Page 99 of Old Flames

“The first night I spent here, I felt a presence. Like I was being watched in my sleep.”

Vicky abruptly quit her struggle. “Did you? You never said.”

“There’s so much I haven’t told you.”

She barked a laugh. “You better start talking!”

Jules was at the end of the road. No more ground to kick the can. “I saw a spirit in the garden.”

“You saw Aurora?” Vicky asked hotly. “All that time we were summoning her, why didn’t you say? The garden is the one place we didn’t try.”

“Not Aurora,” Jules whispered. “Ruby.”

It took forever for Vicky to figure it out. “Your mother, Ruby?”

“Yes.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I’m not wrong!”

“Yes, you are. I don’t know what you think you saw, but it wasn’t Ruby.”

“I know what I saw,” Jules protested. But she honestly had no idea what she’d seen.

“The same Ruby who warns you of danger in your sleep?” Vicky prodded.

“Yes, but that hasn’t happened in a while.”

“There’s no way Ruby is lurking around a garden in Old Town Key West!” Vicky exclaimed. “She was a sensible person!”

This was likely why she hadn’t told anyone. The theory didn’t hold up to scrutiny. “I don’t know what to tell you. I saw Ruby. That’s why I returned, to find out for sure. I had no idea Leo would still be here. We didn’t get together until last night. I saw my mother in the garden, and that’s what all this is about.”

“Jelly Bean, do you need me to come down there and knock sense into you?” Vicky asked sweetly. “Your mother would not freak you out like that. And for what? Giggles? Trust me, she has nothing to do with this mess. Aurora and her friend are playing games. They’ve likely been at it for over a century. That’s my take, anyway. Let’s leave Ruby out of it. Next time you see that spirit in the garden, you tell her what’s what. Let her know you’re a New York chick. No one messes with your mom.”

Knees drawn to her chest, Jules was rocking, nodding, and wiping her tears away.

“Did you hear me?” Vicky insisted. “Promise you will.”

“I will.”

“Leo isn’t put off by all of this?” Vicky asked.

“Not in the slightest.”

With each passing day, Jules realized that Leo was not the lovely and earnest man she’d thought he was. He hadn’t flinched when she told him about Ruby, hadn’t even blinked. It wasn’t a casual thing, a ghostly encounter, a mother back from the grave and waiting in the night. It was damn sinister when you thought about it. Yet it hadn’t disturbed him. The opposite—it lit a fire in him. Leo, the horror writer with a focus on immortals, zombies, and creatures that crawled out of the depths of hell, was maybe a little too comfortable with the dark side. Good thing it lit a fire in her, too.

Suddenly her heart tipped over and spilled its contents. “I love him.”

She wasn’t falling in love, she was already simmering in it. That love had always been there, waiting for her to come around. She needed his steady presence, his thoughtfulness, his calm in the face of the inexplicable. Jules didn’t know what he might need her for. She brought chaos wherever she went. Perhaps he needed someone who could see the darkness in him and not flinch or run from it. That was something she was uniquely capable of doing.

“I figured,” Vicky said. “I might be falling for Matty. He’s talking about marriage. He thinks we’re endgame.”

“Seriously?” Jules started. “What is up with these men? Leo proposed tonight.”

Vicky laughed. “Ayesha is getting her wish!”

“Do you want to get married?” Jules asked.