Some Like it Haunted (A Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romane Book 2) (14 page)

BOOK: Some Like it Haunted (A Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romane Book 2)
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

U
pon waking again, I heard Amy’s voice. “Come on, sweetie,” she said. “Be strong. I know you can make it. You need to be here for my wedding. I can’t do it without you.”

“Amy?” I croaked.

“Yes, sweetie!” Her eyes brightened and she smiled. “She’s talking!” she said.

A doctor quickly stood between Amy and me. I felt his fingers on my wrist and he shined a light into my eyes.

“Sophie?” he said. “Do you hear me?”

I tried to nod, but couldn’t move my head. I tried to say yes, but think I only gurgled.

The doctor left and Amy squeezed my hand. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to make sure they take the best care of you. I’ll stay all night if I have to.”

Myrtle appeared beside Amy. “They found her man,” she said. “He’s runnin’ down the hallway right now.”

“Hello?”

That was Cal’s voice. But I couldn’t see him and couldn’t move to try to find him.

“Hello? Is this the right room?”

A moment later, he stood above me, his face ashen. “Oh my God, Sophie,” he said, taking my hand in his.

Marmaduke appeared at my other side. He directed his anger at Cal. “She was traveling to see you when the catastrophe occurred.”

Cal tightened his grip on my hand. “You were?” he asked me.

I tried to tell him that it was okay though, and all that mattered was that he was here now, but I still couldn’t form words.

“Marmi,” I thought, “can you talk for me?”

“Why yes, I think I can,” he said. “Ol chap,” he said to Cal, “for the record, she is far too good for you.”

“I know she is. Tell her that I know she’s too good for me,” said Cal.

“She can hear, you imbecile,” Marmi said.

“Be nice,” I told Marmi.

“But Sophie, he is an imbecile. Only a fool would consider leaving a woman of such beauty and gentleness of character.”

“Leave her?” Cal asked. “You thought I was going to leave her?”

“She believed that was the purpose of your visit this morning, yes.”

“I was going to ask her to marry me.”

“You must be joking,” Marmi sniped. “With bagels and a soda drink? That isn’t how you approach a proposal.”

“I was nervous. The last marriage went badly.”

“What about last evening?”

“What about it?”

“She drove by your house and that woman was there. You had wine.”

“No!” Cal protested. He found my eyes and pleaded with me. “Sophie, you have to believe me. She was there to see my mother. I poured the wine and left. I admit, I’ve been confused lately. My parents separating stirred up the doubts I’d been having about relationships and commitment. Divorce does that to a person. The doubts, they’re big. And all of the other stuff with Myrtle and Shane. It shook me up. But then there was Rachel in my house and I realized that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. You belonged in my house with me. All the doubt, all of my second guessing, it vanished. I knew right then I wanted to be married to you. I shopped all night for the perfect ring to propose with.”

Marmi’s tone softened. “You bought a ring?”

“Well, no. Because I never found the perfect ring. That’s why I brought the bagels. You know, because they’re rings, and I had this whole funny thing planned where we joked about rings and I’d ask her to be my wife.”

With a strange sensation pressing on my side, I tried to get a word in myself. “Marmi, stop a minute.”

“An absurd excuse of a plan,” Marmaduke huffed. “Bagels.”

“I think it’s kind of cute,” Myrtle sighed.

A stabbing pain tore through my side. “Marmi, it hurts.”

“She says you hurt her.”

I was feeling overcome by weakness. “No, I hurt. My side. It hurts.”

“Oh dear,” Marmi said. “She says her side hurts. I think she’s in pain. What are those beeping noises?” Marmi sounded like he was in a panic.

“She’s crashing!” Amy said, pressing a button near the head of my bed. “Cal, they’ll probably make you leave. Stand in the corner, stay out of the way. You might be able to stay.”

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Her vitals dropped off the charts.”

I could hear them, but couldn’t see them. The fog had returned. Then I was standing beside my body watching a crew of people descend upon me like locusts on a wheat field.

“Sophie?” Cal said. “No! Sophie, no!”

