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“But she’s been dead for five years,” I retorted. “It’ll be overgrown by now. How are you even going to see anything?”
“It’ll be less overgrown than the r
est of it.” After I opened my mouth to continue my rambling, he raised his hand. “Listen, I know the idea of going out there to her grave frightens you, but you’ll be kept safe. Don’t you trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t put you in danger?”
“Of course I trust you.” He smiled. “But what the hell is trusting a ghost going to do?” He frowned, but that didn’t stop me. “What are you going to do, spook someone to death?”
“Yes.” He paused. “Well, I’ll do something. Besides, Zach will be there and he has a gun. Does that ease your worries?”
It’d ease me more if I didn’t have to go at all. But I’d learned enough so far to know fighting him was a losing battle, so why bother. “We’ll just look around and we’re out of there, right?”
He nodded. “Right.”
Zach reentered the room with a grin worth a million dollars on his face. “Well, Tess, hope you don’t mind a little dirt under your fingernails, because we’re about to go grave digging.”
Dark night, scary forest, crazed murderer, hidden grave—help!
Chapter Eight
As Zach drove through Meeman–Shelby Forest, shadows and gloom settled across the land. I wasn’t normally jumpy—spirits were real, what else could scare me? Still, my nerves were rattled. We weren’t searching for a spirit—we were looking for a body buried five years ago. My stomach flipped and flopped at the images swimming through my mind.
“I wish I could kiss your worry away,” Kipp said, sitting next to me in the backseat of Zach’s truck.
“Me too,” I whispered to keep the conversation private. The kissing part would have been nice, but it wasn’t only the journey ahead that left me on edge. Indecision had crept up.
Once we discovered Hannah’s body, clues would probably be there too and then the case would have a conclusion. Kipp’s need to stay would leave, his soul would settle and he’d find contentment to move on. As much as we had decided we needed to help Hannah, I couldn’t stop from wanting to ignore her all together and pretend Kipp didn’t have to leave.
“What did you say?” Eddie asked, apparently eavesdropping.
I glanced toward him in the passenger seat. After we picked Eddie up, he came out half-awake with three shovels in hand. It pleased me to note the coffee he drank worked, as he now looked perkier. The faster they dug, the sooner this would end, which was where my conflict came in.
I wanted to help Hannah, but I didn’t want to be out in the dark and I certainly didn’t want Kipp to cross over.
What a big stinkin’ mess!
“I was talking to Kipp,” I told Eddie.
He nodded and looked back out the front window.
“We’re doing the right thing.”
Kipp’s expression looked soft and questioning. He apparently experienced the same hesitation as I did. I needed him to be the strong one here, to tell me we did the right thing, because now I held too many doubts.
He sighed. “Why did we have to meet now?” He said it as more of a statement than something I needed to answer, so I kept quiet. “When you look at me like you are right now, I’d believe I was already in heaven.”
My chin quivered, my eyes welled up with tears and one spilled down my cheek. He reached out to wipe it away, but instead of touching me, the frosty air dried the wetness along my skin. “But when I cannot touch you, I’m reminded this must be hell.”
“Kipp,” I whispered.
“You’ve made death easier for me. If the only way to have met you was to have died, then I’ll never regret it. Not for a single moment.” His gaze bore intently into mine. “You know that, right?”
I managed to find my voice. “I do.”
“When the time comes, remember it made me happy to have experienced this small amount of time with you. That you gave me something I’d never known. You made me feel something I thought I couldn’t ever possess. Know that I treasured each and every minute we had and I was happier these last days than I’d ever been.”
I sat silent and absorbed his words, and determined only one thing needed to be said. “I love you.” I’d known it the moment I met him and I could no longer deny it to him or to myself. It was all of him, every little piece that made Kipp who he was, that filled my heart with enough love it could burst.
He smiled. “As I do you.”
