Ghost of a Chance (Banshee Creek Book 2) (18 page)

She drove quickly to the clinic, a small, gray building with a red-and-white sign that read Banshee Creek Urgent Care. The clinic was a town landmark, as middle-of-the-night mishaps were a common occurrence and the closest emergency room was several miles away. Dr. Lebensburg was discreet and asked no questions
.
 

Gabe had been quiet throughout the trip, too quiet. She parked the car, trying to recall the concussion protocols her last stunt double had explained to her. But Gabe's lethargy disappeared as soon as she pulled on the parking brake. He opened the door, stepped out and, to her surprise, walked around the car to open her door.

"Just go inside and sit down," she told him as she pushed open the door. "I don't want you walking around."

He stubbornly held the door open for her. "I'm fine. I just need this cleaned, and that shouldn't take long. We should be at the next house in less than an hour."

She followed him to the clinic. "Next house? There won't be a next house. You need to be in bed. Have you seen your shirt?"

"Head wounds bleed a lot, Elizabeth. It's no big deal."
 

Elizabeth stifled the urge to hit him. He was a wounded man, after all.
 

He reached the clinic door first and held it open for her. That gave her the chance to beat him to the reception area. No big deal, he'd said? Well, she'd show him no big deal. Her heels clicked on the worn linoleum floors as she walked briskly to the counter. She grabbed a bright red pen bearing the logo of the Banshee Creek Fire & Rescue department, and signed him in, adding a small note for the nurse.
 

She turned back to the waiting room to see Gabe chatting with Liam Hagen, who had a bandaged hand. Holly hovered over her brother protectively.
 

"Really, it's just a scratch," Liam was saying to Gabe. Holly looked exasperated. Elizabeth knew exactly how she felt.

"Ha," Gabe replied, pointing to the back of his head. "Can you see a bump? No, you can't, because it's minuscule.
She
—" he pointed at Elizabeth, "—still made me to come to the clinic."

"
She
—" Liam nodded his head toward Holly, "—wrapped my hand in two towels. I looked like the mummy when I walked in here."

"
She
tried to carry me to the car and then stole my car keys," Gabe replied.

"
She
ran all the red lights on the way here. Like I was going to bleed to death or something," Liam replied.
 

Holly rolled her eyes. "This town has only one stoplight, Liam." She glared at her brother. "Just make sure you rest your hand."

"I
promise
, mummy," he replied. Then he turned to Elizabeth. "This is all your fault, you know. I told you it didn't want to be sold."

She stared at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

Holly sighed. "He's talking about the house."

Elizabeth raised her brows in disbelief. "The house is an inanimate object. It doesn't care whether it's sold or not."
 

"That's what I keep telling him," Holly said.

"Fine, you girls keep your skepticism and your selling schemes," Liam said. "Just keep me out of it. I don't want any part of it. Let's talk about something else." He turned toward Gabe. "Is this how she sells houses to her clients? She hits them on the head?"

"That's the only way she's going to sell the Dudley property," Gabe replied.

"The old farm?" Liam asked. "The one the Historical Inquisition is trying to get me to expand? You're not buying it, are you? I don't want to spend two more years dealing with the Hysteric Preservation Committee."

Gabe raised a brow. "I was told they pre-approved your plans for the house."

Liam focused narrowed eyes on Elizabeth. "How do you know about those plans? I thought I burned them."
 

"I gave her the last copy," Holly said. "Someone should fix that place. It's a nice property."

 
"Well, that someone isn't me. I already risked life and limb dealing with that homicidal chandelier." He glared at Gabe. "A reno I now have to redo because somebody wanted to play dodge ball with fifty pounds of French crystal."

"Not my fault," Gabe said with another poke in Elizabeth's direction. "
She
took me there."

"First the Hagen House and then the Dudley Orchard?" Liam raised his brows. "Well, Hunt, I have to hand it to you, you like a challenge."

"He wanted a big house, and those are the largest properties in Banshee Creek," she replied testily. "I have to work with the existing stock."

"Why don't you take him to Middleburg?" Liam asked. "They have lots of nice properties in Middleburg, big yards too."
 

