His eyes widened in his nearly transparent head. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no one who lives here named Gena or any variation of that name. I had the apartment records checked.”

He rose from the coffee table. “Have you been checking on me?”

“Yes.”

“I feel attacked.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “I feel—”

“Why have you been lying to me, Peanut?” I interrupted before he could go drama spiral. “And what have you really been doing?”

“I haven’t been lying. Not really, Trinnie.” He drifted toward me. “I swear. You see, I just didn’t clarify some things.”

“I cannot wait to hear what these things are.”

“Well, for starters, Gena is...she’s not alive. That’s why you wouldn’t find her listed on anything. I think she died, like, a couple of decades ago.”

I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. “You said that there were some things going on with her parents.”

“Not her, like, birth parents. There’s this couple I guess she followed home one day and they’re having problems.” He shrugged. “Or something like that. I honestly think someone’s been stepping out. You know, visiting someone else’s bed. Dipping their ink—”

“I get what you’re saying.” I studied him, still unsure if he was being truthful. Why would he lie now? Then again, why would he have lied before? I heard the shower turn off. “Why didn’t you just tell me that? You didn’t have to make a story.”

He shrugged again. “She’s weirded out about the idea of someone seeing her. No one has been able to, and when I told her about you, she freaked out. Thinks you’re like a witch or something.”

“What?”

He nodded solemnly. “She comes from, like, old puritan times.”

“Puritan times? Peanut, that is more than a few decades old.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” he fired back. “I’m dead.”

“Peanut,” I sighed.

“I’m sorry, Trinnie. I didn’t mean to upset you—”

“Trin?” Zayne called out. “Who are you talking to?”

“Oh, gee whiz, he’s coming in here,” Peanut exclaimed. “I cannot be seen like this.”

“Seen like this?”

“He’s an angel with his grace. Fallen or not, he’ll be able to see me now!”

“What? Why are you freaking out?” Confused, I watched him spin in a circle. “I thought you wanted people to be able to see you? And I clearly remember you complaining when Zayne couldn’t.”

“But I’m not ready for that kind of commitment,” Peanut cried as he threw himself onto the couch.

And then through it.

My brows flew up. “Peanut?” When there was no answer, I walked to the other side of the couch. He wasn’t there. I groaned. “God, you’re such a mess.”

“Trin?”