Chapter 1

Chapter One

As a more or less private person, there were only certain things Natalie Chase was more than willing to confess aloud to others.

Telling Harper, Red and Bethany last year that she'd thought the new doctor in town was hot, in spite of the rumors that Liam might or might not be a serial killer? Easy. (The margaritas she'd consumed at the Muddy River Inn might have spurred on that confession.)

Admitting to Harper last year that she was overwhelmed with the workload at her new book and wine shop and needed help? Also (moderately) easy—and necessary.

Then there were things Natalie was dead set against revealing even to her closest friends.

That she'd been seeing—hearing, talking to, socializing with—ghosts since being electrocuted and technically dead for three and a half minutes last year?

That was not so easy.

In fact, as Harper and her fiancé Stone stood in front of Natalie waiting for the announcement she'd promised when she'd summoned them to Liam's lab, there were any number of unpleasant things she would far rather do than admit her secret.

She'd happily run naked down the village's Main Street instead of making this confession—even though she made sure all the light bulbs were low wattage in her apartment so Liam never got a really clear view of her sun-and-exercise deprived body.

She'd rather be locked in the spooky abandoned nursing home down the road—even though she knew it would be teeming with spirits.

But telling Harper and Stone that she'd been communing with the dead and lying about it to everyone except for Liam for over a year? That was the dead last thing on her list of unpleasant things to do—no pun intended.

Yet she'd succumbed to the pressure of others. Had let her supposed friend Gabe convince her to text Harper.

Why she'd let him have a say in what she did she didn't know. He was a ghost. It wasn't like he was unbiased in the matter. Or could understand her plight as a living breathing human being.

It didn't matter that he'd been murdered. Cut off in the prime of his life. She could still hold him accountable for pressuring her into doing something she didn't want to do. Something she knew in her heart was a bad idea. Bad for her and bad for the spirit community of Mudville.

Peer pressure was real—even if it was a spirit doing the pressuring.

But as the local ghosts' human representative, wasn't it up to her to protect them from the many and sordid ramifications of exposure?

Yes. Yes, it was!

Natalie had a flash of what could happen to Mudville should the word get out.

She imagined hordes of spectators crowding the streets hoping for a ghostly encounter. Trespassing on private property. Wrecking the local farmers' fields with their RVs and all-terrain vehicles.

And the press! They'd be relentless once they learned.

She'd have no peace. She wouldn't be able to run her store. They'd block the entrances with their crews and news vans. Customers wouldn't be able to get in to shop.

With horror she remembered the disastrous live interview she'd done with Lucy Sunshine for WBNG News right after she'd been electrocuted and lived to tell about it. It had proved she was not a natural on camera.

Nope. That was an experience she never wanted to repeat. Not in this lifetime and—now that she knew about the existence of the spirit world—not in the afterlife either.

Harper was a good friend. But she was also a writer. She lived her life in a public way Natalie couldn't comprehend. Harper put everything about her own life, this town, and the people in it online for the world at large to see.

Yes, Harper's social media obsession had helped the shop enormously—saved it really—back in the early days when Natalie had been struggling to make a go of the new business.

Natalie was undyingly grateful for all of Harper's help and hard work, as well as her friendship.

Once Upon a Vine Books and Wine might not exist today without Harper. But Natalie couldn't trust her to keep a secret this big. Which left her with a decision. What was she going to tell Harper now instead of the truth?

She was going to have to wing it. Come up with some sort of confession on the fly. Something that wouldn't make it seem odd that she'd texted them to come to Liam's lab right away.

As her friend stood expectantly waiting, Natalie began, "Harper, I have something to tell you."

While she paused to notice that she didn't have enough air in her lungs—she seemed to have forgotten how to breathe—Natalie heard Gabe gasp.

Invisible to Liam, Harper and Stone, Gabe turned to his equally invisible girlfriend next to him. "Millie, this is it. Nat's actually going to admit to another living she can see us."

She wanted to shush him. Snipe at Gabe to be quiet. Tell him that she had to think.

But she couldn't do any of those things without revealing her secret. And wasn't the point right now—her main goal—to hide that she could hear Gabe?

Blocking out the distraction—the constant ghost chatter that had been the soundtrack of her life for over a year—Natalie finally focused her mind. And thankfully, her mind delivered the perfect solution.

Fingers crossed that it would work, she sucked in a big breath and let out on a whoosh of air, "Madame Letisha is a fraud."

Stone laughed. A sardonic sound ripe with sarcasm. "What? Natalie, are you saying that the ghost medium Harper hired. The lunatic who waved burning herbs around our house, spoke some mumbo-jumbo and then handed my fiancée a bill for a no-doubt outrageous amount she still won't admit to, is a fake? No. Say it isn't so."

As Stone rolled his eyes, a tight-lipped Harper shot him a sideways glance before focusing back on Natalie.

Meanwhile, Natalie was trying to ignore the judgmental rise of Liam's eyebrows as well as Gabe's scowl.

Millie however, having been raised as a proper Victorian lady by her mother, maintained a passive expression. Natalie thought she would have liked living during that era. It seemed so much more civilized—Millie's murder and subsequent dismemberment aside, of course.

"How do you know she's a fake?" Harper asked.

