Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,29

about as far as I could chuck him.

"Good girl," he whispered in my ear and kissed my neck. I squirmed in his lap. He knew my most sensitive of sensitive spots. Well, the second most sensitive, but he knew the other one, too. Slipping an arm around me to steady me, he pulled away from my neck and whispered, "I love you."

"Love you, too. Don't trust you to behave, but I love you."

"Who's not behaving?" Chief sat at the end of the table next to us.

"I'll give you one guess."

"So, what happened last night?" Jimmy poked my side.

I looked at Chief, nodding for him to answer. Or not. It was up to him and not my problem to share.

"We went to my house, as planned."

Jimmy tensed under me, knowing something had gone wrong. Unfortunately, he had no clue as to how badly things had actually gone wrong. "Too many memories?"

"She wasn't a memory. She was a ghost."

"What?"

"Dot and I were watching a movie. We kissed. The lights blew. When we were trying to figure out what the hell happened, Becca's ghost appeared."

"You're shitting me," Jimmy said without thinking. Leaning to the side to see me for confirmation.

I nodded.

"Was she pissed?"

"She didn't look pissed, but I don't think the lightbulbs were an accident."

"That's not right. Can't you lay her to rest or something?"

Everybody expected too much from me. Granted, I had way more power than I had when I rolled up into town, but I didn't have a fucking clue on how to use it. It's not like becoming a godling comes with a goddess damned manual. I shrugged, hiding my frustration. "I don't know. Yet. I'll figure it out, but…"

"It might take some time," Chief answered for me.

"You're taking this quite well," Jimmy said to Chief.

"Not in the slightest. But I know Dot will do everything she can. And she has enough on her plate right now."

"Aren't you worried about going home?"

Chief blushed.

"You're not going home."

"No. Dot's letting me stay, and I was thinking about getting a hotel a few nights a week."

"Why?" It was my turn to ask.

"Not going to monopolize your time? Not fair to everybody else."

"Uh, Chief… Your deceased wife is a ghost. We'll be fine," Jimmy answered like Chief had stubbed his brain on a brick.

"Just don't wanna be a nuisance."

I'd had enough. "Spill it."

"Spill what?" He looked at me nervously, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Whatever the fuck is going on with you, Bill." I used his real name. He was in trouble. "The shit last night at dinner. The self-depreciating comments. All of it. What is going on with you?"

"Just trying to make you happy."

"You do make me happy. And insane. And angry. That's what I love about you. Now? You're being an acquiescent floob. I don't like that."

"Floob?"

"I made it up. But you're being one. Why?"

I leaned forward in Jimmy's lap, waiting for an answer. He pinched my butt to tell me to tread lightly. He should have pinched me sooner. I'd pushed Chief a little too hard. He slammed his mug down on the counter. "Because I don't want to fucking lose you. Okay? Happy?"

"That you're finally talking to me and not being a floob? Yes. Fucking ecstatic. Now tell me the fuck why you think you're going to lose me?"

"Because of Becca."

"Huh?" I blinked and set my coffee down.

"Last night wasn't the first time I've seen her. I've been seeing her all over the fucking place. I thought I was losing my goddess damned mind, Dot."

"You knew she was a ghost?" I stared at him in shock. "Is that why you invited me over last night?" Anger flooded my veins like ice. It had been hard enough to deal with that. If he set me up to see her…

"What? No! I didn't think she was real! I thought I was going insane. I thought guilt was turning me into a deranged lunatic. I thought that loving you was causing my brain to short circuit, and you know what? I welcomed that insanity rather than lose you."

It was official. I was an asshole. "Oh, Chief." I reached over and put my hand on his leg. "I'm sorry. You must have been going…"

"Crazy?"

"Yeah. That. Just not for real. I meant crazy with going crazy. I'll just shut up now. But you're not losing me, you dork."

"For a moment, last night, when you saw her. I was almost relieved. Then I realized the ten-million other problems that revelation meant."

"No offence, but I thought you