Page 74 of Ghost Walk
It broke Grace’s history-loving heart to see a whole building full of awesome stuff being ignored. The museum should give it all a second life! Let the objects be important again. She’d tried telling Robert that people might be interested if he updated the displays and added some interactive exhibits, but he’d been horrified by the very notion of technology creeping into his static time capsule. Like all the Harrisonburg Historical Museum directors before him, he wanted to maintain the status quo. Forever. It was why the place had remained virtually unchanged for sixty years.
It was also why it was always empty.
Well, except for Grace… and one very pissed off ghost.
“What the bloody hell are you doing?” Jamie appeared in front of her for the first time in twelve hours, an outraged expression on his face.
Apparently, he’d been spying on her. Huge surprise. Whether it was some kind of Rivera sixth sense or her connection to Jamie binding them together, she could feel his presence even when he was invisible. Grace might not have seen him since the Ghost Walk, but she’d known he was still around. Heck, she’d known last night that he wouldn’t really leave her. Jamie loved her. The two of them were Partners. It was why she’d given him everything inside of her and why sherefused to abandon her mission to save him.
But she was still furious at the big, huge jackass.
“What does it look like?” She shot back, shooting him an angry glower. Even whispering, her voice seemed to echo around the deserted interior. “I’m carrying on my investigation alone. You don’t want to help?Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
“You were supposed to stop all together! T’is why I left!”
“You haven’t left. You’re just brooding while invisible and it doesn’t suit you. Pirates don’t sulk. They solve their problems head-on or they go down with the ship.”
“Ididsolve the problem. Being with me will harm you, so I’m being a goddamn gentleman and letting you get on with your life.”
“Well, since it’smy life, I can do what I want with it.” She retorted. “And this isnotyou being a gentleman. This is you being scared.”
“Bloody right I’m scared. I donea want to see you hurt! How do you not ken the danger you’re in?” He followed her through a room full of Colonial era rocking chairs, somehow managing to make himself the aggrieved party in their argument. “You can’tbehere, Grace. Robert could be lurking about, watching you on those damn cameras, for all you know.” He gestured to the overhead security system. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, where is your head, woman?”
“What business is it of yours what I do? You dumped me, remember?”
“I have never and will never ‘dump’ you.” He snapped. “I told you, I want you to stay alive and to live your life, so I am trying to keep my distance.”
“You were invisibly brooding in my apartment all night! How is that keeping your distance?”
“Well, I’m working up togreaterdistances.” He defended staunchly. “I did not watch you in the shower this morning, which is some progress, at least.”
“Oh, you did so watch me.” She’d known he would. In fact, she hadn’t even bothered to close the bathroom door,because she’d wanted to torment him at bit.
“Only for the part where you washed your hair. I’m not made of stone. The point is, I’m trying very hard and you’re determined to screw up my sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?” She rolled her eyes. “Please. Nobody asked you to be a jackass.”
“Nobody ever has toaskme to protect you. The desire is a part of my soul.”
She glanced up at him, refusing to be taken in by his quiet words. “Well, I’m going downstairs. You can come if you want.” She headed for an “employees only” door, thankful that the museum board was too cheap to hire enough guards. “All the evidence from the murders is hidden away in the basement. I helped Robert organize the boxes down there last spring. For free, I might add. Every guy I date issoooounappreciative.”
“Donea dare lump me in with that wanker.” Jamie followed her down the narrow staircase, a sulky expression on his face. “You’re the one who does not appreciate what I am trying to do for you. If you had a bloody clue how much I needed you, you would not be so quick to condemn me.”
“Of course I know how much you need me.” Grace turned to look at him in surprise. “It’s exactly how much I need you. Not that you care, since youdumped me.”
He scoffed at that. “Why in the hell would you need me? I’m not even here.” He passed his fingers back and forth through the railing to prove his point. “You would be safely tucked away in your pastel apartment right now, if it wasn’t for me. Parting with you is theleastselfish thing I have ever attempted and I get no credit for it.” He made a face. “Being a gentleman is even less rewarding than I imagined.”
“I don’t want you to part from me!” She stopped walking and regarded him earnestly, shocked that he didn’t see what was so obvious. “Why should I thank you for doing something that hurt me?”
“Hurt you? I would never…”
“You did! Just the idea of being apart makes me miserable, Jamie. You’re my Partner! My whole life, I’ve been waiting for you to show up and save me.”
His eyes jumped to hers in astonishment.
“You’re my Partner.” Grace repeated, when he just gaped at her. “I would have told you that last night if you’d given me a chance. There’s no other man, alive or dead, in my future. There’s just you. Now and forever.”
Jamie’s resolve to dump her vanished like it had never been there at all. The great thing about dating a pirate was they sucked at being noble. Gentlemanly impulses or not, Jamie’s deepest instinct would always be to grab everything he wanted and claim it for his own. It was part of his scoundrel-y DNA.
