Page 11 of A Midlife Vanishing Trick

Julian frowned. “Problem?”

“Let’s just say I’ll be sleeping in the barn for the time being.”

Aaron looked at him like he’d lost his marbles. “You can’t sleep in the barn. I’m sure we can get you a room—”

“No.” Stanley smiled and shook his head. “I’ll be fine. It’s comfortable in here. Besides, once you’ve had to survive on Frost Mountain, sleeping in a barn doesn’t sound so terrible.”

Once again, the two men exchanged a glance. Once again, Stanley didn’t bother trying to explain himself to them. Right now, there was only one person whoreallyneeded an explanation, and she wouldn’t speak to him.

Great to be back home,he thought sarcastically.

“I gotta say, boss,” Julian said, “you seem strange.”

Aaron nodded. “Yeah. Reminds me of that other guy from yesterday.”

It was Stanley’s turn to be confused. “What guy?”

“Some new guy in town. People have been wondering about him. No one knows who he is or where he’s from, but he’s been spotted a couple of times since last night.”

“Yeah, there’s something funny about him,” Julian said. “Maybe it’s the way he dresses. From what I heard, he was wearing some kind of fur clothing, like he’d come from the North Pole.”

The cowhands chuckled, but all Stanley could do was stare. His heart sank into the pit of his stomach as the reality of their words hit him, and his inner snow leopard recoiled.

Johan’s in Torpe.

***

“So, how’d it go with Mr. Lucky last night?” Celine asked.

Allison couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She raised her coffee mug to her lips, unsure how her friend would react when she told her all that had happened. But that was exactly why she’d phoned.

“I didn’t talk to him much,” she admitted. “I left him at the bar last night.”

Her best friend let out a groan. “You’ve gotta be kidding me, Allison. I thought I told you to find a date. How are you supposed to move on if you don’t actuallytryto move on? We’ve talked about this. You need to—”

“Something else happened last night.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “You hooked up with someone else?”

“No,” Allison said firmly. And she told her what had happened after she left the Blue Cicada, concluding with this morning’s interesting little encounter with Stanley.

“I told him to get out of the house,” she finished. “He’s sleeping in the barn now.”

For the next few seconds, Celine said nothing, and Allison couldn’t help but wonder what thoughts were going throughher friend’s mind. Stanley’s sudden appearance had come as a surprise to them. Neither of them could have imagined Stanley would return after so many years.

“This is ... definitely something,” the woman said finally. “I don’t even know where to start. I mean ... how come he’s backnow?”

Allison shrugged as though her friend could see it. “That’s what I asked him. I was so convinced it was impossible that when he returned, I thought I’d only dreamed it until he showed up in the house. Talk about an early-morning jump scare.”

Celine took her time to respond. For the first time in a while, Allison’s friend seemed to be at a loss for words. No surprises there. Even Allison was surprised she was still talking. Her mind was racing a thousand miles a minute, struggling to figure out exactly what the hell was going on—and seemed to be failing at it. It all made no sense to her.

For the second time this morning, an image filled her mind: Stanley standing in the middle of the road last night, staring wordlessly back at her. In the glare of the truck’s headlights, he’d looked more like a ghost than anything else. No wonder she’d fainted on the spot.

Hehadbeen a ghost. For four years, he’d been gone with no explanation and no way to track him. He might as well have been dead. Only now, he wasn’t. He was alive and well and on her property.

The thought made her heart flutter. All of this had happened so fast for her to process. Asking him to leave had been a good call. If she’d had to spend another moment in his presence, she wasn’t sure what she would have done. Stanley had always aroused feelings in her. Even now, back from the “dead” after all this time, that hadn’t changed.

Yeah ... she definitely hadn’t moved on.

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