man who’s trying to force his grandmother into a nursing home?”
“Huh?”
Stardust Miracle
Edie Ramer
A miracle is going to happen
Becky Diedrich is the cheesemaker’s daughter.
The minister’s wife.
The good sister.
What she’s not is her own woman.
What she can’t be is a mother.
And then she catches her husband with another woman.
And she moves in with her sister.
And she starts to see sparkles.
And this is just the beginning…
Excerpt:
Becky ran across the grass and laughed at her brashness. She wore her tan trench coat — her church coat — over her red negligee. Tonight she felt free. With a sexual appetite and playfulness she hadn’t felt for a long time.
She couldn’t swear that what she planned had never happened in the church, people being what they were. But it had never happened in the church before with her and Jim.
Laughter spilled out of her mouth, and she only stopped because she was breathless from an overload of excitement. The need to experience something more with her husband had been building inside her for a long time. Now it was finally boiling over — leaving her lightheaded and unlike her usual self.
She liked these feelings. Liked this side of her a lot.
When she’d stepped out of the car tonight and looked up at the stars, something happened. Something changed. For so long, she’d been carrying a dark weight around with her. Going through the days and nights trying to say and do all the right things, when inside something had felt all wrong.
She’d lost the joy of life. Not fully living...just going through the motions. At only thirty-six, she’d felt old and dried up.
Now she felt young again. Free.
Jim wouldn’t know what happened to his proper wife.
She reached the church’s back door, using it instead of the front entrance because she didn’t want anyone passing by to see her. Not that there was anything wrong with going to see her husband. But if anyone mentioned her late night visit, her face would probably turn the color of a ripe tomato and give away what they’d done.
She slipped the key into the lock but it turned easily. She stepped inside. Jim must’ve come in this way and forgotten to lock the door behind him. He was always preoccupied with his work and his parishioners.
She admired that. She did. But once in a while, she wanted his mind, plus a few body parts, to be on her.
And not just when her body temperature was right for conception.
She started toward Jim’s office, and her heels clicked on the linoleum floor. Laughing under her breath, she stopped and took them off. She wanted to surprise Jim with a good surprise. No. A wonderful surprise.
His door was closed. Habit, she supposed, since no one was here except him. She heard him speaking. Couldn’t make out the words. Just his voice. Probably saying lines from the sermon he was preparing. Then his voice stopped, and she imagined him frowning at his computer screen while he wrote the next line.
She started to undo the buttons of her coat, then decided it would be sexier to do it inside with him watching. Kind of like a stripper.
Stifling a giggle, she turned the handle and flung open the door.
“Surprise!”
OTHER BOOKS BY EDIE RAMER
Contemporary
MUST WORSHIP CATS (a Miracle Interrupted novella)
STARDUST MIRACLE (a Miracle Interrupted novel)
MIRACLE LANE (a Miracle Interrupted novel)
YOU’VE GOT MURDER co-written with Karin Tabke
Paranormal
CATTITUDE
DEAD PEOPLE
DEAD PEOPLE IN LOVE (short story)
DRAGON BLUES
THE SEVENTH DIMENSION (short story)
Science Fiction Romance
GALAXY GIRLS
MIXING IT UP (a Galaxy Girls novella)
Short Stories and Essays
The Fat Cat in ENTANGLED, A PARANORMAL ANTHOLOGY
(all proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research Foundation)
The Kiss in EVERY WITCH WAY BUT WICKED
(all proceeds go to Kids Need to Read)
Killing the Rat Bastard Disease in AUTHOR MOMENTS
Fighting Back in AUTHOR MOMENTS II
(all proceeds from both Author Moments books go to Cancer Research UK)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edie Ramer is funnier on the page than in real life. A multiple award-winning writer, she writes stories with heart, attitude and magic. She lives in southeastern Wisconsin with her husband, two dogs, and one important cat. She loves hearing from readers at edieramerbooks@gmail.com.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the fabulous Michelle Diener, Liz Kreger, Karin Tabke, Natasha Fondren and Zoe Winters for their advice and motivation. I’m so lucky to have friends like you in my life.
Special thanks to Kathryn Schowalter for her expert eye for details. And a big shout out for my fabulous cover artist, Laura Morrigan, who has a much better vision than I do.
Connect with Edie Online
Edie’s Website
Twitter
Facebook
Dead People
Copyright © 2010 by Edie Ramer
All rights reserved
ISBN-13: 978-0-9856437-4-4
Excerpts from Dead People In Love and Stardust Miracle
Copyright © 2012, 2012 by Edie Ramer
/>
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are coincidental and not intended by the authors.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including the Internet, without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.