So yeah, I wasn’t so much of a nice girl, after all. I moved to the window and peeked around the edge to watch Monica and Himself go down the path. He was taller than me by a few inches, closing in on six feet, slim with a potbelly-dad body going on. If you didn’t look at him sideways and didn’t realize that he wasn’t a dad, you’d think that he was in shape. Balding on top, he often wore a cap of some sort to hide the spot. Clean-shaven as always, he wore his sports jacket and jeans with crisp lines ironed into them.

He turned back toward the house, and I shifted so my profile was out of the window frame view, but I could still see him. He squinted at the house and then smiled, a slow smile that said it all. He thought he had me.

We’d see about that.

“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I backed up from the window. “Eric, you stay here with Gran. That will give her the energy to stay with us, right?” I glanced at Gran and noticed that she was looking more solid already. She gave me a quick nod.

“Lots of energy comes off a half-man like this one. Plenty extra for me to draw on.”

Eric’s big shoulders slumped. “They’ll find me.”

“Not right away,” I said. “I’m going to find a set of those chains, grab my gran’s book, and head back here so we can figure this out.”

Eric cleared his throat. “Maybe could you bring some food too?”

I didn’t have a lot of extra cash, but I nodded. “Chicken?”

He gave me a grin. “Extra crispy.”

Of course he wanted extra crispy. I hurried down the steps, feeling a strange sense of euphoria even though I should have been scared, tired, frustrated. Gran floated in front of me when I went to the door.

“I want an apology,” she said, lifting her chin and crossing her arms. Petite she might be, and a ghost, but she could still stop me in my tracks like I was twelve years old again.

“Apology?” Maybe I could play dumb.

Her scowl deepened and I turned away from her and headed toward the back door. “Gran, I’m in a hurry, can we discuss this later?”

“There might not be a later if he sells this house,” she said, and a cold whisper rushed through me as she literally pushed her way through me to get in front of me once more. I stopped and sighed.

“You were right. I was wrong, okay? Is that what you want to hear?” I put my hands on my hips. “Can I go now?”

Again, she folded her arms and stared me down. “You aren’t a child, you’re a grown woman, and you need to own up to your mistake.”