warming honey color painted on the walls. It didn’t feel as safe at the moment though.
“He’s here. Oh my God. He’s stalking me. I have a stalker ghost. It’s not bad enough that I attract the living freaks, but now I have the dead ones hunting me down too. He was watching me in the shower, wasn’t he?” She shivered.
“What?” I waved off her concern as I tossed my purse under the counter. “Of course not. You may want to get dressed in a hurry though until I can get him to cross into the light.”
She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked around the room as if she’d be able to spot him. Her face grew red and she started to point around the room. “Look, you—you freak, I may not be able to see you, but I’m not going to put up with your crap.” She spun around waving her hand through the air.
It wouldn’t do her any good though, because my new ghoul friend was perched on top of a shelf. He was lying on his side, stretched out with a wicked grin on his face.
“This is so much fun,” he said.
Mr. Fine was more devilish than I’d thought.
“Mindy, you need to calm down. Just take a couple deep breaths and slowly let them out.”
Her bottom lip dropped and her eyes glazed over as if the waterworks would start at any second. “I’m not cut out for this ghost-busting business. I may be tough, but I can’t handle this stress right now.”
“Honey, here, come sit down.” I took her by the arm.
Mindy was one of the toughest women I’d ever met. Maybe the toughest besides my grandmother. I’d never seen her this frazzled before. I guided her to the stool behind the counter and she plopped down.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on that has you so upset?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it’s just everything… worrying about my business, the magic spell that I just got over, ghosts, dating, and paying bills. You know how it is.” She wiped a tear from her cheek.
I draped my arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “I know how it is, sweetie.”
Before I could offer more advice, Callahan burst through the door, the bell above the door jangling until I thought it might fall right off. His eyes were wide as he hurried over to us.
He pointed toward his coffee shop. “There’s a ghost in my store.”
Chapter Seven
“Oh my God. That’s it. It’s an invasion. The ghosts are taking over, Larue. I think this is some kind of sign of the apocalypse.”
Mindy had been doing too many of the upside-down moves during her pole fitness classes. All that blood rushing to her head was getting the better of her.
“Mindy.” I grabbed her arms. “Breathe. Look at me. It’s not the end of the world. The zombies are not coming for us.”
“Well, now you’re just making fun of me. How do you explain that Callahan has a ghost right after I had one? Have one…” she said while looking around as if she’d see the ghost standing next to her.
Mr. Fine scoffed. “She’s a tad crazy, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think.” I glared at him.
“What?” Mindy looked over her shoulder in a panic. “What did he say?”
“Never mind that. It’s not important.” I didn’t want to tell her that the ghost had insulted her. No need to have her fighting with a ghost right now.
Trying to change the subject, I looked at Callahan and asked, “What’s going on? What makes you think you have a ghost?”
“Maybe this sounds crazy, but I saw a cup move across the counter all by itself, then the door opened and closed on its own.”
“Nothing sounds crazy to me,” I reminded him.
Hmm. But yeah, what he described did sound like classic ghostly activity. And Mindy did have a point. What were the odds that a ghost would have been at Mindy’s house and now at Callahan’s shop? I smelled a rat.
“Do you know anything about this?” I asked Mr. Fine.
Callahan looked toward the empty air where I had directed my question. It was so much easier now that he knew I talked to the dead, although I still worried that he’d eventually get sick of the weird antics. He had to, right? I had taken him for a ride on a nonstop paranormal crazy train since we’d met. No guy wanted to be a part of that.