Chapter One
Lionel
“What do you mean, you’re not coming?” Lionel stared at his phone in disbelief.
“I’m just getting ready. I thought I was picking you up in twenty minutes.
” He quickly checked his room—the nest of huge cushions on his bed, the velvet curtains covering the windows, the thick rugs under his boots.
No, nothing there had changed. Just his evening plans, it would seem. “What the hell happened?”
Ian’s chuckle came over the line. “It’s not like I have a lot of choice. Did you forget my sister? The pregnant one, Maisie? Her water broke about an hour ago, and she’s in the hospital. According to Mom, her hubby is a blathering mess, claiming the birth is akin to a second coming.
“Mom’s doing all she can to keep him from getting in the way of the staff, and she insisted—you know what my mom’s like when she puts on her insistent tone—that I’m needed. So, I can run errands, get coffee, food, and do goodness knows what else.
“Between you and me, I think Mom’s hoping my being there will boost some paternal feelings of my own, but for now, I’ve been called to run errands, and I can’t get out of it.”
“Perhaps we can reschedule?” Surely that’s possible.
“I tried calling Remy to see whether or not I could get the tickets swapped over for another night. You have to admit it was really sweet of Hector to buy them for us…”
Lionel wasn’t admitting anything of the sort.
“—but all the spots are already fully booked. So, you’ll have to take one for the team and go there on your own. You’ll have a hell of a lot of fun, I’m sure of it.”
“But… but… you know damn well I didn’t even want to go.” Lionel slumped down on the corner of his bed, letting out a long put-upon sigh. “This really isn’t my thing.”
“I realize that, and chances are Hector does too.” Ian was taking things far too casually, in Lionel’s opinion. “Except this is one case where you’ll just have to suck it up. We can’t both let Hector and Morty down.”
Why not? Although from Ian’s chuckle over the call, maybe he was doing a spot of mind-reading.
“Can you imagine it? A pregnant meerkat getting all emotional because they bought us tickets out of the goodness of their hearts to thank us for being instrumental in bringing that loving pair together, and then we both don’t show up?”
A sound, a bit like a whimper, squeaked past Lionel’s lips. Fortunately, Ian was still talking.
“It’s bad enough I have to bow out. It’s really not going to go down very well with Morty, Hector, or the Bucket List Buddies organization if both of us drop out. For goodness’ sake, it’s one night, a couple of hours. It’s not like you have anything else to do, is it?”
“I would’ve found something if I’d known you weren’t coming,” Lionel muttered in a defeated tone.
“Honestly, ghost hunting? It’s a load of nonsense.
There’s no such thing as ghosts.” A shiver ran down Lionel’s back, and he quickly glanced around, but no one else was there. Fortunately, Ian couldn’t see him.
“If you don’t believe in them, then you’re not going to have any problem with going, are you?
All you have to do is strut along there being your normal cocky self.
Just imagine the number of sweet cuties who will be there.
All prepared to be scared out of their wits and looking for a pair of strong arms to curl into when they think they see something scary.
Honestly, you’ll have a ball, I know you will. ”
Not even the thought of a dozen cuties was enough to convince Lionel that going was a good idea.
“I’d feel bad about going without you,” he blurted out.
“I could come with you, give you a hand at the hospital. Lend you some moral support so your mom doesn’t try to marry you off to one of the nurses. ”
“You hate hospitals.” Ian laughed at his absurdity.
“Besides, what would you be doing that I couldn’t do?
Don’t worry about it. It’s a family thing.
I know Hector and Morty will understand my not going because it's baby related. Sorry, this time you’re on your own, Lionel.
Honestly, it won’t do you any harm. Just turn up there, be your normal self, and everything will be fine.
Now I’ve got to run. You can tell me all about it tomorrow. Bye.”
“Asshole!” Lionel glared at his phone before stuffing it back in his pocket.
The last thing he wanted to do was go to a freaking ghost hunting event.
Anything else—any of the other events Bucket List Buddies could have come up with—Lionel would have gone to all of them.
