Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series)

by Aspenson, Carolyn Ridder

  “I’m fine. It wasn’t like I didn’t know this would happen, you know?”

  Actually, no, I didn’t know, so I shot a nasty look at her dad. He started covering his ghost butt. “Uh, I had a little problem.”

  “Yes. I know he had a uh...a problem.”

  She breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, you could say that. How did you know him? Are you in the program, too?”

  The program? Frick. What did I get myself into? “No, I’m not. I mean I don’t need to be.” I stumbled to get the words out right. “I mean I didn’t know your father from there.”

  “Oh, how did you know him?”

  I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, trying to stop my heart from beating a million times a minute. “Carly, how much longer is left in the game? I’d like to talk to you a little, but I can wait.” I realized Jake was just standing there like an idiot. “Oh, this is my husband, Jake.” He gave her a half smile and nodded. Carly said hi.

  “Oh, it’s okay. I’m not playing today. I’m just here for support. I sprained my ankle last week and Coach said I have to sit out until the next game.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about your ankle. Is it okay?”

  “Yeah. Just a little weak right now, but no biggie.”

  “That’s good. Let’s go over to the other side of the fence and talk for a minute. Is that okay?” I pointed over to the fence.

  “Uh, sure." We walked toward the fence.

  I didn’t really know how to approach the situation and turned to Jake with a look of panic and desperation, to which he just shrugged his shoulders. Such a helpful husband.

  The four of us stood uncomfortably on the other side of the fence. Mr. Jacobsen was bouncing up and down, most likely more nervous than I was. I realized the program his daughter mentioned was most likely an alcohol or drug program and I couldn’t help but wonder if he wanted a drink or a fix right now. Yeah, I really did think that. Maybe ghosts carried their issues with them when they died. What did I know?

  I broke the awkward silence. “Okay, I’m going to say something to you and it’s going to sound really strange, but I’ve never done this before, and don’t have a clue how to start, so just listen and don’t think I’m crazy, because I promise you, I’m not.”

  The girl's eyebrows went up like I was crazy anyway. “Okay.”

  Jake nodded at me to continue.

  “I have a message from your father.”

  Carly pushed her chin back into her neck and curled her lip up at me. “A message? Like he told you something before he died?”

  Ah, Madone. “Um, no. Not really. Carly, this is going to sound crazy, but your father is here, and he wants me to tell you something.”

  She stood still and gave me a wide-eyed stare, then shook her head quickly back and forth, and started to speak. Jake interrupted her. “Carly, please. I know you’re freaking out right now, and I get that. I didn’t believe her the first time she told me about it, but this is real. Just listen to my wife, okay?”

  He didn’t believe me at first either? I shot him a look and he shrugged his shoulders again.

  “I...I...I don’t understand. My dad is dead. How can he be here if he’s dead? Are you like, trying to punk me?” She rotated and checked behind her, probably searching for the camera recording the punk.

  “No, Carly. I’m not trying to punk you. I promise. Your dad is here and he wants me to tell you something.”

  I nodded toward her father. “I could use some help here, you know. This isn’t going well.”

  With a hint of desperation, the ghost said, “Tell her I love her.”

  I lowered my head and shook it in defeat “Seriously? That’s all you’ve got? Like that’s going to convince this girl that her dead father is standing here? I need something better than that one, Mr. Jacobsen. That’s just not gonna fly.”

  Carly, watching me talk to myself must have thought I was a whack job. “I...I uh...I don’t like, know who you are or what you’re doing but I’m outta here.” She turned and practically sprinted back to the other side of the fence, toward her team.

  “Well, that went well, didn’t it?” I face-palmed my head. “I knew this wasn’t a good idea, Jake.” I shook my head then walked away. Jake followed.

  Mr. Jacobsen caught up to me, and sounded even more distressed than before. “Please. You have to talk to her for me. I’m sorry. I should have said something else, I know that now. I was just...I don’t know...I just really need you to talk to her for me. Please, just try one more time.”

