Page 12

G hosts are real. Magic is real.

Chloe did her best to keep a hysterical giggle from spilling out of her mouth, the – quite frankly insane – revelations of the past half hour occupying her mind so much that she barely even registered the way she was dragging Ethan down the street.

What’s next? Dragons? Griffins? Unicorns?

She let out an undignified snort. No, that was too ridiculous, even by today’s standards.

Perhaps the excitement of moving across the country and starting her dream business in her dream location had gotten the better of her.

Perhaps she needed to go home for a nap.

Perhaps she was taking a nap right now, and this was all some bizarre dream.

It would explain an awful lot about just how weird her day had become.

She spun on the spot – and, before she could think better of it, gave Ethan a pinch on the wrist. Not a particularly nasty one, but enough that he would feel it.

“Ow!” he yelled as he jerked his hand back, voice losing all of its usual coolness. “What the hell was that? ”

“Sorry,” she said, though not overly apologetically. “Just wanted to check that I wasn’t dreaming.”

“That’s not how that works,” he snapped, and, as much as she would normally feel bad in this situation, something about seeing him getting riled up and losing control of his usual calm, self-assured demeanor was awfully entertaining.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said again, while maybe letting loose a small, giddy laugh. “But you have to admit, this is all a bit strange. Or incredibly messed-up, really.” She narrowed her eyes. “Right?”

Because Ethan had taken this whole thing remarkably in stride. And while she supposed he had had some time to get used to being haunted by a ghost, the whole magic, witchy bookshop owner thing had come out of nowhere.

He’d been completely unfazed, though. Like witches and magic spells were something he was used to the idea of.

Ethan locked gazes with her for a moment, before turning away and staring resolutely ahead. “This isn’t something to discuss on an empty stomach. We can talk about it later.”

“Good point,” she muttered. She was ravenous, which probably wasn’t helping matters… though she didn’t think she would’ve found the situation much more explicable even if she’d already eaten.

She jabbed her finger in his face, trying to ignore how incredibly unthreatening the gesture was when she had to reach up to do so.

“But don’t think you can get away with just putting off this conversation indefinitely, you know.

I’m onto you. You and your… weirdness. So don’t think you’re off the hook just because I’m hungry.

” She shook the finger for good measure.

Ethan held up his hands in surrender. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Good.”

She started off down the street again, at a slightly more sedate pace this time.

At the very least, she was no longer dragging Ethan along by the wrist. Not that she didn’t want to – the warm buzz beneath her fingers as they touched his skin had been intoxicating, and she desperately wanted more of him in a way that was almost shocking to her.

This kind of infatuation wasn’t like her at all. Her patients were her life. That was how she liked it.

In any case, she had at least calmed down enough to get a hold of herself, and now she was walking down the street like a normal person, enjoying the cool, crisp air as she inhaled, and the way that her breath fogged as she exhaled.

The cold had always bothered her in the past, but it was just so – so charming here in Girdwood Springs that she couldn’t help but enjoy it.

What she wasn’t enjoying, however, was the way that her shoes were sliding against the damp leaves on the sidewalk.

Her feet were shooting out from underneath her, in fact, the world beginning to rotate around her.

She had a moment to contemplate how long she would have to delay opening her clinic for if she fell over and broke her butt – before she became aware of the big, strong, warm arms wrapping themselves around her, catching her before she could make devastating contact with the cold, hard sidewalk below.

She looked up, giving herself a moment to focus her vision – and found herself staring into Ethan’s ice-blue eyes, warm rather than cold, and wide with worry.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern practically radiating from him.

“Fine,” Chloe said breathlessly, once she had found her voice. “Never better, in fact.”

They stayed like that for several long moments, Chloe simply basking in the feeling of safety that she felt in his arms, before she snapped back to reality.

“As much as I appreciate you saving my ass,” she said, forcing herself to sound indifferent and mostly succeeding, “you probably should put me down now. People are starting to stare.” She didn’t know if that was true, given that she hadn’t managed to break away from his intense gaze, but it seemed likely.

“Of course,” he murmured, setting her back on her feet like it was nothing, and Chloe almost sighed in disappointment at the loss of his touch.

What is going on with me? Why am I feeling like this?! I don’t need some great hulking asshole to carry me around!