“Cal?”

He was looking at me, not my body on the bed.

“Hey there sugar,” Myrtle said. “Take it easy.”

“They’re doing what they can, Sophie,” said Marmi.

A soft but brilliant light opened up above my head. It was warm and I saw Grammy there. “Marmaduke, I see the light you talked about.”

“No!” shouted Cal. “No!”

“Get that man out of here,” someone said.

Two nurses tried to guide Cal out of the room but he fought them. “No, don’t make me leave. Sophie, stay with me,” he pleaded.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I don’t know what to do.” The pull from the light was strong and my urge to move toward it overwhelmed me.

“Tell her that you complete her,” Myrtle told Cal.

“Yes, yes!” said Marmi. “That’s the way. You complete her.”

“What?”

“Good lord bagel man, don’t question us, just say it.”

“She completes me,” Cal said.

“No!” Marmaduke shouted. “To her. Tell her.”

“I said to get that man out of here!” someone said again.

Two male nurses rushed into the room and forcibly tugged Cal out as he cried, “No! No!”

He was gone and I was too weak to fight anymore.

“Is this goodbye, Sophie?” Marmaduke asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe.”

“You’re fading. I can barely see you now.”

“I’m sorry, Marmi.”

The light consumed me now, and the image of the room was almost a memory.

“It’s true! Don’t leave me, Sophie, it’s true!” Cal’s words seemed to tug me back. I saw his face, dim and small, far off in the distance. The light surrounding me began to recede.

“It’s true!” he shouted, his eyes pleading with mine. “It’s true, you do complete me. I don’t care how corny it sounds or that it came from a stupid movie. It’s true. I can’t imagine my life without you. You and your crazy ghosts and witches and warlocks. You complete me.”

“I still say there were never any warlocks,” Marmaduke interjected.

The light faded away entirely, its pull withdrawn. I remained outside of my body, but felt some strength now. “I think I can do this,” I told Cal.

“We have a pulse,” someone said.

“Stay with me,” Cal said, his eyes locked on mine.

“I’ll think about it,” I said smiling.

“You’re supposed to say that I had you at hello.”

“You had me at the bagels.”

“Get her stable,” a doctor said, “then get her down to surgery.”

Darkness surrounded me again, then I dreamed I was hiking on the trail. Only this time I wasn’t alone.

This time Cal was holding my hand.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

C
al stayed by my side the next day while I recovered from surgery. I didn’t remember much of that day except he held my hand a lot. Besides the ruptured spleen, I had suffered a broken arm and two cracked ribs. Thankfully it was my left arm. The cast and sling were annoying, but at least I was alive.

I grew stronger each day, taking short walks around my room and once down the hall.

On Halloween, Ron and Dory stopped by with a basket so large that it hid Ron from view until he set it down. “We can’t stay long,” Dory apologized. “We’re hosting a Halloween party tonight.”

“That sounds like fun,” I said.

“I’m not convinced myself,” Dory snipped, “but Ronald insisted. Claims it is a good way to say thank you to our clients. Personally, I just think it’s another way for him to explore his new obsession.”

“Dory,” Ron pleaded, “it’s not an obsession.”

“Ghosts,” Dory said, ignoring him as she usually did. “Ghosts. We’ve watched every ghost movie ever made. He’s decorated our office with nothing but ghosts. He subscribed to a video streaming service, and every available moment he can find, he plays another episode of Milwaukee Medium. And guess what costume he has chosen for this evening?”

“It’s a long shot, but I’ll go with ghost for twenty.”

Ron rolled his eyes at her, which for Ron was a pretty gutsy move. “I’ve found you glued to more than one Milwaukee Medium episode. You think I don’t notice, but I do.”

She crossed her arms and explained herself to me. “It’s like watching an accident scene unfold on the other side of a freeway. You can’t tear your eyes away. I don’t know how that woman’s husband puts up with her.”

Suppressing a laugh was excruciating. I shook my head. “You have to wonder, don’t you?”

“When do you get out of this place?” Ron asked me.