  I stopped. I wanted to help him, for the most part, but I wasn’t used to making an ass out of myself. Okay, maybe I have made an ass out of myself in the past, but at least it was on my own terms. I didn’t ask for this gift and didn’t like being made to look like some crazy, whacked out nutcase. “Mr. Jacobsen, I’m sorry. I tried. You saw your daughter. You saw the look on her face. She thinks I’m a whack job. I can’t go back to her and give her a message from you. I’m sorry, really, I am.”

  “He’s asking you to try again, isn’t he? You need to do it, Ang. Tell him you need something more specific from him. Something that will make her believe he’s really here.”

  I glared at my husband and considered smacking him upside the head for the saying that out loud, but he was right. I hated that. Mr. Jacobsen stood next to me nodding his head fiercely. “Yes, I can give you something better to say to her. Please.”

  My husband gave me his serious face, the one where his eyebrows crunch up and he looks like he’s going to fart. “Ask him, Ang.”

  I turned toward my husband. “I don’t have to ask him, Jake. You may not be able to hear him, but he hears you, and he’s all over this now, thank you very much.” I stood still, trying to figure out a way out of this, or better yet, a way to go back in time to the happy place I lived in before I could see and talk to dead people. After a few seconds of total concentration – except for the part where I remembered I had at least ten loads of laundry to finish – I realized there was no going back. Dammit. “Okay, fine,” I growled to both of them. “But Mr. Jacobsen.”

  “Call me Jeff.”

  “Okay, Jeff. You have to give me something I can’t possibly know, so she gets that it’s really you. Can you do that?”

  He paced back and forth, thinking.

  “What’s he saying?"

  “Nothing. He’s pacing.”

  Finally after what seemed like an hour, the ghost threw his hands up in the air. “I’ve got it!” He stood next to me, hopping up and down like a rabbit on speed. Or a ghost with residual addiction issues, maybe.

  “I’ve got it."

  I turned to Jake. “He’s got it.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  I turned to look at the ghost. I was sure that after today I’d need to see a chiropractor for neck issues. “Well?”

  “Tell her I know she sleeps in my Atlanta Braves shirt, the blue one with the hole on the sleeve. She loved that shirt and always wanted to borrow it. I let her once, but I didn’t get it back for two weeks, so I wouldn’t let her borrow it again. Tell her I know she hasn’t washed it since I uh...I died, and that I know she smells it every night before she goes to sleep.”

  Images of the clothes Em has borrowed from me and never returned passed quickly through my head, and I made a mental note to check her room when I got home. Sometimes the mother in me comes out even when I don’t want her to. “Okay. This might work.”

  Jake was anxious. “What’s he saying?”

  I told him to follow me, afraid if I stopped to explain, I’d lose the nerve to approach her again. I walked past him, away from the ghost and over to Carly, who was probably going to call the police on me.

  She shifted my direction and I could see the angst, could almost feel it emanating from her skin. “Please leave me alone.”

  Instead of trying to explain further, I just blurted it out. Like a teenage girl with a crush on a boy who doesn’t know what to say when he first approaches her an
d says something stupid. “He knows you smell his Braves shirt when you sleep in it at night. It was his favorite shirt.” Right then my phone alerted me of a text and I struggled not to check it. Stupid technology. It was like crack.

  Carly walked closer to me and tears were rolling down her face. “What did you say?”

  “The blue shirt. He said it was the blue one. He said he let you borrow it once but he didn’t get it back for two weeks...”

  The ghost interrupted me. “I had to ask her for it. She didn’t actually return it. And we got in an argument about it.”

  I repeated his words to his daughter.

  “He’s here? Like, right now? Where is he?” She scanned the area.

  I tilted my head to my left. “Right here.”

  “How come you can see and hear him and I can’t?”

