Inbetween

He laughed. “Are you trying to ask me how long I’ve been dead?”

“Yes.”

He sat back against my headboard, so close I could feel the warm electricity coming off his skin.

“Too long.”

“What do you miss the most about being alive?”

He shifted on the bed and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. My gaze slid from the curve of his chin, down the smooth, tan column of his neck. He finally said, “Mom’s Christmas dinner for sure.

She made the best cobbler. And the jokes Dad used to tell to make us forget the heat while we were working the crops.” He stopped and swallowed hard. “I miss too much. That’s why it’s easier not to remember.”

My throat felt tight listening to him talk about all the things he didn’t get to have anymore. “I’m sorry.”

“You were always good at that.” He slid me a glance and grinned. “Making me remember.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

He shook his head. “No. Remembering is what keeps you human, I think.”

“You seem pretty human to me.” I set my mug on my nightstand and yawned. As much as I hated it, sleep was pulling me under. My eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them. “Do you care if I go to sleep?”

Finn folded his arms behind his head. “As long as you don’t snore.”

I laughed into my pillow and burrowed under the blankets. I reached out to turn off the lamp and darkness blanketed the room.

“Hey, Finn?” I ran my hand over my pillow, glad the light was off so he couldn’t see how red my face was.

“Yeah?”

“When you said you’ve been watching me the last two years…” I paused, listening to him waiting beside me. “Does that mean all the time?”

There was only silence for a moment but then he said, “What do you mean? Have I—”

“Have you seen me…you know…without any clothes on?”

“N-no. Of course I haven’t. Why would I—” He sounded horrified and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, okay. I believe you.”

He laughed a little, sounding relieved. “I really haven’t. I swear.”

“I know,” I whispered. “Hey…don’t leave, okay?”

I couldn’t really see him, just a faint shimmer in the dark, but I heard him shift closer to me. “I’ll stay as long as I can.”

“Promise?”

“Always.”

Chapter 14

Emma I trudged into my kitchen early the next morning, tempted to crawl back into bed after only getting around three hours of sleep. But I really didn’t feel like hearing my mom yell at me for the mess in the kitchen.

When I’d woken up, Finn was gone. All I had left was the memory of his touch, his fingers creating magic as they danced across my skin. His touch felt like warm electric current, nothing more than a breath, but a breath that left me wanting so much more. The nightmares about random souls trying to kill me I’d had last night weren’t helping matters either. But at least it sort of made some sense now.

I looked around the kitchen. At the mess I still had left to clean. I groaned and started tossing dirty dishes in the sink. I grabbed the bowl of crusted-over muffin batter that I never got around to baking and dumped the goop into the garbage can. Part of me still held out hope that it had just been a dream.

A figment of my imagination. The other part needed someone to slap some sense into it, because that part of me was panicked he might never come back. Somewhere inside my skull, a headache started to form.

“It looks like a bakery exploded in here,” Cash said from the hall.

I shrieked and nearly dropped the metal mixing bowl I was holding. “You scared the crap out of me!

What are you even doing up this early on a Saturday?”

Cash slid onto a barstool. “Dad made me get up and clean the gutters,” he said. “You look really tired. Need some help with this?”

“Yes, actually. That would be awesome. My mom’s going to freak out on me when she wakes up.”

“Well, I have been told that I’m made of awesome.” Cash picked up one of the leftover cupcakes I’d baked the day before for my mom’s open house.

“Who told you that?”

“I tell myself every day in the mirror.” He grinned and shoved half of the cupcake in his mouth, then grabbed a clean spoon off the counter and stared into it. “You are made of awesome. You are the master of your own universe. You have a really huge—”

“Enough!” I laughed.

“What? I was going to say, really huge cupcake.” He waggled his eyebrows and licked the frosting off his bottom lip.

I slapped him with my dishrag. “I thought you were going to help clean this up?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked and worked at getting the rest of another cupcake in his mouth.

“It looks like you’re stuffing your face,” I said, and went back to the dishes.

After he swallowed, he licked his lips and wiped the crumbs off of the counter. “So what’s up? Did you have a bad night or something?”

Warmth stirred my hair, swirling down the neck of my sweater. I looked behind me and yelped.

Finn was standing so close the hairs on my arm started to rise. The metal mixing bowl clattered to the floor and I dove to grab it. “Damn it!”

“Don’t worry. He can’t see me unless I want him to,” Finn said. “Just act like I’m not here.”

Right. Like it was that easy.

Cash picked up the bowl before I could and helped me wipe up the floor. “You’re jumpier than normal. Seriously, what’s going on with you today?”

“Nothing.” Nothing besides the fact that I’m seeing dead people.

“Nothing always means something with girls,” he said.

I focused on the boy who knew more of my secrets than my mother. Then my gaze flitted to the ghost of a boy standing behind him. Finn’s brows were drawn together. The look in his eyes sent warm tremors racing through my insides.

I couldn’t tell Cash this.

“I don’t know,” I said, drying my hands. “I just don’t want to talk about this right now. Is that okay?”

Cash nodded and backed away, wiping the flour on his hands on the That’s What She Said T-shirt he was wearing. “I can give you some space if you want.”

“Yeah.” I averted my gaze, unwilling to look at either of them. Instead I stared into the darkness outside the kitchen window. “That would probably be best.”

“All right. Are we still on for movie night?”

I blinked, letting his words sink in. “Movie night?”

“You. Me. Lethal Weapon. We’ve been planning this for two weeks.”

I nodded. Good. This was good. Maybe that’s exactly what I needed. Normal. Cash. Popcorn. Stupid movies. “Yeah. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Cool. Later.” Cash grabbed another cupcake and disappeared through the front door. I spun around looking for Finn the instant the door closed.

“Look, you can’t—” I realized no one was there and the words died inside the hollow of my mouth.