protested. “I need to sleep. So do you.” His eyes lifted to mine, and I shook my head. “In our own beds. Alone.”
I slid off the counter and my legs barely held me up as I my feet touched the floor. Corb put his hands on my waist, helping me steady myself. Again I brushed them off. “Goodnight, Corb.”
I mean, it was first thing in the morning, but I wasn’t about to say good day. I grabbed my shirt from the counter and pulled it back on, inside out and backward, so the tag fluttered with each breath I blew out.
I grabbed my bag, then made my way through the house until I found the room that Gran had always liked. It felt like her. I opened the closet and, sure enough, I recognized a few of the tops on the hangers. “Hey, Gran,” I ran my fingers over the deep purple satin top, a color she had loved. “I’ll find you.”
Throat tight, I went to the attached bathroom, closed the door, and leaned against it. I just needed a minute.
I made myself move lest I end up in a crying puddle on the floor. I stripped out of my clothes down to my bra and underwear, and let myself back out into the bedroom and put my leather hip bag on the bedside table.
A whisper of cool air alerted me to Alan’s presence before he spoke.
“Made out with Corb, did you?” he said with surprisingly little venom.
I slid under the covers. He sat at the foot of the bed, his shoulders slumped and his belly hanging slightly over the edge of his pants. If he’d been kind to me, if he’d loved me the way I’d needed to be loved, I wouldn’t have cared that he was balding. Or had a pot belly. But he’d belittled me for every perceived shortcoming, and it had made his own imperfections glaringly obvious. I sighed. “Yes, I made out with Corb. You have something to say about it?”
He shrugged. “He always got the girl, Breena. You should keep that in mind.”
I yawned and put the back of my hand to my mouth. “Why would that bother me? I’m the girl, remember?”
Alan shook his head. “Do you see him sticking it out with you? You think you could put up with him cheating any more than you could handle it with me?” Alan snorted. “I mean, I didn’t know he was a siren. I knew he always got the girl, and then the next girl, and the next. He’s not made for monogamy. And if I know anything about you, it’s that you are. You are a one guy kind of girl.”
I frowned and closed my eyes, rolling my back to him.
“Just like old times,” he muttered.
I held up my hand and flipped him off.
“Again, just like old times. Real mature of you,” he said as he began to pace the room. Not that he made any sound with his feet, but I could sense him moving around. The swirls of energy as he passed me made me want to swat him.
Instead, I sat up, grabbed a t-shirt from the closet and slid it over my head, then snagged a pillow and a blanket, and made my way down to the first-floor sitting room. The house was quiet, everyone else was sleeping, and I just wanted . . .hell, I didn’t know what I wanted.
I wanted to see Crash. I wanted to know if anything I’d felt with Corb was real.
More than that, I wanted my gran back. I wanted to lean on her strength and ask her how in Hades we were going to get through this mess. I wanted to hear her laugh and see her smile, and yes, she was already dead, but this was like losing her all over again.
I put my head in my hands and a few tears slipped out. I missed my gran, and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to bring her home. NOLA was no small city to take on, especially when you were looking for a ghost. There was probably a ghost on every damn corner.
I rubbed the tears away, but they kept coming as I stared out into the gloomy streets feeling sorry for myself.
The sun may have come up, but the clouds had stuck around and a steady drizzle coated the outside world with a gray tint. I think I drifted in and out of sleep, my eyes only