Page 12 of Ghost Business (Boneyard Key #2)

“Einstein, knock it off. Anyway, I think that Triple G had some dirt on the Lindsay family. You know how they all moved away after he retired from teaching?” She touched her forefinger to her nose as though passing along a secret. “Running from something, I think.”

“So I shouldn’t make the house a stop on my tour?”

Aura laughed. “God, please no. And if you’re really revising the book, you can leave us out of that too.”

“Deal.” Sophie’s phone dinged in her pocket, and she knew without looking it was going to be Libby.

It was Thursday night, and Sophie was running late.

She fired off a quick text ( Next door at the crystal shop, be right there ) before turning back to Aura.

“Hey, you don’t happen to like bad reality television, do you?

Libby and I are heading over to Cassie’s place to watch Romance Resort . We’ve got pizza and wine.”

Aura laughed and shook her head. “Another time maybe. I’m heading out for sunset yoga down at the beach.

I was just about to close up when you came in.

” She walked Sophie out, Einstein the macaw along for the ride on Aura’s shoulder.

“Hey,” she said as she was locking up behind them.

“What do you know about this new ghost tour in town?”

Not her too. “Nothing.” Sophie’s voice was sharper than she wanted it to be. “I know nothing.”

“Hmmm.” Aura’s tone echoed Sophie’s. “I’ll tell you this. If he brings his tour down this way? I’m gonna mess with him.”

“Oh,” Sophie said. “No.” There was no sense of urgency behind her words. She tried again. “Don’t mess with him.” Nope. That wasn’t much better.

“Mess with who?” Libby was down on the sidewalk, a bottle of red wine in her hand.

“Tristan,” Sophie said as though she were announcing the Grim Reaper.

“That new ghost tour,” Aura said. “I’m gonna mess with him.”

Libby did what Sophie could not. She grinned. “Good.”

Aura left them with a cheerful wave, yoga mat under her arm and bird on her shoulder, while Sophie and Libby started up Beachside.

“What was that all about?” Libby asked. “I didn’t know you hung out with Aura.” She sounded incredulous, and Sophie could understand. When they’d all been in high school together, Aura had been cooler than everyone else put together. Aloof too. She was friendly and all, she just…did her own thing.

“Just doing some fact-checking,” Sophie said. “Did you know Mystic Crystals isn’t mentioned in Haunted History anywhere?”

“It isn’t, is it?” Libby tilted her head while she thought. “You’d think he would have mentioned Triple G, at least. Nan went over there a few weeks ago to check up on her, and she still doesn’t want to move on. Apparently, she likes being the TMZ of the afterlife.”

“Is it okay to be telling me that?” It felt perilously close to a HIPAA violation.

But Libby was unconcerned. “Eh, it’s just ghost gossip. I bet Triple G wouldn’t mind.”

The sun was low in the sky as they got to Cassie’s place, and Sophie still felt an aftershock of a shiver when she walked up the porch stairs.

Her whole life, this had been the house in town to avoid, reportedly haunted by a malevolent spirit.

Now that had been all cleared up (Sophie had even been there for the exorcism), and it seemed like Sarah Hawkins had forgiven Sophie for telling the story wrong all this time.

Thank goodness. She was pretty sure Hallmark didn’t make a card to say, Sorry I told every tourist who forked over fifteen bucks that you were a murderer and terrible person .

Cassie had ordered in pizza, and Libby brought the wine, so all Sophie had to do was show up. Time to stop worrying about Tristan and his ghost tour and enjoy a night of bad television with her best friends.

“Are we ready for the new season?” Cassie ushered them inside. “I read that they’re going to make the sexy singles actually work at the resort this time.”

“Are you serious?” Libby said. She opened a kitchen drawer, rummaging for the corkscrew. “That makes no sense. Why would you cover up eight-pack abs with a bellhop outfit?”

“Maybe they just have to wear the little hat.” Sophie flipped open the pizza box and started laying out slices on paper plates. They made themselves at home on Romance Resort nights.

A spoon on the counter clattered to the floor, and on cue all three of them looked to the refrigerator.

The door of Cassie’s fridge was covered in little magnetic poetry words, most of which were scattered in random patterns, but a few were lined up in the middle.

Those words were how Sarah Hawkins had been able to make herself known, back when Cassie had first moved in.

Stupid Idea

Boys Should Be Naked

“Sarah!” Cassie squealed through a scandalized laugh as she accepted a glass of wine from Libby.

“Someone’s horny tonight.” Libby tossed her blond ponytail over her shoulder.

“No comment.” But Cassie looked smug, which was a comment all on its own.

“Did Nick already flee to The Cold Spot?” Because the last thing Sophie wanted was Nick strolling downstairs during their girls’ night.

Cassie nodded. “He was gone before the pizza got here.” They each picked up a loaded paper plate and made their way into the living room.

“Still can’t get him into Romance Resort , huh?” Libby settled into one of the armchairs that flanked the sofa, tucking her feet under her and balancing her plate of pizza on her knee.

“Nope,” Cassie said cheerfully as she aimed the remote at the television.

“And that’s fine. It’d be boring if we liked all the same stuff.

” The familiar, cheesy synth-pop that was the opening theme of Romance Resort blared out into the living room, and Sophie took a bite of pizza with a happy sigh.

There was nothing better than a night with her girls.

There was one slice of pizza and less than a glass of wine left when the episode was over. Libby leaned forward on the sofa, reaching for that last slice of pizza, when her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She picked it up and frowned.

