Page 28 of Pay Dirt

“Dude, that was first grade and you picked a flower from your mother’s prized rose garden and gave it to her. How was I supposed to compete with that?” John said.

“What girl could turn down the prettiest rose this side of the Mississippi after he told me I was just as pretty?” Monica said, leaning into John’s chest.

John smiled at Monica before pressing his lips to hers in a kiss that heatedmycheeks. They broke the embrace, and John whispered, “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby,” Monica said, wrapping her arm around his waist. “Now feed me before I have to kill you and reconsider my options.”

I chuckled. This entire situation was crazy, but I liked Monica. She was as nutty as my family. Not that I’d let her get within ten feet of Nathan. My stomach twisted at the thought.

“You two are coming to the competitions, right?” John asked.

“Aren’t you too old to still be competing?” Nathan teased. “I’d hate for you to break a hip.” Nathan chuckled.

“I’m not competing anymore. I’m a judge.” He held out his hand and shook Nathan’s again. “Swing by the house tomorrow afternoon. I’m barbequing.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nathan said, backtracking.

Monica took John’s hand and started pulling him out of the alley. She pointed at me. “Cassie, you two should show up. I promise embarrassing stories.”

I smiled. Nathan dropped his arms from around my waist and took me by the hand.

“That was interesting.”

“I would have warned you, but there wasn’t time.” Nathan glanced at me and grinned.

“You had me fooled.”

“John is Uncle Dan’s son. Our families used to vacation and rodeo together. They still do sometimes. Amanda and Marty still ride together. They’re thick as thieves.”

There was no question that Amanda and Marty were close, but I think there was more to their story than just being on the circuit together. When they’d been over, I watched as Amanda’s entire demeanor changed from a take-charge type of girl into one a bit shyer as Marty approached. Not that I’d mention that to Nathan.

“So where to now?” I asked.

Nathan led me up the street. “I need to make one more stop if that’s okay with you.”

The streets were deserted this time of night. We walked hand in hand almost to the outskirts of town near where the rodeo was set up. He turned at a brick sign that read, Millville Cemetery.

‘You know I’ve had dates take me to a lot of unusual places, but the cemetery is a first for me.”

Nathan chuckled. “You aren’t scared, are you?”

“Ghosts and zombies don’t scare me,” I teased and forced myself not to rub at the goosebumps forming on my arm. I wasn’t lying. Those things didn’t scare me; it was the thought of being buried alive. My sister Mercy had touched me once and made the mistake of telling me how I was going to die. At the time we were young and it was just a game. It was soon after we realized that she’d accurately predicted other deaths.

So now, I stayed clear of places where those things might come to pass. I fought hard to control my thoughts from straying and making it worse. I watched my step as we walked. I scanned my surrounding. There wasn’t a threat in sight. No yawning pit for me to fall into, no skulking villain lurking nearby to make that happen.

Tension knotted in my shoulders as Nathan stopped at a grave. Jenna Murray was carved into the stone’s surface. Roses sat in the attached vase. She’d been forty-three when she died and had died on her birthday.

“How awful that she died on her birthday. That must make celebrating her life more difficult since you mourn her too.”

“She was still in her prime,” Nathan said, lowering to his knees. He picked the stray leaves resting at the bottom of the stone and tossed them away. “Every year on her birthday my dad would buy her a cake and Mildred would help me make some dried pasta necklace or something as equally stupid, and my mom would disappear for two hours of her birthday without fail. My dad used to tell me that she deserved it. It was herme-time.”

“She was probably going to the spa or getting her nails done,” I offered.

Nathan chuckled. “Mom didn’t bother with her nails. They stayed dirty digging in her flower gardens. She used to tell me the more time she spent with her flowers, the more peace of mind they gave her.”

Flowers made her calm? If that was the case, maybe I should try something similar.

I ran my fingers over the beautiful petals. The crystal vibrated against my chest. Maybe there was something to this. Maybe his mother had solved how to de-stress. “Maybe I should try to grow a garden.”

Nathan pulled dimes from his pocket and used his finger to dig a tiny hole next to her headstone. He placed them in the hole and covered them up.

“Are you trying to grow a money tree, because, let me tell you, I’ve tried. It didn’t work.”

“I always leave her dimes. She likes to put them in my path.”

“You know they check in on us, right? One of my sisters is like a ghost whisperer.”

---