Page 14 of Ronen (Sweet Alps Legacy #1)

Chapter Ten

Ronen

“Can you believe that hottie sheriff is your fated mate?”

Emily was practically vibrating on the back counter she was perched on, her legs swinging back and forth at a rapid pace.

It was about the twentieth time she had asked the same question and I was well and truly over it. I was having a hard enough time coming to grips with my life right now, without being reminded every few minutes by a ghost.

“Ohhhh! He has handcuffs!”

Ignoring her, and the image that conjured up, I plastered a tight smile on my face as I handed the books I had just checked out to my patron. “Those will be due back in three weeks. Have a nice day.”

My eyes scanned over the library, noting where people were located throughout the building.

The afternoon was always busier, with story time in the children’s room, and various clubs gathered in the rooms we set aside for meetings.

Adults tended to stop in on their lunch breaks or when they got off work, as did teens after school, many to use the computers for research where it was quiet.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Lindsey, one of my part-time employees, rushed in from the back, smoothing her straight red hair. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.”

“No worries,” I told her, shooting her a small smile. “I know it was short notice, and you needed to find someone to watch the kids. Thanks for coming in, I appreciate it.”

She waved my thanks away. “I’m happy to help. Is the sheriff going to be okay? Those steps scare me to death, I swear. I do not understand why more people don’t park in the back, especially in winter. Mrs. Everett nearly gives me a heart attack every time she goes up and down them.”

“You and me both,” I confided. “I think she does it on purpose, honestly. My dad texted me and said Sheriff Caldwell is going to be okay, but I still need to see for myself. Especially since it happened on our property. There’s paperwork that needs to be filled out; I need to make sure all our I’s are dotted and T’s crossed. ”

“Your dad?” Lindsey wrinkled her brow in confusion. “How does he know?”

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “How does he ever know? You know he and Becks are like two twelve-year-old girls when it comes to town gossip. They know everything about everything.”

It wasn’t all a lie; my dad was super fucking nosy and did always know what was going on. “Becks doesn’t know how to be properly retired, and still thinks he has to keep an eye on this town, and Dad is just as bad. ”

“I see them at The Sweet Spot a lot. And, insurance is a pain,” she commiserated, signing into the computer system. “I don’t envy you. I’ll continue to be a lowly part-timer with no real responsibility, thanks.”

“Facts,” I agreed, running a hand through my hair.

She narrowed her eyes at me, then tilted her head. “You look frazzled. And tired. And what’s with the skin showing? Ronen Sinclair, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with so many buttons undone.”

She flicked a hand at my throat and then my forearms, where my sleeves were still rolled back and had been all day. “I would have never guessed you had so much ink,” her voice sounded shocked but also in awe. “Is that Charlie’s work?”

A gave her a shocked look. “Do you think I would allow anyone else to touch my skin?”

She laughed, “I’d be more scared of what Charlie would do to you if you did. You should relax like this more often. It’s a good look on you.”

Ignoring her comment, I made sure she was settled, told her that Caleb and Jayden, two of our high school employees, were on schedule for later to help out, and thanked her once more before I headed into my office to grab my coat.

“Ro, you need to go see him!” Emily materialized through the closed door of my office.

Shrugging into my jacket, I zipped it up. “What do you think I’m doing? Dammit, I need his address. Where are the three stooges? I haven’t seen them since they tried to murder Mason.”

Booting up my office computer, I ignored her when she sat on my desk, practically on top of my keyboard .

“Oh, stop being dramatic! No one tried to murder anyone! We aren’t those types of ghosts. We’re like…” She thought for a minute, “We’re like Casper. Nice and friendly.”

At my loud snort, she wisely changed the subject.

“I just can’t believe you and Mason are fated,” she sighed dreamily, her dark hair swooshing around her face, as she rested her chin on her hand. “It’s like a movie or something.”

“A horror movie,” I commented dryly, as I looked up Mason’s account and wrote down his address, noting it was on the very edge of town, off the highway, but not that far from my family’s property. “Where out of control ghosts murder innocent people.”

Emily swatted at my shoulder, though since she wasn’t solid, it didn’t feel like much of anything. Which reminded me I needed to question the others, when they were brave enough to show their faces, on how they had managed to push Mason.

“Stop it! It’s like the most romantic of romantic movies. Star crossed lovers meant to be together.”

“The man is the most infuriating person I’ve met in…well, ever.”

“Ronen, I have told you for years that you need to stop being so…so…” she waved a hand up and down my body, shrugging and not finishing her sentence.

“You know what would be great?” I said, folding the paper with Mason’s address on it and stuffing it in my coat pocket.

“If everyone could stop giving me their opinions of my character and or personality. I am how I am, and I don’t need your approval.

