Page 42 of Tiffanie

“Bye!”

“I’m so proud of you, sis!”

“Woo-hoo!”

Phineas disconnected the call. “Let’s go home, Princess. I need to hold you for a long time. We’ll make a quick stop at the pharmacy drive-through. I don’t suppose you’d want an ice cream cone from that fast-food place next to it?”

“I would die for chocolate ice cream,” she answered with a smile.

“I’ll have them add sprinkles,” he promised.

“You take such good care of me.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet, Princess.”

Chapter Sixteen

“How did you pull this together in such a short time?” Tiffanie asked, shaking her head in disbelief at Essie and the office filled with balloons the next morning.

“I got some advance insider information, and I stocked up a week ago,” Essie answered.

“How? Who told you I was okay?” Tiffanie asked, looking back at Essie.

Essie’s face colored slightly, and she shrugged. “Ghosts are lousy at keeping secrets.”

“Ghosts?” Tiffanie repeated, incredulous. What in the world?

“When my aunt passed, I discovered that her husband, Edmund, had hung around Ferguson’s Folly after he died.”

“How?”

“He speaks to me now. I guess ghosts, at least in this house, choose one person to communicate with, and I’m the lucky resident.”

Shaking her head to push away the questions bouncing into her brain, Tiffanie asked, “Why is he still around? Shouldn’t he have gone on to the other side with Esther?” She waved a hand to accompany this crazy concept.

Essie smiled. “I know. I took a while to believe they were real, and I’m the girl they’re speaking to.”

“They? Don’t tell me you chat with Esther too? How many ghosts are around here?” Tiffanie said, hoping her employer hadn’t suffered a mental episode.

“Just those two. I am quite sane and rooted in the real world. In case you were wondering, Esther and Edmund assured me when the doctor stopped your treatment that the change in the chemo plan was perfect. You didn’t need any more.”

“They told you this a week ago?” Tiffanie asked. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“How could I? Would you have believed me? The important thing was that you didn’t suffer through anymore chemo if you didn’t have to, and the doctor had already cut that off.”

Tiffanie stared at Essie, and the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. “You did say something, didn’t you?”

“Well, kind of. I was a bit subtle about it,” Essie said. She glanced past Tiffanie into the side of the room and smiled.

“Are they here now?” Tiffanie whispered.

“Yeah. They wanted to join in the celebration. You’re one of their favorite people.”

Why having ghosts care about her made an impact, Tiffanie didn’t know, but their support did. She looked around the group Essie had gathered in her office, including the empty side of the room Essie had acknowledged and said, “Thank you. Everyone.”

“Let’s eat some cake,” Sara suggested.

“At nine in the morning?” Tiffanie asked.