The dance night had been a lot of fun, and he’d had a couple of dates from that, which were equally fun, although casual, of course.
Things have changed. Lionel had felt a bit bummed when he realized that his best friend Hector had found his mate—true love, and all that stuff. It wasn’t necessarily the sort of thing that Lionel believed in, except he couldn’t deny that Morty made Hector very happy.
Whereas I’m usually happy by myself, he thought glumly. Okay, not by himself, but Lionel had been content with casually dating all sorts of people. Any other type of event, and Lionel would’ve been fine. Just nothing to do with ghosts.
When Hector and Morty presented him with tickets, Lionel’s first instinct had been to refuse. Ghost hunting or anything to do with ghostly shit was a hard limit.
Then Hector had pointed out, rightfully so, that he hadn’t wanted to go to dance classes either. He had gone along with Lionel because he said he would, and he was blessed with Morty as a reward.
The problem with that , Lionel argued with himself, is that Hector is really good at dancing. I don’t know the first thing about ghost hunting and don’t want to .
It wasn’t an irrational fear, although Lionel was absolutely petrified of anything that went bump in the night. It wasn’t that he was scared of the dark exactly, although he preferred leaving a light on when he was asleep.
But he was used to spending his night time hours out and about with friends.
He was barely ever home. Crowded social scenes, with drinking and food and all the fun stuff, were made easier when there were plenty of lights on.
And if he was getting frisky with some willing company… Well, he wasn’t on his own then.
The thought of spending any amount of time with barely a flashlight for company, going round in dank and dirty buildings or worse… basements . Just thinking about the word had the hairs rising on the back of Lionel’s neck. There’re probably rats, spiders, lizards…
“This is not going to go well. I’m not going.” He pulled his phone back out of his pocket. “I’ll text Morty… No, I’ll text Hector. Morty might be emotional, but Hector would understand. I’ll just tell him… I’ll tell him…”
The problem was, Lionel couldn’t think of anything that he could say that wouldn’t be a lie. Hector had given him the tickets two weeks before. At the time, Lionel hadn’t worried about it too much, because he thought Ian was coming along.
Only now I have to go and face my worst fear, and I’m not going to know anybody there. Morty had mentioned that their construction foreman, Brad, was apparently going along. It was how Morty and Hector had heard about the event.
The problem was, Lionel hadn’t had a chance to meet him yet, but he figured if the man was in construction, there was a good chance he was built like a brick shithouse and would probably spend the evening getting drunk and making fun of anyone who squealed with nerves.
The last thing Lionel wanted to do was make a fool of himself in front of somebody like that.
I can’t do it. I just can’t go . Lionel pulled up his messages. There was one sitting there, unread, from Morty. He clicked on it.
I know you’re going to have a wonderful time tonight. Come around to the bakery tomorrow and tell us all about it. I’ll make your favorite éclairs. I’m so excited to hear all about it.
Lionel groaned.
I can’t do this.
I can’t do this.
I just can’t .
The memories of why came unbidden. There had been a time, Lionel hadn’t been very old, probably four or five, and like any ambitious and cocky lion cub, he’d wandered off from the pride, keen to strike out and find adventure.
What he’d found was a disused well. He’d fallen down it.
It had taken hours of him calling, crying, and screaming before anyone had found him.
Hours of being cold and scared, sitting in the dark— alone .
Except there had been cobwebs and spiders.
Things crawling in the darkness. At one point, he was sure he could hear rats, and just before the pride found him, a huge lizard had crawled right over his foot.
By the time he was found, Lionel was paralyzed with fear.
Cut it out, Lionel told himself sternly, standing up.
He was going to an event. There were going to be plenty of other people around, and it’s not as though the event organizer could afford to have people wandering around without adequate lighting.
That would be a health and safety violation, for sure.
“It’s going to be fine. They’ll have lights. Lots and lots of lights.” Even so, as Lionel picked up his keys and made his way out of the house, he decided to stop at the gas station and pick up a flashlight and some extra batteries, just in case. You can never have too many lights.