Call On Me (5 page)

“Hi.” Lori
yawned.

“Hi back.”

Opening the
‘fridge to take out a Diet Coke, Lori raised her brows. “You went
shopping?”

“No, the food
fairy came while you slept and restocked everything.”

“Huh. Did she
also leave a really nice t-shirt on my dressing table?”

“What makes you
think the food fairy is a woman? Maybe it’s a really hot
bloke.”

Popping the tab
of the can, Lori wandered over to the kitchen bench and leaned
against it, smothering another yawn. “A hot bloke in a tutu just
doesn’t seem right.”

“Who said he
was wearing a tutu? I had a loin cloth in mind.”

Taking a sip of
the Diet Coke, Lori stared thoughtfully at the clock on the far
wall before finally nodding. “Yep, I have to agree. Our food fairy
is a hot bloke in a loin cloth.”

Ali grinned.
“So much more fun. Wait until you hear what the bedroom fairy
wears.”

“Perish the
thought.”

“Oh, come on. I
have dimensions in mind and everything.”

Lori
grimaced.

“You’re no
fun.” Ali’s eyes gleamed. “We could guess about the dimensions of a
certain neighbour.”

“Ghost?”

“Geez, no!”
Appalled, Ali screwed up her nose. “That’s just gross. Bite your
tongue, you disgusting wench.”

“Hey, I’m just
saying.” Lori took another sip of drink. “You know, I’ve heard some
girls discuss his dimensions. They say-” Her words were cut off by
the tea towel Ali held being pressed against her mouth. Shoving it
aside, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Argh!”

“Ghost’s
dimensions are not to be discussed in here,” Ali said sternly.

“Actually, they
are rather interesting.”

“No!” Grabbing
the wooden spoon, Ali pointed it at her. “No, we are not now, nor
ever, discussing Ghost’s anatomy.
Ever
. Understood?”

“But-”

“No!”

Lori’s eyes
twinkled. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on.”

Ali glared at
her. “That’s sick. The man is almost our brother.”

“Sure. Okay.
But still, he isn’t really our brother and the saying amongst the
girls is that his di-”

Sticking her
fingers in her ears, Ali started singing loudly, “Lalalalalalala! I
can’t hear you! Lalalalala!”

Grinning, Lori
started to say something more, only to stop and look towards the
back door. Her cheeks pinkened.

Oh crap.
Fingers still stuck in her ears, Ali swung around to see Ghost
standing just inside the door, his quizzical gaze sweeping back and
forth between her and Lori.

Pulling her
fingers from her ears, she smiled weakly. Crap crap crap, what had
he heard? And why did her gaze suddenly drop to the crotch of his
old jeans?

Chapter 2

Was Ali staring
at his crotch? Ghost glanced down to ensure his fly wasn’t open,
but no, it was safely zipped up. Looking back up, he found her
smiling at him, her gaze on his eyes.

He just had to
be mistaken. He looked at Lori, her flushed cheeks plain to see.
They’d been discussing something that had her a little embarrassed
and he wondered what it could be. “Care to share?” He wandered into
the kitchen.

“No.” Ali
turned back to the stove.

“Huh. How about
you, Lori?” He took the chair opposite her.

“Nope.” Lori
shook her head, her cheeks flushing even more, her lashes falling
to hide her eyes.

Hmmm.
Intriguing. “You know I’ll find out.”

Ali laughed.
“You wish.”

“I have my
ways.”

“Yeah, right.
So, are you set for tonight?”

“Of course. I’m
always set.” Bending down, he carefully scooped Minx up onto his
lap, rubbing behind her ears, her purr his reward.

“I don’t know
what you get out of heading into supposedly haunted places,” Lori
said.

“Atmosphere.
Chills, thrills. What’s not to love?”

“Fear?”

“Fear is
thrilling.”

“No, fear is
scary.”

“Shit your
pants scary?”

“Pretty
much.”

Grinning, Ghost
looked at Ali. “You love it.”

“It has its
moments.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

“Right.”

“Okay, it’s a
bit of fun. Plus I can make sure that nothing happens to you and
we’re forced to take in that load of misfit cats you hoard next
door.”

“Hey, those are
my family.”

“They’re
hooligans.”

“I take
offence.”

“There’s the
door.”

