Page 15 of Ghostlighted (Ghost Townies #2)

Chapter Eleven

“ O kay, then.” I stowed Ricky’s keys in my hoodie pocket, propped my fists on my hips, and looked up at our house, the streetlight casting my shadow on the grass. “How should we do this? We know you can make it from the house to the street.”

Avi matched my pose, but of course had no shadow. “Maybe we should circle the house? See if I can access all of the grounds?”

“Good idea.”

When I’d arrived in Ghost and got my first look at the house, I’d paced around it, half in awe and half in annoyance that the door locks were stuffed with sawdust and I couldn’t get inside.

I hadn’t walked the entire yard then. For one thing, it was enormous, and for another, it lacked features of interest, such as Sofia’s garden and natty scarecrow.

My yard and Professor DeHaven’s had the same gentle downward slope as Sofia’s.

Mine had a few widely spaced trees, all neatly pruned—no doubt Ricky’s handiwork.

Patrice, however, was evidently as minimalist in her landscaping as she was with her communication, because other than the Doug firs that guarded her property line along Main Street, her lawn was just a smooth expanse of green, all the way down to the seasonal creek burbling past the three houses.

Since we were testing for distance limits, we kept to the perimeter, starting on the west side. Nothing physical marked the boundary, though, so we were just guessing that the property line was about halfway between our house and Patrice’s.

We skirted the edge of the gravel drive that ended at the garage and continued past the rear wall of the house. I glanced sidelong at Avi.

“Feeling anything?”

He shot me a glare, but I noticed that he was clutching the hem of his cardigan with both hands. “It’s the first time I’ve seen the house from outside in more than ten years, Maz. What do you think?”

I winced. “Sorry.” I was thinking more about ghost manifestation stuff rather than, you know, feelings . “Do you want me to leave you alone for a bit before we go on?”

His shoulders rose and fell. “No. I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to snap.” His mouth lifted in—yeah, sue me—a ghost of a smile. “I’ll have time enough to wallow in messy emotions later.”

“All right then.” I pointed to Patrice’s window. “Did I ever tell you that on my first day here, when I was still trying to get past your sawdust trap?—”

“Sorry about that.”

“It’s cool.” As a matter of fact, Avi’s sawdust manipulation skills had more than one upside. Not only had it eventually saved my life, but it had introduced me to Ricky. So, you know. No regrets.

We walked past the bulkhead and down the lawn toward the creek.

According to Taryn, our official plot extended to the poplars that edged the green space behind the old elementary school.

However, Avi’s family, as well as Patrice and Sofia, treated the creek as the de facto property line.

Judging by the neatly trimmed grass on the other side, though, I suspect Ricky maintained it just as he did our three lawns.

Avi paused next to a tree about ten feet tall with dark green oblong leaves about the length of my hand.

“This is a black tulip magnolia. It was just a sapling… then. We intended to plant several fruit trees down here after Oren—” His voice caught.

“After Oren moved in, but that was in the summer, and we needed to wait for January to plant the bare root stock.”

“Would you… That is, I don’t want to step on your toes, or bring up any bad memories, but would you like to do that? Plant some fruit trees? This January?”

Avi lowered his head for a moment. “I… I would like that.” When he looked up, the back porch light reflected off his glasses so I couldn’t see his eyes, but the tone of his voice told me everything I needed to know.

Hell, yeah, we’re planting those trees.

“Why don’t you show me where you’d like them while we continue our tour?”

He shook his head, chuckling. “It’s barely May, Maz. I think we have time.”

“I know.” I tracked the toe of my Converse as it traced a circle in the grass. “But coming here, inheriting this house from an uncle I never knew?—”

“Third cousin,” Avi said.

I froze, my gaze snapping to Avi. “What?”

Avi’s brow wrinkled. “What what?”

“You said third cousin.”

“Yes.” He drew out the word with exaggerated patience. “Your mother was his second cousin once removed, which makes you his third cousin.”

“I am. But I’m pretty sure we never talked about the relationship. How did you know?”

“Because Oren told me you’d be next in line when he made her his contingent benef— Oh.”

Yeah. Oh.

“You knew.” My lungs were suddenly full of lead. “About me. You both knew about me before.”

Avi reached out with one transparent hand. “Maz. My memories aren’t complete. I can’t even remember what’s supposed to be on the shelves in my house. This doesn’t mean anything.”

“Did you, Avi?” My voice sounded like it was at the bottom of a barrel through the roaring in my ears. “Did you know?”

“You have to understand. We were drawing up our wills. Saul told us that even though we were leaving everything to each other, we should have contingent beneficiaries in case of… well, in case. My fallback was actually Richdale University, since I didn’t have any family that was especially close. Oren laughed.”

“He laughed at me?”

“No! I didn’t— That wasn’t—” Avi pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes. “He said he could do better than a university. He actually had somebody he wanted to benefit . A cousin.” He kept trying to catch my gaze, but I kept slipping the hook. “Second cousin once removed.”

That hit me square in the solar plexus. “My mom. Not me. He left everything to my mom.”

“If her name was Laura Brandon, then yes. Your last name is different, so I didn’t realize at first that you were her son.”

“She didn’t change her name when she married my dad.” The sound I made might qualify as a laugh if you’d never heard one before. “He always joked that he thought about changing his, but having two Lauras in the family would be too confusing.”

