Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons, ReGina Welling [novels to improve english TXT] 📗

Estelle’s meaning but the faint sense of understanding slid away before she could fully grasp it. She waited for the ghost to expand on the concept.

“In this case, the if-then was: If these eight people come together at this particular time and form a tight bond—then, she could use the energy created by that bond to enhance their individual gifts.”

“Thus increasing our chance for success.” Brow furrowed, a thoughtful Kat mused then looked more closely at the spirit. Everything about Estelle spoke of tension. From the strained lines across her forehead and around her eyes to the tightness of her jaw and gentle roundness of her shoulders told Kat there was still more to the story.

With no physical means of soothing the spirit, Kat’s only option was to get Estelle to open up and by sharing her burden, ease some of the apprehension.

“Estelle, please…it’s obvious something more is going on.” She poured another cup of coffee, “The powers that be, as Julius calls them, have allowed you to speak with more detail than ever before—and about things you’ve been prevented from revealing in the past. Time is running out and holding back won’t make this any easier.”

Kat wished she could do something, anything, to soothe away the misery that hung over Estelle like a lowering thundercloud.

“It’s all our fault.”

“What is?”

“All of it. Billy’s connection to Julius led him to Logan and his connection to Logan made it too easy for him to take over. He’s hurt Gustavia, tried to hurt you. Amethyst has taken on a burden that she doesn’t even understand yet and all because of us. I let Julius talk me into staying to see Julie through and look what happened.”

“Yes,” Kat agreed, “Look what happened. Julie is happily married to the man of her dreams and living in a house she can now afford to maintain, Gustavia is about to become engaged—that’s a secret, Finn is planning to ask her over Valentine’s day—Amethyst has reunited with her husband and I’ve regained my sight. You’re horrible, meddlesome ghosts. I blame you for everything that’s happened.”

At her teasing tone, Estelle perked up a little. “I suppose there have been some benefits and I trust you will all make the right choices when the time comes.”

“All of our lives have changed for the better—well—except for Logan’s and we’ll do what we can to fix that.”

It was all she had to offer, all any of them had to offer. It would have to be enough. Estelle felt as though a weight had fallen from her. Turning twinkling eyes on Kat, “That man in the other room is very special—how are things going?”

Hot and red, Kat blushed then cursed her fair skin. “It’s not...I’m not…I don’t know. My experience with men has been limited to teenage crushes, a couple truly bad dates, and Zack.”

“Just remember, my dear, he came in here to protect you and then he stayed when meeting us went against everything he ever believed. His heart is as big as Gustavia’s even if he hides it under bluster and a sense of duty.”

“That’s just his cop instincts. It wasn’t personal.”

Estelle rolled her eyes. Kat could feel her energy flagging and assumed Julius was also feeling the strain. Returning to the dining room, she found the pair of them finalizing some of the details on whatever plan they had cooked up. Julius was looking a bit transparent.

As he faded out completely, he instructed Kat to alert the others and then it was just the two living persons left in the room.

“Coffee?” Kat offered as Zack continued typing into his phone. He looked up briefly and to her amazement, smiled.

“Sure.”

After Estelle’s pep talk, Kat was even more unnerved by his larger than life presence and more so by his reaction to meeting her uninvited guests.

“You seem fairly calm given what just happened.” She hoped it was a safe comment.

“Generally speaking, I’m not prone to hallucinations, therefore, I’ve either gone mad, or what just happened was real. I’d prefer to think my sanity is intact so…you do the math.”

Gone was the laughing Zack, the lighthearted man who had rescued her from a fate—or a date—worse than death. Too bad, because that Zack had been a lot of fun. That Zack was someone she could imagine spending time with. This one was prone to bouts of unpredictability and brooding behavior.

Maybe fun Zack was still in there.

She peered out at him through her lashes and heard herself say, “Pookie bears are not very good at math.”

What on earth possessed her to say that? Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of filter between her brain and her mouth? Obviously if there was, it was not working properly. Maybe a giant flaming eagle would come through the ceiling and snatch her away but probably not.

Without giving Zack a chance to speak, Kat jumped to her feet and rushed back to the kitchen. Once there, she pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and rolled the chilled plastic against the flaming hotness of her face.

If she had taken the time to look, she would have seen the wide smile on Zack’s face before the notes he was refining took over his concentration again.

_,.-'~'-.,_

Too keyed up to sleep, Kat fed one of the stack of DVDs borrowed from Julie into her computer and added buying a player of some sort to her to do list. As many times as she had heard her friends drool over one actor or another in a movie, it was finally her turn to see what all the fuss was about.

Ten minutes later and fully engrossed in the story, Kat chewed absently on an already frayed fingernail. When Julius cleared his throat to get her attention, she was startled enough to jump and burn him with a single glare.

He raised his hands, “Sorry.” The gruff apology was completely negated by the smirk on his face.

Clicking pause, she turned to him and gestured for him to get on with whatever business