If you don’t like me, why are you still here? Go haunt someone else. ”

“Rude! No need to get all snippy! You’re so grumpy!” Emily frowned at me. “And you know you are like my best friend. I love you, Ro. I could never leave you. Or the library.”

“It’s not like you have a lot of options,” I sniped, knowing I was being pissy. “I was just the first person who could see you.”

“That is not true!” she declared, then amended. “Okay, yeah, on the seeing me part, that is true. But I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t want to be.”

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed. I was being a shit, and I knew it.

“I’m sorry, Em. My family gave me shit the other night, and I haven’t been sleeping well. William has been a pain in my ass, with dire predictions and half-assed warnings.”

Giving her a pointed look, I asked, “You don’t have any idea what he’s blabbering on about, do you?”

“No, but I can try to find out if you want me to,” she told me.

Shaking my head, I said, “It’s okay. I’m sure it’s nothing.

Just his fucked up way to try to get in my head.

My grandma told him off the other night at dinner.

She was very scary. She couldn’t see him, but she somehow seemed to know exactly where he was sitting in my Jeep.

My family has some deep, unresolved issues where that man is concerned, and I’m kinda glad he was dead long before my cousins and I came along.

I don’t think any of us would have liked him very much. ”

“Your Grandma Mary is a badass,” Emily grinned.

There was a quick knock on my door, before Lindsey poked her head in.

“Hey Ro, sorry to interrupt,” she gave me a confused look at my empty hands. “Oh, I thought you were on the phone. I thought I heard you talking to someone.”

Grabbing my cell off my desk, I lied, “Just finished a call. What’s up?”

Over the years, I had become a master of deception when I had gotten caught “talking” to myself. Usually, even in the privacy of my office, I was more careful during business hours.

She still looked a little skeptical of my explanation, but she thankfully didn’t question me further. “UPS just delivered a couple of boxes of new releases. Want me to deal with them if I have time?”

“That would be great,” I told her, shuffling her out of my office and shutting the door behind us. “Don’t worry about it if you don’t get to them. I can deal with them in the morning.”

We said our goodbyes for the second time, and I headed out, slightly disappointed when there wasn’t a colorful duck sitting on my windshield. Today of all days, I could have used the little pick me up the silly pieces of rubber gave me.

Sitting with the engine running, I didn’t make a move to put the vehicle in reverse.

Instead, I stared out the windshield at the brick building, wondering what to do.

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to. I was a very decisive person, always had been, but discovering that I had a fated mate, and that it was Mason, had thrown me for a loop.

There was no avoiding the man, at any rate. I needed to document his injuries, and make sure he wasn’t planning to sue the library. The fated mate issue though? For once, my extreme intelligence and logic vanished out the window.

I was reeling. And I didn’t like that feeling one bit.

“Why don’t you go talk to your brother,” Gigi’s voice startled me, and I jerked my head in her direction. “He is researching fated mates. Perhaps he can answer any questions you might have before you see Mason. ”

It wasn’t a terrible idea.

Matty likely knew more about fated mates than anyone else I knew. Certainly more than me. I knew the basics, but since it wasn’t a subject that I was interested in, it hadn’t been worth my time to research it further.

“What was that nonsense earlier?” Glaring, I turned to face her.

“Don’t give me that face, boy. We were just helping you two along. My Goddess, the sexual tension alone was more than we could handle.”

“You could have seriously hurt him. And how did you even manage it?”

She shrugged, “We put all our energy into concentrating on making William’s arm…solid. And it worked! It was draining though. Now, stop being a little pisser, and go get some information from Matthew. You know how you love facts, Ronen.”

She cupped my cheek, her green eyes soft.

“I would never do anything to hurt you, and I’m sorry we went to such drastic measures.

But look on the bright side! You and Mason are fated.

And that, my boy, is a wondrous thing. Not everyone gets a fated mate.

You’re special, Ronen. You always have been.

Don’t waste this opportunity because you are scared, or bored, or the countless other excuses you usually tell yourself for not getting close to someone. ”

Even though I couldn’t actually feel her touch against my cheek, just a cold spot, I could see her and that was enough. Biologically, she wasn’t my grandmother, but that had never mattered.

She was, and had always been, my Gigi. Not even her death could take that away from me .

“Thanks, Gigi,” Giving her a warm smile, I started to put my Jeep in reverse, then stopped. Softly, I whispered, “I miss you.”

“Sweet boy,” she chided, her ghostly hand coming up to cover mine on the steering wheel. “ I’m never far. I could never leave any of you. Goddess knows what trouble you would all get up to if I did. Now go see Matty. And then go talk to that hot, hunky cowboy of yours.”