Chapter 15
Despite invisibly sitting in the living room watching Mrs. Lewis do a crossword puzzle, touring the garden with Mr. Lewis,
observing a FaceTime phone call with Christopher, Cole’s younger brother, and floating around the kitchen while Mrs. Lewis
made dinner, Dell didn’t feel like she was spying. The welcoming comfort the Lewises exuded—without even knowing they had
guests—made Dell feel right at home. She longed to be able to talk to them, to taste the pasta sauce Mrs. Lewis made from
scratch with backyard tomatoes, to have them know she and their son were snuggled on the couch nearby as they watched a movie
and nibbled bowls of ice cream before bed. They were so adorable, Dell thought she might burst.
For as much as she longed for their awareness, she could tell every moment with them was filling and breaking Cole’s heart.
By the time the Lewises went off to bed, Cole’s face told a story too sad for Dell to ignore.
“What is it?” she said from where she leaned into him on the couch.
Chaucer was asleep at his feet again. She brushed Cole’s hair back from his face and held his cheek in her palm.
She knew her question had a million answers, most of them she could do nothing about, but she still wanted to help him in any way she could.
“It’s a lot of things,” he said.
“Tell me the big ones.”
He softly smiled at her. “Well, I’d be lying if I didn’t say finding that ring threw me for a loop.”
“Oh,” Dell said, feeling her heart crush a little. She couldn’t blame him, honestly. But hearing he was dwelling on his ex
soured her stomach uncomfortably. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Back in the lawyer’s office, when I asked if you’d had a wife or girlfriend, you said you knew you didn’t because you couldn’t
feel her absence.” Dell nervously fiddled with the hem of her nightie. “Can you feel Pamela now?”
He sharply turned to her. “No. No!” A sudden fluster reddened his face. “Sorry. Of course you would think that from what I just said. But no. That’s not what
I meant.”
A wave of relief almost drowned her. “Okay. What did you mean?”
“I meant that things make sense now. From that experience, I learned not to get my heart set on anything in case it didn’t
work out. That’s why I’m so passive. After Pamela, I stopped taking risks. I stopped trying. I stopped . . . living.”
The pain lacing his words would have sent Dell over the edge if it hadn’t been coupled with his deep realization.
“I see it now,” he went on. “I wasn’t very happy when I died.
And then when I landed in the afterlife, I was keen to just slog through.
I was so disconnected I didn’t even realize I transitioned the wrong person.
But now I’ve met you—again—and all I want to do is live.
The biggest thing bothering me right now is we’re getting closer to solving this wrong turn mystery, and that means you’re going to be . . . gone.”
The double-edged thought had occurred to her too, of course. She wanted—needed—to get back to her life, but she also didn’t want to leave him. However their lives and deaths were tangled up was a mystery
she wanted to solve but a knot she didn’t exactly want to untie. To hear him say parting with her was the biggest thing he
was thinking of filled her with a heady warmth.
She stroked her fingers across the bones in the back of his hand. “Do you think there’s any way we can . . . both come back?”
He gave her a serious look. “Dell, I’m actually dead, remember? You’re just stuck in some in-between—which I have not forgotten is my fault. Despite my feelings toward you,
I will do whatever it takes to fix this still.”
The warmth she’d felt spread to other parts of her body, namely her chest and a hot pool low in her belly. She stroked his
hand again and looked up at him. “Feelings?”
The flush in his cheeks matched the one filling hers, surely. “Yes.” He turned his body to sit in the couch’s corner and face
her. “Dell, you are the most remarkable person I’ve ever met. Your heart is so big, I don’t know how it fits inside your body.
You put everyone before yourself and still find a way to achieve so much. Not to mention your ability to literally defy afterlife physics . . . Still trying to figure that one out, but I would
bet it has to do with your general propensity for skill and determination.” He paused to thoughtfully stroke his chin. “And
as if all that wasn’t enough, there’s this magnetic pull I feel toward you, as if we’re destined to—”
Dell cut him off by pressing her mouth to his.
Yes, the laundry list of her qualities was nice to hear, but more than that, she needed to kiss him.