Elizabeth glared at him.
 

Gabe gave her a smug look. "She's obsessed with finding me a house in town."

"I don't see why you dislike the town so much," Elizabeth said.

"Maybe he'd like it better—" Liam glanced meaningfully at the blood on Gabe's shirt, "—if it weren't trying to kill him."

Gabe started to answer, but the nurse called out his name, and he got up and walked quickly toward the treatment rooms. The Hagen siblings immediately turned to Elizabeth.

Holly put on a stern face. "You are so not doing this."

"Doing what?" She raised her hands in a defensive gesture. "I'm not doing anything."

"Well, you must have done something," her friend replied, still wearing her trademark Assistant Librarian scowl. "He looked at you like he wanted to eat you up."
 

"He did?" she said, brightening up instantly.
 

"He's not going to eat her up," Liam said. "It's against the bro code."

"Bro code? That's ridiculous." Holly turned to her brother. "You wouldn't mind if I had a thing with Gabe or Zach, would you?"

"Gabe's not my bro, so no. Zach, definitely."

Holly's eyes widened in outrage. "Off-limits? Are you kidding?"

"First," her brother counted out, "you're a single mom and you don't have time to date. Second, of course he's off-limits."

"What is it with you guys?" Elizabeth interrupted. "Everyone's had a thing with Zach. He's practically a public service."

"
I
haven't had a thing with Zach," Holly pointed out. "
You
haven't had a thing with Zach. We're the only women in Banshee Creek who haven't had a thing with Zach."

"And there's a reason for that," her brother replied.

"So this is serious?" Elizabeth asked him. "Gabe really won't make a move on me."

"Nope."

That was...disappointing. Although she couldn't pinpoint why.

Liam got up, cradling his wounded hand. "They're ready for me. Don't worry, sis, you don't have to come with me.
Ave dominas, nos mortituri te salutamus
." He headed for the examination rooms.
 

Holly grimaced. "Oh, gag me with a...crap, what's the Latin for spoon?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"It's not
cucaracha
, is it? Oh well, it'll come to me." She turned to frown at Elizabeth. "You're not serious about the Gabe thing, are you? Oh, Lord. Look at your face.
You are
." She shook her head. "Be careful, if word gets around that you two are an item, your moms will be booking St. Michael's and planning floral arrangements in no time at all."

"I'm an adult, Holly."

"Yeah, an adult with trust and intimacy issues. Do you want to play those out in front of the entire town?"

"I don't have
trust
issues," Elizabeth squealed. And if she did, they were definitely none of her family's business.
 

Holly raised a brow, reminding Elizabeth of her last birthday celebration when, under the influence of Caine's triple-strength prickly pear margaritas, she'd regaled Holly and Patricia with amusing—okay, maybe some of them hadn't been very funny—stories about her love life. Clearly, she shouldn't have been quite so forthcoming.
 

"I just don't want you to get hurt," her friend said. "You have a certain tendency to rush into things."
 

"Why do you think I'll get hurt? Shouldn't my so-called 'trust' issues protect me?"

Sure, that sounded a bit sarcastic, but intimacy issues? Really? Sure, she had a couple of bad relationships and a broken almost-engagement behind her, but that was totally normal by L.A. standards.

Holly put her hand on Elizabeth's shoulders. "You still think of him as the cute pizza delivery guy who got you out of scrapes. He's not that guy anymore. I told you about the day Ben found him in the library in a state of, how can I put it, dishabille? And that's not all. Liam says that Gabe's relationship history is..."
 

Holly paused, a frown crossing her face, and Elizabeth waited impatiently for her to finish. She knew about the "pants in the stacks" incident and about the matchmaking failures, but what other horrors did Gabe's love life contain?

"Actually," Holly continued thoughtfully, "it's a lot like yours."

"Are you kidding me? I've done many things, Holly, but I've never been found in my unmentionables in an public institution."

Holly arched a brow. "What about that
thing
during that movie shoot in Toronto?"
 

Oh crud, had she told Holly about Toronto? Her movie friends would kill her. She'd taken a vow of silence about Toronto.

