Page 27 of Sugar Plum Serenade

CHAPTER 11

The day should’ve gone by quickly, but it didn’t. The minutes seemed to drag. Dawn’s Radiance stayed busy with shoppers looking for Christmas presents or special outfits for parties and family gatherings. Olive did her best to help them all, but her mind wandered.

Boy, did it wander. Tonight was going to be epic. Wasn’t it?

Until today, Olive had never left Dawn’s Radiance for lunch or any other reason. The Christmas crowd kept her busy enough, and she didn’t want to miss a sale. For Dawn’s sake. Kids were expensive, and Dawn was about to have three of them.

She hung a sign on the door and locked it behind her. Lunch was not on her mind.

Normally she’d duck and cover, put her head down and explain away everything that had happened to her since coming to Seawolf Beach. Tuck. Ava and her invisible friends. A freakin’ ghost in her house! Tuck.

Bravewasn’t a term anyone would choose to describe her, but she could try. Would Tuck think the dress she’d bought for tonight was sexy? That’s what he’d asked for, sexy. Sexy wasn’t Olive’s style, never had been. When she’d been on stage she wanted people looking at her, but off the stage? In real life? She was happy to melt into the background and let someone else stand out. Her new outfit was definitely a step up. Was it brave or foolish?

There were a couple of blocks between Dawn’s Radiance and Hart’s Vinyl Depot, an easy walk on a mild December day. Olive had never been inside the depot. Not only had she not had time to shop since arriving in Seawolf Beach, she didn’t own a record player.

Thank goodness there was a coffee bar. She could use that as an excuse for her stop.

Anna manned the coffee bar. Did she know her guy saw ghosts? How could she not?

“Small coffee, please,” Olive said as she approached the counter. “Cream and sugar.” While Anna made the coffee, Olive turned and looked around the place. The public area was massive, with rows of bins in the center, boxes of sale records against one wall, the coffee bar, and a little bit of seating. The bench near the front window looked ancient but solid. There were a couple of employees, several customers browsing, but no Colt.

Maybe that was just as well. How did one ask if the place they’d rented was haunted?

“How are you liking the house? Everything okay?” Anna asked.

“It’s great. I love it.” Olive placed cash on the counter, started to take a sip and decided the coffee was still too hot, and backed up a step. Again, she looked around the depot. “I don’t see Colt. Is he here?”

“He’s in the back, cleaning some old records that just came in. Is there a problem? If there is, I can handle it for you.”

Was a pirate ghost a problem she could share with Anna? Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea, coming here with a half-baked plan. “No, like I said, I love the house. It’s great.” She could, probably should, offer Anna a polite goodbye, then turn around and walk out, coffee in hand. No one had to know that she’d come in here with impossible questions dancing through her brain. Brave.

“My neighbor Tuck has become kind of a friend since I came here.” She hated that her voice shuddered when she said friend, but she ignored the telling tremble and barreled forward.

“I know,” Anna said. She smiled, a little. “A friend or more than a friend?”

“Just a friend.” For now. “We were talking.” There was that shudder again.

The expression on Anna’s face changed subtly. Her smile faded as she whispered, “Did he tell you?”

Olive didn’t play coy and ask what. The look on her face probably told it all.

“He did, didn’t he?” Anna rounded the counter. When she was close to Olive, she whispered, “Tuck was shaken, and I get it, I do. That kind of news is bound to be upsetting. If Colt was up front about what he can do, what he sees, maybe people wouldn’t be so shocked when he knows things he shouldn’t. He really doesn’t want everyone to know. I don’t know why, but I do my best to respect his wishes. If it was me I’d tell everyone. I mean, it’s pretty amazing, right?”

She knew. Anna knew everything.

Olive could understand why Colt would want to keep his ability a secret. She would, if she was in his shoes. “I don’t know what this has to do with Tuck, but…”

Anna backed up a step. “I thought you said he told you.”

“He asked if I believe in ghosts, and we started talking, and…”

“You’re not here about Tuck’s grandmother.”

Grandmother?“No, I’m sorry.” Was that why he’d been so upset when she’d gone to deliver the scarves? Some kind of unwanted news from his dead grandmother?

“Colt is going to kill me,” Anna said under her breath.

“I don’t plan to tell anyone anything, but I… I have a couple of questions.” More now that Tuck had become a part of the conversation.