Spectres and Sandwiches (Echoes of Secret Springs #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

“Iswear to God, whoever you are, if you don’t stop it, I will call Bastian and get his man to contact that medium and banish your ass.”

Xander O’Doul hated the idea of ghosts. Especially in his house.

Hated it.

He didn’t understand how his bestie Sebastian lived in a haunted house and was so blase about it. Hell, the guy was married to a ghost hunter. Like a professional TV one. But that meant Colton, Seb’s husband, had connections.

Xander was not above using them to his advantage when things started to go awry in his own combo craftsman-Sears and Roebuk0-mining-house from the 1800s.

The makeshift table he’d set up to be his kitchen counter while he was renovating his parents’s old home stopped shaking independently.

“That’s right. I will have you exorcised. I am already freaking stressed about not having a kitchen.” He was a fucking cook, for God’s sake. Which was why he was gutting what was still his mom’s seventies his kitchen to make it workable. And this—whatever it was— activity wasn’t helping at all.

“Unca Xander! We’re here!” His goddaughter Abby’s voice rang out from the front door. “We bringed supper and hammers to help.”

Abby sounded so excited to see him, and it felt good to be so loved.

“Hey, my girl!” He waited until she skipped into sight, then moved to grab her up in a hug. “I’m so glad to see you.”

“I brought Papa and Daddy and the silly baby.” Abby squeezed him tight. “I love you. Your house is broken!” She looked around at his kitchen with bright, curious eyes, her lips pursed into a hard, disapproving line.

“I love you too. And it is broken. And I’m starting to be really sad about it.”

“Well, here we come to help save the day.” His best friend Bastian walked into the kitchen, little baby Dani strapped to his chest, his husband Colton on his heels.

“Oh, wow.”

“The team is on the way.” Colton winked at him. “We’re handy.”

“The team?” Lord, just what he needed. All those crazy, big guys in his mess. He liked most of Colton’s ghost show crew. He did.

But they could be a lot.

“Yep.” Sebastian said it cheerfully, setting pizza boxes on his table. “Supper and helping hands. Colton is on sitting down with Abby and Dani duty.”

“Okay, cool.” He smiled at Colton as gently as he could, because that meant the guy was hurting today. He’d been caught in a cave-in on some adventure dig somewhere, like an old haunted mine or something, and it had basically crushed his knee.

It had taken a while for Xander to accept Colton as a friend— Bastian had been damaged badly by the man’s family when he was pregnant with Abby — but Colton had proved to all of them that he loved Bastian and Abby and wee Dani.

And he was funny as hell and exceptional with ghost hunting.

Colton gave him a wry smile and set down more takeout containers, as well as a diaper bag from hell. “Been a long couple of days, man.”

“I’m sorry — work?” Ghost hunting was surprisingly hard physical labor — and that was just the television part.

“Yeah. Well, that and I missed the last step on the stairs yesterday and damn near broke myself.”

“Oh, no.” Xander winced because that sounded horrible. He hated when he did that, and he had two perfectly good knees.

Abby nodded, so serious. “He falled down on his face. I held his head ‘til Daddy came.”

“Oh wow.” That sounded like a concussion or something, and seizures came from shit like that. He glanced at Sebastian, raising his eyebrows.

“He’s fine,” Sebastian mouthed.

“Good. Scary,” he mouthed back.

“Stop that.” Colton snorted. “The ghosts broke the worst of the actual fall once my knee gave out. I didn’t hit as hard as I could have.”

“Good thing I don’t have any ghosts,” Xander said, dry is a bone.

The table rattled, and baby Dani squealed.

“Shut up,” Xander snapped at the table.

Colton’s eyebrows flew up. “You have, uh, seismic issues?”

“No, Papa. Hims got ghosties!” Abby pronounced.

“When did it start?” Colton asked, leaning his elbows on the counter.

“Babe, you’re not on the clock,” Sebastian murmured.

Colton shrugged. “I’m always interested.”

“During the start of the renovations, but I don’t have a ghost problem.” Nope he wasn’t going to admit it, and he had already told his ghosts they needed to shut the fuck up or he was going to have them exorcised.

“Then what do you call it?” Sebastian asked, coming to lean against him. He loved how happy his friend was, how easy in his skin now, his natural, affectionate nature really taking over.

“A ghost fambly?” Abby asked.

“Renovations often aggravate energies, you know.” Colton mentioned.

“I don’t need a ghost. Or ghosts. Or any of it.”

“Well, no one needs one,” Sebastian mused. “But sometimes we get them.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “Unca Xander, ghosties are good.”

“Halloo! The renovation team is here!”

Xander knew that voice. He heard it in his dreams sometimes.

Iago.

The man was… well, he was a mini tornado. A force of nature. An organizer who made Xander a little nuts with his energy. Made him itch. Like… In a maybe good, maybe not way.

