I laughed. “Feel better?”
“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose, “all things considered.”
A thought hit my brain, and I almost told Trey that I loved him. I stopped myself, though. It was too soon. And while my feelings for Trey were strong, there was so much baggage in my emotional life. Leaving Kevin. Finding new work, a new home. Not to mention being involved in a ghostly drama.
“I love you,” Trey whispered. Our lips had barely parted.
I looked down into his face, amazed. “I was just about to say that.”
“I know.”
We kissed again, and our hands began to wander.
We didn’t play Parcheesi.
IT WAS
nearly midnight when my cell phone rang. Trey and I were still naked, basking in each other’s presence, barely covered by the crisp white sheets on the bed. I think I was half-asleep when the call came, and I sat up quickly. I was sure the worry showed on my face. I knew who was calling.
Well, it didn’t take a psychic to figure it out. It was late, so it was no casual caller. Gloria was unlikely, as she would have called Trey, even if it was work related. I grabbed my phone and looked at the incoming number. It was Kevin.
My first impulse was to do what I’d done every other time he’d called. I wouldn’t answer.
“It’s jerkface, isn’t it?” Trey asked, almost amused.
“Yep.” I started to set the phone back on the table next to my glasses, but Trey restrained my hand.
“See what he wants,” he said.
“I can tell you what he wants. He wants me to run back to him with my tail tucked between my legs.”
“So this is a good time to convince him that’s never going to happen.”
I frowned. The phone trembled in my hand. Or maybe it was my hand that was trembling. “You sure?”
“Sure. You can always hang up on his sorry ass if he gets belligerent.”
I bit my lip, indecisive, but then answered the call. “Yeah,” I said, hoping I sounded tough and resourceful.
“It’s me,” Kevin said.
“I know. What do you want?”
“Look, I know you’re angry with me, but don’t hang up.” His voice was soft. There was almost a pleading quality to it. After a pause, Kevin continued. “I’m in town. In Banning. I’ve packed up some of your stuff for you. It’s here, in my car.”
I was at a loss for words. I stuttered on my reply and had to start over. “I don’t know what to say. Where exactly are you?”
“Down in the parking lot. I don’t… look, we need to talk.”
“I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
Improbable, but it almost sounded like Kevin was crying. “I don’t know why you left. I mean, I do but I don’t. I don’t see that we couldn’t have worked things out.” He sniffed. “Can we talk? And not on the phone. In person.”
“I can’t see you alone.” The thought terrified me.
“That guy you’re seeing. He can be there if you like.”
“His name is Trey,” I said.
Trey sat up and rubbed my shoulders in a gesture of support.
“Can I see you?”
I’d never heard such pleading in Kevin’s voice. Still, I wasn’t sure I trusted him.
“Come on in,” I said. “We can talk in the solarium. Trey will be close by, though, right in the lobby.” I glanced back to make sure Trey was agreeable to this. He nodded.
We agreed on meeting in ten minutes. I hung up with a sigh.
“At least this may give me some closure,” I said. Maybe I was being overly optimistic.
Trey continued to attempt to ease my tense muscles. “I’ll be right there,” he promised.
I smiled, glad my face was turned so he couldn’t see. I liked that Trey felt like he was my protector, and in a way, he was. He certainly gave me strength. But we all knew that physically he was no match for Kevin.
I put my hand on his. It was warm and, yes, strong.
Maybe I was selling Trey short. Love could bring out hidden depths.
Just look at what his love has brought out in you
, I told myself.
KEVIN WAS
wearing a basketball jersey, his favorite, even though it was getting a little faded and the number, twenty, was beginning to peel away. His jacket, one I’d given him for Christmas, was crumpled on the chair next to him. Appropriate, I thought.
He was sitting in the solarium, his back to the wall, looking at the doorway anticipating my arrival. There were only two lamps lit, so the room was dim, but even in that light I could see his puffy red eyes. He was rubbing his arm nervously when I came in. Kevin had quite a few tattoos, and prophetically, where he was rubbing was one, the word
Veritas
in fancy lettering.
Veritas. Truth. Yes, it was time for a little truth between us.
He forced a smile and half rose when he saw me. “Hey,” he said. Settling down again, he added, “I was afraid you wouldn’t show.”
