14. Parker
14
PARKER
O aklynn lurched backward, stumbling away from Hope with wide eyes and her mouth gaping.
Everyone at the truck paused curiously.
“Babe?” Damien asked, grabbing her arm to steady her.
She gasped, jumping at the contact, only to blink. “I—I’m so sorry.” Eyes filling with embarrassment, she swung back to Hope. “I didn’t mean to freak out like that. I thought I saw a—a spider in your hair, but it was just a fly. And it flew away,” she was quick to add, waving her hands desperately. “You’re okay. No worries.”
“O…kay,” Hope said slowly. “Did that mean you wanted this or not?”
“What? Oh! Sure.” Laughing at herself nervously, Oaklynn hurried to take the basket from Hope. But even as she did, her gaze traveled back to Hope with a look that told me whatever she’d seen was still there.
Glancing over curiously, I examined Hope as well. But nothing looked out of the ordinary to me.
Hope took the next box from Foster, and as she turned away, I frowned at Oaklynn who’d been returning to the house. At the steps, she glanced back, directly at Hope. And she still seemed worried.
She hurried back into gear once Hope started her way, though, and I watched her disappear into the house with squinted eyes, knowing something was definitely up.
After getting my own box, I toted it inside behind everyone else and dropped it off in Xander’s new room, only to detour when I saw Oaklynn grabbing Faith’s arms and jerking her over to the side to whisper something to her feverishly.
As the others carried on as if nothing was wrong, I followed the two girls to the window.
“Do you see it now?” Oaklynn whispered to Faith, chewing on her fingernails nervously as Faith squinted and leaned closer to the glass.
Peering over their shoulders, I noticed that Hope was back outside to retrieve another box.
“I mean…” Faith wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Maybe,” she finally admitted. “But it’s pale. It could be anything.”
“You do see it, though, right?”
“See what?” I asked, making both women yelp in surprise and whirl around.
“What the hell, Parker?” Faith demanded, slapping my arm. “Give me a damn heart attack.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I barked dismissively, glancing out the window to see Hope heading this way. So I hooked my thumb over my shoulder and commanded, “Kitchen. Now.”
“Oh, but there’s nothing—” Oaklynn started to protest until I sent her a dark look. Swallowing down the rest of whatever she was going to say, she quickly revised her statement to, “Alright. We’re coming. You don’t need to get pushy.”
“You know, you really should’ve been named after the dwarf, Sneaky,” Faith complained, glancing over her shoulder to scowl at me. “Creeping up on people like that.”
“Or Snoopy,” Oaklynn interjected.
“Yeah, well…” I turned back to them as we entered the kitchen. “Those dwarfs don’t exist.” Planting myself sternly, I folded my arms over my chest and lifted my eyebrows. “So you get Grumpy. Now talk .”
“I really don’t know what you want us to say,” Faith tried to allude. “We weren’t?—”
“I saw an orb!” Oaklynn blurted, talking over her. Then she winced and lifted both fisted hands up to her mouth. “On Hope.”
I pulled back, squinting at her. “Like a ghost orb?”
“Uh-huh.” She bobbed her head, and I tilted my face, confused.
Both girls could perceive the dead, but they seemed to do it in different ways. Faith got a spidey sense that seemed to lift the hair on the back of her neck whenever a ghost was around, and Oaklynn could see a reflection of light off them that resembled an orb. But she could only see it in natural sunlight.
Switching my attention to Faith, I asked, “And you saw it too?”
“I mean…” She rolled her eyes, mumbling, “Maybe. Barely.”
“It might be dull and barely discernible, but it’s there ,” Oaklynn insisted.
I chewed on the inside of my lip thoughtfully before I asked Faith, “Have you noticed any prickling sensations around her?”
She only sighed. “I don’t know. When she first appeared in the kitchen yesterday, it was a little alarming to see a stranger just stroll inside like that, as if she owned the place. But that could’ve simply been the stranger-danger effect. Then she climbed on top of my boyfriend in the living room directly afterward, which caused another kind of reaction. If there were any ghostly vibes, I didn’t notice them among all the other things I was feeling.”
“Hmm,” was all I had to say before my gaze switched back to Oaklynn.
“What do you think it means?” she asked.
“Well, she’s obviously not a ghost,” I said. “But—” I winced, not liking the idea I was having.
“What?” Oaklynn demanded, wanting to hear it anyway. “What’re you thinking?”
“Let me ask you this,” I tried. “Did you ever notice an orb around Ivey when he was possessed?”
