Sadie's Spirit, CB Samet [book club recommendations .TXT] 📗

Sadie paced around outside, hoping Asher would come out to see her. She noticed that she had no shadow as she moved under the different lights. Hopefully, if she kept still when he arrived, he wouldn’t notice the lack of shadow, unless he could already tell somehow that she was a ghost. In her own eyes she appeared solid, but she didn’t know how he would perceive her.

Five minutes felt like five hours.

Asher emerged wearing sweat pants and a Braves T-shirt. Was that a bag of frozen peas held to his jaw?

He glowered at her. “What are you doing here, Sadie?”

She was too thrilled he could see her to be hurt by his irritable greeting. “I need a favor.”

His eyes narrowed as he appraised her appearance, then his gaze wandered around the fire station parking lot. “How did you get here?”

“I was dropped off.”

Not strictly a lie.

His brow furrowed. “How did you find me?”

I followed my heart.

She placed her hands on her hips and mimicked a normal conversation. “‘Hi, Sadie, nice to see you.’ ‘Nice to see you, too, Asher.’ ‘How have you been?’”

Dead, she added inwardly.

Asher began to walk away from her.

She walked after him. “I really do need your help.”

He stopped a few steps away from his silver truck and pulled the bag of peas away from his face. A red lump marked one side of his jaw.

She grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

“You can’t just show up here like a ghost from my past and ask for help.”

Sadie choked down a short, hysterical laugh; the only thing keeping her from having a breakdown at the irony of his words.

She regained her self-control and took a step closer. “I’m sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I can’t express in words how sorry I am, but I really need your help.”

She was about to take another step closer, but his eyes flashed with anger, halting her in her tracks.

She lowered her eyes. This was a mistake. He might have a girlfriend or even a wife for all she knew. The ex-girlfriend was never a welcome sight. Well, his new special someone couldn’t feel threatened by a ghost.

Except that Asher hadn’t yet realized what she was. Since she hadn’t determined whether that was to her advantage or not, she wasn’t quite ready to tell him. She wasn’t sure if he was more likely or less likely to help her once he knew the truth.

Asher stomped to his truck, yanked open the driver side door, and tossed the bag of peas inside the cab.

Panic flashed through Sadie’s mind. If she let him leave, she might never discover why she was a ghost. She might be doomed to walk the earth unseen forever, though that didn’t sound devastatingly catastrophic to an introvert.

Still, the fact that she was a ghost suggested some unfinished business had spilled over from her life. She suspected she already knew what it was.

“Please, Asher, hear me out at least.”

His jaw kicked. “I’m listening.”

“Not here.” She suspected he might prefer not having to explain later to his fellow firefighters why he was talking to himself in the parking lot.

“Fine. Get in.”

Sadie gave a small, excited skip and walked around to the passenger side. She stared at the door. Well, crap, she thought. She couldn’t open the truck door. Could she? She had gone through her mother’s front door and table, but had managed to climb her steps into her house. What dictated when she could and couldn’t contact matter? Perhaps there was an influence of will and concentration. Or was it inner belief?

She started to reach for the door handle, but hesitated. If she messed it up and her hand traveled through the door, her secret would be revealed.

From the opposite side of the truck, Asher sighed. He walked around to the passenger door and opened it. “Now you want chivalry?”

She looked up at the seat. If she could step up porch steps, surely she could sit in a car seat.

Believe, she implored herself.

She steeled her resolve, stepped into the truck, and sat.

Asher closed the door. He climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking lot.

He glanced over at Sadie. “You okay? You look pale.” His tone had finally softened.

“Yeah. This is just taking a lot out of me.” She was referring to the need to focus on her extracorporeal self maintaining the illusion of contact with matter, but Asher was free to form whatever conclusion that suited him from her words.

“I’m sorry for snapping.”

“And growling.” She raised a hand to her temple and closed her eyes.

“You wanna tell me what’s so important you tracked me down to my new town and new job?”

“When we’re done moving.”

He started to roll down the window. “You need fresh air?”

“No!” The last thing she needed was to figure out how to make her hair wave in the breeze.

His finger stopped pressing the button, and he closed it back up. “Oh-kay,” he said, his voice skeptical. “You were never carsick before.”

She nodded. “True.”

He made a series of turns. “Are you sick?”

Sadie knew from his tone that he meant something chronic or fatal.

“Something like that.”

“Are you pregnant?”

She coughed out a no.

Asher parked the car, and Sadie realized they had pulled onto the driveway of a mountain cabin. A single porch light shone into the darkness. She saw a quaint log cabin with expansive windows overlooking the mountainside and imagined how beautiful it would look in the snow. There was a neat stack of logs was outside the cabin between the shed and the garage.

“You live here?”

Asher turned in his seat, his angry amber eyes flaring. Tiger eyes. “What are you doing here, Sadie? Did you come to tell me you’re dying of cancer? We haven’t spoken in three years.”

She clenched her fists. “That’s because you shut me out!”

“You left first. And you only called because of the incident.”

“You never called back.”

“I didn’t want your pity. I still don’t.”

“I was calling to offer help, not out of pity.”

He snorted.

“I’m sorry my unannounced arrival infuriates you, and I’m a burden on the life you’ve built, but I had no other option.” Sadie hadn’t come to pick a fight, and this wasn’t a good start to her plans for recruiting his help. She felt torn between wanting to apologize and feeling the need to defend herself against his fury.

“So I’m a last resort now?” His icy voice chilled her.

“You made yourself a last resort!” As she shouted and the frustration poured out of her, the truck vibrated.

Stunned into silence, Sadie held her breath until the vehicle stopped shaking.

With a curious expression on his face,