I sat opposite him in a creaky wicker chair, making sure Trey could see me from his perch near the front desk. He was chatting with Lonnie, but his eyes never left the solarium’s doorway.
“I nearly didn’t,” I admitted. “I had a panic attack while putting my shirt on. Trey calmed me down. Sorry I’m late.”
An awkward silence fell between us. Kevin sat forward, wringing his hands. “So you and he are….”
There was no animosity in the statement, so I answered. “He’s very special to me.”
Kevin nodded. God, he looked sad. “I’m sorry I….” He made a light fist, to indicate the fight. “He’s okay, isn’t he?”
“He’s good.”
Kevin examined my face. “And you?”
I touched my lip. “Hardly even swollen now.”
Shaking his head, Kevin said, “I’ve got a bad temper. I know that. It was just seeing you with him….” He realized his voice had started to rise, so he stopped himself. He swallowed hard and then asked, “Why did you leave?”
“You know why.”
“I wouldn’t be asking if I did.”
A faint prickling came over the hairs on the back of my neck, and I had the feeling that Kevin and I were no longer the sole occupants of the room. Had Coleman joined us? One of the other spirits that roamed the halls of the Raven’s Rest? Or was it just my imagination? Still, I felt that I was being watched over. It emboldened me, enabling me to continue the conversation.
“We had a toxic relationship,” I said. Matter-of-fact tone. No accusations. We were past that. “You were controlling. I allowed you to control me. It got out of hand. I was becoming lost. I didn’t know who I was anymore. I had to leave so that I could be me again.”
Kevin let that sink in. “We could have worked on it, though. You didn’t give me a chance.”
“I gave you hundreds. You just didn’t see them, or listen to me.”
A spark almost caught fire in his eyes. “If you’d have made sense, I would have—” Kevin bit his lip, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I guess I can’t help it.”
“No, you can’t. It’s partially my fault. I let it go on too long. And for that, I’m sorry.”
“I never hit you,” Kevin said. “Not until the other day.”
“No,” I admitted. “But your words and actions caused more bruises than your fists might have done. Kevin, I grew to feel that I was worthless. That I was nothing. That you didn’t deserve an idiot like me.”
For half a second I thought he was going to say that he didn’t. But he surprised me by smiling deprecatingly. “The other way around, I think.”
Another silence fell. I could hear crickets outside, and the croak of frogs. Hundreds of things came into my head to say, but I quelled them all. Instead I looked at him sitting there, contrite, and for the first time in months I didn’t hate him.
“You need to trim your beard,” I said.
Kevin chuckled, feeling the scruff on his chin. “Yeah, I guess I do.” He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. He looked into my eyes. I wondered what he saw there. “I still love you, you know.”
I nodded. “You’ll get over me.”
“I doubt it.” Never had I seem him so sorrowful. Then he shook off his mood, something he’d always been a master at, and sat up. “So. You’re going to stay here. Not come home with me.”
It wasn’t a question, but I said, “My home is here now. I get my new apartment tomorrow. I’m working at the cafe, and I—”
“Do you still love me?” There was pleading in his face and voice. “At least tell me you don’t hate me.”
“I don’t,” I said honestly. “If you’d have asked me even an hour ago, my answer might have been different. But I don’t. And I’ll always have strong feelings for you. Always. But we can’t be together.”
“And this Trey guy?” Kevin’s gaze drifted over to the doorway, and I was sure he and Trey were looking daggers at each other. I pretended not to notice.
Over a minute went by. It seemed like an hour. Finally Kevin said, “I packed some of your clothes. Figured if you were staying here, you might need some of them. Packed up a box of your books as well. Just some things to tide you over. Maybe sometime you can come up to Rockford and get the rest. I’ll behave myself. I promise. You can even bring Trey with you. For protection.” The last was said dripping with irony.
I decided to let it pass. After all, Kevin was being uncharacteristically reasonable. So much so that I said honestly, “I’m glad we had this talk.”
“Me too.”
I felt the urge to go over and hug him, but I was afraid that might be sending the wrong signals, so I settled for leaning forward and touching him, oh so briefly, on the knee. “I was sure this was going to end up in a yelling match.” With him ending up calling me stupid and too dumb to know what was good for me. As usual.
