Till Death Do Us Part: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Vows Duet Book 1)

Chapter 27

Present Day

I haven’t walked ten feet away from Courtney’s house when the ghost moving beside me makes himself known.

It’s the Asian guy, the one who was intent on knowing if I could help them all move on. I’m proud that it doesn’t scare me when he blinks into view at my side, my steps not faltering in the slightest.

“You gave her closure,” he murmurs, keeping pace with me.

“Maybe,” I agree, considering it. “But she had already moved on.”

He shakes his head. “She was still trapped in the what if; the not knowing.”

I bob my head left and right. “Could be.”

“I’m Andy,” he tells me after a few minutes of silence. “I hope you don’t mind that I tagged along.”

“Nope,” I answer, popping my ‘p’. “Surprised that you weren’t Koda or Jimmy, to be honest.”

“Theodore forbid them from following you anymore. And Rohan,” Andy adds casually. “He’s refused to go near you.”

Ouch. I don’t know why the idea of him rejecting me like that hurts so badly.

“So,” I say quickly, shoving off the heavy feeling. “What do you need to say or do to move on?”

Andy doesn’t speak, pausing with me when I stop at a crosswalk and continuing on without a word. Only when we’ve passed the school and are closer to home does he finally answer me.

“I didn’t have a family or a girlfriend,” he admits. “I had my parents, but I don’t think that’s what I need—for you to visit them. They’re superstitious. Some girl they don’t know showing up to tell them about ghosts and final wishes of the dead? They’d need to exorcise the entire house.”

He flashes me a smile and I can see how any woman would find him handsome. I do, but he doesn’t affect me like any of the others. The word ‘whore’ whispers in my mind, the voice a twin to Dad’s, as the images of Rohan, Koda, Jimmy, and Theodore flip through. I pretend I don’t hear it.

The heat is oppressive today, tinged with the humidity of an impending monsoon storm. I roll my neck, shifting my backpack against slick, sweaty skin.

“Then what?” I ask. “What do you need?”

“I’ve only ever cared about helping people,” Andy answers slowly. “That’s what I miss. That’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

“How am I supposed to do that for you?” I ask, confused, stopping to face him.

“Who are you talking to?”

I glance down at the little girl on a bike, her helmet sporting a rainbow unicorn horn, then to Andy and back to her. “Myself,” I answer.

“You’re weird,” she replies, narrowing her eyes. Her face brightens. “I think you’re cool.”

“Uh, thanks,” I say with a laugh. “I guess.”

She scoots her bike sideways, making the tires drag. “I have to go now. I’m supposed to go around the block and come right back.”

I watch her leave, a faint smile on my face. One day I want a little girl just like that, full of spirit. Grace. Grace sounds like a perfect name for a little girl who will need plenty of it with that kind of character.

“I have an idea,” Andy announces, drawing me out of my fantasies of the future. “There’s one thing I can think of that might help me be ready to let go.”

“And that is?” I ask, continuing on our path home.

“Maybe I need to help you.”

I stop so fast that I almost fall on my face, turning my head to gape at him. “Help me with what?”

A flicker of indecision crosses his face and then he gives a little nod. “I can help you figure out what everyone else needs, and maybe help you figure out some things about your situation too.”

“My situation,” I repeat.

Andy lifts a brow. “Do you want me to bring up how your dad has beat you for years and you don’t blink an eye about it?”

I flush red. “No,” I bite out.

He grins. “That’s what I thought.”

“Fine,” I reply through gritted teeth. “Help me figure it out. At least I’ll be able to shower without wondering who is peeping if I help all of you move on,” I add, muttering.

“No one,” Andy says seriously. “Theodore has made it his mission to protect you from anything inappropriate.”

I let that information settle as I finish the rest of my walk, groaning when I see Jimmy waiting out front. “I thought they were supposed to stay away,” I say, shooting Andy a pointed look.

“I allowed it,” Theodore’s voice calls, and when I look back at Jimmy, there he is.

I scowl. “What if I don’t allow it?” I say primly.

“Please, sweet girl,” Jimmy pleads, and the nickname strikes something hot in me, refusing to let me ignore it.

“Can we at least go inside where people won’t see me talking to no one and think I’m nuts?” I groan, throwing my hands up.

Theodore gestures to the door like he’s giving me permission, which only makes me scowl again. I stomp towards it, shoving it open, and then stand there like an idiot, holding it open for them as they shuffle in. I ignore the bemused looks that I just held the door open for ghosts, but it’s as Theodore cross over the threshold that I’m startled by a touch.

Placing a hand over mine as he enters the house, it feels like he’s pretending to hold the door open himself. I blink as I look up at him, getting that same déjà vu feeling I’ve gotten so many times around these guys now.

“Sorry,” he murmurs, not looking sorry at all.

I force my expression to stay passive, staring blankly at him until he moves forward, letting go of my hand and the door. I close the door after everyone is in, pressing my forehead against it for a second, trying to pull myself together.

When I turn around, Andy is gone, but Theodore and Jimmy remain, and Koda has joined us. “Looking as pouty as ever, Koda,” I chirp at him, lowering my voice to a whisper, since I know Rhea is here.

“Careful, little Nova,” he says darkly. “It’s taking all my self-control to not fuck you against the wall.”

“Koda,” Theodore groans, pinching the bridge of his nose as my mouth drops open with a gasp.

He chuckles, unapologetic. “Well, now that I know I could if I wanted, it’s all I can think about.”

“If you wanted?” I pipe up. “What about me?”

Koda’s heated stare burns into me. “Nova, we both know that you want it too.”