“Iago!” Abby leapt for the little ball of energy, and Iago caught her, swinging her around.

“Hello, my one true love. How is Abby today?”

Xander felt a tiny flash of jealousy, but if he was honest, he didn’t know if it was for Abby or Iago…

“I missed you all day! I telled Unca Xander about his ghosties.”

“Did you?” Iago’s blue gaze swung to meet his. “Do you have ghosties, Xan?”

“I—” Dammit. If he said no, he was calling Abby a liar.

Iago winked at him, his grin wide and a little evil, that blue hair falling over his forehead. Butthead. Pretty. Maddening. “So, tell us all about your ghosts, then. While we’re working, of course.”

“Of course,” Mason muttered under his breath.

“Eat first!” Abby said. “Pizzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

“Abby, be nice,” Bastian teased. “Ask if anyone else wants to eat first.”

“I’m nice! And hungry.”

“You’re my perfect girl,” Iago agreed.

Xander tried hard not to grrr and snap. Abby was perfect. But did Iago need to say it like that?

“You okay?” Sebastian murmured. He knew all. Always. Bastian saw everything.

“He just makes me a little crazy.”

“Why don’t you ask him out?” Bastian asked him like he was humoring the lunatic.

“What? No.” Xander hissed it. “I don’t date.”

“You could. He’s into you,” Bastian whispered back.

“No, he’s not. He’s just a caffeinated squirrel who’s nice to everyone.” He glanced at Iago, hating that the guy was just so… cute.

“That’s mean, man. He’s a sweetheart.”

“He is. You know I need someone tougher.” He would crush that guy and not even mean to.

Iago went to Mason, whispered something, and then went to Colton. “Is it okay if Abby and Dani and I go have a slumber party? It’ll be so much fun.”

Colton nodded. “Sure. I mean…”

“Cool. Come on, girlfriend. Let’s go have a slumber party together.” Iago scooped the baby up, took Abby by the hand, and they were headed out.

Bastian blinked, eyes wide. “What happened?”

Law arched one eyebrow. “Caffeinated squirrel? Really? He was here to help you out, man.”

Xander’s cheeks heated. It was one thing to say those kinds of things to Sebastian.

It was another for Colton’s crew to hear it.

He had thought he was being super-quiet, but he should have known better because his damn voice carried.

He felt awful that Iago had heard him. No, he felt like an utter asshole.

He had to make it up to Iago. He’d apologize to the guy next time…

If there was one.

“Sorry. That was rude. I’m just stressed.” He felt like shit now.

“Yeah. It was. What exactly do you need done?” Mason’s voice was chilly as hell. Xander couldn’t blame him.

He fought not to roll his eyes. These guys were great. Really. They would do anything for a guy, but Xander hadn’t… clicked with them like Sebastian had. Not even like their other buddy, Xavi, had.

Maybe he was just such a grumpy bastard he didn’t know how to make friends anymore.

He grabbed his renovation plans and spread them out. “The kitchen is my first priority, and it’s, uh, giving me issues.”

“All right, so the first thing you need to do is get the cabinets put in, right?” Law asked.

He nodded, trying to find a real, honest smile. “Yeah, the floors are solid.”

The hardwood was gorgeous, in fact, and he loved it. He would refinish it when all the other stuff was done.

“All right.” Law nodded to Mason. “Let’s get that knocked out, buddy.”

Bastian grabbed a broom. “I’ll start cleaning up so that you have a nice smooth place to put the cabinets down.”

He felt a bit like the biggest asshole on earth. “It would be great if we could get the cabinets put in. That way I can have countertops this week and a sink sooner than later.”

Sebastian winked at him. “Then the fancy oven of joy?”

“God yes. I can’t wait.” He’d spent a huge amount of his budget on his appliances. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate the help.”

“It’s not a problem.” That was Colton, not Law or Mason, who he thought were probably going to be a lot less forgiving about his comments about their teammate.

He took Colton a piece of pizza and offered the guy a rueful smile. “I’m sorry.”

Colton shrugged. “I can’t say I understand it, but you’ve made yourself pretty clear, man. That’s cool. Not everybody is friends with everybody. It’s not how life works.” Colton took the slice of pizza with a smile. “Looks like your ghost issues have calmed down a little bit.”

“Yeah, maybe it was just me being totally stressed.”

Colton snorted. “Abby didn’t think so. I trust her. She’s got an instinct.”

“She does, huh?” Abby had a real relationship with the ghosts in her house. “How is Dani coping?” The little one was just so new to everything. He’d asked to distract himself from how much it stung to hear Colton echo his own thoughts about making friends with the team.

He wanted to be friendly, and he really liked the guys. He just had no idea how to bridge the gap; he was kind of a mean bastard, and he was socially inept.

Obviously insulting one of the crew wasn’t the appropriate answer.