Both girls merely blinked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“What?” Oaklynn uttered in bewilderment.
I didn’t think the question had been that hard to grasp, so I snapped my fingers to get them to perk up and pay attention. “When Hudson had the ghost of his little friend stuck inside him,” I said slowly. “Did you ever notice any reflections orbing off him ?”
“No,” Oaklynn answered as if that should be obvious. “But…” She shrugged and bit her lip. “If it was as dim as the one hovering around Hope, then it’s completely possible I missed one on Hudson, especially since I wasn’t looking for them back then. I’m way more aware of them now.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, feeling my stomach pit with unease.
“What’re you saying?” Faith demanded. “Do you think Hope’s possessed by a ghost?” Glancing at Oaklynn, she asked, “Do we even know if she was ever around anyone when they died?”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “She was with her dad.”
“Eww.” Oaklynn shuddered. “It would totally freak me out to learn my dad was inside me.”
Faith grimaced. “Especially when you say it like that .”
“Okay, I’ve got this,” I said, digging a hand into my pocket to pull up the set of keys that went to my truck. Lifting them, I showed the girls the tiny glass amulet I had dangling from the ring.
It would fill with white smoke if a ghost was near.
Oaklynn gasped when she saw it. “You stole Keene’s ghost-detecting charm?”
I rolled my eyes. “They’re thirty bucks at Jezebel’s Nest. I bought my own.”
“Oh.” She made a makes-sense face and nodded. “That’s actually a good idea.”
“Isn’t it, though?” I countered waspishly before lifting a staying hand. “So let’s just keep this little theory between the three of us until we have a definite answer, alright?”
But that suggestion only caused Oaklynn to chew on her lip indecisively and Faith to straight-up say, “Oh, there ain’t no way I’m keeping this from Hudson.”
“Yeah…” Oaklynn drew out slowly, nodding. “I have to tell Damien too.”
“Ah, Jesus,” I groaned, rolling my eyes toward the ceiling. “Fine. We’ll keep it between the five of us. There’s no possible way this kind of secret could ever get out and alarm anyone unnecessarily with that few amount of people knowing.”
Both women sent me a dry glower before Faith announced, “It’s really too bad there wasn’t a Dwarf named Sarcastic.”
I shrugged. “Didn’t rhyme with Sleepy, sorry.”
“What didn’t rhyme with me?” Hudson asked, wandering into the kitchen, only to pull up short when he found the group gathered. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, he asked, “Macking on a pair of taken women, are we, Ohrley?”
I sent him a smirk, only to retort, “Yep. And our threesome just finished.” Slapping him companionably on the shoulder as I started from the kitchen, I added, “You can have yours back now.”
I could feel the air crackle with his bristling over that taunt, and I had to smile to myself as I returned to the living room to find a stream of people still carrying boxes through the front room and up the stairs like a parade of ants.
Keene scowled at me from the end of the line as he passed by. “Where the hell have you been, getting out of all of the work?”
I winked at him. “I’d tell you, but I’m afraid you wouldn’t understand all the big words.”
He harrumphed moodily and carried on up the stairs. Glancing up at him and the others, I waited until they were gone before I moved to the front door.
As luck would have it, Hope was trooping up the steps as the next person to enter the house. And there was no one else around her.
Since her arms were full, I opened the door to let her in. She glanced up in surprise, only to stumble on the last step when she saw me filling the entrance.
“Coming in?” I asked almost in challenge.
Shifting sideways to give her room to squeeze by, I basically dared her to enter my space with me.
Step into my parlor, little fly .
Her lips parted and eyes flared with arousal.
I clenched my teeth, trying to ignore my own response. But fuck, I really wanted to reach out and just…grab her. Then crush her to me and kiss the shit out of her before backing her into the nearest wall and stripping her naked.
Her chest heaved, and then her throat worked before she faced forward, ignoring me as she stepped over the threshold.
I closed my eyes and pictured you .
God. She’d thought of me during sex, and I couldn’t get that out of my head.
Leaning close when she started past, I took a big whiff, just to torture myself with her scent. Fucking woman smelled good.
She paused, still facing forward, and growled, “Cut it out.”
I lifted one eyebrow. “Cut what out?”
She didn’t answer. A confused expression crossed her features, but then she started off again as if nothing had just happened. As if she hadn’t asked me to have crazy, wild sex with her only six hours ago. As if she’d never wanted me to make her come hard enough to set her world on fire. As if she had no regard for me at all.