“Ohhh, hard
words. If you’re going to treat me like that…” He turned his
attention to Lori. “How’s work?”

“Same old, same
old.”

“Huh. You on
night shift for long?”

“For a
while.”

Trying to get
information from Lori was like trying to pull teeth. Then again,
she’d always been like that. Placing Minx back on the floor, he
leaned forward and plucked the can of Diet Coke from her hands.
Standing, he swigged leisurely from the can. “So, I’ll come around
nine o’clock, Ali.”

“I knew that
already.”

“You are a hard
woman.”

“Why, thank
you.” She dropped her gaze modestly.

Laughing, Ghost
strode across the floor. He’d just made it to the door when she
asked, “By the way, what did you want?”

“Huh?”

“You came here
for something, and it wasn’t to steal Lori’s drink.”

“True. The
stealing was just fun.” He winked at Lori, who rolled her eyes,
before switching his gaze to Ali. “I actually came to tell you that
Brian has been shooting his mouth off, but don’t worry, he won’t be
doing it anymore.”

She looked
seriously at him for several long seconds before saying, “You saw
him.”

“Let’s just say
we had a friendly chat and he’s going to watch his mouth from now
on.”

A faint blush
appeared in her cheeks. “I can look after myself, Ty.”

Uh-oh
.
Ty
. Ali was annoyed. Time to tread carefully. However, he’d
known her for years and he knew just what verbal mines to avoid
stepping on. “Never doubted it. I just heard him talking in front
of me and I had a little chat to him.”

In fact, Brian
had been mouthing off about ‘the tease’ he’d dated and dumped the
night before, but he’d not managed to say Ali’s name before he saw
Ghost step behind the man Brain was talking to, and the threatening
scowl levelled over his shoulder.

He’d said a
quick goodbye and hustled out of the supermarket.

Ghost had been
right behind him, managing to neatly side-step him into the little
alley beside the supermarket. One growled, “Drag Ali’s name through
the mud, arsehole, and you’re history’ pretty much said it all.
Brain knew Ghost from school, and Brian, being a coward at heart
when it came to taking on someone his own size, much less someone a
whole lot bigger and with a lot more muscle, had blustered and
bluffed. Ghost’s added growl of “Dumping her on the side of the
road just begs a thrashing” had Brian sweating, apologising
profusely and scurrying away. Ali’s name was safe. Ghost would have
felt better punching the turd’s nose in, but the law frowned upon
it. If the world were a better place, then a werewolf would have
been waiting at Brian’s house to tear him apart, however, the world
wasn’t like his books so he had to take satisfaction in scaring
Brain off the old fashioned way.

Threats.

When it came to
Ali, he’d threatened a few blokes. A couple she knew, most she
didn’t, and there was no need for it to be any other way. It had
been like that all through high school, so why change now?

He smiled
winningly. “Am I forgiven?”

“No.”

“But you still
love me.”

“I’ll think
about it.”

“Minx still
loves me.”

“That’s because
you rub her ears.”

“How about if I
rub your ears?”

Ali pointed the
wooden spoon at him. “If you don’t want me to box
your
ears,
you’ll make tracks. Now.”

“Okay.” At the
door, he smiled back at her. “But you’ll still bring the snacks,
right?”

She rolled her
eyes. “Yes, yes, I’ll bring some snacks to the scary ghost
hunt.”

Laughing, Ghost
left. Jumping the fence easily that divided his house from the
Mackay home, he almost fell on top of Abraham, who meowed up at
him, disgruntled, as a butterfly he was obviously stalking took off
into the air.

“Oops, sorry.”
Lifting up the big tabby, Ghost returned to his house. “Time to
come in for the night anyway, old boy.”

Hanging
grumpily over Ghost’s arm, Abraham batted at the dream catcher a
fan had sent Ghost and he’d hung on the back veranda. The dream
catcher swung in the air but the tabby didn’t get a chance to try
again as he was carried inside the kitchen and the security screen
shut securely behind him.

No sooner had
Ghost set Abraham on the floor than he straightened to face four
other furry feline faces looking at him from various positions
around the kitchen. Mort had a breakfast stool, Mauve’s furry bum
was firmly parked on the corner of the kitchen bench, Millie
sprawled elegantly along the kitchen mat near the sink, and Max was
half hanging off the kitchen table with a plastic flower hanging
out of his mouth.

