“You mean you actually met him?!” her mother asked. She was, if possible, an even bigger television fanatic than Kate. And, although she’d never admit it to her husband, Terri Avery had a huge cougar crush on Luke Rainer. “How?!”
“He’s friends with our neighbor.”
“Oh Kate, that’s so exciting! You’ve got to tell me all about it!” While Kate regaled her night with Luke (excluding the bits about Trevor, as per her promise to Gavin), Gavin and Rex continued eating, neither attempting to hide their complete and utter disinterest. When Kate finished, Terri sighed. “Oh, he sounds like an absolute dream! Are you going to see him again?”
“I’m not sure,” Kate replied honestly. She hadn’t heard from him, and although he’d offered to take her ghost hunting, she didn’t know if he’d really follow through. She liked to think he was a man of his word, but after the abrupt end to their evening, she wasn’t holding her breath.
It was probably for the best. Even if she did get to see him again, she knew any sort of relationship forming between them was unlikely. He would go back to Los Angeles soon to begin filming the next season of Cemetery Tours and she would stay in Dallas, decorating houses for people with a lot of money. And oddly enough, she was okay with that. As exciting as the night before had been, there hadn’t really been anything romantic about it. In fact, there were moments when Kate felt more like Luke’s long lost buddy than a girl he’d asked on a date.
“Will you be disappointed if you don’t?”
“A little, but I really didn’t expect anything long-lasting,” she explained. It would be really cool to go on a real ghost hunt though.
As soon as they’d finished eating, they loaded the dirty plates and utensils into the dishwasher and left for the fireworks show. The big fireworks display had been in Addison the night before, but Rex and Terri were friends with a man who worked at one of the local country clubs, and they always put on a show for the actual Fourth. That was the show the Averys had been attending every year since Kate could remember, probably because it was a lot less crowded than the one in Addison.
Once they arrived, Gavin and Rex sauntered off to talk with a few of their buddies, leaving Terri and Kate alone in the lawn chairs that they’d brought. It was the perfect moment for a mother-daughter chat, and although Kate knew she’d promised Gavin that she wouldn’t talk about her EVP session, she was sorely tempted to bring it up. She wasn’t accustomed to keeping secrets from her mother. Besides, Terri was a Cemetery Tours fan herself. She’d think it was cool.
Kate couldn’t resist.
“So I think our apartment is haunted,” she began.
“Oh really? Why do you think that?” her mother grinned.
“Strange noises. Creepy feelings. But mostly because Luke brought a digital recorder and we actually talked to him.”
“You talked to your ghost?” Kate had been right. She could see in her mother’s eyes that she thought that was just about the coolest thing in the world. “What did he say?”
“Not a lot. Just that his name is Trevor and he doesn’t remember why he’s still hanging around. But isn’t that neat? I actually conducted an EVP session with Luke Rainer and we...” Suddenly, Kate realized that her mother didn’t look so interested anymore. Her eyes were wide and all the color had drained from her face. “Mom? What’s the matter?” Her mother gave a tiny shake of her head, as though willing herself to snap out of something.
“Nothing, nothing. Go on, Sweetie.”
“That’s really it,” Kate replied. “Are you sure you’re alright? Do I need to go get you a Coke or something?”
“No, I’m fine. Really.”
Somehow, Kate wasn’t convinced.
Chapter 11
In spite of his family’s insistence that driving from Lake Texoma to Dallas late at night on the Fourth of July was nothing short of idiotic, Michael made the ninety minute drive back to his apartment once the last firework had exploded over the lake. About halfway there, however, he was beginning to suspect that they were right. He’d never seen so many fender benders or drunken drivers swaying back and forth across lanes. Fortunately, he made it back home in one piece.
He was so tired that he fell into bed without even taking off his sneakers and slept clear until he was woken the next morning by someone pounding loudly on his door. He moaned and, running a hand through his unruly hair, staggered over to the door.
