have taken no for an answer and he should leave you be.”
“I didn’t technically say no—”
“He didn’t give you a chance to,” he shot back, before I even finished, finally turning to look at me with flashing eyes. “You would have, and he cut you off. You sure as hell weren’t gonna say yes.”
The asshole was actually jealous. Jealous of a guy I wasn’t even interested in. And acting like his jealousy was a reason for me to be a dick to David. I hopped up and stalked to the counter, going back to rearranging the new releases. I needed my back to him. “You’re gonna be gone, you know. We’re going to figure this out, and you’ll be dead again, and I’ll be fucking alone. Again.”
“So you gotta fill the position beforehand?” Gideon didn’t technically affect the couch, but I could have sworn I heard the springs squeak as he pushed up, and then the thunk of his heels hitting the floor through the shop’s ancient carpet, pacing behind me. “Have you considered the opposite? That I’m gonna be back here in five years training your replacement, and theirs and theirs, for goddam ever? That you’re gonna get killed, and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it?” Gideon’s voice got louder and angrier with every word, and by the end he was outright shouting. If he weren’t a ghost, people might have come in off the street to make sure everything was okay.
It was like a gut punch, even though we’d both known it all along. Gideon was dead. I was going to be dead the next time he found himself conscious.
There was a noise behind me, an expression of pure frustration that couldn’t be put into words, and then retreating footsteps. By the time I turned to look, Gideon was gone, straight through the side wall.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gideon didn’t come back that afternoon.
Around one I looked up from my order form for the next week and found Beez’s smiling face. “Hey partner! Broughtcha lunch.” She dropped a brown paper bag between us that looked like it had seen better days and made a face. “Sorry, I put it in my purse, and it didn’t do so hot in there.”
I shrugged and tore into the bag. “I didn’t bring myself any lunch, so squished lunch is way better than that.”
Apparently, the word lunch was enough to get Fluke’s attention from where he’d been curled up on the couch all morning. His head perked up and he stared over at us, eyes bright and curious.
I rolled my eyes. “Come on. Like there’s any chance I won’t share with you. Toast thief.”
He grinned his foxy grin and hopped down off the couch, heading over to us.
“Toast?” Beez asked, watching in amusement as Fluke braced himself up on his back legs, leaning on the counter and watching me unwrap the food. “Should I ask?”
“He wanted my toast the other night, so he waited till Gideon—I mean, till I was distracted. He waited till I wasn’t looking at him and snatched it.” I shot him a glare, but there was no heat in it.
Fluke, naturally, didn’t even acknowledge the glare, too intent on the tuna sandwich I’d pulled out of the bag. I wasn’t usually much for tuna, but this smelled amazing, like sourdough and pickles and some kind of seasoning. I pulled the halves apart and handed Fluke one of them, then turned back to find Beez staring at me.
“What?”
She lifted her eyebrows, everything in her expression screaming that I was full of shit, and had better get on board the Beez thought train immediately. “Who,” she asked, leaning forward onto the counter, braced on her elbows. “Is Gideon?”
Oh.
“The, um, bible guy?” I asked. “Was that a guy?”
“Sage Gawain McKinley.”
“Oh gods, don’t say that out loud.” I glanced around, even though I knew there was no one else in the shop. “No one else ever needs to know that my mother was obsessed with Arthurian legend.”
She shrugged and waved it off. “I think it’s sweet. Even if it’s weird she named you after a guy with the shittiest family ever. I mean, your family is—” She stopped mid-ramble and glared at me. Dammit, I’d thought that was going to work. “Who. Is. Gideon.”
“Sorry, was that a question? I didn’t catch the intonation of—”
“You should tell her,” my father’s snide voice hit me for the first time in not-nearly-long-enough. “You’ve fallen in lust with a ghost who came to teach you