Page 16 of The Ghost of You

She runs off and returns a few moments later, pulling an oversized sweatshirt over her head. “You could have told me I looked like I just woke from the grave.”

“I liked looking at those nipples too much,” I joke.

She rolls her eyes. “I just can’t with you.”

She focuses her attention on the water. “You bought me a new showerhead?”

“I had to pick up a few things to fix it, thought a new showerhead wouldn’t hurt.”

“How much was everything? Let me grab some cash,” she says as she turns out of the bathroom.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say and turn off the water, convinced everything is now in working order.

“No way, Noah. You didn’t have to fix this.”

“Meh. Now I know you won’t need my shower at three in the morning.”

“It was one time,” she says, folding her arms across her chest.

“One time I won’t forget,” I mutter.

Her cheeks blush. “Can we just not talk about it? Pretend last night didn’t happen?”

I purse my lips and look up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I don’t think I can forget about it.”

“Well we aren’t talking about it again.” She ends the conversation by walking out of the bathroom and I follow her. She grabs her purse off the floor and hands me a few twenties. “This is all I have in here. How much more do I owe you?”

I look down at the sixty bucks. I spent well over a hundred and fifty but I’ll take the hit as payment for the embarrassment. “That’s more than enough.”

“Liar.” She sets her purse down and then sits on her couch. “Thank you though. I mean it. My landlord brushed me off. I have no idea when he would have gotten it fixed.”

“Really?” I ask, taking a seat on a chair across from her. “That’s against your lease agreement, I would think.”

She shrugs. “Well he told me yesterday he moved to Florida and is thinking of selling the place. That was his solution.”

“Asshat. My brother’s a lawyer, he might be able to give you some legal advice. I mean he mostly handles criminal defense but he is smarter than he looks.”

“Don’t tell me he was the one who grabbed my ass. He couldn’t be, right? He is only twenty-one?”

I shake my head. “Nah, that’s my youngest brother Asher. Although he is in school for pre-law. My brother, Carson, is the lawyer.”

She twirls a piece of red hair between her fingers. “How many brothers do you have?”

“Five. And they are all assholes.”

“They would have to be if they are related to you,” she says with a smile.

“Touché. So do you play music? I noticed your sunroom has a lot of music memorabilia in it when I walked through it.”

She bites her lip before answering. “More or less. I went to school for music. I like to mess around with it sometimes.”

I don’t know how I knew but I could tell she was lying. There is no way someone has that many instruments or sheets of music unless they focused it on it deeply. “Well if you ever want to mess around with it, you should meet my other brother Mason. He’s in a band or two. I can never keep track. But he is in the process of opening his own studio.”

At the word studio, she perks up. “Wow, really? That’s amazing. What does he want to do with it?”

“Produce music. He wants to find up-and-coming bands and get them known. I’ve heard some of the music he’s mixed, it’s good. Not that I know much.” I point to my ear. “Untrained ear.”

She smiles at that. “I would love to check it out. If you don’t think he would mind.”

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