Chapter Twenty-One
“Well, someone is having a good day.” Lydia Gray’s voice whispered from the front desk of the university’s library.
Megan smiled over at her friend. “Yes, the sun is shining, and the birds are singing.”
Lydia rolled her eyes at her. “You’ve been like this for weeks. What’s his name?”
Jack. His name echoed in her head, along with erotic images of their time together. The days he wasn’t working were fun adventures to places she’d never been; bowling, skating, and miniature golf. The nights were hot and sexy, just like the man.
“Spill already, Megan,” Lydia said with a groan. “He must be something else to put that smile on your face and a blush in your cheeks.”
Sighing, Megan picked up a current magazine from a nearby table and set it on the desk in front of the woman. Her finger pointed to the male on the cover. Lydia’s mouth dropped open.
“No fucking way. Jack O’Malley?”
Her heart raced, pounding in her chest. Telling someone other than her sister made it all more real, somehow. She glanced at the magazine cover again. The photographer made Jack look like a romance cover model, hair blowing in the wind, long leather jacket, and a gleaming look of mischief in his eyes. Dampness pooled between her thighs. He’d looked like that last night, minus the clothing.
Lydia grinned as she opened the magazine and scanned the inside article. “Ghost Releasers Inc. is a well-known paranormal research group out of Sacramento, California. In addition to the research aspect of their business, they also have a weekly television series.”
“How did you meet Jack O’Malley?”
Megan swallowed harshly. Her mind traveled in circles a million miles a second. No way was she telling Lydia about her haunting experiences. The sadness of Aaron’s visits and the terror of the Other was finally fading away. She would keep that chapter in her life locked deep inside.
“I bet he needed research into a building or something, didn’t he?”
She snagged the idea Lydia had supplied like a drowning person grabs a life preserver. “Yes, they did a show on the Wiley Brewery and needed some background on the building and the land.” Whew, that was a safe answer. Jack had asked her for some research info on the location and she’d been happy to help.
“Oh, I saw a promo for that one. It’s coming up this month. I bet it was scary. The second most haunted building in the state. After the Winchester Mystery House, of course.” Lydia added, “Did you get to go with them? Did you get to investigate?”
She’d wanted to go, but Jack had said she was staying away from all things paranormal. She shook her head. “I just did the research. Jack said maybe another time.”
“Oh, Jack is it?” Lydia’s smug smile widened on her broad face.
Megan blushed, but refused to look away. “Yes, Jack.”
At that moment, a student came up and needed her help. She took the opportunity to move away from Lydia and her all-too-knowing smile. Listening with half of her attention, she chastised herself for acting younger than the college student in front of her. She was a grown woman and she could have a serious, grown-up, whatever this was, with Jack.
Hours passed as she researched patents for a corporation and dug into some genealogy for an elderly woman who didn’t know how to search on the Internet. Deep into research on the land her home sat on, she blinked as the lights faded and brightened. That must be Lydia giving the twenty-minute warning for closing for the night. Megan flipped the switch on her computer terminal and cleaned up her workspace. Grabbing her purse, she headed to the front desk. She found Lydia there with their friend Angie. The woman’s long, black hair swung back and forth as she rushed to Megan’s side.
“Say yes, please,” she begged, her hands clasped under her chin like a kid in front of a pet store.
“You know she’s going to say no. She always does,” Lydia said, pulling her purse out from under the desk.
Her breath caught. Before Angie opened her mouth, she knew what they wanted.
“Come to Molly McGee’s. It’s Ladies Night. You haven’t gone with us since Aaron’s last deployment.”
Lydia sighed, and her eyes shot daggers at Angie, who had the grace to blush when she realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry.”
Megan hugged her. “Don’t be. I can’t believe we haven’t all been out together in over a year. Of course, I’ll go.”
“You were grieving,” Angie whispered in her ear. “We understood.”
Megan knew they didn’t really understand, they were both still on the dating circuit and hadn’t lost a significant person in their lives, let alone a beloved husband. But these ladies were her best friends and she’d shut them out of her life. She’d done more than refuse to move on after Aaron’s death. She’d shut her best friends out of her life. Well, no more.
“What are we drinking now?” Megan asked as they locked the library’s doors and walked to their cars.
Angie piped up. “Molly McGee’s has a new bartender, Roddy.” She sighed dramatically and put a hand to her chest. “He makes a Molly. He won’t say what is in it, but it tastes like Heaven and you can only drink two if you want to be able to drive home.”
Megan made a silent promise to only have one of whatever this potent drink contained. She followed her friends in her car, and parked in the last spot available in the parking lot to the popular bar. The clash of music hit them even before they were inside. The noise was deafening, eliminating the need to talk. Back when Aaron had been on his last deployment, she’d come here every Tuesday with her friends.
She’d missed this. Spending all her time alone and mourning her husband by herself was probably what caused her whole paranormal mess in the first place. Megan shook her head. No more thoughts of ghosts and spirits and otherworldly things tonight. Tonight, was for drinks, dancing, and fun.
They grabbed the drinks the good-looking guy behind the bar said was the ‘Molly’, a purple concoction Megan took one sip of and knew she would only need one drink tonight. She followed Angie’s long, black hair as they ran the gauntlet of dancing women until they found an empty table in the far corner.
Lydia stayed at the table as Angie and Megan found a clear spot and started moving to the beat. The music thrummed in her veins and made her heart race. The beat filled her ears and her brain. Images of making love to Jack filled her senses. Her body flowed as if he were there, his hands on her skin, his body up against hers.
One song flowed into the next as her body heated and perspiration dotted her forehead. She leaned over and shouted into Angie’s ear. “Bathroom break. I’ll be right back.” The woman nodded, and Megan made her way to the corridor in the back of the bar. The music faded to a dull roar as she walked down the darkened hallway. At the end, the room opened into a sedate bar scene with a few men on barstools and a television tuned to a baseball game.
Megan turned and placed her hand on the restroom’s door when the theme music to Ghost Releasers sounded from the television. She smiled as she turned and moved closer to hear the commercial.
The flashy logo shot across the screen with shadow figures chasing it. A voiceover started.
“A lustful widow. A deceased husband who can’t stay away. Does romance exist between our world and the next?”
A shot of a house filled the screen.
My house.
The blood left her head as the voiceover continued. “Or is this house filled with something darker? Find out on a future episode of Ghost Releasers with Jack O’Malley.”
The screen filled with a stadium of screaming fans, joined by the fans at the bar. Megan heard none of it as her head filled with the crushing sound of her heart breaking.
He’d promised.
He’d said they would never use her trauma for the show.
He’d used her.
The heat of anger flowed to her face and her head. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around to find Angie with a worried look on her face.
“I thought something happened to you.”
She straightened her spine. “It did. But, I’ll take care of it.”