good person.”
His eyes softened, and he took a step closer to me again. My entire body sighed. “Yes, you are.” His fingers touched my chin. “Whatever it is, stop beating yourself up about it. You’re going through so much right now. There’s no reason for you to make it harder on yourself. Trust me, we all have skeletons in our closets.”
The way he said it made me believe him, like he really did know how I felt, like I really should stop making myself feel the guilt that clamped around my wrists like chains. Like he had his own skeleton in a closet. For some reason, that made me step closer to him.
His head dipped low, and his lips met mine. Flames travelled from my lips, to my heart, to my toes. The bitter chill of the past few hours melted away. I leaned into the kiss, feeling the hard planes of his chest under my fingers. He pulled me closer, hands pressed on my lower back. I released my tight hold on pain and fear, lost myself in the two of us, and for a moment, let myself forget everything else in the world.
CHAPTER 23
While Nathan was on his way to see if the shamans were home, Laura and I waited in my truck a few streets over from Megan’s house. Her three-story canary yellow home was closer to my place than Jason’s. Plus, she’d managed to keep her family away all night so far, and she’d left a key under the front mat so we could go in alone. It was better for us to take care of a spirit loose in the house with no one else around.
“Holly, can I ask you a question?” Laura flicked my Wonder Woman toy hanging from the rearview mirror.
“Sure, what’s up?” I asked, turning down the volume of the radio.
“I checked your backpack for supplies while you and Nathan were inside…doing whatever you were doing, and I found this.” She held up an envelope to let the streetlamps shine on it.
“The foreclosure notice.” Cold seeped into my veins, and I huddled further into my hoodie.
Laura drummed her fingers against the window. “Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad? I know you don’t want charity, you’ve made that clear, but I always thought you guys had some money. I could have helped you.”
I leaned my cheek against the cool window glass that felt both soothing and biting, kind of like the past twenty-fours. “I don’t know. I thought I could take care of things myself. I’m just not very good at the bill paying it turns out. I had no idea how much was involved. Do you know how many different kinds of bills there are?”
“No, not really,” she said softly, but then her voice turned hard. “All this time you’ve been giving me half of that money we get from people. I seriously wish you’d told me about this.”
“I’m sorry.”
She punched me in the arm, but it didn’t hurt. That was just Laura’s way of showing she cared. “No, I’m sorry. Listen, this will all be over soon, but I want you to take what I’d normally get from our cases tonight, okay?”
I looked at her, opened my mouth to argue, but knew I couldn’t afford to. If Mom and I wanted to keep our house, I needed that money. “Okay.”
“Good.” Laura nodded. “So, what’s going on with you and Nathan? From what he told me, he seems really into you. And I saw the way you looked at him.”
He’s been talking to Laura about me?
Laura opened the glove compartment and brought out an old bag of snacks while I thought about those words. Into me. Nathan was really into me. The bag rustled when she snaked her hand into the crinkly plastic and pulled out a handful of greasy potato chips.
“He read aloud to Mom. I guess I’m sort of falling for him. You think I should tell him about the cons?” I clicked the side of my phone to see if I’d accidentally missed his call to update us. “I’ve been thinking about it, but I’m scared he’ll hate me.”
“He won't hate you,” Laura said. “Trust me.”
Something in the tone of her voice caught my attention, and I eyed her as she seemingly avoided my gaze. “What were you guys talking about in there? The whole whispering thing?”
Laura munched on some more chips before tossing the bag back inside the glove compartment. “I tutored him last year.