“I’ll talk to Regan, and she can contact Boann. But please don’t get your hopes up.” Even as she said the words, she couldn’t prevent her own hopes from rising. She’d love to be the one to give him back the full life he’d been meant to live. Even if only for a handful of days, she longed to know him as a living, breathing man. Perhaps she’d been summoned to Garretsville for this very purpose.
Carpe diem, dammit. After this adventure, her life would return to normal—as in normal for a MacCarthy, anyway. She’d continue to pursue her goals, meet a nice single professor, and live a rewarding—albeit quiet and relatively unadventurous—ordinary life.
Meredith glanced at Daniel again, drawing in the sight of him like a love-sick sponge dropped into the puddle of its dreams. If she did do this, she’d be glad to have known him. She’d be happy that she’d been able to help, and that would have to be the sum total of what existed between two souls from different centuries.
Daniel almost felt … alive. Excitement thrummed through his ghostly being, and his phantom heart raced. “That you’re willing to talk to your sister about this is all I can ask, and it’s far more than I ever hoped for. If the gang of murderous thieves can be stopped, most of the ghosts you’ve come to help will be set free. They won’t have been murdered, and therefore won’t ever have haunted Garrettsville.”
“We’d be changing history.” Meredith’s bit her lip for a second. “You and Charles weren’t their first victims, were you? If not there would likely be ghosts here still, including the felonious threesome.”
“Aye, there were others before us. The first was an old man who rarely left his claim. No one would’ve known he’d been murdered had he not missed his weekly visit into town for supplies. The sheriff went to check on him, and he found the old man’s corpse. His throat had been slit.” Daniel frowned. “Is it possible the three might not have any reason to haunt should we prevent them from murdering others?”
“Anything’s possible,” she said. “It’s afternoon in Ireland right now. I guess there’s no time like the present.”
Daniel watched as she took the device from her pocket and touched numbers on its surface. He’d witnessed many such devices over the decades and no longer wasted time trying to figure out how the things performed their magic.
Besides, Meredith interested him far more than what she held in her hand. Her lovely, fair complexion, the crease that formed between her eyebrows as she concentrated, her rose-colored lips and radiant aura … she held him spellbound.
His gaze dropped to the swell of her breasts. The shirt she wore clung to her curves and had him battling an overwhelming desire to draw her into his arms. Desire? That he wanted Meredith as he did must also set him apart from other ghosts.
These stirrings could only be memories of that sort of physical need, yet everything within him rebelled, screaming that what he felt for her was real. If their fantastical plan should come to fruition, could these stirrings be a sign that he and Meredith were meant to be together? Could he entice her to remain with him in his century?
If so, perhaps he’d eventually be able to persuade her to become his wife. Daniel knew exactly how long it took to fall in love. A single beat of his ghostly heart, his gaze connecting with hers, and he was smitten.
“Hi, Regan,” Meredith said. “Do you have a minute?”
To force his mind away from these stirrings he could do nothing about, he focused on the conversation taking place between the two sisters. Meredith told Regan his sad story and described his plan. He couldn’t hear Regan’s reply, and his mind soon drifted. He envisioned the life he might have with this amazing woman by his side.
He’d take Meredith home with him, reunite his family, and all would be as it was meant to be. Smiling, he stared off toward the horizon, dreaming of a bright future, a future that would take him back to Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century.
“Daniel.” Meredith snapped her fingers in front of his face.
His brow rose, and he blinked back to the present. “Hmm?”
“Where do all you ghosts go when you stare off into nothing like that? I said your name three times before snapping my fingers.”
She had her hands on her hips, and she looked annoyed. “I cannot speak for others, but I was imagining meeting you in the flesh. Had we both been alive at the same time—whether in your century or mine—I would’ve courted you relentlessly, Meredith MacCarthy, for I find you utterly enchanting.”
Her eyes widened and color rose to her cheeks. “Oh.”
The air around Meredith grew warmer, and he swore he could feel his body responding, becoming aroused. “Tell me what your sister said, lass.” Should he apologize for his impertinence? Nay, he meant what he’d said with his whole being.
She muttered something under her breath and raked her fingers through her hair. “Boann is with my twin sister in County Wicklow right now. Regan and her family are joining them at the inn for dinner in a few hours. Regan promised to talk to Boann about us, and she’ll get back to me tomorrow.”
About … us. Nothing would please him more than to be an us with Meredith MacCarthy.
He needed time to come to grips with everything he’d gone through since the day Meredith had entered his non-life. After decades of having nothing to consider, was he even up to the challenges she presented? Too overwhelmed to speak, he nodded, made himself invisible, and glided a short distance away.
“You’re welcome,” she called out, her tone a wee bit miffed.
He’d left her again without so much as a thank you or a farewell. His good manners must have atrophied after more than