“Hey there, Mikey.” Luke Rainer flashed him an obnoxiously cheerful smile. “You look like you had a rough night. What’s wrong? Have more than two sips of beer at the firework-fest?”
“What do you want?” Michael asked. He was in no mood for Luke Rainer or his cheeky grin. He’d only answered out of the hope that he might find out what exactly was going on with Kate.
“Just stopped by to see Kate. I told her I’d take her out to Waxahachie for a ghost hunt and I wanted to see if she was available tonight.”
“So why didn’t you just text her?”
“Oh, where’s the fun in that?” Luke grinned. “You know, you could always join us.”
“No, thank you.” Seeing the girl he liked fawn over Luke Rainer once was more than enough. Besides, they’d had this same conversation a million times. Nothing Michael said could convince Luke that he hadn’t overheard him openly communicating with a spirit on his digital recorder.
“Oh come on. Why not? I bet Kate wouldn’t mind.”
“I’ve told you, I’m just not into this stuff!” Michael insisted. Luke heaved a condescending sigh.
“Whatever you say, Mikey.”
~*~
Kate woke up after a restless night of strange dreams. First, she dreamed that she’d been swimming when, all of a sudden, Gavin came running out of the apartment, warning her that a massive snowstorm was on its way, and that she needed to get out of the pool. After she got out, she found herself not in her apartment, but in her old high school. Her mother was there, telling her that she if she didn’t keep up with her grades, she wouldn’t be able to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert.
Her second dream had been about Luke. They were on their way to investigate an old cemetery in Europe. The people buried there were the world’s worst criminals, some of whom were even believed to be demons in human form. As Kate followed Luke around the centuries old graveyard, she noticed that some of the graves were empty. The woman guiding them explained that they didn’t know how it happened, but that at times, the graves opened up and the dead disappeared. The woman then led them underground to a mausoleum, where gossamer blood-colored curtains hid the coffins in the walls. Finally, they arrived at the end of a long hallway, where the same curtains concealed a bright, misty light. Kate reached out to pull back the curtain, but Luke grabbed her arm and held her back. Only, he wasn’t Luke. He was a tall man she’d never seen before, dark and muscular with intense eyes and an angular face. She tried to pull away from him, but he held her wrist in a firm grip. She looked back at the curtains, where a figure had appeared behind the curtain.
It was Michael. Kate opened her mouth to ask what he was doing there, but she woke up before she got the chance.
Thinking back, it was one of the coolest dreams she’d ever had, and it served as a much needed distraction. She’d been feeling guilty ever since she’d told her mother about the EVP session. Gavin had been right. It had upset her.
Kate tried not to dwell on it as she cruised through her morning routine. She brushed her hair and changed into jeans and a tank top. For breakfast, she made herself a plate of scrambled eggs and toast and washed it down with a glass of milk. She was in the process of rinsing off her dirty dishes in the sink when someone rapped on the front door.
She answered it and was pleasantly surprised to see Luke Rainer smiling back at her.
“Hey, Gorgeous,” he greeted her.
“Hi,” she replied with a grin. “I wasn’t sure I’d get to see you again.”
“I promised to take you ghost hunting, didn’t I?”
he asked. “Luke Rainer is a man of his word. You still want to go, don’t you?”
“Uh... yeah!” As if he needed to ask.
“Great! I was thinking we might head out tonight around 8 or so. It will take about an hour to get to the Old Bluebonnet Ranch and by the time we get there, the sun will almost be set, but we’ll still have enough daylight to get set up.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kate told him. Somehow, she was more excited about searching for ghosts than she had been about the fancy Italian dinner.
“And listen, I know your brother would probably kick my ass if he knew I’d been back here, but I wanted to give you this.” He handed her an envelope. Inside were five crisp, new twenty dollar bills. “It’s for the wall.”
“That’s sweet of you, but you really don’t need to do this. I looked it up and it won’t be that expensive.”
“For collateral damage then,” he replied.
“Luke, I can’t accept this.”