“Ah, crap. I gotta go.” The words were said lightly, but there was a pinch between her eyebrows that Sophie didn’t like.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah…” But her voice wavered. “It’s Nan,” she finally said with a sigh. “She hasn’t been feeling great lately, and I told her to let me know if she needs me.” She glanced at the screen again before clicking it off and stowing it away. “And apparently she needs me.”

“Let me know if we can do anything,” Cassie said with a concerned frown.

Sophie nodded in solidarity as she got to her feet. “I’ll walk you home.”

“I’ll be okay.” Libby waved her off. “Who gets mugged on Beachside?” She was obviously aiming for a joke, but her smile was watery, and Sophie let her go with a quick, tight hug.

After Libby left, Sophie stayed to help clean up. Not that there were many dishes—three wineglasses and some paper plates that went in the trash.

“I hope Nan’s okay.” Cassie frowned as she rinsed out the wine bottle to put into the recycling. “She’s the toughest old lady I’ve ever met.”

“She’s one of a kind.” Sophie’s mind was filled with memories of her years growing up with Libby.

Aunt Alice and Nan were close friends, so Libby and Sophie stuck together a lot.

First by necessity, and soon out of genuine friendship.

She didn’t want to think about anything happening to Nan.

That would be too much. She blinked hard at the wineglass in her hand and scrubbed at it with the dish towel a little harder than necessary.

“So tell me…” Cassie took the last freshly dried wineglass from Sophie and stretched on her toes to put it on the upper shelf in the cabinet. “What’s up with that new ghost tour in town?”

Sophie groaned. What a terrible subject change.

But at least this time she could be honest with her feelings.

“I’m mostly trying to pretend it’s not happening.

” She folded up the pizza box more aggressively than was necessary before shoving it into the trash.

“That’s the mature and professional way to handle it, right? ”

Cassie snorted. “Absolutely. How’s it all going to work, though?

Nick and I were talking about it the other night, and he said the next couple weeks will be crazy busy, with spring break, but then it dries up, right?

Until the summer season? How are there going to be enough tourists to fill up two ghost tours? ”

“That’s the part I’m trying not to think about.” Sophie sighed. It had been really nice there; for an hour or so she hadn’t been thinking about Tristan and the hit her business was about to take. “Because honestly? There definitely won’t be enough people. I’m not sure what—”

Her words were cut off by the spoon, the one that lived on the countertop for Sarah to knock off when she had something to say. Sure enough, there were new words in the middle of the fridge.

Wrong

Again

Outside

“Wrong again outside?” Sophie said the words out loud as though she could make them make sense that way.

“Wait.” Cassie froze, kitchen towel tangled in her hands. “Do you hear that? Outside. It sounds like…” She looked at Sophie. “Well, if you weren’t standing right here I’d think it’s your ghost tour going by.” Her eyes widened. “Oh my god. Is it him ?”

“On a Thursday ?” For some reason, that was the thing Sophie’s brain snagged on. Who the hell would do a ghost tour on a Thursday?

“Come on.” Cassie ditched the towel and grasped Sophie’s wrist. They went up the stairs and into the front bedroom, leaving the light off so they wouldn’t be seen. “We can watch from up here.”

“Do you do this when my tour goes by?” Sophie didn’t love the idea of being spied on.

“Sometimes.” A smile played around her mouth. “Usually I just leave the downstairs window open so Sarah can hear.” Cassie held a finger to her lips as she eased open the door and they crept silently onto the balcony, keeping to the shadows to watch the show below.

And there was quite a show. Tristan’s period costume was just like the one on the website, down to the top hat.

He led a group of six, more than Sophie would expect on a weeknight; during the slow season she’d done tours as small as two or three.

(There’d been that one time that a singular guy had shown up.

He gave her an up-and-down look and suggested he buy her a drink.

Sophie instead went home to another sausage-and-pepperoni pizza.) They were stopped on the sidewalk in front of Cassie’s house, and he was midway through whatever story he was telling.

“You see that balcony up there?” He raised his lantern—he actually had a freaking lantern, just like on his website—up in their direction, making Cassie and Sophie shrink backwards, pressing their backs to the clapboard siding to avoid detection.

“There’s one just like it on the other side of the house, looking out into the sea.

That’s where, on summer nights when the moon is full, they say you can see the apparition of poor Arabella, pacing the balcony and gazing out into the water.

Hoping that someday her pirate love will return to her. ”

“What?” Sophie kept her voice as low as possible, the word little more than an exhale.

Cassie’s snort was loud in Sophie’s ear. “Who the fuck is Arabella?”

Their exchange didn’t seem to carry down to the street, because no one reacted.

Or maybe they were all too caught up in that ridiculous story Tristan was telling.

Sophie noticed more than one happy sigh as a middle-aged woman pressed her hand to her heart, wearing a dreamy smile.

Her husband put his arm around her, and they strolled slowly after the group, bringing up the reluctant rear as Tristan led them north, toward the Starter Home and the fishing pier.

Sophie could barely contain her outrage. He was going the wrong way—the opposite route that she took. And what was with these stories? There had never been a single report of a pirate in Boneyard Key. No one named Arabella had ever lived in Hawkins House; that Sophie knew for sure.

That was confirmed when they went back downstairs. Sarah Hawkins had left new words on the fridge. And she was pissed.

Lies

Wrong Name

Stupid

“I agree,” Cassie said with a sympathetic nod. “It’s all stupid.”

“Incredibly stupid. He’s getting it all wrong.” Sophie was incensed. Which was ironic, since she herself had spent years telling the wrong story about the Hawkins House. But it felt wrong to let someone else get away with the same crime she’d once committed.

She knew this much: Boneyard Key wasn’t big enough for two ghost tours. And Sophie was here first. Tristan was going to have to pack his stupid top hat and go.