Page 78 of She's Like the Wind

I sighed.

“A lot like you look right now, though that isn’t making me warm and fuzzy.” She gave a sassy wiggle to her eyebrows. “You two starting up again?”

“No,” I snapped a bit too earnestly.

As Queen Gertrude said, “The lady doth protest too much.”

“Right!” She rolled her eyes and went back to work.

The lunch felt like a beginning. It made me both hopefulandrestive.

I’d told Kadisha no way we’d start up again.

Told myself that it was never gonna happen.

Told Gage we weredone.

And yet, my mind was racing, waiting for an epiphany. An answer to the question, “He wants you back, now what?”

I’d just poured a glass of wine when something tapped softly against the glass-paned french doors that opened onto the balcony.

I froze.

All those talks about haints coalesced for a nanosecond before I remembered that I didn’t believe in that sort of thing.

Then it came again.

A soft clack.

What the hell?

I walked to the balcony and opened the door, and my heart did a stupid, optimistic little stutter.

“Hey, baby.” Gage stood in the warm glow of the gas lamps, looking up at me like we were in a nineties rom-com.

“Are you throwing stones at my windows?” I demanded.

“I was tryin’ to get your attention.”

A couple of tourists walking past stopped and grinned like they’d stumbled into a movie. One of them raised a phone to take a photo and maybe even record.

Ugh! Tourists.

I leaned against the wrought iron balustrade of my balcony.

“Well…?” I urged haughtily.

He grinned up at me. “You gonna come down, or do I need to find a boombox and play some Peter Gabriel?”

“You’re not serious.”

“Dead serious.”

I rolled my eyes. “That isn’t even the right movie.”

“Which movie were you thinking about, darlin’?”

“Romeo & Juliet,” one passerby declared.