“Sure you can. I’m rich. Now just say, ‘Thank you and I’ll see you tonight.’”
Kate grinned.
“Thank you, Luke. And I’ll see you tonight.”
“Yes you will,” he replied. “Do me a favor though and don’t tell Mikey. He’s always wanted go on a ghost hunt and I don’t want him to get jealous or anything, you know, that I’m taking you and not him.”
“Well, why don’t we invite him?” Kate asked. Luke thought about it.
“I suppose we could...” he replied. “Would you be okay with that?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” she answered truthfully.
“Alright. Would you mind telling him about it? I’d ask him myself, but I’ve got to be somewhere in about half and hour.”
“Sure. I’ll head over there in a few minutes,” Kate told him.
“Thanks, Beautiful,” Luke winked. “I’ll see you at 8.”
“See you then,” Kate replied, closing the door after him. Then, she ran into the bathroom and brushed her teeth and applied a light layer of makeup before walking across the landing to apartment #1723. She knocked on the door. No answer.
She knocked again. Still nothing. He was probably still with his family. Or maybe he was on his way back. Either way, Kate decided to text him to find out when he would be home.
~*~
Michael emerged from the shower and changed into a comfortable pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He meandered into the kitchen to make himself some lunch when Brink appeared.
“You had a visitor,” he announced, taking a seat on the kitchen counter.
“If it was Luke Rainer again - ”
“It wasn’t. It was Cute Neighbor Girl.”
“Kate?” Michael asked. “What did she want?”
“I don’t know. Living girls don’t tell me much.” Oh, duh. “I think your phone went off though.” Michael bolted out of the kitchen and scrambled around his bedside table, where he’d dropped his phone the night before.
1 New Message
Hey, are you coming home soon?
From: Kate
The message had been sent about thirty minutes earlier. Instead of texting back, Michael pulled on his old sneakers and walked over to Kate’s apartment, Brink following a few steps behind. Gavin answered, looking tired, pale, and slightly irritated. His expression softened, however, when he saw Michael.
“Oh good, it’s you. I was afraid it might be that tool from the ghost show.”
“Fun guy, isn’t he?” Michael remarked. Gavin clenched his jaw in response. “So uh, is Kate around?”
“Yeah, I think she went down to the pool,” Gavin answered.
“Ooh,” Brink sounded positively gleeful. Michael wanted to tell him to get lost, but that wasn’t about to happen with Gavin watching.
“Okay, thanks.”
“Think she’s in a bikini?” Brink asked once Gavin had shut the door.
“Is there anything I can say that will convince you not to follow me?” Michael asked.
“I think we both know the answer to that,” Brink replied matter-of-factly. Michael groaned and tried to ignore the ghost trailing him as he trudged down the stairs and across the complex to the pool.
At first glance, the water looked empty. But then, Michael noticed a pale figure gliding across the bottom of the pool. She surfaced and pulled her hair back off her face. She must have sensed him watching her, because she looked over to where he was standing, squinting in the sunlight.
“Hey,” she smiled in recognition once she’d blinked the chlorine away. “You’re back.”
“Yeah. I’ve actually been back. I was in the shower when - you texted me.” He tried to refrain from breathing a sigh of relief. He’d almost said, “When you stopped by.” Fortunately, he realized that he’d have no way of knowing that if he’d been in the shower. Or if he didn’t have a ghost friend who told him everything that happened when he wasn’t around.
“Oh, I can tell. Your hair looks lovely,” Kate grinned up at him as she swam over to the edge.
“My God, she is hot,” Brink muttered. Before he could help it, Michael threw him a murderous glare. Brink was too distracted by the beautiful woman in the pool to notice. Unfortunately, Kate did notice.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. Just thought I heard something,” Michael answered lamely, turning his attention back to her. “So uh, how was your Fourth of July?”
“You know, you could sit down,” Brink told him. “Do you have any idea how awkward you look?”