I shifted in my bed. “Not soon enough. The doctor says tomorrow, probably.”

Later that day, the doctor changed her mind and approved my release.

“So I can take her home?” Cal asked.

“That you can,” the doctor said, signing my chart. “If you promise to take good care of her.”

“I’ve already moved some of my stuff to her apartment,” he said.

“Really?” I asked.

“I thought that was easier than moving the animals and upsetting their routine.”

“You’re so sweet.”

“I don’t want you going to back to work for another week, though,” the doctor added.

I cringed. “How are you going to manage the office?” I asked Cal.

“Just fine,” he said. “I hired two temps. My mom and dad.”

“Are they back together?”

He smiled. “As of last night.”

“You’re sure they can run the office together?”

“It’s a week. What harm can they do?”

I slept much better in my own bed without nurses coming in all night long to take my blood pressure. And having Cal in bed next to me increased my comfort level a hundredfold.

He made me eggs and toast early the next morning before he went to work. We sat in bed together eating and chatting.

“So,” he said, “I’ve been thinking.”

“These eggs are delicious, by the way,” I said.

“I put scallions and garlic in them. Just a bit of garlic.”

“Yum. So what were you thinking? Sorry I interrupted you there.”

“I was thinking I’d be willing to revisit the idea of allowing Marmaduke and Myrtle to scare off Rachel. A little. Or maybe a lot.”

“You don’t have to convince me. Heck, I’ll scare her if you want. I thought you’d worked things out with her.”

“Yeah, well, she’s back to her old tricks.”

An I-told-you-so struggled to leap from my tongue, but I fought it back. “Her desire to help wasn’t sincere?”

“I’m not sure there is anything sincere about her except her sincere desire to do whatever serves her own needs and her own pocketbook.”

“What did she do?”

“Asked my parents to loan her fifteen thousand dollars.”

“Holy wad of dough. Are they doing it?”

“They already wrote the check. They felt indebted. Literally.”

“Did she say why she needed that kind of money?”

“For a down payment on a condo. But yesterday, the day after they gave her the check, my mother got a call from a friend who works for a local plastic surgeon.”

“Uh oh.”

“Big uh oh. Rachel had just scheduled herself for breast augmentation which runs roughly fifteen grand.”

“All that work ingratiating herself with your mom, getting back on your good side. All for a set of bigger boobs. She’s gutsy, I’ll give her that. So you want them to scare her into giving it back.” I chewed on my toast. “I wonder how they’d do that? I mean, the scaring is easy, but how do they specifically get her to return the loaned money?”

Marmaduke and Myrtle appeared at the foot of the bed. “Leave that to us,” Marmi said, wearing a devilish grin.

Myrtle stared at my eggs. “Those eggs look so tasty,” she said. “My mama always made eggs with scallions. I miss eatin’ eggs,” she sighed.

“You need to see your mother,” I said. “We have to make that happen.”

“Oh, it’s already arranged,” she said, clapping her hands together.

“It is?” I hadn’t heard this bit of news.

“We organized a reading party,” Cal said.

“We?”

“Me, Shane, Amy, and Tara.”

“You’re working with Shane?”

“He’s an okay guy, once you get to know him,” Cal said. “Oh, and I invited Ron and Dory Ellison. It was Tara’s idea.”

“That should be interesting. When is it?”

“Tomorrow night at Shane’s house. Myrtle insisted we wait until you could be there.”

“That’s so sweet, Myrtle.”

“I may not be around after, you know? I may see that bright light and head off on my way to be with my mama. I wanted you there so I could say my proper goodbyes.”

“Come, Myrtle,” Marmaduke said. “You are the haunting virtuoso. Let’s plan a boo-fest.”

Cal took a swig from his coffee cup. “I have to go too.” He set the cup down and leaned over to kiss me. He stopped just shy of my lips and raised his eyes. “Are we alone? Marmaduke, you’re not still there, are you?”

When he didn’t receive an answer he took that as his cue and kissed me long and tenderly. “You complete me,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “I love you, but you’ve said that every day since my accident.”

