Page 8 of Ghostlighted (Ghost Townies #2)

Chapter Five

R icky’s gaze cut to the door. “It’s an incredibly generous offer, Maz, but she’s almost seventy and a confirmed homebody. This might be too overwhelming for her to handle alone.”

“Then go with her.” I shrugged. “Trip of a lifetime for two.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Is this your sneaky way to get me to take money I don’t want?”

Well, yes, but I knew a frontal assault wouldn’t work. Although I might be sneaky, I wasn’t boneheaded.

“Send somebody else, then. Your sister, for instance. She’s the most level-headed seventeen-year-old I’ve ever met.”

Ricky opened his mouth, clearly about to protest, but then a contemplative expression settled onto his face.

“That might work. Felicia’s organized enough that she could handle logistics for an international trading company.

A little trip across the country?” He scoffed.

“Eso no es nada. She’s also the only person other than me who can keep Tia on track with her meds. ”

I tapped a finger on the back of his hand, which I still held to my chest and was in no hurry to release. “You’ve mentioned her meds before. Would the trip be too much for her health?”

“No. She’s had supraventricular tachycardia all her life, but when it started to worsen, her doctor put her on beta blockers and it’s manageable.”

“Is she a candidate for ablation?”

Ricky’s eyebrows lifted. “You know about SVT?”

I nodded. “My grandmother had it, too. The episodes got more frequent and longer as she got older, so she finally went the surgical route.” I chuckled. “She complained that if she’d known it worked so well, she’d have done it years earlier.”

“Tia’s still resisting the procedure because surgery makes her nervous, and as long as she keeps up with her meds and doesn’t overdo, she’s fine.

However.” He squeezed my hands. “Before you start calling airlines and booking hotel rooms, we should ask her if it’s something she’d want.

She’s never flown before. She’s never even been out of Oregon. ”

“What? Never?”

Ricky shrugged. “She always said there was never anywhere she wanted to go badly enough.”

“You think she wants this badly enough?”

Ricky huffed a half-laugh. “Not for her. But for Liam? Yeah. Yeah, I’m pretty sure she does, but it should still be her choice.”

“Then let’s ask her when we ask her about the party.”

“Ai.” He released my hands and stepped back. “I forgot about the party. We can’t do both.”

I stuck my hands in my back pockets so I wouldn’t reach for him again. “Why not? The party’s not until June first, and she scheduled it so Liam would have time to get home for it. We’ll send her a few days ahead of time. She and Felicia can see the sights, visit with Liam?—”

“Assuming he can carve out time from his busy schedule for them,” Ricky said dryly.

“Even if he doesn’t, they can still go to the ceremony and then fly home by the thirty-first. Meanwhile, we can prep everything here for the party. All she’ll have to do is hang out with her family and show everyone pictures of the trip.”

Ricky closed the distance between us and looked up at me. “You’d do that for my family?”

I had to try twice before I could speak, because with Ricky’s warm brown eyes on me, I’d somehow forgotten where I kept my voice. “I’d do that for our family. I may only have been here in Ghost for a few weeks, but I’m already home.”

Ricky leaned forward, and I was sure he was going to kiss me this time, his gaze locked on mine. Closer. Closer. Clo?—

“Enrique? Por favor, could you help me with this tray?”

His gaze snapped from my face to the porch where Sofia was standing in the doorway, a laden lacquered tray in her hands. “Tia, you didn’t have to bring the whole pitcher.”

“You boys looked thirsty. What was I to do?”

“Stay there. We’ll drink on the steps.”

The two of us climbed the gentle grassy slope.

Ricky relieved Sofia of the tray and set it town on the porch at the top of the steps.

He nodded at the rocking chair that was drawn up next to the railing.

“You sit. I’ll pour.” As she settled herself on the colorful embroidered cushions, Ricky said, “Tia. Why are there only two glasses?”

She folded her hands in her lap. “I am not the one who has been working all morning.”

“Nevertheless, you can join us.” He turned to me, the pitcher in his hand. “Maz, would you mind grabbing another glass from the cabinet?”

“No problem.”

I toed off my badly battered sneakers at the threshold—hey, I wasn’t about to wear my marginally less battered Converse to garden in—and walked inside, pushing the door closed with my hip.

I couldn’t contaminate Sofia’s pristine kitchen or open her cabinets, let alone collect a glass, with hands that had been sweating inside suede gloves for the last two hours.

I’d been in Sofia’s house often enough by now that the route through the living room and down the hall to the bathroom was familiar, but all the way, I mentally kicked my butt.

Had I really just told Ricky that I’d adopted myself into his family ?

I knew how seriously he and all his relatives took that concept, whether they were related by blood, marriage, or ceremony, like the christening that made Ricky Sofia’s godson.

He’d told me almost the first time we’d met that how important that commitment was to her.

But I wasn’t related in any of those ways.

Yes, I’d found a belonging place in Ghost, but inviting myself into Ricky’s family without his consent?

I mean, I thought we were heading in that direction, but he didn’t seem to be in any rush.

