Page 35 of Ghostlighted (Ghost Townies #2)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I handed Ricky a glass of iced tea as he stood at the window in my breakfast nook, looking out through the blinds at where Sofia sat on her porch.

He accepted the glass. “Gracias.”

It had been three days since Liam’s arrest, two since Sofia’s ablation. Maria hadn’t told her about it before the procedure. She’d left it to Ricky to break the news afterward, which had kind of pissed me off until Ricky had told me it had been his choice.

We were all in a holding pattern now, even Avi and I. I’d postponed the dinner with the Vlahoses, because Avi was having trouble assimilating the changes to his existence over the last few days.

“Even if I could, I’m not ready to talk to somebody new yet,” he’d said. Then, with a wry smile, he’d added, “I’m not sure I want to talk to you right now either. I need a little… space. Time to get a handle on all of this. If that’s all right with you.”

“Sure, Avi. Take all the time you need.”

He’d offered to just stay in the attic while they were there, but that didn’t seem right to me, so I’d canceled, and the Vlahoses were very gracious about it.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Dominik had said. “There’s no rush.”

Ricky was still shaken too, not just by his own experience, but by Sofia’s close calls at Liam’s hands. Although he put a good face on it, claiming to be fine, I knew he was more affected than he appeared because he hadn’t once mentioned taking me to visit his cousin the car dealer.

To be honest, I was feeling a little fragile at the moment too, because Gil still hadn’t shown up. I spent almost as much time walking the streets of Ghost calling his name as Sofia spent in her rocking chair, gazing out at her garden.

I gestured toward her with my tea, the glass cold against my palm. “How’s she doing?”

“Not great. She says it’s not necessary for me to stay with her now that she’s recovered from the surgery, but when I promised not to hover, she didn’t object. I think she was relieved not to be alone.”

“You can hardly blame her. She’s got to be heartbroken after finding out that Liam’s been lying to her and stealing from her for all these years. She’s lavished all that love on a completely undeserving asshole.”

He shrugged. “She hasn’t stopped, you know. She says he needs that love now more than ever. She doesn’t hold it against the rest of us that we aren’t as forgiving, though.”

I watched Sofia rocking, rocking, rocking, and a drop of condensation trickled over my fingers.

“You know, I vetted a book for this social worker once. She was the director of a mental health clinic, so she had to deal with staffing issues across all the programs they offered. She told me about this mid-level manager who she wasn’t sure was up to the job, but she said, ‘I just pretended he could do it .’”

“What good would that do? If he was incompetent, shouldn’t she just get rid of him?”

I smiled down at him, wanting to smooth the crease between his brows, but after his confession about his ex, I resisted. “It wasn’t as critical as that. He was capable, just… rough-edged. With that mindset, though, she interacted with him from a place of perceived success, not expected failure.”

“Did it work?”

“She said so. Client care stayed at a high level, which was her goal. But I think the effect on her own well-being—coming from a positive rather than a negative place—was the bigger win.”

“That’s Tia. She always believes the best of everyone.” He sighed. “She wanted to pay his lawyer fees, did you know?” When I shook my head, he continued. “But Taryn’s friend is handling it pro bono.”

“Sure he is,” I muttered.

He turned his head sharply, his eyes wide with shock. “What do you mean?”

Oops . Taryn would probably kick my butt for letting that slip out. “Not a thing, other than everybody in town thinks Sofia’s footed Liam’s bills for way too long.”

His brows snapped together. “Do you think Taryn’s paying him? That’s not right. I should?—”

“Hey.” I took his untouched glass and set it on the table along with my own similarly undrunk tea. “I’m not sure of anything, but if you want my opinion? You should just pretend that it’s true.”

“But—”

“Ricky.” I held his gaze. “Let it go. Let her do this for Sofia. Let her do it for you.”

For a moment, I thought he’d protest, but then he just exhaled slowly and turned back to the window. “That’s a hard ask. Tia’s so good at taking care of other people. Awesome at it, in fact. But not so great at letting other people take care of her.”

“Acts of service,” I murmured.

“What?”

“That’s her love language. Same as yours.”

He gazed at me, an unreadable expression on his face. “Acts of service. Do you think I should… well… pull back a little? Let her take care of me more? Would that make her feel better?”

“Do you think you’re capable of that? Stepping back? Because personally, I can’t see it.”

He sank into a chair, shoulders slumping. “Then what can I do? I hate seeing her like this.”

