Page 40 of Ghost Girl

‘There’s no look,’ I objected, though we both knew that was a bold-faced lie.

‘Don’t, Chance. Please, just… don’t do something stupid that you can’t take back.’

‘I promise. I’m not going to do anything stupid.’

She eyed me suspiciously, but there wasn’t anything she could say or do that would fix this. Seven years was a long time to keep pushing forward when I had nothing to show for it at the end of the day. I needed to fix things, and there was only one way to do that.

‘Guys, Rhodes needs to get inside, and I can’t carry him on my own,’ Gloria called out, cutting through the tension. I appreciated the distraction, especially with a task that gave me something useful to do with myself besides sitting around moping. That wouldn’t bring Kali back. Nothing could. But I was certainly looking forward to joining her.

Making the decision had lifted the weight from my shoulders, and though my heart hurt, I felt like I could breathe for the first time in seven long years.

My strength returned to my extremities immediately after my decision had settled into my bones, and I pushed up easily from the grass. Almost too easily. I felt almost weightless. Even when Rhodes leaned his full weight against me as I half-dragged, half-carried him back to his house, I barely felt a thing, like I was pulling along a cloud. And Rhodes wasn’t a small guy.

I still had his keys, so I pulled them out, found the one that wasn’t connected to a fob, and inserted it into the keyhole. I pushed the door open once I heard the click and let the sick man direct me to the living room. I placed him gently on the couch. It was an old thing, brown and floral like something from the seventies. Ugly, but it looked comfortable, like it had been recently reupholstered. My theory was confirmed when I sat beside him, and the cushions were firm and comfortable with just enough give to cup my body without fully sinking in.

‘Do you need anything, Rhodes?’ Ashe asked. ‘Water? Hot tea? A blanket?’

‘Water would be great, if you wouldn’t mind. Glasses are in the first cupboard, and the filter’s in the fridge. I need my phone, too…’

Gloria handed him his phone, explaining that it had fallen from his pocket outside and she’d picked it up. He thanked her, took the cool glass of water from Ashe when she returned, and gulped it down. Then, he held the phone up to his ear and started talking to someone on the other end of the line.

‘I’m not coming in today, Fred.’ He paused like he was listening, then responded to whatever they said. ‘Yeah. Cancer’s back. In my head this time. I was gonna tell you soon, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. You can come over later and we can talk.’

The conversation went back and forth for a while, and I gathered Rhodes was handing over the reins of the campsite to Fred while he was out sick. But what stuck with me were those two little words that brought into focus the struggles this man must have survived already, only to get taken out by it anyway.

‘Cancer’sback?’I asked once he hung up the phone. ‘How many times have you had it?’

‘This would be the sixth. I’ve had some form of cancer eating away at me my entire life,’ he responded candidly.

‘Jesus. All those times you beat it, only for it to keep coming back. That’s rough, man.’ I meant it. I was in awe of him. He must have suffered greatly his whole life, constantly sick, in and out of hospitals, wondering if this time was the time that would get him. I guessed this time was it.

He just shrugged and used the now-empty glass to cool his forehead. ‘I’m just glad I made it this far. A lot of people didn’t think I’d make it to adulthood, let alone almost to thirty.’

‘How old are you, anyway?’ I asked.

‘Just turned twenty-seven this past May.’

‘Damn. You’re almost a decade younger than me. You’re tough as hell, man.’

He snorted, amused. ‘And you’re old.’

‘It’s the grey hairs,’ Ashe teased as she sat on the opposite couch with Gloria at her side.

‘Maybe, but he pulls off the salt-and-pepper look. I bet a silver fox like you gets all the ladies,’ he winked. His comment brought uproarious laughter from Ashe and an amused giggle from Gloria.

‘Chance doesn’t date.’

Rhodes’ eyebrows disappeared behind the hair that was flopped over his forehead. ‘No? Why not? I bet you’d pull whatever girl you wanted.’

But I was already shaking my head. ‘There’s only ever been one woman I wanted,’ I admitted with a sadness that was embedded so deeply inside me it was like it had been carved into my very bones.

‘But she married your brother, and now she’s… dead,’ he surmised. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Nothing for you to apologise for, Rhodes. Don’t worry about it.’

‘You never told her, huh?’ he guessed.

‘Nope.’

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