Page 47 of The Body in the Backyard

Gabe helpedher down the stairs with a chivalrous and muscly arm around her waist.

“What the hell, Gigantor?” Nick demanded, jogging to meet them. “What did you do to my girl?”

“I’m fine,” Riley assured him as Gabe transferred her to Nick. “My spirit guides were frisky today. That’s all.” They weren’t the only ones feeling frisky. Either she’d stumbled on Gabe’s fantasy world, or he and her sister had finally gotten it on.

Did Gabe know she’d slipped into his head? Should she confess and apologize? Should she pretend it hadn’t happened and just never make eye contact with him again? She wasn’t sure what the proper psychic etiquette was in this situation.

“Uh, Gabe?” she began tentatively as they resumed their journey down the stairs.

“Yes. Wander and I did take our relationship to another level,” he said.

“Oh boy.” Riley looked at her feet. Her face felt like it was a million degrees.

“Please say you’re talking about organizing her holiday decor in a basement or an attic,” Nick complained, tightening his hold on her.

“It was…ethereal,” Gabe said. It sounded like he was smiling, but Riley was still staring at her feet, willing away the images that floated into her mind like a parade of naked Gabes and Wanders.

“Let’s talk about something else. Anything at all. Who has an opinion on sports, politics, or religion?” Riley begged.

“I am sensing discomfort. Is this accurate, or are you providing another example of sarcasm?” Gabe asked.

“Don’t teach him sarcasm, Thorn. It’s more fun when he doesn’t know I’m busting on him,” Nick said as he helped her down the last few steps.

“Soon I will bust you with my sarcastic prowess,” Gabe promised.

The bickering was better than picturing Gabe and her sister naked, so she allowed it.

Nick helped her into a tall wingback chair with wooden arms in the foyer. “You’re not supposed to push yourself so hard. Or do you not remember losing your powers this week?”

“I wasn’t pushing. I just wasn’t controlling the volume of information shooting into my brain.”

He crouched down in front of her and rubbed his hands up her thighs. “Do you need a snack?”

“Always.”

“I will make you this snack and bring you some water,” Gabe offered gallantly.

“Thanks, Gabe.”

They watched him all but float to the kitchen door, a dreamy smile on his face.

“I accidentally slipped into Gabe’s head while we were working with my spirit guides and saw things I shouldn’t have seen. Naked things. They looked like something Michelangelo would have painted if he was into super sexy erotic paintings,” she told Nick.

“Listen. The only naked bodies I care about are yours and mine. Especially considering we’re way better at sex than those two.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re the tiniest bit way too competitive?” Riley asked.

“You should see game night in the Santiago house. It’s not over until someone cries and someone else is bleeding. Back to this accidentally slipping into people’s heads. Aren’t you always reading minds?”

She grimaced. “People are always broadcasting their thoughts. I just make an effort to block them out. It’s like when the neighbor’s dog has been barking for six years. You kind of learn to not hear it anymore. This time, I was already open to the visions from my spirit guides, and Gabe was feeling…let’s saypleasedwith his recent experiences. So I got an accidental front row seat to his memory reel.”

“So how the hell am I ever supposed to surprise you with something?”

Riley shrugged. “Good luck with that. I’ve known what every Christmas present was before it even made it under the tree.”

“Challenge accepted,” he said.

She slapped her palm to her forehead. “I was so distracted by Sexy Time Gabe I almost forgot. Wilfred Peabody.”