The Language of Death (A Darcy Sweet Coy Mystery) (11 page)

"It's not always a gift."  His hands felt so warm around hers. 
So nice.  "Sometimes it's horrible, the things I see.  The things I know.  I get dragged into trouble like you wouldn't believe.  It's like it finds me wherever I go."

"Maybe the dead are drawn to you because they don't have anyone else to help them," he suggested.  "I know you must want to keep this secret because you're afraid
of what people will say about you, but I just want you to know I think it's an incredible thing."

Darcy had never had anyone accept what she was so quickly before.  Except for her Great Aunt Millie, of course, but she had the same "gift"
that Darcy did.  Suddenly she couldn't look directly at him.  Her heart beat a little faster.

"Is she here?" he asked again.

"Not right now.  She has been.  She's been right here with us through most of this."  Darcy's skin began to tingle where his hands touched hers.  "She's the one who showed me where the key was hidden on your brother's car."

He
nodded, his eyes distant.  "That was my Chloe."

"And," Darcy said, "
you should have seen her at the service in the church.  She was acting so silly trying to make me laugh.  I almost choked trying to hold it back."

"Yeah.
  I can picture it.  Whenever I was sad or depressed, she always knew how to make me laugh."

"Me too."

They talked some more, and Lorne kept hold of her hands the whole time.  Darcy felt a connection to him growing deeper within her.  It was easy to talk to Lorne, to be open and honest and not worry about what he might think if she said the wrong thing.  She wondered if these feelings were her own, or if they were being inspired by thoughts of Chloe and everything that had happened over the past two days.

It was after six
o'clock when Darcy sighed and stared down at her empty coffee cup.  "I really should go, Lorne.  I'd like to stay longer, but…"

"You have a life to get back to.  I understand.  I'd like to come out to Misty Hollow and see that bookstore of yours
some day."

"I'd like that," she said.  "Stop out any time.  You have my phone number and e-mail."

"Darcy at sweetreadbookstore dot com.  Yes.  And you've got mine.  So we've got no excuse not to stay in touch."

He walked her outside, to the sidewalk of the little town that wasn't much different than Misty Hollow, all things considered.  Darcy might like to come back here to visit sometime. 
She turned and looked up at Lorne, standing so very close to her.  Close enough that she could look into those dark blue eyes of his and see exactly what he was thinking.

She knew
he was thinking the same thing, knew it in the core of her being as she leaned up on her toes, letting him pull her in, his lips getting closer to hers.  She knew the kiss was going to happen.  It felt so right and perfect for the two of them to start down this road.  If she just let it happen it would be so wonderful…

When she pulled back from him before their lips
touched she wasn't sure which one of them was more surprised.  It took her a moment to control her breathing, and even longer for him to slowly let go of her hands.

"Too soon?" he asked.

"No.  I mean, yes, but not like that."  Darcy tried to untwist her scrambled emotions.  As much as she wanted to kiss him, she knew that stopping herself was the right thing to do.  Now all she had to do was put it into words for him.  Well.  For both of them.  "I have a boyfriend already.  Jon is his name.  I can't be here and do this.  It wouldn't be fair to him."

Lorne
nodded, his expression tight.  "I see.  I'm sorry. I didn't know.  Is he, uh, good to you?"

Oh, now there was a loaded question.
  "He is," she decided to say.  "We're in kind of a rough spot right now, but I haven't given up on him."

"And if you kiss me, you'll be doing exactly that. 
Giving up on him."  Lorne nodded again, and Darcy was amazed at how he could be so understanding.  She still wanted to pull him to her and trace those lips with her own and just let herself be loved for a moment.

It wouldn't be right.  She was involved with someone.  Lorne had just lost Chloe.  It wouldn't be right.

She kept telling herself that until it sank in.

That smile of his came back now.
  It was the smile of a friend who wanted only the best for her.  Darcy was kicking herself already for not letting him kiss her, just once, but what she had said to Lorne was true.  If she and Jon were ever going to get back together, she couldn't be falling into the arms of the first cute, funny, smart, amazing man who came her way.

Wait.  That wasn't what she meant.  Or was it?  She closed her eyes and sighed out slowly.  She could understand the ways of ghosts easier than the ways of her own heart.

When she opened her eyes again Lorne was standing there with his hand stretched out for her to shake.  "This Jon of yours is a lucky guy.  Tell him I said so, will you?  Goodbye, Darcy.  I'll come visit you next time.  Hopefully there'll be less excitement."

"In Misty Hollow?" she
said.  "We're just a small, sleepy little town like what you have here in Smithsville.  Nothing exciting ever happens there."