For that matter, I was feeling a little cautious and gun-shy myself.

As in literally, since the last guy who’d made a move on me had threatened me with a gun.

“Get over yourself, Maz,” I told my reflection in the mirror over the sink as I scrubbed my hands with Sofia’s honeysuckle-scented soap. “If I overstepped, I’ll apologize and back off. If I didn’t? Well, that would be great.”

I couldn’t deny that something under my heart yearned to truly be a part of this community, including the Vargas clan, the scope of which seemed to grow by the day. But I’d been here less than a month. I had time.

Time to take my time.

I owned a house here, for Pete’s sake, a house that I shared with a permanent resident ghost. I planned to live here for the rest of my life, to make this town my home.

Alienating anybody, let alone my next-door neighbor and a man I was seriously attracted to, would be awkward to say the least. I had enough failed relationships in my past. The last thing I needed was to start a new collection here in Ghost.

“Too bad there’s not a soap that can wash away anxiety, regret, and poor decisions, because I’d be seriously tempted to break into the royalty money for something like that.”

Until I could find it, though, I’d just have to deal with my own crap the best I could. So I dried my hands and returned to the kitchen to collect a tumbler from the kitchen cabinet.

When I stepped out onto the porch, Sofia was cradling her glass of tea in both hands.

Ricky had returned the pitcher to the tray next to the remaining empty glass instead of serving himself, which was exactly on point with what I knew about him, even after such a short acquaintance: He always put others first.

I closed the door behind me and handed him the new glass. “Here you go.”

He looked up at me from his seat on the top step, his smile bright.

“Gracias.” He took a deep breath, and I thought he was about to say something else, but then a gust of wind ruffled his hair and his gaze slid from mine to a spot behind me.

“Maz, if you wouldn’t mind, could you close the door again?

Give it a good yank. The latch is sticky, and it doesn’t always catch.

I think I need to adjust the strike plate. ”

“Sure.” I gave the door a good yank as directed, trying not to think about other things that might get yanked in the future if I was lucky. When I sat down and leaned against the post on the other side of the steps, Ricky was already holding out a full glass for me. “Thanks.”

He poured his own last, of course. “Tia, have you thought more about your party?”

She gazed down at her untouched tea. “It is not my party. It was a party for Guillermo. There is not much point if he cannot be here.”

“Why?” Ricky pulled himself up and tried to look affronted—a total fail on his perpetually cheerful face. “Are you saying the rest of us aren’t worthy of a party?”

Sofia made a shooing motion. “Do not be fresh, Enrique. You know that is not the point.”

“I know I’m not part of the family,” I said, “but?—”

“Nonsense, Maz.” Sofia rocked her chair forward so she could reach my shoulder and give it a pat. “Of course you are family. You and your gatito both.”

If Sofia had accepted me, that was something anyway. I’d learned enough about Ricky’s extended clan to know that she was its beating heart, even though she was only a Vargas by marriage.

“If that’s the case…” I glanced at Ricky and he gave a little nod, as if to say it’s your move . “I have a proposal. How would you like to attend Lia— that is, Guillermo’s graduation ceremony?”

Her snowy brows drew together. “His ceremony? How? It is all the way on the other side of the country.”

“It is. But a plane can get you there in about six hours. You could go to Massachusetts, to Cambridge. Stay at a nice hotel. See the sights.”

Her eyes got a faraway look. “I have always wanted to see the campus where Guillermo has spent so many happy years.” She shook her head. “But it is impossible. Those airplanes, those hotels. They are expensive. And Guillermo’s law school costs even more. I could not afford it.”

“You wouldn’t have to.”

She looked from me to Ricky, clearly confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Ricky took perfect care of my house—the outside of it, anyway—for ten years without taking a penny for it.”

“Pfft.” She batted the air. “That is nothing. This is what family does, and Avi and Oren, they were family.”

“Nevertheless, he’s banked some serious goodwill with me and Av— with me, so I’d like the graduation trip to be my gift to you.”

Her eyes widened. “But… but I could not go alone. I do not know the city, and Guillermo will be so busy.”

“Take Felicia with you. I’ve met her. There’s nobody I’ve ever met who’s more on board with tackling an unfamiliar city than she is.”

Hope flickered across Sofia’s face, but then she firmed her lips and shook her head. “No. It is too much. I cannot accept such a thing.”

“But Sofia,” I said, arranging my face in what I hoped was sincere hurt, “this is what family does. If you refuse, it would mean you don’t think I belong in yours.”

She narrowed her eyes and set her glass down on the porch with a clunk . “Maz Amani, you are using my own words against me.”

I grinned. “Is it working?”

She threw up her hands. “You are as fresh as Enrique. There is no way I can win. If I say no, then I am denying your place. If I say yes, I am taking something worth far too much.”

I took her hand. “Say yes, Sofia. You’ve supported your grandson all through his college years. He’s about to walk across the stage and get his diploma placed in his hand. Don’t you want to see that?”

Her throat worked for a moment as she swallowed twice. Tears glistened in her eyes as she whispered, “Sí. Sí, I do.”