Page 72 of With All My Haunted Heart

His rigid posture deflates, and he rakes a hand through his hair. “God, I fucking hate your parents.”

“What?” Confusion and pain tighten my throat. The first tear spills down my cheek, and I’m too exhausted to wipe it away.

The bed dips as he sits beside me. “I recognize this version of you, Pippa.” He wipes my tears away. “Those first few weeks after your parents threw you out, you worked yourself past the point of exhaustion to prove you weren’t a failure. To prove you had some shred of worth in this world.”

“I—”

“You’ve never ruined anything, Pippa. Not with your family, and not here, either. Despite what your parents did to convince you otherwise, you are not a fuckup.” He pulls me close, his embrace warm and stable, his love fierce. “Lou and I have been so worried since you left. You ignored all our texts. Our calls. The manor didn’t feel right without you here.”

His final words tighten my chest to the point of pain. This place isn’t mine. Even if I hadn’t needed to spend the last few days finding new ghosts to haunt the B&B, I was always moving out on Halloween. I was always meant to leave. This was never supposed to be permanent.

“I’m sorry I didn’t text you back. I was…afraid,” I admit, my eyes fluttering shut as exhaustion tugs on the edges of my consciousness. “I couldn’t face you until I’d fixed things.”

“Which is why I hate your family,” he whispers as he tips his head against mine. “Pippa, you are my best friend. You don’t need to hurt yourself to earn my love. You already have it, no matter what.”

A feeling I can’t name—sharp like broken glass and shattered quartz—wedges itself between my ribs. “I didn’t hurt myself.”

“Using magic to override your body’s basic needs is a kind of hurt, Pip.” He slides off the bed and helps me get settled against the pillows. “Get some sleep. Lou and I will introduce the new ghosts to Laney.”

“But—”

Xander silences me with a stern look as he tucks the covers up to my chin. “I’ll have Lou leave you some water and a snack for when you wake up. Get some sleep.”

“Xan?” I ask, the heaviness of the blanket cradling me against the mattress.

“Yeah, Pip?” He pauses in the doorway.

“I love you.”

He smiles. “I love you, too.”

I’m asleep before the door clicks shut.

“She lives!”

Xander is leaning against the open bedroom door when I exit the attached bathroom fresh from a shower. My body aches from overdosing on vitality sigils and living in my car, but after sleeping nearly twenty-four hours, I feel human again. I’ve wrapped myself in my comfiest clothes—butter-soft leggings and my favorite hoodie. They’ll serve as cozy armor to face my last day at Midnight Manor.

“There was never any real chance I’d die.” I finish twisting my wet hair into a braid. “How long until Sebastian gets here?”

“You do realize it’s nearly three in the afternoon, right?” Xander raises that single eyebrow, and it’s devilishly handsome despite the wry humor. “Sebastian stopped by hours ago.”

Tension sends a flare of pain across my back. “And?”

He answers with a smile and follows through with verbal confirmation. “And we’re good for tomorrow. Sloane’s retreat at Midnight Manor is back on.”

Relief nearly buckles my knees. As it is, I reach for the table to steady myself. “Thank god.”

“No.” Xander crosses the room in quick strides. “Thank Pippa.” He wraps me in a bone-crunching hug before settling his hands on my shoulders. “I wish you hadn’t pushed yourself so hard to do it, but I’m glad everything worked out. Lou and I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Pippa?” Elle’s voice draws my attention, and I lean around Xander’s shoulder. She smiles when she sees me, but my brain short-circuits. She’s dressed in hip-hugging jeans with a green flannel button-down open over a gray scoop neck T-shirt.

Now that I’m not half asleep, seeing her reignites a desperate, aching want in my body. I wish I could pull her hips flush against mine and kiss her until we’re both breathless. I can’t, though. Neither of us has said anything to Xander, for one thing, and I’m leaving tomorrow. We haven’t talked about what happens in November after I’ve moved out. We haven’t talked about whether we’re an us at all.

Yet when she smiles at me, none of that matters. “It’s good to see you walking on your own again,” she teases.

“Yup. I’m fully ambulatory.” I step out of Xander’s hold and give a little spin. “Xander said Sebastian gave the ghosts his seal of approval?”

“He did. Alex and I like our new arrivals, too. Did you know that Imani got to see Nirvana in concert before she died?” Unexpected excitement glimmers in her green eyes. “And Keith was an accountant!”