I lost focus when I heard footsteps in the living room. No, not yet! I wasn't ready for this moment to be over.
I jerked around to face the coffee pot just as Wallie stumbled into the kitchen. Hiding my tears from him was a must. He didn’t need to know his dad was there until I found out why Clay had made a sudden appearance and if he was sticking around.
My son wasn’t a morning person, much like his mama. Good thing, too. Once he outgrew the childhood early mornings, I had usually been able to sleep in.
He mumbled, “Good morning,” as he shuffled over and grabbed a coffee cup from the cabinet. “I’m glad Wade brought over coffee last night.”
The boy read my mind. “Yeah, or you’d be going to the store without it.”
He grunted and took his coffee to the table. “I miss Olivia and her donuts.”
I snorted. “You miss the donuts.”
He shrugged.
Zoey bounced into the room. Literally. She was a morning person. I never understood how people could just leap out of bed fully awake and ready to...people. Ugh. Gross.
Wallie stared at her as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. Meeting my gaze, he grimaced. “Is she always like that in the mornings?” He'd been around her enough in Maine to know the answer to his question.
“Yep.” I took a few more sips of my coffee. “I’ll need the two of you to go get a few more things from the store. Just enough to get through the week.”
“We don’t have a car,” Wallie complained. He wasn't a lazy kid. It was just too early to be functioning.
I rolled my eyes. “Walk to Wade’s and get his truck.”
He sighed and took his coffee back upstairs to change out of his Star Wars pajama pants.
"You ready to work?" I asked Zoey.
She nodded enthusiastically and opened a cabinet. "What's to eat?"
"There are those toaster pastries you like."
Her face lit up. "Ohh." She rifled through the cabinets until finding the blue box of sugary goodness.
After handing my debit card to Wallie, he and Zoey headed out with an extra silver packet of tarts in her right hand. Wade lived on the next block over, so it wasn’t that far of a walk. Plus, they were young. Exercise was good for them. Yawning, I ignored the voice that told me it would be good for me, too.
Nope. Moving all this stuff would be exercise enough this week.
Once I was alone in the house. I used my magic to lock up. Wallie had a key, but I didn’t expect them back for at least an hour. It was time to try to get Clay back.
I dug out some candles from the kitchen junk drawer and headed to my bedroom with my coffee.
I put candles around the room, one each in the North, South, East, and West. Sitting in the middle of the bed I had shared with my husband until he died almost six years ago, I lit the candles and created a circle around me with string. With a calming breath, I closed my eyes and sent out my magic, and called to Clay.
At first, nothing happened. Just me sitting on the bed, my left hip starting to twinge. It had given me trouble when I sat with my legs crossed ever since I had Wallie. Focusing, I put more power into it and called out to him. “Clay. I know you're here. I can smell you. Show yourself!”
My skin tingled as the air in the room charged with magic. Magic that I wasn't conjuring. With hope swelling in my heart, I opened my eyes. Gasping and clutching at my throat, I nearly jumped off the bed.
Clay sat in front of me with a big silly grin on his face, his hair falling into his eyes like it always used to. I stared at him, amazed, shocked, absolutely in awe as I took him in.
I'd been right. He was definitely here, and he was definitely a ghost.
Chapter Four
His voice floated through the air, a sound I'd been dying to hear since the moment I stopped hearing it. How was I actually watching Clay’s boyish grin widen? “Finally! I’ve been trying to get you to notice me since you walked into the house.” Clay waved his arms dramatically, then he seemed to remember something. The smile disappeared and he glared at me.
Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, but I was still too stunned to speak. He looked like he did the day he died. Not a day older. Also, he was semi-transparent.
A car accident that had only involved him and one other car. I'd been freaked out about driving for a while after, understandable considering both my father and my husband died in car accidents.
He wore the same clothes he'd worn that day to work. Black slacks and a gray button-down top. He needed a shave. He'd woken up late that morning and had left the house in a rush. But his wreck had been on the way home.
My vision blurred as my eyes filled with tears. “How is this possible?”
Clay cocked his head as he frowned and moved forward, reaching out. He let his hand drop, hesitating before touching me. “You haven’t let go.”
Let go of what? How was he able to touch me? “I don’t understand.” Hell, I didn’t even know ghosts were real until a few weeks ago. I traced the spot on my leg where he'd just touched with my fingertips.
Clay sat on the bed in front of me, but the mattress didn't compress. He didn't weigh anything. “After my body died, I came to the house. At first, I didn’t know why I hadn’t crossed over, but I didn’t care because I got to stay with you and Wallie.”
“Wait, you’ve been here all along?” Now that I thought about it, the house had always felt heavy since he died. Like his presence lingered, making me sad. I could sense him, but he wasn't there.
When I'd arrived at Winnie’s house, at Winston, I'd started to feel better. I hadn't put two and two together until now, fully blind to Clay trying to connect with me. I hadn't been able to move on because he was still here with me.
Clay scooted closer to me. That was when I reached out and took his hand. Surprisingly, I felt him, though he wasn't quite warm enough. Closing my eyes, I sucked in my breath, trying to smell that scent that was uniquely him. I'd smelled it last night. My chest tightened and tears flowed down my cheeks as I pulled his hand to my face.
With a worried frown, he swiped the wetness from my cheeks, pressing his palm to my skin. “Don’t be sad. You just have to let go so I can move on.” His voice, though he was right in front of me, was somehow far away.
My heart cracked, the grief washing over me nearly as hard as it had the day I'd found out he was gone. “I don’t know how.”
His features turned sad. I tried to gaze deep into his brown eyes, but it wasn't the same. Right in front of me and he still felt so far away. “I tried to reach out to you for so long but couldn’t get your attention.”
I saw it now, how he'd been trying to reach me. I'd been so blind before, stuck in the mire of my grief. “Why did it work this time?”
His lips lifted. “Your magic. It’s stronger now.” He shook his head. "I'm so proud of you. You've finally embraced who you are."
That was a change. "When you were alive, you wanted me to subdue my magic."
Clay shrugged and chuckled. "Death gave me perspective. I see now that I never should've encouraged you to block off such a huge part of yourself. You've blossomed since you've embraced your magic."