Page 59 of Ghostly

“I just happen to have a good memory.”

“So, how do we enact this?”

“Same way as the first contract. You haunt it, then haunt me.”

“What about the first contract?”

“Logically, it should become null and void.”

“Okay.” Ida shifted on the sofa, then popped into the page with the contract. In, out, clean and simple. The Resurrection Contract didn’t feel any different than the first: the smell of processed wood, something acidic, and the slight undertone of licorice. Maybe Brenda B. Bustin liked candy.

“Now me?” Gabriel asked.

“Why, you aren’t offering yourself up for possession?” Thank god she couldn’t blush. She’d have gone as red as a tomato at the thought of being so close to him. Literally, inside him.

“Just be a good ghostie and do it the same as the first time around.” Gabriel squared his shoulders, closed his eyes, and tilted his chin up, as if that were the ideal position for possession.

It didn’t matter at all, but it did give her a better look at his neck—strong, but lean—the little dent under his Adam’s apple, and the slight sprinkle of hair, just starting where he’d left the second button of his teal leaf-print shirt unbuttoned.

She’d seen a man’s bare chest before (regrettably, Larry loved going topless in summer) but having a glimpse of Gabriel’s was strangely mouthwatering.

Gabriel opened one eye. “Did you do it yet?”

Stop fantasizing about him right now.“Uh, no.”

“Damn. And I thought you’d learned how to do it even better.”

“I’ll do it now. Ready?” She waited for his nod and flicked inside him. She couldn’t figure out if humans just felt like what they loved most, or if she’d landed somewhere near his stomach, but—coffee. So much coffee aroma. Human bodies, in comparison to inanimate objects, werealso warmer, but felt shifty, as if she was engulfed in quicksand. She waited for a few seconds and zipped out.

See. That wasn’t so bad.Inside the man, and not one lewd thought. She could do this. “All fixed up.”

Gabriel brought out the original contract, and they stared at the pages.

“You can’t read my mind while you’re haunting me, right?” he said.

“No. Why?”

“Nothing. Privacy and all that. Look!”

The empty space beneath the Resurrection Contract filled up with their names. However…

“The old contract is still active,” Ida said.

Gabriel rubbed the names on the Passing Through contract, but nothing happened. “Figures this thing wouldn’t follow logic. What did I expect?”

“So now what?”

“Nothing. If it’s broken, it doesn’t matter. If it’s not and the problem was not fulfilling a condition…” His eyes searched hers. “Then I’ll just have to take care not to forgive anyone and pop you out of existence before we can bring you back to life.”

Chapter 15

If Ida thought Gabriel was devoted when it came to his work, she’d never seen him plan a house renovation. Within a week, he’d talked Farrah, the landlady, into allowing him to renovate the house, as long as he funded the endeavor (and supplied his lemon chicken recipe). Dina would contact a friend of a friend who sold the best bare root roses (Ida’s suggestion, because they’d take better to the early spring ground), and let in Gabriel on a secret family recipe that would make the flowers simply marvelous. Mark was on a hunt for furniture, and Gabriel hauled home an entire catalog of wall paints.

“No, these are too crazy,” Ida said. “We didn’t do all the pinks and blues and greens back then. I’m telling you, it was eggshell.”

“I showed you eggshell. You said it was ‘too cream’.”

“Then they changed what eggshell used to be!” Frustrated, she circled the living room. “Do we need such precision? The paint won’t be the exact same one, anyway.”