“Mabel wants to go on,” Gray said.
“Is that something you can just do?” Dan asked. He lifted a hand. “Remember, I’m new at this. Katie is the old pro!”
“Did you call me old?” Katie teased.
Dan groaned, and the ghosts laughed.
“I think so,” Mabel said. “Anyway, I’m going to try. I’ve seen others...”
“I’m... I’m going with her,” Gray said, looking at Katie.
“That’s lovely,” Katie said.
“You’ll be all right...yes, you’ll be all right. You, lady, you can kick!” Gray told her.
“And she’s hell on wheels with a gumbo pot, too,” Dan assured him.
“So, then...”
Mabel walked up to Dan, pressing ghostly lips to both his cheeks. “Bye, handsome.”
“Thank you, gorgeous,” he whispered in return.
Likewise, Gray said goodbye to Katie, hugging her, glancing at Dan mischievously, and kissing her on the lips.
“Thank you!” she told him. “For everything.”
“Well, I don’t want to be a cliché, but... Love, it’s eternal. It never dies. We’ll bring yours with us!” he promised.
“And we’ll feel like fools, sweetie, if we don’t go anywhere!” Mabel said.
But they did go. They stood hand in hand in front of the family tomb.
“It is light, sweet, dazzling, kind, gentle... I can feel it!” Mabel said.
Katie wasn’t sure if she really saw the light, but there was a streak, perhaps the setting sun. They were about to throw anyone remaining out of the cemetery. It was late and closing time.
So it was there. That sweeping shaft of light.
And they were gone, and Katie was there alone with Dan, smiling, holding his hand.
He looked down at her and smiled. “Love. I love you.”
She smiled in return. “And I love you. Go figure! How the hell did that happen?”
“Because I was always dashing and wonderful,” he said. “You were just too busy hating me to notice.”
She groaned. Hand in hand, they exited the cemetery and headed across the street. Jeremy had managed to organize a dinner party with George, Benny, Matt and Lorna. A goodbye dinner.
Because in the morning, they’d be leaving NOLA.
Dan looked at her.
“We’ll always be back,” he said.
She nodded. “Want to know what else?”
“What?”
“I think I’m going to teach you to dive.”
“I know how to dive!”
“Good. I won’t need to teach you too much, then!” she told him.
Laughing, they headed across to the restaurant.
Whatever their tomorrows might bring, they’d be facing them together. They’d both faced the past, and it was time for the future.
Katie smiled.
Go figure.
It had been in putting her past to rest that she’d found the most amazing future.
She looked up to the sky. It was still blue here and there as the sun fell. The stars were coming out. She liked to think her parents were there, riding the night sky.
And that, somehow, they saw.
And they were happy.
Don’t miss these New York Times author Heather Graham’s latest books in her chilling paranormal series Krewe of Hunters,
Seeing Darkness
Deadly Touch
Dreaming Death
Available from MIRA Books. Order your copies today!
ISBN-13: 9780369701039
The Unforgiven
Copyright © 2021 by Heather Graham Pozzessere
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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