Well, this is uncomfy.

I chuckle nervously. “Anyway, what did you want?” I ask Theodore.

“To talk to you about something,” he hedges, glancing at the other two. “We wanted to talk to you about the four of us.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “The four of us? As in”—I gesture to each of us in a wide circle—“the four of us? What about the four of us?” My voice raises, ending on a squeak.

“Well,” Theodore says, still seeming hesitant, “we’ve all had this sort of…connection…we feel with you. It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before, and I’m curious what it might mean.” I blink at him, my heart starting to race at the acknowledgment that I’m not the only one who feels these weird things in relation to us. “We thought that if we spent time with you, in whatever capacity you’d allow, we might be able to figure out what it is. Maybe we’re even—”

“What the old man is trying to say, little Nova,” Koda interrupts, causing Theodore to scowl, “is that we really do want to fuck you against the wall. With your permission,” he amends, grinning at me.

I think my face is going to stay frozen in a permanent state of shock at this point, my mouth hanging open.

“Goddamnit, Koda!” Theodore barks. “That is not want I’m trying to say.”

“I—I—” I stutter, licking my lips.

“Nova, baby, that’s not what I was trying to say,” Theodore says, then rears back with a frustrated look on his face. “Nova,” he repeats, without the endearment, “that’s not what I was trying to say.”

“Did you just call her ‘baby’?” Koda laughs.

Theodore groans, dropping his face into his palm. “Shut up, kid.”

“Look,” Jimmy says, stepping forward, his eyes holding mine. “It isn’t about sex. Though if that happened, I don’t think any of us would be complaining,” he adds when Koda makes a noise of disagreement. “We just want to explore what these feelings might mean. We…we have wondered if you are our unfinished business.”

A million thoughts are swirling in my head, with everything from mortification to curiosity coloring them. My face feels hot with how hard I’m blushing and my jaw aches with the awkward, embarrassed smile I’m holding back. I can feel how I’m sweating everywhere—my palms, my armpits, the back of my knees.

The longer I gape at them, the more wary all three look, even Koda.

“Too much,” Jimmy murmurs at Theodore. “We hit her with too much too fast.”

“No!” I blurt out, causing them to still, their eyes glued to me.

“No, what?” Jimmy asks cautiously.

I let my head fall back so I can stare at the ceiling. “I don’t know,” I sigh.

Fingertips press into the skin of my throat, and I instantly know it’s Koda. Picking my head, I look into his eyes, seeing a seriousness in them I’ve never seen from him before.

“You’re different, and you know it,” he tells me, his thumb stroking my neck. “Maybe exploring something with any one of us will give you answers you don’t have. Give us all answers we don’t have.”

“And what if this is nothing?” I glance past him to Theodore and Jimmy. “What if I’m just supposed to tell your loved ones a message so you can move on?”

“Then let’s test it,” Theodore suggests. “We’ll each tell you something we think will cause us to feel closure. If we don’t move on, then we get a chance to explore what this is with you.”

I swallow hard and Koda’s hand flexes around my throat. The idea that they could move on makes me want to cry, as silly as that sounds. But it would be like I was really unwanted the whole time, in the end. I can’t imagine how hard this is going to be to deal with when they go.

“Fine,” I force out.

“Ah ah,” Andy says, popping into focus next to me. My body jerks with surprise and I grunt in annoyance at him for startling me. “You all will have to wait your turn. Gabriel is next, simply so he’ll quit his wailing.”

“Is that what I keep hearing?” I ask as Koda releases me, stepping back. “I heard the crying. I wondered who it was.”

Andy shrugs. “He’s a bit more traumatized than the rest of us.”

“Why?” The second I ask, all four of the ghosts in the room clam up, and I know they won’t give me any information on his death. I roll my eyes. “Fine. Whatever. What does he need?”

“To have someone help him realize he’s dead.”

I blow out my breath so fast I accidentally blow a raspberry. “Do what? How does he not know he’s dead?”

“We’ve never been able to get him to listen to us,” Andy answers. “Even when he’s being calmer.”

“It’s true,” Theodore says, nodding. “Every time you hear the wailing, he’s back to being confused about where he is.”

“So I have to help a ghost, who doesn’t know he’s dead, move on. Yet I can’t know how he died?” I ask, starting to feel cranky.

“How he died is irrelevant,” Theodore answers.

“If I were a ghost, I’d want to know how I died,” I grumble. “But let’s do this then.”

“Well,” Andy says, dragging the word out. “He’s sort of indisposed at the moment.”

I frown. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he says, grinning, “that one of your boyfriends made him go night night so he’d shut up.”

“They’re not my boyfriends,” I answer absently, wondering how you make a ghost go to bed. Do they actually sleep? Or is it more like when a computer goes to sleep and it just goes offline?

Andy puts an arm around my shoulders. “But you knew who I was talking about.”

I glower at him. “Anything else you want to decide for me?” I sass.

“Nope. I’ll come find you when Gabriel is around again.”

He disappears, the weight of his arm on my shoulders going too. Which leaves me with three ghosts that, apparently, all want to…what?

Date me?

Do naughty things with me?

Dissect me and see what makes me tick?

It’s really up in the air at this point.

“I want some time to think about this,” I say, holding up a finger and circling it through the air.

“Whatever you want, Nova,” Theodore says gently. “You’re in charge here.”

Before I can say anything else, a door shuts down the hallway, and I know my time is limited before Rhea appears. Luckily, I don’t have to say a thing. They all disappear before I have a chance to tell them to get lost.

Which just goes to prove that the one thing I’m not is in charge.