This man who’d crashed into her—literally—and found his way back in the strangest of ways.
She had feelings for him too, even after two days.
But it hadn’t really been two days. Whatever source linked them together had been in place for a long time, they just didn’t know it.
Cole kissed her back, leaning into it, and letting out one of his little moans that drove her absolutely wild. The greedy
rasp deep in his throat was half need and half relief. She felt the same and all but turned to jelly when he began to lay
her back on the couch. He was nearly on top of her, his hand sliding up her thigh, when a door closing down the hall startled
them.
They both froze. The urge to sit up and pretend they hadn’t been doing anything hit Dell hard, but Cole stayed hovering over
her, holding himself up with his arms.
“A hazard of bringing a woman home to my parents’ house, I guess,” he said with a cheeky grin.
Dell laughed. Even though they were invisible, she wasn’t sure how far she was willing to go out in the open where they could
be walked in on. She reached up and loosened Cole’s crooked tie so it hung open around his neck. “Can we perhaps take this
to your bedroom?”
He moved so quickly to get up, she gasped and laughed again. He led her from the couch by the hand. Chaucer stayed snoring
on the floor, curled into a happy ball of fluff. They entered his room, and before he could throw her down on the bed like
he looked like he wanted to, Dell paused to quietly close the door.
Apparently super horny was a strong emotion that allowed her to move things from the physical world too.
Cole didn’t pause to ask questions or give her a chance to explain. He sat on the end of the bed and pulled her onto his lap. Dell settled in, relishing the fact they had full privacy and secretly loving the idea of being in his childhood bedroom.
“Feels a little scandalous, doesn’t it?” she said between kisses. “Being in here.”
“It does. Believe it or not, you are the first woman I’ve ever had in here.”
Dell playfully gasped. “Scandal indeed. So wait, that doesn’t mean you’re a . . . ?”
“Of course not. But I was until college. Bit of a late bloomer.” He sunk his mouth to her neck and traced an artery with the
tip of his tongue, as if to show he’d fully bloomed now.
Dell let out a moan and yanked his tie from his collar. She unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pulled it open to reveal his
long collarbone and a dusting of chest hair. “Stop being so adorable,” she muttered as she kissed his neck.
He cradled her head in his hands and pulled her mouth back to his. His tongue parted her lips, and he kissed her so deeply,
so expertly, her mind momentarily went blank. “I should have you know,” he paused to say, “I did a semester abroad in France,
and adorable isn’t exactly their thing there.”
God bless the French, Dell thought when he repossessed her mouth with his. She already worshipped their food. She was more than ready to find
out what kind of lessons they taught in bed.
Cole’s warm hands moved from her hair to tug her nightgown’s straps from her shoulders. She released his mouth long enough
to speak when a thought struck her.
“Cole, do we need, um, protection?”
He paused, his face glowing with want and his hair disheveled, and tilted his head. “Dell, we’re dead.”
A wave that was equal parts embarrassment and relief washed over her. “Right. That’s what I thought. Just checking.” She returned
her attention to his mouth, which was soft and warm and all kinds of perfect. His hands moved to her thighs and found their
way under her nightgown’s hem. She was lost in the feel of it all, her blood looping and head spinning, when another thought
struck her.
She pulled back again. “Wait. If we’re dead, is this even going to, um, work? Can you, you know . . . ?” She suggestively trailed off and nodded down at his lap.
He too glanced down and then met her eyes with a determined hunger in his. “That is a good question. I’ve never actually done
this dead before, but all current sensations would indicate yes.”
“Excellent.” She went back to kissing him. He squeezed her body to his, his big hands easily spanning her back, gripping her
waist, tangling her hair. She moved her hips closer so she was straddling him with no room to spare. Indeed, she could feel
full indication all systems were go straining against his pants. Fleeting thought of how it was all possible, the physical
mechanics of bodies with no heartbeats rising to the occasion, entered her hazy mind, but the curiosity snapped out when Cole
skillfully whipped off her nightgown with one hand.
She tamed her staticky hair left hovering by the sudden motion and found herself straddling his lap naked except for her underwear.