At the same time, Kate answered, “It was fun. Gav and I went to see our parents. We watched some fireworks. You know, very patriotic and whatnot. Did you get to see fireworks at the lake?”
“Yeah,” Michael replied. “It was actually pretty cool. There were about six parties, including ours, setting them off all around the lake, so the sky was full of exploding color.”
“Wow. I would have loved to see that,” Kate sighed.
“Maybe next summer you can.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Had he just accidentally invited her to go with him next summer? He didn’t know a lot about girls, but he knew that coming on too strong was rarely the right move. A guy would have to be a lot more charismatic than he was to be able to pull it off. “I mean uh, maybe you and Gavin could drive up and see them. You know, with your family.”
If he’d made her uncomfortable, she didn’t show it. She simply smiled and said, “Yeah, I think we should.” She floated there for a few moments, allowing the water to toy with her long blonde hair before she asked, “So are you doing anything tonight?”
“No...” Michael answered curiously as he took a seat, cross-legged, on the edge of the pool. Was it possible she was asking him out? Did that mean that she’d turned down a night in the country searching for spooks with Luke Rainer?
“Well, I know it’s kind of last minute, but Luke and I are driving out to Waxahachie for a ghost hunt and I was wondering, do you want to go with us?”
Of course. How had he not seen that coming? He wondered what Luke had told her, how he’d been able to convince her to invite him on their little ghost-chasing rendezvous.
“Say yes,” Brink quipped. Michael ignored him.
“Thanks, Kate, but I think I’m going to pass.”
“Aw, how come?”
“I don’t want to crash your date.”
“It’s not a date,” she told him.
Wait. What did that mean? Was that code for something?
“It’s not?” Michael asked, suddenly feeling far less annoyed by Luke Rainer than he ever had in his life. “So uh, you and he aren’t like, a ‘thing’ after the other night?”
“Oh no,” Kate said. “Don’t get me wrong, going out with him was a lot of fun, but there was nothing romantic about it.”
“Really?” Michael couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d seen the way Kate had reacted to Luke and his obnoxious advances. She’d been pretty quick to tell him how “very single” she was. Now sh
e was acting like he was just another guy. Had she really been so disenchanted by one evening? Or was that just a girl thing?
“Really,” Kate assured him.
“But you were so excited to meet him.”
“Well yeah, he’s Luke Rainer.”
“But you don’t want to date him?” Kate raised a curious eyebrow. Michael knew instantly that he’d gone too far.
“Michael, were you jealous?” she asked, her face breaking into a playful grin.
“No,” he answered a little too quickly. “I mean, not technically - well - I - maybe a little... I mean - “ Before he could utter another unintelligible syllable, something (or Brink) shoved him forcefully in the back. Caught completely off guard, Michael could do nothing but flail as he flew face forward into the water. He surfaced seconds later, coughing and sputtering.
“Are you alright?” Kate laughed.
“Yeah, just lost my balance,” he replied, wiping the water out of his eyes. Behind him, he could hear Brink howling with obnoxious laughter. “Guess I’ll have to take another shower.”
“Yeah. Can’t go ghost hunting smelling like chlorine,” Kate said with a quick grin. Michael sighed.
“Do you really want me to go?”
“I really do. I think it will be fun. Besides, Luke told me how much you’d always wanted to.”
Oh, that Luke. Always thinking of others. Now he really didn’t have a valid excuse not to go. Well, unless he wanted to tell her the truth.
“So will you go?” Kate asked.
He knew he should say no. Agreeing to accompany them would be reckless, stupid. It could potentially throw a huge monkey wrench into his lifelong crusade of remaining completely anonymous. But just like with Gavin’s birthday party, he knew he would end up going with them. Just because she’d asked him to.
“Sure. Count me in.”
Chapter 12
“Well, look who’s finally going ghost hunting,” Luke grinned as Michael clamored into the backseat of the Lexus that he’d bought his parents for their anniversary. “You excited, Mikey?”
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