Page 52 of Devil in the Details

“What’re you in the mood for?” she asked as they headed into the living room.

“Anything,” he said with a grin. “Lunch was a while ago, so I’m open.”

That made things easier. So far, it didn’t seem as if there was any particular type of cuisine he actively avoided, so she felt okay with suggesting a Mediterranean place that wasn’t too far away, one that offered DoorDash.

Caleb was amenable to that, so soon enough, they’d placed their order and then opened the bottle of wine he brought. As she’d guessed, it was a red blend from California, and the first sip told her it should go perfectly with their kabob and shawarma.

They sat down in the living room to wait for the food to arrive. After he’d sipped some wine, he said, “So, what happened?”

She blinked at him. Was he asking about her date?

“Something must have happened,” he said reasonably. “Or you wouldn’t have called me over to have takeout on a Monday night.”

“You’ve been here for takeout before,” she pointed out, but his mouth only quirked.

“True, but usually not after you’ve had such a full day at work. So I figure something must have gone down yesterday, something you didn’t want to wait to talk about.”

Well, he had her there. “A couple of things, actually,” she replied. “But now I’m starting to wonder if it was just my mind playing tricks on me.”

He drank some more wine before he responded. “From what I’ve been able to tell, you’re not the kind of person whose brain messes with them too much. So…what happened?”

Where to start? With that unexpected summons from Ty Carter, of all people…not that she’d known at the time who had sent the text…or the weird way she’d possibly heard Aaron Sanchez’s thoughts after what had seemed like an utterly prosaic first date?

She decided that talking about the ghost in the updated ’90s house was probably a better place to start, simply because that incident had occurred earlier in the day.

And also because it seemed much less fraught than discussing her date with Aaron, for whatever reason.

However, she’d barely opened her mouth to answer Caleb’s question when the doorbell rang.

“Let me get that,” she said, then set down her glass of wine so she could go to the door.

He rose as well — not to follow her, but to pick up her glass and carry it and the one he already held over to the table so the wine would be waiting for them when they sat down to eat. They’d already left the partially full bottle in the dining room, so they wouldn’t have to worry about that part.

Soon enough, they’d both seated themselves and started portioning out all the goodies they’d ordered — kabob and rice and grilled vegetables, shawarma and fresh pita bread and this amazing creamy dip that looked sort of like hummus but was made with puréed potatoes and garlic. Once they were done with that, however, Caleb settled himself against the back of his chair and gave her a very direct look.

“Well?”

No point in trying to wiggle out of it, especially since she was the one who’d asked him over here specifically so she’d have a sympathetic ear for her tales of supernatural woe.

All right, maybe “woe” wasn’t exactly the right word, but she had to admit that yesterday had been weird by anyone’s standards…even a quarter demon’s.

“I got a text from someone who needed a house cleared,” she said.

Caleb looked nonplussed by that revelation. “And?” he responded, then put a forkful of chicken kabob in his mouth.

“The text was from Ty Carter,” she said.

Both Caleb’s brown brows — several shades darker than his hair — lifted in surprise. “His house is haunted?”

“I don’t think it’s his house,” Delia replied. “I think he just called me there because he wanted to watch me in action, so to speak.”

“But there was a ghost.”

“Definitely,” she said, then paused. Although she was glad that the spirit of the girl had finally been able to move on after spending so many years haunting the property, it was still sad to think of all the milestones she’d missed, from learning how to drive to attending prom, or going to college and discovering her passion as she moved into the world of adults.

All that gone, simply because of a trip and fall in the dark.

“What did you think of him?” Caleb asked, which Delia found telling. He hadn’t pressed for further details about the ghost she’d encountered, but instead was far more interested in the man who’d summoned her to the house in the first place.

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