Page 75 of With All My Haunted Heart

“Maybe include a smiley face next time?”

Laney laughs and rolls their eyes. “We’re good, Pippa. Really. And I don’t want to leave. I like being here with Alex and Elle. I like the new ghosts. Did you know Betty’s death is basically that song about Grandma getting run over by a reindeer?”

Relief courses through me. “She led with that with me, too.”

“Plus, this place is about to be a functioning B&B. I’m going to meet so many interesting people. It’ll be like traveling without needing to travel. I’ll get to talk to living people again.” They breathe deep and let out a small, appreciative groan. “And between Olli’s cooking and Elle’s baking, this place always smells amazing.”

Laney and I chat until the ghost goggles run out of magic. I swap them for a fresh pair from the selenite charging plates to continue catching up while I grab something to eat like Xander suggested. I spend the rest of the afternoon checking in with the new ghostly inhabitants of Midnight Manor to make sure they’re adjusting well to their new home.

The ghosts keep me busy until Xander announces that dinner is ready.

As we settle in to eat—me sitting across from Xander and Elle, the ghosts filling in the spaces around us—Xander raises a glass of champagne.

“A toast,” he says, and waits for Elle and me to lift our glasses before continuing. “This past month has exceeded all my expectations. I was excited about the prospects of the B&B from the moment the idea was born, but the reality the three of us have created is beyond anything I imagined.”

“Agreed,” Elle says, turning her pale green gaze on me. There’s a heat there, a sense of claiming that warms me from the inside out.

“To a job well done,” Xander concludes.

“To a job well started,” Elle corrects.

We clink our glasses together and dig in.

Chapter

Twenty-Two

As I lie in bed, staring at the shadows dancing along the ceiling, I try to find my courage.

My mind is a battlefield of memories. Two decades of being treated like I wasn’t good enough, years of carrying shame about how I lost my family, have shaped how I see myself. Yet each memory is starting to take on new meaning, filtered through the way Xander sees me. The way Ellie sees me.

You have a family. You have me.

And me, too. Elle’s firm addition to the people who care about me feels like a promise, one that I want to accept. One that I want to exist beyond tomorrow when I drive back to Windsfell and the life I’ve built there. I need to get past the worry that she might not feel the same and go talk to her.

I was so worried about you, Pip.

My heart aches to remember the emotion in her voice, how deeply she meant those words. No one I’ve dated has ever truly worried about my well-being before. Not like this. After I told her about what happened with my family, she didn’t tell me I was reckless with Grayson. She didn’t tell me I should have been careful. She defended me.

Your girlfriend should care more about you than the family that continually hurts you.

I bolt upright in bed as a surge of understanding washes through me. Girlfriend. That’s what I want. To be claimed as hers. This new feeling of certainty doesn’t take away the fear, but it makes it matter so much less.

We haven’t defined what this attraction is, but I know what I want. I want her. I want to try. I want to figure out how to give us a chance at being a couple. To be together beyond my time at the manor. To be able to hold hands in public without worrying that Xander, or anyone else, will see.

If she doesn’t feel the same, fine, but at least I’ll know instead of lying here missing someone a few rooms away.

I slip out of bed and run my fingers through my hair. It doesn’t need to be perfect, because with any luck, Elle’s fingers will make a mess of it soon anyway. I reach for the door handle, give myself a moment to catch my breath, and then open my door—

Only to find Elle already standing on the other side.

She smiles when she sees me, a flash of hunger darkening her gaze. “Oh, thank god.” And then she’s stepping in close, raising up on her tiptoes, and claiming a kiss that shivers all the way down my back.

I drag her into the room, closing and locking the door behind us. “So Xander can’t interrupt this time,” I whisper against her neck as I press her back against the door and breathe in lavender and spices and everything Elle.

“You were coming to find me, right?” Elle asks, her breath hitching as my fingers skate up the inside of her barely there pajama shirt. “I didn’t interrupt a trip to the kitchen for dessert?”

There’s a vulnerability to her question that has me swallowing the joke that she’s the only dessert I need. I step back. Brush the hair out of her eyes. Cup her face in my hands as I let my thumbs caress the curve of her cheekbones. “You are the only reason I’m out of bed right now, sweetheart. I was lying here missing you, and I couldn’t sleep until you knew.”