  I sighed heavily. “I don’t know. Believe me, this is all new to me and honestly, I don’t really understand it. My mother died recently and since then strange things have been happening and really, I don’t know what the hell...oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know what is going on. All I can tell you is I was running and I came over to watch the soccer game and your father was running up and down the other side of the fence over there and screaming at the refs and I didn’t even know he was...he was a ghost at first because he looks different than my mother, so when I asked him to stop, he couldn’t believe I could see him and he asked me to talk to you. He said he had a message for you. At first I didn’t want to hear it and I told him no and left.” I breathed in deeply after saying all of that so fast.

  “She came home and told me about it and I told her she had to come back and give you the message.” Jake said.

  Carly wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Oh.”

  “Carly, believe me, this freaks me out as much as it does you, but I have to give you his message. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.”

  “Okay.”

  I twisted toward the ghost. “Well, now’s the time Jeff. What am I supposed to tell her?”

  “Oh. Oh! Sorry. Yeah, the message. Um, tell her that it wasn’t what she thinks. I wasn’t using again. I only went there to see if I could help Jim Keller. She’ll remember Jim. Tell her I was trying to find him, not trying to buy drugs.”

  “Carly, I don’t really know what happened to your father, but he wants me to tell you that it’s not what you think. He said he was there to help Jim Keller? He wasn’t trying to buy drugs.”

  Carly’s eyes widened and within seconds she was bawling. She believed me. I couldn’t help but pull her into a hug and squeeze tightly, even though hugging strangers was a big Angela no-no. She sobbed harder. “I’m so sorry honey. I’m so sorry.”

  “Please...please tell her I’m sorry, too. Tell her it was just a terrible accident. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I kept my promise to her. I really did. I’ve failed her in so many ways, but I did not break that promise. Please tell her that.”

  I broke off the hug, wiped my own eyes and snuck a peek at Jake, whose eyes were glassy, too and I fell in love with him more.

  “Carly, he wants you to know he did not break his promise. He said he knows he’s done that in the past but he didn’t this time. It was an accident. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  She rubbed her nose on her arm.

  “Jake, can you go to the car and get the Kleenex box, please?”

  He did.

  “Are you okay?” She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands and sniffled. “Yeah. Is my daddy still here?”

  I nodded.

  “Can you tell him something for me?”

  “He can hear you, honey.”

  She glanced around, and shifted her feet. “Daddy? Daddy. I love you. I miss you so much, Daddy. I’m sorry for being mad at you. I understand now. Please forgive me, Daddy.”

  The ghost stared at me with both relief and sadness in his eyes. “Tell her it’s okay. Tell her I love her too and I will always be with her. Always.”

  So I did.

  ###

  Carly and I sat on the grass as she cried. Jake arrived with the tissues and we all took one to wipe our tears. It was unbelievably emotional, and whether I wanted to admit it or not, I felt good about what I did. “Well, this has been the most amazing and emotional thing I’ve done in a long time. Maybe ever, actually.”

  Carly smiled. “Thank you. You really helped me.”

  I put my arm around the girl and pulled her into me. “Actually, sweetheart, thank you. You helped me. Like I told you before, I lost my mother recently too, and I know it’s hard. You’re so young and have so much life ahead of you. It probably seems like forever without your father, but I promise you it will get easier, and you will be okay. That’s what your dad wants, too.”

  “Is he still here?”

  I circled around but didn't see the ghost. “He was here a minute ago, but he’s gone now. He told me to tell you he was okay now and could move on but he wanted me to wait until you were more calm to tell you.”

  “Where do you think he went?”

  “You know, I don’t know. I think he’s okay, though. I think he’s been here trying to find a way to talk to you, but I think he’s going to be okay now. Don’t worry about him. Just take care of yourself and that will make him happy. I promise. And I think he will be with you always, like he said.”

  “Yeah, that’s what my mom said, too.”

  I smiled, because as a mom, it’s what I would have said. “Yeah, us moms. We say a lot of stuff like that, don’t we?”