“I guess maybe I should go and apologize to this Trey guy. Unless you think that would be a bad idea.”
“No, I think it would be fine.” I stole a glance over to the front desk area. Trey was still in conversation with Lonnie. I smiled, seeing him standing as erect as possible and his shoulders squared, ready to rush in if Kevin so much as raised his voice at me.
Right now, it felt great, Trey feeling like he had to protect me. It added to the strength I was finding within myself. But eventually he was going to have to learn, as I was, that I had to stand on my own two feet.
As we left the solarium, though, I looked back for some reason. There, by one of the windows, was Coleman Hollis. Ethereal, barely there, but I could see him, gazing out at the night.
He looked worried.
“OKAY, THAT
was weird.”
Kevin had driven away more than twenty minutes ago, but Trey still couldn’t stop talking about him. Maybe he had worked up so much adrenaline, expecting another fight, that now he had to work off some steam. Trey had accepted Kevin’s apology with grace, although it was obvious that the two would never be friends.
The three of us had bundled the boxes (and a hamper full of clothes) from Kevin’s vehicle into mine. Tomorrow I’d take them to my new place. Little was said, other than observations about how cold it was getting and me filling Kevin in on my new job. He did make a few sarcastic remarks, but overall he had been on his best behavior.
“He’s not all bad,” I said, sitting down in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace. Trey had turned on the gas, so a tiny fire was helping to ease the chill in our bones. “I’m really proud of him, in a way. He didn’t yell at me once.”
“That’s because there were other people around,” Trey said.
He may have been right. Still, I felt it was an accomplishment on Kevin’s part. There had been days when being in a public place wouldn’t have fazed him in the least. Trey was pacing, walking from the window to the bed and then to the other chair by the fire. He looked like he was thinking about sitting but then resumed his journey around the room, moving like a nervous cat.
“I think he’d been crying,” I said, gazing at the fire. “Kevin never cried. And he was… well, contrite. I think me leaving was good for both of us.”
“If you say so. Just don’t be surprised if he calls you in a day or two and he’s back to his old ways.”
“Would you sit? You’re making me nervous.”
Trey stopped. I was pretty sure he was surprised to find that he’d been roaming the room. Standing by the bed, he made a motion as if he was feeling the air, as if it was a tangible thing. “There’s something here. Like you can feel a storm brewing.”
“I thought I was the one that was ghost-sensitive.” Now that he mentioned it, though, the room did have a charged feeling, like a huge thunderstorm had just hit. Outside, however, the night was dark and quiet.
“Don’t you feel it?” Trey was on the move again, at the window, then over to the mantelpiece. “I know something is going to—”
The lights went out.
They didn’t explode this time, but I jumped nonetheless at suddenly being thrown into darkness. With a slight hiss, even the gas fire had been extinguished. “What the hell?” I muttered as I sat forward, my heart pounding. Trey was right. There
was
something in the air, a feeling of… anticipation. My head had been so wrapped up in Kevin and his visit that I hadn’t consciously noticed before, but now I could feel it. The fine hairs on my arms were bristling, gooseflesh springing up to send a shiver down my spine. The room was much colder than it had been minutes ago as well.
I could see Trey’s dim shape by the now dark fireplace. I couldn’t see his face, but I knew he was looking at me.
“I don’t suppose you can stop this, can you?” he asked.
I shook my head and made a hoarse, stuttering sound before managing to say, “I don’t even know what
this
is.”
Standing up, I stared in amazement at the corner of the room. There was a light emanating from the very wall, a blue glow that seemed to come from the wallpaper itself, or maybe farther in. It began as a golf-ball-sized spot, but as I watched it grew and expanded until it seemed to fill the corner.
Trey noticed it as well. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him gaping at the phenomenon. The glow was bright enough now that Trey was bathed in a TV-blue light. “Okay,” he said. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”
The glow seemed to take on form, vaguely human shaped. It was now emerging from the wall, like it had stepped through the drywall. Slowly, features became discernible. It was a young man, thin, with white-blond hair. Now I could make out a mouth and a nose. Eyes.