Good question. How could Natalie know except for the fact that she could actually see and talk to ghosts while the charlatan medium Harper had found on Google clearly could not?

Again, she wracked her brain for an answer.

The solution literally surrounded her. Liam's lab.

Liam was a scientist. He had equipment and stuff. He'd even brought some of it over to Harper's. That was it!

"Because Liam's machine picked up something after the house cleansing," Natalie blurted.

"It did?" Harper asked on a gasp.

Liam's dark brow cocked impossibly higher. So high he might as well have spoken aloud. Natalie imagined his words would have had a few cusses in them over her fib now involving him.

Harper spun to him now. "Liam, what did you catch?"

Liam turned his gaze pointedly away from Harper and said, "Natalie, why don't you explain? You're so much better at this than I am."

At that Gabe snorted. They all, the ghosts included, considered Natalie a shitty liar. But she'd been living this lie so far just fine.

Pretty much.

Mostly, anyway?—

It was Gabe's fault Harper had heard him and Millie in her house which had spurred her to hire Madame Letisha—fraud though she was—to cleanse the house. And it was Gabe's fault Stone had heard him and Millie in the garden today.

His fault. Not Natalie's.

She'd have to remind him of that. Later.

Right now, she had some fibbing to do. They'd see. She'd pull this off too.

"Liam's recorder caught ghost voices after Madame Letisha claimed she'd cleared the house. The voice clearly said that Letisha was full of bullshit, but the ghosts would willingly leave the house out of respect for you."

Harper's eyes widened. "Oh, my God. That was on the recording?"

"Yes." Natalie nodded with pride over her very believable lie.

Ha! There. That should do it. Problem solved. Who was a bad liar now?

"Can I hear it?" Harper asked, looking excitedly at Liam.

Uh, oh.

"Um…" Natalie hadn't thought that far ahead and she seemed to be fresh out of lies.

"I sent it off to one of my researcher friends to see what he could make of it," Liam supplied smoothly.

She should be grateful he'd come to the rescue so quickly with that amazing excuse. But as his girlfriend, Natalie considered it more than a bit disturbing just how smoothly Liam had lied.

"Didn't you keep a copy?" Harper asked.

"Didn't even think of it. Just sent the whole machine right off." Liam lifted one shoulder.

Damn, he really was good at this. But as Harper still studied them both too closely as she digested this tall tale, Natalie decided she'd better elaborate.

"He—the researcher—wanted to inspect the device as well as the recording," Natalie jumped in, picking up where he'd left off in the tag team lying. "But I thought you should know."

"Why didn't you tell me right away?" Harper frowned.

" Before she paid her," Stone added grumpily.

When Natalie froze like a deer in headlights, Liam jumped in again. "I was so busy I didn't listen to the recording until days later."

"Yup. Days and days. Almost a week really," Natalie added.

"But why didn't you tell me then?" Harper asked.

Crap, Harper asked a lot of questions.

"Well…you seemed so happy the disturbances had stopped. I didn't see the point. It was done. I thought it best to let it go. In fact, I only brought it up now because you were talking about hiring Madame Letisha for me. To clear the bookshop and the garden. So of course I had to say something?—"

Liam squeezed Natalie's arm to quell her babbling and said, "We're really sorry. We should have told you."

Harper let out a breath. "No. I understand why you didn't. But oh, my God, I have to hear that recording. When can you get it back?" she asked Liam.

After a sideways glance at Natalie that conveyed his displeasure with this whole situation, Liam said to Harper, "I'll call my friend and find out. I'll let you know."

"Great. Thank you." Excited now, Harper spun to Stone. "We have to go. My head is swimming. I have to get it all down before I forget."

Stone drew in a breath. "You're going to write a book with ghosts in it now, aren't you?"

"You bet your sweet ass I am." Harper grinned, reaching for Natalie to envelop her in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Both of you, for telling me. I'm so excited."

Oh, boy. What had she done?

Natalie forced a smile. "I see that. Now go, before you forget all your great ideas."

"I will. Thanks." Harper grabbed Stone's hand and as he said a quick goodbye, she dragged him out of the lab.

When the door slammed shut behind them, Liam crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at Natalie. "What now, Einstein?"

Ha! She'd already thought of that.

"We make an actual recording. Gabe says what I told Harper he said. We say Liam had the recorder in his pocket and turned it on in the attic after everyone else went downstairs so that's why only Gabe's voice is on it." When Gabe looked skeptical, Natalie added, "Stop. It'll work. She's so excited she won't question it."

Gabe, holding Millie's hand, shook his head. "You were going to tell her the truth. Nat, what happened?"

"Yes, Nat, what did happen?" Liam asked pinning her with his stare.

God how she hated the two men could gang up on her now. All because Gabe and Millie's love was so powerful that when the two ghosts touched they could, somehow, be heard by others and not just Natalie.

The power of love …

Wait. That was exactly what she needed right now. Love. It was just the thing to get her out of this sticky situation.

She narrowed her eyes at Liam. "If you really loved me, you'd understand."

With that she spun on her heel and stomped toward the door as she heard Gabe say, "Oh, man. You're in trouble now."

And Liam's grumbled, "Shit."

Natalie smiled. The power of love. It could also be used as a weapon.