Page 57 of Paper Ghosts

She opened the doors. The single, leaning tree in the backyard gave off an otherworldly glow, but she could no longer see him.

“I know you’re there,” she called from the doorway.

There was no answer, just the siren song of the creek water.

She stepped outside the safety of the house. She immediately noticed a light from the second story of the Tillbury house next door and she looked up to see Tasha standing at one of the upstairs windows, watching her.

It felt like a beacon of hope, this watchful neighbor. Bailey tentatively lifted her hand and waved.

Tasha stared down at her, not smiling, the whole dynamic of their youth playing out, but their roles reversed.

Tasha then stepped back and the light went out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The doorbell rang the next morning as Tasha was coming downstairs, hoping saltines dipped in ginger tea would settle her morning sickness before Gary got out of the shower.

She detoured to the front door, stopping to switch on the fire logs below the mantel she’d decorated with pumpkins. There was a wreath hanging on her door window, but she could still see Bailey standing on the other side. She was wearing a French-striped long-sleeved shirt and had a bandana over her hair, kerchief-style, so that only her neon-blond bangs could be seen. There had been a time in her life when Tasha would have immediately thought, Why doesn’t that come as easily to me?

But not now.

With her hand on her stomach, Tasha opened the door and said, “What do you want?”

Apparently she looked as bad as she felt, because Bailey said, “I can come back if you’re not feeling well.”

“Coming back won’t help,” she said irritably as she waved Bailey in. “I’m pregnant.”

Oh, God. What on earth had possessed her to say that? The first person she told was Bailey Wester?

Bailey smiled. “Congratulations!”

“No one knows yet.”

She seemed to automatically understand something essential, like how hard transitions could be. “In that case, I won’t say anything.”

“You don’t have to convince me you’re good at keeping a secret.” Tasha motioned for her to sit on one of the couches flanking the fireplace. Tasha sat on the couch opposite. It was a light, lovely room. She wondered if Bailey thought so, too. No one knew what the Wester House looked like inside, but Tasha had lived next door long enough to know that the shades were drawn most of the time, so it had to be dark.

“I saw you last night, in the window,” Bailey said.

“I’m not in the habit of watching your house, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“I also saw someone in the backyard.”

Tasha raised her brows and waited for her to get to the point.

“It’s just that he looked like Clutch, and it’s the second time I’ve seen him since coming home. So I thought I should tell you. We both know Clutch must have lost his wallet when I was with him that night in the woods. When he tried to … you know. There’s no correlation to that bone. I’ll tell anyone that now, if it helps take attention off of you and the project you’re planning out there. I just ask that it wait until after my grandmother is gone, and I can break it to my dad first.”

“Stop,” Tasha said. “Just stop. It doesn’t matter if that bone is his.”

“It’s not.”

“No one knows what happened that night. No one has seen him since that night. You were adamant about my not getting involved in your mess back then, and I have a lot more to lose now. So we’re not having this discussion.”

“I’m still adamant about you not being involved in my mess. Please don’t worry.”

Tasha remembered Bailey running out of the woods. How terrified she’d been. She knew that mess hadn’t been entirely of Bailey’s making, but sometimes Tasha deliberately glossed over that fact. She sighed. “If you think you’re seeing him, it’s because he’s still in your head. And he doesn’t deserve space there anymore.”

Bailey smiled slightly. “Stop being nice to me.”