They laughed at her little joke, and in spite of what she had said to him about Jon Tinker, she let him hug her tightly one last time.

"Take care of yourself," he said quietly to her.  "And tell Chloe I love her, if you see her again."

Then he turned and walked down the street to where they had parked their cars.  Darcy thought it would be best if she waited for him to drive away
first, since she had parked her sister's car right behind his. He waved out the window as he pulled away from the curb.

Chloe
had appeared next to her as Lorne drove away.  She turned to Darcy now, her expression saying it all.

"I already have a boyfriend, Chloe.  Besides, Lorne is still getting over you.  He may never get over you."

Chloe struck a pose.  How could any man get over me?

"I won't get over you being gone, either
, you know."  Darcy meant it.  She'd carry the heartache of this for a long time.

Chloe smiled wistfully and then blew Darcy a kiss.  One to remember me by, she was saying.

It was time for her to go.

Before she did, she moved over to the coffee house window.  The glass fogged up as she got close.  Chloe was causing a sudden drop in the air temperature right where she stood, a trick some ghosts picked up quicker than others.  In the condensation
on the window, Chloe wrote out a last message for Darcy.

"Miss you like peanut butter," it read.  "Love you always."

Darcy watched, unshed tears now running freely down her cheeks, as Chloe walked away up the sidewalk.  The few people nearby stepped wide of her without realizing why they were doing it.  The further away Chloe got, the more she shimmered and faded, until finally her spirit disappeared altogether.  Darcy could feel it as she left this plane of existence for the next.

Her friend was gone.

"Goodbye, Chloe," she whispered.  "I love you, too."

—End—

Hi everyone.  This is Darcy Sweet.

I hope you enjoyed this story, as well as the other stories in my series.  My life
keeps getting more and more complicated.  I have to figure there's more good than bad in that. 

Just so you know
, the e-mail address I gave Lorne really does belong to me.  I love getting e-mails, too.  Drop me a note sometime.  I always answer back.  Write me about anything.  Men, books, or even the care of cranky cats who think they're human.  Or, write me your ghost stories or questions about the hereafter.

There's
more adventures to come here in my sleepy little town of Misty Hollow.  Hope to see you again soon!

[email protected]

Keep Reading for a Bonus
Short Story -
‘A Smudge the Cat Mystery Story’ - The Circle of Life

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The Circle of Life

You know how cats have nine lives?  No, really.  We do.  Well.  Most of us do.  Me, I only have eight lives.

My name is Smudge, and I'm a cat.  A black and white cat.  Or a white cat with black fur.  Maybe a black cat with white fur. I'm not really sure.  Anyway, that's where I come by the name Smudge.  My owner gave it to me.  I kind of like it.

I live i
n Misty Hollow, a small town with not-so-small problems.  You might say it's bigger than it seems.  I've got a good life here, for the most part, and I have everything a cat could want.  Except a full nine lives.  Wish I had that ninth one back.

This is the story of
how I lost it.

I
remember it was a gorgeous summer day.  One of those days in the middle of July that make a cat want to either curl up and take a nap, or go exploring.  Ordinarily, I would have gone with the nap. 

Today,
I chose to go exploring instead.  Biggest mistake of my life.

I hadn't lived in Misty Hollow for very
long at that point so there were lots of things left to explore.  My owner, Darcy Sweet, was working at the book store her Great Aunt Millie had used to own, so I had the whole day to myself.  I kind of wish that I had known Millie when she was alive.  Humans are humans, and some of them are better than others, but Millie is so much fun to talk to now that she's dead.  I just know she would have been a great friend when she was alive.  She haunts the book store now, a poltergeist making mischief to make the time pass, even though she could have moved on to the other side already.  We've talked about her reasons for sticking around.  I think the old lady is pretty smart, if you ask me.

We talk
about a lot of things, Millie and me.  But that's a story for another time.

Today, I wanted to explore the trees around the south side of town.  Misty Hollow is
a rural place.  Even though there are lots of people living here, there's also lots of nature.  Trees and bushes and other neat places for cats to check out.  The trees here, thick and shady, could almost be called a forest.  At least, I think they could.  I've never been in an actual forest.  Only in my dreams.

Trees have this
amazing smell to them.  They smell like freedom and wild things.  It makes me want to run around them, and jump, and climb this tree with my claws, and jump back down to the ground, and run some more.

Being a cat rules.

The problem was that I got totally twisted around out there.  Left was right and east was west—even though I'm not really sure which way is east and which is west anyway—until I lost all sense of where I had come from.  I could almost imagine I wasn't anywhere near civilization.  No town nearby, no traffic sounds, no people.  Just tall trees and wild things and me.  It was like I was a big cat on the prowl in the jungles of—