ultimately the only thing he could do was wave and walk away, thinking to himself that he’d just missed something important, and he wasn’t sure how to get it back.
Chapter Five
Marnie slid open the bottom drawer of her desk and gently placed the box inside. Whatever was in there, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, since the discovery of the box had coincided with the appearance—or possibly the complete hallucination—of that… ghost .
That’s what she’d seen, wasn’t it? It was too flimsy to be a real person. If she’d seen it at all and not made it up in her crazy cat lady mind.
Maybe tomorrow, when she was feeling less out of sorts, she would look at the entire thing with new eyes and realize that she was just overwrought after everything that had happened today. She locked the drawer and slipped the keys back in her pocket, then left her small office for the main room. Mike was packing up.
“Heading out?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s just after five. I was going to meet some friends at Kiki’s. But do you need any help before I go?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Nah, I’m okay. Have a good Halloween!”
He headed toward the doors and she grabbed another pile of books to return to the stacks. The second she was hidden amongst the tall shelves, she frowned. Was she going crazy? Or had she actually seen a ghost? The Wilford ghost, no less. That book she’d read to the kids this morning had a note in the back that she hadn’t read aloud—that it was based on a real-life haunting of the Wilford library. But the book had been written forty years ago. Surely it had just been a publicity gimmick and there wasn’t any truth to it.
Was there?
And what was it that the maybe-ghost had asked? Whether I liked his trick?
She slid a slim volume of poetry into its place and moved to the next set of shelves. It just didn’t make any sense. If there really was a ghost, why was he appearing to her? The explanation in the back of the book had said that he only showed up when he needed to teach people a lesson, but she’d already had enough lessons in life. Hard ones. She couldn’t imagine what it might be like to learn another one. It would probably kill her.
She moved aside a couple of large anthologies. At least Collin had shown up just before she’d tried to go barreling down the stairs after seeing that shadowy thing . With the way she’d felt so wild and lightheaded, she might have fainted as she descended, and that would have been the biggest disaster of all.
And part of her had to admit that she’d enjoyed being in his arms. Hadn’t she been thinking about the touch of a man, right before he’d appeared again? And not just any man. She’d been thinking of his touch. His hands and his mouth and...oh, goodness, he was so handsome. And just as good-looking on the inside as she’d remembered. His accent had faded a bit more with time, too. Back in high school, she’d known just from hearing him speak that he’d spent some part of his life in Ireland. But now, she wouldn’t have guessed that the lilting cadence of his speech had come from a childhood there. She missed the accent, though. Somehow, it made her nostalgic for the girl she’d been. For the crush she’d had on—
“So, do you think he’s a hottie, as you ladies like to say these days?”
The voice intruded on her thoughts so abruptly that she let out a little squeak, but this time she didn’t scream. In fact, she felt surprisingly…calm.
Instead, she turned around slowly, feeling her heart beating only marginally faster than usual. It was as though she’d had a little time to get used to the idea of a possible haunting, and the appearance of a ghost didn’t frighten her as much, in the larger, better lit space of the main library.
In fact, when she saw it again, a smoky figure floating toward her, she managed to keep her cool and stand her ground, studying the ghost closely enough to realize
Chapter Five
Marnie slid open the bottom drawer of her desk and gently placed the box inside. Whatever was in there, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, since the discovery of the box had coincided with the appearance—or possibly the complete hallucination—of that… ghost .
That’s what she’d seen, wasn’t it? It was too flimsy to be a real person. If she’d seen it at all and not made it up in her crazy cat lady mind.
Maybe tomorrow, when she was feeling less out of sorts, she would look at the entire thing with new eyes and realize that she was just overwrought after everything that had happened today. She locked the drawer and slipped the keys back in her pocket, then left her small office for the main room. Mike was packing up.
“Heading out?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s just after five. I was going to meet some friends at Kiki’s. But do you need any help before I go?”
She smiled and shook her head. “Nah, I’m okay. Have a good Halloween!”
He headed toward the doors and she grabbed another pile of books to return to the stacks. The second she was hidden amongst the tall shelves, she frowned. Was she going crazy? Or had she actually seen a ghost? The Wilford ghost, no less. That book she’d read to the kids this morning had a note in the back that she hadn’t read aloud—that it was based on a real-life haunting of the Wilford library. But the book had been written forty years ago. Surely it had just been a publicity gimmick and there wasn’t any truth to it.
Was there?
And what was it that the maybe-ghost had asked? Whether I liked his trick?
She slid a slim volume of poetry into its place and moved to the next set of shelves. It just didn’t make any sense. If there really was a ghost, why was he appearing to her? The explanation in the back of the book had said that he only showed up when he needed to teach people a lesson, but she’d already had enough lessons in life. Hard ones. She couldn’t imagine what it might be like to learn another one. It would probably kill her.
She moved aside a couple of large anthologies. At least Collin had shown up just before she’d tried to go barreling down the stairs after seeing that shadowy thing . With the way she’d felt so wild and lightheaded, she might have fainted as she descended, and that would have been the biggest disaster of all.
And part of her had to admit that she’d enjoyed being in his arms. Hadn’t she been thinking about the touch of a man, right before he’d appeared again? And not just any man. She’d been thinking of his touch. His hands and his mouth and...oh, goodness, he was so handsome. And just as good-looking on the inside as she’d remembered. His accent had faded a bit more with time, too. Back in high school, she’d known just from hearing him speak that he’d spent some part of his life in Ireland. But now, she wouldn’t have guessed that the lilting cadence of his speech had come from a childhood there. She missed the accent, though. Somehow, it made her nostalgic for the girl she’d been. For the crush she’d had on—
“So, do you think he’s a hottie, as you ladies like to say these days?”
The voice intruded on her thoughts so abruptly that she let out a little squeak, but this time she didn’t scream. In fact, she felt surprisingly…calm.
Instead, she turned around slowly, feeling her heart beating only marginally faster than usual. It was as though she’d had a little time to get used to the idea of a possible haunting, and the appearance of a ghost didn’t frighten her as much, in the larger, better lit space of the main library.
In fact, when she saw it again, a smoky figure floating toward her, she managed to keep her cool and stand her ground, studying the ghost closely enough to realize
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