  “Yeah.”

  I took a pen and my checkbook out of my purse and wrote my name and email down for Carly. “Here’s my email. If you ever need to get in touch with me, contact me here, okay?”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Carly and I stood and hugged one more time. “Thank you again.” She walked back to the soccer game.

  “Holy shit! That was amazing, Ang!” Jake said on the way back to the car. He was practically skipping, he was so high from the excitement.

  I inhaled and exhaled deeply. “I am never, ever doing that again, Jake.”

  He stopped, but I kept walking. “Ang. Wait. What do you mean, you’ll never do that again? It was incredible.”

  I gritted my teeth. "Jake, this isn’t me. This isn’t my life. I am not going to be that person that walks around giving messages from dead people. I won’t do it.” I turned and race-walked back to the car.

  We drove home in silence. The thing I admired most about my husband is his ability to zip it. He knows when I need my space and willingly gives it to me. Most of the time, that is. Me? I’m usually the opposite. If he’s upset, I tend to keep talking until he’s not upset anymore, but my talking usually has the opposite effect.

  Chapter Ten

  Jake sat at the kitchen counter while I busied myself with dirty dishes.

  “You okay? I can make dinner if you want."

  “No, I can do it, but thanks.”

  “Do you need any help? I can run to the store and pick up some burgers or something.”

  I walked over to my husband, leaned my head into his chest and quietly cried. He wrapped his arms around me and I cried harder.

  “Angela, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out, I promise.” He wiped the tears off my cheeks and kissed me gently. “Let’s make dinner together.”

  So we did.

  “Can I sleep over at Taylor’s?” Emily asked as she chewed a mouthful of broccoli.

  I grimaced at the smashed green mush protruding from her mouth. “Please don’t talk with your mouth full.”

  She closed her mouth and chewed some more. “You didn’t answer my question.” Her mouth was open and still full of partially chewed broccoli.

  “Please finish chewing your food, then ask again, and I will answer.”

  For that I got the famous Emily eye roll and I was surprisingly able to resist the urge to reach across the table and pull her eyes out of their sockets. Instead, I ge
ntly placed my fork on the table, picked up the napkin on my lap, wiped my mouth, and with all of the patience and calmness I could muster, said, “And if you roll your eyes at me one more time, you’ll not only stay home tonight, but you won’t see Taylor or any of your friends for that matter, for at least two weeks.”

  It must have worked because Emily didn’t say another word the rest of dinner. Josh cleaned up the dishes without my asking. His compassion never ceased to amaze me.

  “I’m going to take Em over to Taylor’s house. ” Jake grabbed his keys from the key box. “I figured it was a good idea she go.”

  “Probably.”

  “Do you want to talk when I get back?”

  “Nope. I’m going to call Mel and fill her in. Then I want to forget it all happened.”

  “Okay.” He hugged me. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Jake yelled for Emily to hurry up and as she walked through the kitchen she put her head down, trying to become invisible. “Em,” I stopped her before she got to the door. “Have fun. I love you.”

  She smiled at me. “I love you too. Sorry about the broccoli.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Holy sheet,” Mel said when told her about Jeff Jacobsen. “So he died trying to help someone get into rehab? Wow. That’s so sad.”

  “Aren’t you sort of missing the point here?”

  “What? That you saw a ghost? Pfft. That’s old news. You’ve been doing that forever. Tell me more about what he said to his daughter, or what you said to his daughter for him, I mean.”

  “You’re funny,” I said, and then filled her in on everything.

  “Wow. So how do you feel? Was it amazing for you? I totally want to be there next time.”

  “There isn’t going to be a next time. I’m not doing that again.”

  Mel sounded stunned. “What? What do you mean?”

  “I’m...I’m not doing it. I don’t want to be that person, you know?”

  “No, I don’t know. What person? That person who helps people realize there is an afterlife? That person that helps people find closure? What do you mean by that person?”