“Let’s take it at a bit more of a sensible pace this time, shall we?” Ethan said, and as much as Chloe bristled at it, she couldn’t really blame him.

“Yeah,” she muttered – before brightening considerably. “Oh, there’s the diner! Let’s go – I could eat an entire bain-marie full of questionable meat offcuts right now.”

“Sounds delightful,” Ethan muttered, apparently having returned to his usual insufferable self.

Regardless of Ethan’s sour disposition, Chloe couldn’t help but think she might have been transported to heaven when she pushed open the diner doors.

Wow! I have to reassess – this place smells way too good to be selling questionable meat offcuts.

It was true, too – perhaps no one really knew what went on in the making of a hot dog, but the mouth-watering savory smell in here was too delicious for her to care about trivial matters like that.

The diner seemed empty – Chloe supposed that they had come at a quiet time in the afternoon. The amazing smell was at least a reassurance that the place was open for business.

“Oh, they have onion rings,” she said, pointing up to the menu on a board over the front counter. “And deep-fried pickles!”

“It seems like they have deep-fried pretty much everything.” Ethan was frowning as he studied the menu. “I don’t see anything healthy. Do you think they do an egg white omelet? Or a poached chicken salad?”

Chloe turned to stare at him, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, clearly we have really different expectations of what we’re going to find on a diner menu. I don’t know about you, but when I come into a small-town diner, it’s in the hope of not seeing anything healthy on the menu.”

Ethan was still frowning. “I already had my allotted carbs for the day with breakfast. And anything I eat here is going to skyrocket me into caloric surplus.”

“Wow, you’re really not joking about this, are you,” Chloe murmured, still staring at him. “Don’t you ever just eat – or do – anything for fun?”

“I don’t really have time for fun,” Ethan said, without a trace of humor. “I work.”

“Wow, what a coincidence, so do I,” Chloe said. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a good burger. In fact, I think it entitles me to a good burger.”

She looked at Ethan as he continued to stare up at the menu, a knot in his forehead, his eyebrows all furrowed up.

Oh, this is just too, too sad, she thought. I have to help him.

“Look,” she said. “Do you trust me?”

Perhaps it wasn’t the question she’d meant to ask, but it was the question that had popped out of her mouth.

Ethan turned to look at her again, his beautiful lips still set in a confused frown. “I’m sorry?”

“Do you trust me?” Chloe repeated. “Okay – maybe don’t answer that. But what I want you to do right now is go sit down at a table and let me handle the ordering. Okay?”

Ethan opened his mouth, closed it again, and then glanced up at the menu.

“But –”

“Nope – no ifs, no buts. Just go sit. Today, you’re going to discover the delights of diner food.

You can go back to egg white omelet and tofu beans and lettuce cuttings tomorrow.

But today, you have to accept whatever I order for you – call it thanks for helping me out so much with Bella.

Oh, and a pre-payment for everything you’re going to explain to me, once you’ve finished holding up my lunch. ”

As if to punctuate her sentence, her stomach let out a long, loud groan of hunger.

Ethan hesitated for a moment longer, seeming to be undergoing some kind of internal struggle – Maybe it’s that indigestion again, Chloe thought – before, finally, he nodded.

“All right. But –”

“Nope! Like I said, no ifs, no buts,” Chloe told him, holding up a hand. “Go. Sit.”

And, to her mild surprise, Ethan did. He walked across the room – somewhat stiffly, but still, he was doing it – and sat down at a booth by the window that looked out over the street, with a good view of the fall foliage on the nearby mountains.

Great! Now, what to order?

Chloe knew she shouldn’t go overboard – she was hungry, but she shouldn’t let her empty stomach run away with her.

As she was trying to decide between the fried chicken sandwich and the hot dog with everything, a woman emerged from the kitchen – an older woman, with brassy, dyed-blonde hair in an elaborate updo the likes of which Chloe didn’t think she’d seen outside of ’50s sitcoms, and a wide smile on her face.

“Thought I heard voices out here,” she said. “You’re a little early for dinner, but everything’s ready to go. What can I get for you?”

“Well… that is the question,” Chloe said thoughtfully as she stared up at the menu. But she couldn’t eat all of it, no matter what kinds of delicious scents were wafting in from the kitchen the woman had just left.