the flow seemed the more sensible option. Besides, she wasn’t the hysterical type. She was cheerful.
Sassy got to her feet and gave him a friendly smile. “Hi, I’m Sassy. And you’re Junior Peterson, my biological father.”
Junior wrinkled his nose. “Biological father? You weren’t conceived in a petri dish.”
“Why did you leave me on the bridge with that thing?”
“You’re a big girl. I came to warn you, not hold your hand.”
“Wow, thanks,” Sassy said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
“You seem out of sorts. Bad day?”
“It’s been unadulterated poo. I wrecked my stepfather’s car. Daddy Joel loves that car.”
“The chicken tender tycoon?” Junior chuckled. “He’ll be upset about the car, but he’ll get over it.”
“You’re right. I’m being a Debbie Downer. That is so not like me.” She pursed her lips and considered the ghost. “I’ve got it.”
“What’s that?”
“The silver lining—there’s always a silver lining if you look for it.” Sassy beamed. “Wanna know what it is?”
“Can’t wait.”
“It’s you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You’re my first ghost and you’re awesome,” Sassy said. “Do I have a great imagination, or what?”
“Hmm,” Junior said. “Are you always this terminally perky?”
“Oh, this is nothing. I’m usually much perkier than this.”
“Sounds exhausting. Aren’t you the least bit surprised to see me?”
“No, because you’re not real.” Leaning closer, Sassy confided, “I have a head injury. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Although, for the life of me, I can’t imagine why I would dream up these.”
She pointed to her feet.
“I see what you mean,” Junior said, surveying the boots. “They are a tad lacking in style.”
“I know, right? That alpha male escapee from a fantasy convention swiped my favorite pair of shoes.”
“Alpha male?”
She waved her hands in the air. “Big guy. Handsome. Dressed in leather. In May. Muscles out the wazoo. He’s not real, either. No one could be that gorgeous, that off-the-charts sexy, and that irritating.”
“Huh. Based on your description, I’d say your he-man is a Dalvahni demon hunter. There are several running around Hannah.”
“Sure there are. But never mind that. I want to talk about you. There are so many things I’m simply dying to ask.”
Junior winced. “Please. You’re speaking to one of the living impaired.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”
“Doesn’t your mother talk about me?”
“Heavens, no, she refuses, and I could hardly ask Daddy Joel. That would be awkward.”
“Yes, I can see how it would be. And I don’t suppose you could ask Trey, under the circumstances.”
“No.” Sassy felt a stab of sadness at the mention of her older brother. There were some things even a positive attitude couldn’t fix, such as the rift in her family. “Trey and I weren’t close.”
Close? They didn’t live in the same county. Trey had been raised in Hannah by their paternal grandparents, Clarice and Blake Peterson, while Sassy had grown up in Fairhope with her mom. Sassy didn’t know she had a brother until she was in the second grade. The estrangement from Trey and the rest of the Petersons, like the subject of Sassy’s father, was another bit of family dysfunction Mama refused to discuss. If the subject of Junior elicited a chilly reaction from Eleanor, the merest mention of Trey or her former in-laws brought on an arctic freeze.
“Mama and I met Trey a few times at the club in Fairhope.” Sassy’s lips tightened. “He made it plain he didn’t want to be there.”
Their brief and infrequent family reunions had exhausted Sassy. She’d tried to compensate for the obvious strain by being extra bright and bubbly. Extra bright and bubbly required an enormous amount of energy. It took Sassy days to recover. She’d been relieved when the meetings had stopped.
In her heart of hearts, though, Sassy had secretly cherished the hope that one day she and Trey might mend their fences. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Clarice and Blake had died in a fire the previous October. A month later, Trey was struck and killed by an automobile. Sassy attended his funeral with her mother and stepfather.
Her grief at Trey’s death had surprised her. I miss him already, Sassy remembered thinking as they lowered her brother’s casket into the ground. Her sorrow at his loss was bewildering. How did you miss someone you didn’t know?
“I’m sorry you didn’t get the chance to know Trey,” Junior said, as though sensing her thoughts. “He had abandonment issues.”
“It wasn’t Mama’s fault,” Sassy said, rising to her mother’s defense. “Trey chose to stay with the Petersons.”
And why not? He was a boy, and