“Oren said she was the only person in their entire family who didn’t revile him when he came out, so he wanted to thank her. He left her a small bequest originally, too, although he said it had more sentimental value. Something from their childhoods, I think.”

The roaring in my ears intensified, and I had to brace my hands on my knees. I’d seen Oren’s will. Taryn showed it to me when we were finalizing probate. My mom’s name wasn’t on it.

Mine was.

I was so overwhelmed at the time, it hadn’t occurred to me what that meant, but now I connected those dots: Oren had altered the will after she died, which meant he’d known of her death, known about me, but had never reached out.

Yeah, he was suffering his own debilitating loss. But we could have helped each other. Why? Why had he left me alone?

Maybe someday, if Avi’s dreams came true and Oren joined him here in ghostly communion, I could pose that question to him. While I sincerely hoped that day would come for Avi’s sake, I wasn’t all that eager for it to arrive for my own.

It was probably a good thing that ghosts weren’t punchable. At least not yet.

“Maz?” Avi’s tone was tentative. “Are you okay?”

Honestly? No. But what Oren did or did not do wasn’t Avi’s fault, particularly since he’d died three years before my parents. So I pushed myself upright and shook my hair back.

“Let’s keep going.”

We finished the circuit of our property. Avi didn’t glitch at all, although he didn’t say much. Neither did I, for that matter. It wasn’t exactly a night for cheerful banter.

By the time we reached the street again, my emotions had more or less leveled out. I pulled out my phone, just in case I’d missed a text from Ricky when I’d been having my little existential breakdown, but there was nothing.

I really wished there had been something.

“Okay.” I tucked my phone away. “It looks like you’ve got the full run of the house and yard.” I gestured to Sofia’s house. “I need to lock up next door. Want to see if you can visit the neighbors, too? You were friends with Sofia, weren’t you?”

He scoffed. “ Everybody was friends with Sofia. Or I suppose it’s more accurate to say that Sofia was friends with everybody. Her warmth was irresistible.”

“Is.”

“What?”

“Her warmth is irresistible.”

“Ah. Right.” He gazed up at the second-floor window nearest my house, which I now knew was Liam’s suite. “The only people who could resist her charm were her son’s in-laws.”

“Liam’s mother’s family, you mean? The Frosts?”

“Yes. They were… very White, if you get my drift. I was actually surprised that Susanne bucked her family’s pressure enough to marry Lorenzo.”

“She had a backbone, eh?”

“Not really. I think she was used to always getting her way, her parents were used to letting her have it, and Lorenzo was… very handsome. Then Lorenzo proved he had more business savvy than his father-in-law and took the company to whole other level.” He smiled wryly.

“Apparently, for his ability to generate buckets of cash, they were able to overlook his ethnicity, although they refused to call him anything but Lawrence until the end.”

“I thought the company closed.”

“It did. But that was after Lorenzo died.” Avi chewed on his lower lip as he gazed up at Sofia’s house. “He had a bad heart, too. If Sofia?—”

“Hey.” Not for the first time, I regretted that I couldn’t actually touch Avi enough to pat his shoulder.

“Ricky told me Lorenzo was definitely Type A, which brings a certain set of stressors. Sofia’s condition is different.

It’s more electrical than anything else.

Come on.” I beckoned to him. “Let’s go lock up. ”

I strode toward Sofia’s front porch, but when I got to the door, I realized Avi wasn’t with me. When I turned around, he hadn’t moved. He was staring at the ground in front of his feet. I hurried back to him.

“Can’t you cross the boundary? Do you need to be invited? I’m not sure if I can?—”

He glanced up at me irritably. “I’m a ghost, not a vampire, Maz. It’s just… It’s a big step, okay? And for an instant, there, something… wobbled.”

“Is it still, er, wobbling?”

“No.” He ran both hands through his hair. I noted that they were trembling. “No. It’s fine now.”

“If it will make it any easier, I’ll stay right by your side.”

Something I couldn’t identify flickered across his face. “I’d appreciate that. Thanks.” His chest expanded with a huge breath. “I wonder if this is what prisoners feel when they’re finally released and walk through the gates.” He lifted his chin and took a step forward. “Huh.”

I tucked my thumbs into my front pockets. “A little anticlimactic?”

“Yes and no.” He angled his head toward Sofia’s house. “Shall we?”

“Let’s.”

We walked up the porch steps together. I pulled Ricky’s keys out of my hoodie pocket and sorted through them. “I think I remember which one is Sofia’s house key, but?—”

“Just try the knob, Maz. Sofia never locked her doors before. I can’t imagine things have changed so much in as little as ten years.”

“You don’t know Ricky,” I muttered. “He’d probably come over and lock them himself if she didn’t follow proper security protocol.” However, when I tried the door, it opened. I glanced over at Avi. “Let’s not tell him about this. I don’t want to get Sofia in trouble.”

Avi canted an eyebrow. “Even if I were inclined to tattle, how exactly do you imagine I could? He can’t hear me.”

“Ah. Right. Good point.”

I thought about the EVP equipment I’d ordered earlier. Sheesh, was it only this afternoon? It felt like it had been days since Ricky and I had gotten home to Avi’s panicked appearance. If everything worked out, pretty soon Avi would have a way to tattle on anybody he wanted.

I could only hope.