At the sight of
Ghost, Max sprang off the table but refused to relinquish the
flower. Mauve regarded him disdainfully, clearly not worried at
being sprung sitting on the forbidden bench.

No, she knew
who ruled the house, Ghost thought ruefully. But he could still
pretend. “Hey, fur ball, off the bench.”

Her crossed
blue eyes surveyed him lazily out of her seal point face.

“Yes, I’d be
aiming that at you, missy.” Ghost walked across the kitchen to her,
reaching out to lift her off the forbidden zone, when she pulled
her cute act, flopping over onto her side and batting playfully at
his hands, all sweet and innocent and
look-at-me-I’m-just-a-little-kitty expression. Combined with her
brilliant blue, crossed eyes, Ghost was a goner.

“Pathetic.” He
shook his head at himself and his finger at Mauve. “Just make sure
you never get on the bench when Mum comes around.”

Mauve rolled
over onto her back and displayed her tummy.

With a sigh,
Ghost gave it a rub.

Millie did
everything but roll her eyes. Max just sat there with the fake
flower hanging out of his mouth. Mort ambled over to the cupboard
and started yelling demandingly for his tinned food.

Knowing he’d
get no peace until his furry kids were fed, Ghost broke open the
tins of food and fed them. Sure enough, he hadn’t even finished
toasting a cheese sandwich for himself before they all ambled out
of the kitchen to their various haunts in the house, Max retrieving
the fake flower from the floor and dragging it through the doorway
behind him.

Rinsing out the
five bowls, Ghost left them draining in the rack on the sink and
munched on his toasted sandwich. True, it wouldn’t fill him for
long, but knowing Ali, she’d have some very tasty snacks packed to
bring with them.

Going upstairs,
he checked his email, replied to his agent that yes, his book was
on-track, and was, in fact, ahead of schedule, deleted spam, and
answered fan mail. Then he indulged in his favourite past-time,
searching the internet for new books to read and checking to see if
his favourite authors had new books out. Having a huge weakness for
creature features, he ordered a couple of zombie and ghost movies,
even though he suspected they might not be that particularly good.
But hell, he needed something new to watch in the horror line.

He’d just drag
Ali over so he could have the amusement of listening to her moan
and groan and watch her roll those pretty green eyes when something
particularly corny happened on the screen.

At ten to nine
he locked the house, all the cats safely ensconced inside, and
hopping into the panel van, he backed out of his driveway and
pulled up in front of the Mackay’s garage. Ali was already waiting
at the front door with an esky at her feet.

“Girl, I love
you.” Jumping onto the veranda, he picked up the esky.

“Are you
talking to me or the esky?” Ali queried dryly.

Lovingly, he
ran his hands over the sides of the esky. “What do you think?”

“Do you want
some time alone with it?”

“I’ll content
myself with loving caresses.”

“Pervert.”

“Jealous.”

Shaking her
head, Ali followed him to the van, opening the passenger door and
sliding inside while he put the esky into the back.

Coming around,
he slid behind the steering wheel, started the car and flashed Ali
a grin. “Ready to ghost hunt?”

“Abso-freakin’lutely.” Her eyes sparkled.

Oh yeah, Ali
might like to tease him about chasing ghosts but she loved it as
much as he. However, while he loved the mystery and the unknown,
she loved the thrills and chills.

To be truthful,
he got inspiration from ghost hunts, going through old, abandoned
buildings with a torch, waiting by a deserted road for a phantom
truck or hitchhiker, most of which he’d never really
discovered.

There had been
a couple of times he’d felt a chill, his hair had risen on his
neck, and his breath once had actually fogged before him on a warm
night, but that had been it.

Ali swore she
saw ghost and things moving every time she was with him. He quite
unashamedly used her reactions in his books, to her pretended
annoyance.

It wasn’t long
before they were on the highway, the only way in and out of the
small town he loved and had called home since he was born.

Ali leaned
forward in the seat to fiddle with the radio. He glanced at her,
taking in the stretch jeans she wore on these outings, along with
sturdy sneakers. Her t-shirt was short-sleeved, her rounded upper
arms softly pale against the darker material. The thick hair was
pulled up on her head in some kind of messy bun he liked, mainly
because little wisps fell down to dance around her apple cheeks,
one long curl caressing the corner of her lips.