"And that tech tycoon guy you dumped in L.A.," Holly continued. "The one who ended up with the loony sculptor?"

"She's a lovely woman," Elizabeth said firmly, "who used to make Tibetan spirit masks out of circuit boards and sell them as protective charms. I sell haunted houses, Holly, I can't throw stones."
 

Not that she wanted to anyway. The Buddhist sculptor hadn't broken up her relationship. Elizabeth had left Ethan, her almost-fiancée, when his reaction to her
Cannibal Clones
success had turned out to be less than enthusiastic. But everything had been for the best. Ethan's new wife had cheerfully given up her art to become an enthusiastic Silicon Valley hostess, and Elizabeth had gone into therapy to figure out why all the men she dated turned into her father.
 

Holly sighed. "I know warnings never work with you, but
please
, try to be careful this time."

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

E
LIZABETH
HELD
on tight to the Ferrari's dashboard, fighting down her queasiness. Gabe drove as if the devil himself were chasing him out of Banshee Creek. The rain had stopped, but the road was still wet and this speed was totally insane. That blow to the head must have killed a couple of his brain cells.
 

Why was Gabe even driving? Stubborn man, she should have asked the Urgent Care folks to sedate him.
 

"Can you go a little slower?" she pleaded.

"I
am
going slowly." He shifted gears, and the car sped up. "That snail almost passed us."

She glanced at the speedometer. "Did they check you for a concussion? I think your injury may have affected your eyesight."
 

He looked fine though. The doctor had washed his head, and his dark brown hair now looked curly and unkempt. She reminded herself that she couldn't run her hands through Gabe's hair.
 

A sharp turn made her breath catch.
 

Correction, she could use a distraction that wouldn't scare her into an early grave.

"They checked for everything," Gabe said bitterly. "And all I needed was a Band-Aid. You didn't have to ask for Dr. Frankensburg."

"It's Dr. Lebensburg, Gabe. No one over the age of ten calls her Dr. Frankensburg. And she's the best doctor they have. Those cuts may look silly to you, but they're no laughing matter." Although sticking Gabe with Dr. Frankensburg was very much a laughing matter. That was why she'd asked for her specifically. "A Band-Aid wasn't enough."

"They have this new gel that holds your skin together until the wound heals. That's all I needed."

"Are you afraid of needles, Gabe?"

"I'm not afraid," he said tightly. "I just hate inefficiency."
 

"Well, at least you got a lollipop."
 

She eyed the brightly colored sweet. Gabe hadn't eaten it and it lay on the dash, taunting her. It was cherry, her favorite flavor.
 

"She sews everything," he muttered. "That's why she's Dr. Frankensburg. Do you have any idea how many times she's stitched me up?"
 

So much drama over a couple of stitches. How was she supposed to know that Gabe was afraid of needles? Or that he didn't like candy?

She ignored his whining and pointed to the colorful treat. "Are you going to eat that?"
 

"What?" he shook his head. "No."

No sense letting a perfectly good snack go to waste. She unwrapped it and stuck it in her mouth. A burst of cinnamon and fruit flooded her taste buds. Strange how after all these years, she still remembered the exact taste of Dr. Lebensburg's lollipops.

"It was good to see Liam and Holly again, though."

"Whoa, be careful, you may end up concluding that Banshee Creek isn't so bad after all."

Gabe chuckled.

"What do you have against the town?" she asked. "It's not the ghosts. You grew up here. You should be used to the, er, localized Fortean phenomena, as my brother called it."
 

Gabe shrugged. "The town wouldn't be so bad if my family didn't live there."

"What's the problem with your family? Your mom and dad are still together and they're great parents. Your siblings are all successful, even Zach, who we all thought would end up in prison. And you're all ridiculously close-knit." She had to admit she envied Gabe his crazy family. They fought a lot but they were all there for each other.
 

Unlike her own family.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Too bad," she said cheerfully. "I do. I heard you paid for Zach's medical treatment, including a ridiculously expensive air ambulance from Chile. Zach said the nurse was a former Miss Sweden. So, what's the problem?"