“But I don’t want you to leave me again.”

I kissed him back. “You could follow through on that marriage proposal.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Marmaduke read me the riot act. I can’t propose again until he sees a detailed design and approves.”

“Design?”

“His word, not mine.”

“Call the good doctor and tell him to invite the money-hungry wench for dinner tonight.” Marmi said later that day. “The details are set. Make it a restaurant. Less work for you. And tell him to bring his parents.”

“A restaurant, Marmi? Is that a good idea? I’ve kind of had my fill of public haunting.”

“Dear Sophie,” he answered, rubbing his hands together like a sneaky thief. “Should all go according to plan, she will be a sniveling mess of nerves long before she arrives at your table.”

That was a plan I could get behind.

“We will leave you now,” Marmaduke said. “Someone is about to have a visitation from beyond the grave.”

Cal managed to convince his parents to meet us at Winston’s for a celebratory dinner. We arrived right on time and they were already seated, looking over the menu.

“Sophie!” Cal’s father said, rising and shaking my good hand. “It’s wonderful to see you again. Dianne and I were so worried about you. You’re recovering well?”

Cal pulled my chair out for me.

I smiled. “I’m feeling almost like new. Thank you both for managing the office while I’ve been out.”

“No thanks needed. It’s what family does,” said Tom, sitting back down. “Five place settings. Are we expecting another person?”

“Yes,” Cal said happily. “Rachel.”

Dianne and Tom exchanged uncomfortable glances. “Oh,” said Dianne.

“How...nice.” Tom said.

“You don’t sound thrilled,” said Cal.

“It’s not that we aren’t grateful,” Dianne said, “but we just hoped maybe—”

Tom finished her sentence. “That we’d never have to lay eyes on her again. We feel used.”

Cal sipped from his water glass, then set it down. “Well, who knows. Maybe she’ll have some epiphany and return the money.”

“Rachel?” Tom asked. “That’s some dream world you live in, son. So, I suppose we have to wait for her to get here before we order, huh?”

The waiter brought bread and Cal ordered a bottle of champagne. The four of us enjoyed conversation for a while until Tom started getting cranky. He looked at his watch. “What time did you tell her, Cal? I’m getting hungry.”

“Eight o’clock. What time is it?”

“It’s twenty after.” He waved the waiter over. “I’m ordering.”

Dianne nodded. “Me too.”

Just then, heads turned toward the arched entry. “Callahan!” a woman’s voice could be heard screeching. “I said Callahan! Never mind, I’ll find them myself.”

Rachel appeared under the archway, her hair falling out of what had probably once been a tight bun. Her blouse clashed with her striped skirt, and she wore one black shoe and one brown. Myrtle floated over her, whispering into her ear. “It’s hell in hell, little Rachel. Aunt Anne knows. Aunt Anne knows.”

Marmi materialized beside me. “I had a jolly good time speaking through her car radio. I played the role of evangelist believably, if I do say so myself. Fire and brimstone and the like.”

I smiled and sipped on my champagne.

“Rachel!” Dianne said. “What on earth is wrong?”

Rachel just shook her head as more hair fell out of her disintegrating bun. She fell into a chair and fumbled in her purse until she found a pen and checkbook.

“Don’t make the same mistakes I made,” moaned Myrtle close to Rachel’s head. “Aunt Anne knows.”

Rachel scribbled on the check while Tom and Dianne watched, stupefied. She ripped off the check and shoved it at Tom.

She looked at Cal. “I...uh...oh forget it.” She stood and wobbled away.

“Did you see that?” Tom asked.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Dianne agreed. “Showing up here drunk like that.”

Marmaduke and Myrtle collapsed into a fit of laughter.

Cal and I clinked champagne glasses. The four of us made a pretty good team.

Dinner was delectable and the company delightful. On the drive home I asked Cal, “Who is Aunt Anne?”

“Rachel’s aunt, who died in prison.”

“In prison? For what?”

“Embezzlement.”

BOOK: Some Like it Haunted (A Sophie Rhodes Ghostly Romane Book 2)
2.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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