“You’re welcome,” I called after her.
All she did was sniff, not even bothering to glance back, so I took that opportunity to glance down at my hand and open my fingers to look at the ghost amulet in my palm.
“The fuck?” I said under my breath, gaping at the cloud of dark, brilliant green that was fogging the glass.
I’d never seen it turn fucking green before.
Hearing footsteps approach, I snapped my hand closed around the amulet and looked up, shoving the evidence into my pocket and out of sight as Faith, Oaklynn, and Hudson hurried forward. Behind them, I could see Hope’s legs and then her flip-flops disappear up the steps and into the upper level.
“Well?” Oaklynn demanded with an urgent whisper. “Did it fill with a white cloud?”
I transferred my gaze to her, momentarily too dazed to even see for a second. Then, I shook my head to clear my vision.
“Uh, no,” I answered. “It didn’t.”
Hudson squinted and tipped his head suspiciously as if he thought I was lying, while Oaklynn actually seemed disappointed.
“It didn’t?” she asked with slumped shoulders.
When Faith sent her a startled glance, she flushed. “I mean, that’s good,” she added, nodding to confirm it. “That’s really good.” But she went right back to scowling. “I just—I was so sure I saw something reflecting off her face.”
“Maybe it was the sun hitting the side mirror of Foster’s truck,” Hudson suggested with a shrug. “Or the reflection of anything , really.”
“Yeah,” she agreed glumly, chewing on her lip. “Probably.”
Damien started down the stairs, then, and when Oaklynn saw him, she hurried his way with Faith tagging along.
Hudson remained behind to send me a curious glance. “You sure there wasn’t any white smoke in that vial? Not even a little?”
“None at all,” I said. “Why?”
He lifted one shoulder and watched the girls fill Damien in on Oaklynn’s false suspicions. “You just looked weird when you saw the results. Like, surprised or confused maybe.”
“Well…” I drew in a long breath and reached up to scratch the back of my neck. “I guess the girls had me convinced she was possessed. And it made sense; it would’ve explained why she is the way she is.”
Amusement crossed Hudson’s features. “True that.”
Shaking my head, I added, “I guess everything about her is pure, one hundred percent Hope, though.”
“Sadly,” he concluded as he dropped a hand onto my shoulder as if offering me condolences just as the door behind us opened and Foster stepped into the living room with a single box tucked under one arm.
“Okay,” he announced. “This is the last of Xander’s things.”
“That’s probably the very box she’s been looking for, too,” Hudson told him, nudging him encouragingly to get him to hurry. “You better get it up there to her. STAT.”
“Oh, shit,” Foster blurted and hurried off toward the stairs.
Hudson and I watched him go before we glanced at each other.
“It’s sad how gullible he is.”
Hudson snickered and slapped me on the back. “But funny as fuck.”
All conversation about the amulet ceased from there as pretty much everyone started to filter back down to the living room.
Alec and Hope appeared first, with Raina and Xander not far behind them, and Keene crowding close, trying to join their conversation.
Alec was now sticking to Hope’s side as if she were his lifeline.
When Foster joined everyone, he made sure to find Hudson so he could slug him in the arm and mutter, “Very funny, asshole.”
“So have you been properly introduced to everyone yet?” Raina asked Xander, gaining the attention of the room.
“Oh…” Foster’s cousin looked momentarily overwhelmed as she glanced around the crowded space. “I don’t think I have. But I’m pretty sure I know who everyone is from Foster’s descriptions, except maybe for her.”
When she pointed toward Hope, Hope straightened in surprise. “Me? Oh, I’m just Hope. I’m only here to steal Alec away for the evening.” Hooking her arm possessively through his, she waved at Xander.
“Oh,” Xander answered, her gaze sliding to Alec for probably the first time ever. “Okay.”
“And with that,” he said, his face flushed as he dragged his sister toward the door. “We’re off to the movies. We’ve probably already missed half of the previews.”
As the two of them approached me where I was still posted at the exit, Hope’s gaze shifted my way.
My heart began to pound.
More often than not, I wanted to strangle this girl. She had to be the biggest pain in the ass I’d ever met and contradictory as shit. She could give me a death glare one minute and then ask me to have sex with her the next.
I don’t think I’d ever truly understand her.
But she was one of the few people in my circle. She was part of the family I’d made for myself after my parents had died. And I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.
Except how could green smoke mean anything good ?
Ditching my plan to tell Alec about her little request, I grew a new mission to find out what the fuck was up with his sister.