“K.”
“When you spoke to Gerald about broken hearts, it hurt me.”
Mia scrunched up her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was all about you. That you were sent back in time, probably being forced to lose your friends and babies in the process.”
“Calm down. I know what burdens you have in front of you. I’m talking about how unresolved we left things after I came back from the ghost ship dimension. I think if we talk this out, it will help us to not be so distant with each other.”
“I forgave you for not leaving with me after I went to the trouble of rescuing you. We should be square.”
“Then why the broken heart dig?”
“What? Oh… the Romeo and Juliet comment. Damn, did you think it was about you?”
“I heard from Kevin you almost died because of me.”
“But I didn’t,” Mia snapped back. “It was all electrical, Murphy. Michael said that when you pulled yourself away from me, I lost the energy you generated. The energy you pumped into my heart in the well and again in the barn. It was what was keeping my heart pumping. The further I got from you, the more my heart faltered. Michael and one of his brothers you haven’t met fixed the problem. You don’t have to feel responsible for me anymore.”
“So, you don’t need me?”
“I need you, Murph. We’re a team, a good team. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I shouldn’t have left you on the yacht when I went after the demon with no name, but I knew you’d take care of the men. I couldn’t be two places at once. But we should have talked it over. Hell, maybe you would have had a better idea. I was pretty full of myself.”
“I think you had no other choice. I’m more concerned about the months leading up to the Caribbean trip. You were holding all these secrets.”
“Yes, I was, but not just from you. No one but four others involved will ever know those secrets. Not Ted, not you.”
“Not Wyatt?”
“Not yet. Not until he’s Altair. Right now, he can’t be fully trusted.”
“But you ran to him when you were in trouble.”
Mia rushed over and pounded on his chest with her finger with every sentence that followed. “First, I came to find you. Just like I did when I lost my baby girl, when I needed to start again. I needed to know I still had a friend in this world. Yes, damn it, my heart broke when you rejected me, but my will kept me alive. I had responsibilities, no time to mourn the loss of you!” Mia said, disgusted with herself for her weakness. She pushed away from him and opened up the door and walked out on the balcony into the spring air to cool down.
There should have been a feeling of celebration surging through Murphy, but there wasn’t. Mia finally was telling him the truth. The truth he’d known in his heart, but he had needed confirmation from Mia. It irked him when it was withheld. So now he knew. Did it change anything?
He moved through the glass door. “Mia, we’ve always been friends. We need each other. I need you.”
“Do you? Why?” Mia asked.
“I’m lonely.”
“You have other people around you besides me. Cid and, yes, even Ted consider you a friend. PEEPs wouldn’t survive without you.”
“I need a friend. Someone who will take my side even when I’m being stupid. Or tell me I’m stupid, but not in front of everyone else.”
“Can we let the other stuff go?” Mia asked.
“The romantic stuff?” Murphy asked. “That depends on you. I mean, look at me, I’m the right shade of death. Who could resist this?”
Mia started to laugh. “I’m a child. We shouldn’t be talking like this.”
“How does it feel being a child?”
“Scary.”
“Explain.”
“I have all this energy but no real outlet for it. I can fit through skinny spaces, and my energy comes back quickly, but I’d rather have… Damn, don’t look at me for a moment,” Mia instructed. She waited until Murphy turned around and spit out, “I miss my boobs. There I said it. I miss my boobs.”
“May I turn around?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Murphy did and bent over and lifted Mia’s chin with his finger. “If you were to be frozen in this time, in this body, I’d still think of you as the most beautiful friend a ghost could have. It’s your heart, soul, and your mind that make you who you are. The body is temporary, the soul lives on. You have a beautiful soul.”
“So, if I died right now and became a ghost, would you still hang with me, like this?” Mia asked, stretching her arms out.
“Yes. It was the friend, not the lover, I returned to from the GSD.”
“I thought it was your trees.”
“Yes, those too,” he answered honestly.
“Trees are pretty boss,” Mia admitted. She held out her hand. “Let’s shake on the friendship.”
“You should be wearing gloves,” Murphy said, clasping her hand.
“My sensitivity doesn’t go hyper for a few years,” Mia told him.
Murphy let her hand go. “I feel better.”
“Gee, I’m glad,” Mia said sarcastically. “After all, it’s your comfort which is paramount.”
“Bad Mia,” Murphy scolded.
Mia was sitting at the small table studying the chessboard when Nordin escorted Orion into the library.
“Mr. Wayne is on a call and will be with you in a moment. Please make yourself comfortable.”
Mia looked up and studied Orion. He was twenty years younger than when she last saw him, but he looked the same. Birdmen genes would give him a very long life if he didn’t