“Maybe the answer is finding somebody other than you for her to focus on.” I widened my eyes in mock astonishment, as though something had just occurred to me. “A cousin! Surely there’s a cousin somewhere in the Vargas clan who needs some TLC.”

He gave me a seriously? look. “Vargases are opposed to helplessness on principle. We all know how to get the job done.”

“Yes,” I drawled. “I’d noticed.”

I collected the glasses and ferried them to the sink. As I emptied the tea down the drain, accompanied by the tinkle of unmelted ice, I heard a noise from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder. Ricky was looking down at something in his lap.

“Did you say something?”

“What?” He looked up while shoving his hand into his jacket pocket. His expression was almost… shifty. “No. Nothing.”

“Okay.” I joined him again and gestured to Sofia. “Do you think she’d like company?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. She’s still not saying much, though.”

“Then we don’t need to talk.”

I waited until he rose from the chair and then started for the butler’s pantry. I hadn’t gone two steps before I froze. I looked down at my hand.

Ricky’s fingers were twined with mine.

“Is this all right?”

“Mmmhmmm.” I couldn’t have made words right if I’d tried.

Because Ricky was holding my hand.

Despite ex damage on both our parts, he’d taken that leap. The least I could do was meet him at that level, and trust that someday our foundation would be sturdy enough to support more.

When we stepped out onto the back porch, I automatically checked behind myself and flinched. Gil’s not here. I don’t have to block an escape attempt .

Ricky must have felt me tense—and correctly identified the reason—because he said, “We’ll find him, Maz. Taryn posted it on Ghostline. Everyone in town is looking for him.”

“Sure.”

So far, nobody had reported so much as a glimpse of him since he’d disappeared. He hadn’t pinged Avi’s proximity radar even once. I forced a smile and headed down the steps. Ricky let me drop the subject and kept pace with me, our hands still joined, as we walked across the lawn to Sofia.

She smiled at us, but it was clearly a reflex, because she didn’t say a word, just returned her gaze to the garden. With a jolt, I realized she was looking at the scarecrow. I glanced sidelong at Ricky. Maybe it was time to ask his cousin to give the scarecrow a makeover.

Ricky squeezed my hand once before letting go to sit on the top step next to Sofia’s chair.

She rested her palm on his shoulder for a moment, gave it a pat, then clasped her hands in her lap again.

I settled on the step below Ricky, close enough that he could press his knee against my shoulder.

If, you know, he wanted to do something like that.

Luckily, he did.

The three of us sat there for a moment until suddenly there were four of us. I straightened up, because this was the first time Avi had left the house since that night, even though I always carried Oren’s ring with me, just in case.

Avi jerked his head at Sofia and beckoned to me. Ah. Right . Ricky knew about him, but Sofia didn’t. She might not take it well if I suddenly started talking to what appeared to be empty air.

I stood up and cleared my throat. “Just going to, um, see how the tomato plants are doing.” When I joined Avi next to the garden, I made sure to face away from the house so Sofia wouldn’t see my lips moving. “What is it? Is something wrong?”

“First, I wanted to apologize.”

I glanced at him sidelong. “For what?”

“For invading your privacy.” He shoved his hands deep in his cardigan pockets. “I don’t have to be visible, you know. When I’m manifesting.”

I blinked. “I’d forgotten that. But you were invisible when you stuffed Carson’s gun barrel.”

“I haven’t done it much since then. Until, well, today.”

“Oookay.”

“I overheard you talking about love languages,” he said in a rush, his eyes clenched shut. “I used the Smith Corona and wrote a note for Ricky. I passed it to him just now.” He cracked one eye open and peeked at me. “With yours.”

I frowned at him. “With my what?”

He faced me fully, his hands on his hips. “Your love language, of course.”

“Mine?” I almost threw up my hands until I remembered that checking on tomatoes probably didn’t call for such a dramatic gesture. “I don’t even know what mine is. Greg certainly complained enough when I didn’t offer proper homage to him.”

Avi chuckled. “From what you’ve told me about him, his love language was receiving gifts. Let me guess—when you didn’t measure up, he punished you by keeping his distance, right?”

I narrowed my eyes. “How did you know?”

“Because, Maz, your love language is physical touch. Whenever you’re upset, the first thing you do is reach for Gil.” He waggled a finger at me. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed the look on your face when you remember you can’t pat my shoulder.”

“I… have a look?”