join us in the living room. Judy’s making supper for everyone, and we need to discuss housekeeping stuff.”
“Okay. I’ll only be a minute.”
“Great. Bring the sage, and we can smudge the entire interior. I don’t care for the chill that surrounds the dead, and I’d just as soon keep them out of the cabin.”
“I agree.”
John nodded and left, and she considered what she’d learned about her three cabinmates. None of this should surprise her. Only individuals willing to endure the presence of ghosts would’ve applied for the summer program in Garretsville. The Schultes had done so year after year, and Oliver looked forward to ghostly encounters.
Still, the revelations altered her thinking when it came to how she should handle her own reasons for coming to this haunted town. The three people she shared the cabin with had no idea how dangerous ghostly encounters could be. Not only would she help spirits cross, but she’d also need to shield her coworkers from harm.
Meredith hiked up the hill to the wooden platform overlooking Garretsville and the Garnet Mountains. She checked her phone for a signal. Four bars, enough to chat with her sisters without heading into Missoula. Thermal water bottle in hand, she dropped down to sit on the wooden railroad ties forming the deck of the overlook.
She and the other volunteers had practiced every aspect of their duties all day yesterday, which had left her too tired to visit the saloon last night. They’d practice more today, which was Sunday, and visitors would begin arriving on Tuesday.
For the moment, all she wanted was to enjoy the view, the gorgeous Montana sky, and the early morning birdsong. Meredith relaxed the bunched muscles between her shoulders.
Her sisters wouldn’t call for another thirty minutes. Wanting to make sure she had enough signal before their weekly chat, she’d set out early enough to make it to town if she had to. She leaned back against a railing post just as the chill of the dead settled over her—no malevolence, only the ordinary cold worn by an ordinary ghost.
“Hello, pretty lassie.”
“My name is Meredith MacCarthy, not pretty lassie.” The ghost from the gift shop came to hover in front of her. This wasn’t the first time a ghost had used a cheesy come-on line with her. Ridiculous and frustrating, but symptomatic of a spirit’s unwillingness to accept their own state of deadness.
“A fine Irish name it is too. Hello, Meredith MacCarthy,” he said, pronouncing her surname as MacCartty. “My name is Daniel Cavanaugh. How is it you not only see me, but you hear me as well? I’ve never met anyone like you before.”
Groaning inwardly, she launched into why she had the abilities she did. “One of my long-ago Irish ancestors consorted with one of the Tuatha dé Danann, and the union produced a child. That child passed the fae genes on to the next generation, and so forth and so on. I’ve inherited a strand or two of fae DNA, and that is where my abilities originated.” She’d offered this explanation so many times over the years—to the dead and to the living—that the words came out automatically.
“I know nothing of dee-an-ay strands, but I gather you’ve a touch of fae blood.” Daniel sat down beside her.
Once again she was struck by how gorgeous he’d been. His Celtic features—a long, straight nose, sculpted cheeks, chin, and jaw, and his wide-set eyes were perfectly symmetrical and pleasing to the eye. Then, he had that unruly mop of curls, the kind she itched to run her fingers through. Daniel Cavanaugh had definitely been a striking man when alive.
“I do have fae blood, and if you’ll let me, I’d love to help you move on. That’s what I do. I help spirits who are stuck in the earthly realm cross into the light.”
“Well, and good luck to you then.” His brow rose. “I hope you succeed where I’ve failed, for I’ve tried to enter the beckoning light more times than I care to count. Nothing would please me more than to move on. Only then can I be reborn.”
He gave a ghostly shrug. “However, I cannot. I broke a vow, and that is what keeps me here. I’ll not be free until I make good on my promise, and since I’m dead, I see no way to accomplish the feat. Do you?”
He admitted to being dead? Meredith opened her mouth to reply, but her phone trilled her sisters’ video call, and Daniel disappeared. She hit accept. “Hey, you