Page 63 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“I can’t forget impressions. The best I could do was lock it away, but I still feel it, drifting around in the deepest depths of my memory palace like a constant threat.” She looked at him again. “If one ghost did that, what would more do? If I ever got possessed by a ghost, I’m terrified I would disappear completely.”
His expression folded into worry. “Can you see ghosts?”
She sat up, caught in his gaze and refusing to let go, eager to reassure him. “I suspect I see them the way a regular person would: only if the ghost is strong enough,” she said. “Most people don’t have that kind of ESP. They just think they do but it’s incredibly rare to see a fully realized ghost. It happened to me once and that was enough. I avoid anywhere I think they might be.”
“Good. That’s good to know.” His smile was fleeting. “You always seem so eager to put yourself in dangerous situations. You have no idea how much I worry about you getting hurt.”
Lucky almost couldn’t believe that Maverickbelievedher. She saw it written all over his face. He wasn’t going to call her dramatic or stupid or weird. He wasn’t going to laugh or text his friends to make fun of her. An old, weathered piece of hurt she’d been carrying for years began to dissolve.
Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.
She cupped her hand against his left cheek and softly kissed him on his right. He didn’t move as her fingers caressed across his jaw until she tried to pull away.
Maverick caught her hand in midair, kissing her knuckles. His second set of kisses turned into a smile against her palm at the sound of her surprised gasp. And then, he placed her hand back where it’d been against his cheek, holding it there.
All at once, she rushed forward and it was happening andthen it wasn’t because she suddenly inhaled, stealing the literal last breath of air between them.
Reeling backward at the last minute, she ran to her room. “I have to go. Good night!”
Lucky dove into bed, burrowing under the covers.Shit, she’d done it again. Sheaskedfor slow. Shetoldhim slow.
Why did she feel like they were going a hundred miles per hour?
And why was she suddenly okay with not slowing down?
There was still so much she needed to tell him.
Lucky made the mistake of rolling over and locked eyes with Georgia, who was awake and staring at her.
Georgia read like an active war zone. A natural assertiveness complicated by extremism versus a deep fear of being docile—broken. She craved genuine human connection as if it were a basic necessity, enjoying the weight of other people’s lives when held against her own. Parts of her were also prone to falling into darkness but felt compartmentalized. Unable to fully take root.
“Not dating, huh?”
“Talking isn’t dating,” Lucky whispered.
“Late-night talking after everyone is sleeping is secret affair territory. How scandalous of you.”
“It’s not a secret affair.” She summoned her courage and whispered, “We’re taking it slow.”
“Not for much longer, if that look on your face has anything to say about it.” Georgia grinned. “Good night, babes.”
21
Lucky woke up before sunrise when her phone vibrated against her boob with yet another unknown call. She really had to stop sleeping with the damn thing.
Last night she’d almost kissed Maverick.
Never in her life had she ever made the first move. She never even wanted to before. Her first crush wasn’t until sophomore year of college—Holly Jenkins, who she sat next to in Religion and Mythology—and she would’ve chosen death over confessing. And now here she was almostkissingpeople first. Look at her go. Moving on up.
After Louis broke up with her, she just couldn’t bring herself to try dating again. She had truly convinced herself it’d never be worth it. But Maverick was proving her wrong.
Georgia’s gentle snores in the background kept her grounded lest she float away from feeling too buoyant and optimistic. For the first time, in a very, very long time, she felt disgustingly, overwhelmingly hopeful.
Was her abundance of good feelings solely because of Maverick? Or was it because her life was suddenly filled with a kaleidoscope of different people who were all kind and interested in her, in one way or another? The answer, she knew, was both.
Their room’s door forcefully swung open, and Rebel marched in wearing pajamas covered in cartoon koala bears. She stopped beside Lucky’s bed. “Oh, you’re awake.”
“Disappointed?”
