Ghost Mortem (Ghost Detective #1) - Jane Hinchey Page 0,44

I remembered that. We'd been planning his funeral. Urgh, I still didn't want to think about it. Standing up, I hurried into the bathroom, waved a hand at Ben and instructed him to "stay there." For once, he obeyed and was still sitting on the kitchen bench when I returned.

"Brad drove you home in your car. You didn't want to stay at my place." There was a tone in his voice. I cocked my head trying to identify it. Hurt? Annoyed?

"I didn't want to stay at your house...without you." My own voice sounded pitiful to my own ears. "It's strange there without you—and I know you're here, but you're not, not really. And I need time to adjust. So yeah, I didn't want to wake up in that house alone." I blurted. Of course, I knew I'd have to, eventually. It didn't make sense for me to keep my apartment and Ben's house, and let's face it, his place is a million times nicer than my shoebox.

"Oh."

"Did I hurt your feelings?" I asked.

"I didn't think so, not initially, but now you've explained that...yeah...I think my feelings were a little hurt," he admitted.

I eyeballed him. "Toughen up, princess."

His head tipped back and he laughed. "Thought I had you there for a minute." He chuckled.

"Nice try." Gathering up my clothes, I headed into the bathroom, stood under the shower and remembered Ben's guest bathroom and the non-stop hot water. Not the on again, off again disaster of my current bathroom. The thought of moving was becoming more and more appealing, I just wasn't quite ready...yet.

Coming out of the bathroom, I searched for my phone. After it had bounced off my forehead I'd lost track of it. Eventually, I found it under the bed, only to discover it had two percent battery left. Sitting back on my haunches, I stared up at the ceiling, having one of those why me moments. A headache was thrumming away behind my eyeballs and I badly—badly—needed coffee. I crawled to my nightstand and reached for the power cord only to find it missing. Rising up to my knees I looked all around, but the damn thing was gone. "You have got to be kidding me." I swear there's an alternate universe where all of my pens, hair clips, earrings, and phone cords live. How could I have possibly lost it when it had been plugged into the wall next to my bed?

"You took it with you yesterday," Ben offered up, "shoved it in your bag in case your phone went flat. Said something about it not holding its charge these days?"

"Oh. Right." I sat back on my haunches and tried to remember, had a vague recollection. Spying my bag on the sofa, I dug through it and sure enough, there was my power cord. With my phone finally charging, I headed to my Keurig, opened the overhead cupboard to grab a pod, only my hand met emptiness.

"Noooooo!" I wailed, hand flailing around as I searched for a pod. Standing on tiptoe, I peered into the cupboard. No pods. "There are no pods," I whispered, voice bordering on hysterical. "No. Pods."

"Better call a state of emergency," Ben teased.

I rounded on him. "It's okay for you, you don't need coffee anymore. I need coffee. I cannot function without coffee."

"Okay, okay, calm down," he soothed, sliding off the counter. "We'll go out for coffee. You need to drop by my place and check on Thor anyway. We can get coffee on the way."

Oh my god, I'd forgotten about Thor. I hadn't even noticed he wasn't here. I was a shit pet parent. Ben burst out laughing. "You might have some explaining to do with your family."

"Did I talk to Thor in front of them?" I bet I had. "Or more precisely, did Thor and I have a conversation in front of them?"

Ben nodded. "If it's any consolation, they were quite entertained as the two of you argued, only of course all they could hear from Thor was various meows and odd little noises. But they did comment that it was uncanny how the two of you appeared to be actually talking."

I ran a hand through my wet hair, debated spending time drying it, but coffee won out. Grabbing my bag, shoving my phone and charger into it, I slid my feet into my flip flops and headed for the door. "So I'm guessing Thor didn't want to come back here? He'd rather stay at your place? Alone?" I said over