Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Natalie..." Liam's voice was low and measured as he faced her head-on. Eerily calm, which somehow seemed much more menacing than if he'd been yelling.

He held up his cell phone, ignoring the audience of both living and dead surrounding them.

"Why do I have an email saying, ‘Congratulations, you've been chosen as a cast member for Ghost House !'?"

"I didn't do it. I swear." Natalie held up both palms defensively against the waves of doubt and suspicion radiating off Liam.

"Alice submitted for you," Harper jumped in, backing Natalie up, for which she was immensely grateful.

It was pretty perfect as far as alibis went. There was no way Liam would be mad at Alice. How could he be? She was old—double his age, at least. And tiny—almost half his size.

And, conveniently, it was the truth.

Most importantly, that little detail knocked the wind right out of Liam's sails. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Natalie had no doubt he was counting to ten to regain his cool.

Finally he said, in a tone that left no room for argument, "I'm not doing it."

"Okay. I understand," Natalie jumped in before Alice tried to convince him. "I'm honestly not sure I can even do it. Who's going to watch the store? I really can't just close for however long they'll need the cast in Utica. All the big book releases hit this time of year."

As much as she'd love to be there in Madame Letisha's face proving her a fraud, business was business. This was her livelihood.

"You won't have to close. I've got you covered," Harper said with a smile.

Before Natalie could question how, Jules burst through the door with Taco the spoiled chihuahua in his own little basket.

Jules put Taco's basket on the ground and the dog skittered across the floor, sniffing his way across the store, probably in search of Mr. Darcy. The antisocial cat had somehow formed a friendship with the overly friendly dog.

"I can't believe you got on the show," Jules began, channeling all of her college co-ed enthusiasm. "I'm so jealous I couldn't apply because of classes. But don't worry. Between Shalene and me we've got the shop fully covered."

"Who?" Natalie asked.

"Shalene is Stone's cousin. Agnes hired her to watch her house before I moved in," Harper supplied. "She's very reliable and so sweet."

"And she graduated college this year so she's available. She works at the Morgan's farm stand all the time—since she was a kid—but she said they can spare her when she needs to be here. And she knows how to use your point-of-sale system. They use the same one at the farm stand," Jules reported excitedly.

Natalie watched her life spin out of control. Or more accurately, it seemed her future was under the control of everyone else besides herself. All the decisions already made. And not one person had bothered to ask her opinion about any of it.

"Are you going to do it?" Liam finally asked.

At least he cared what she wanted. Or maybe he just wanted to know whether they'd be quitting the show together or if she'd succumb to the peer pressure and he'd be bowing out alone.

She glanced around the room and saw everyone's eyes on her, including Gabe's. She drew in a breath and let it out. "Yes. I'll do it."

"Yay!" Jules cheered in unison with Alice and Harper.

Gabe's lips twitched with a barely controlled smile. And Liam donned his typical expression of resolution.

He delivered a single nod and an, "Okay," which sounded like he'd expected that answer from her all along.

And in the middle of it all, the ghost bat decided to swoop back in through the front window and begin circling the room. That sent Taco, who could obviously see ghosts too, or at least ghosts of recently deceased bats, into a barking frenzy.

"Even Taco is excited," Jules said as the chihuahua began hopping up and down in a vain attempt to bite the bat flying yards above him. "Come on, boy. We have to go talk to Shalene and set up a work schedule."

As much as Natalie would be happy to have fewer people and a lot less noise around her right now, she had to stop Jules from running out to find Shalene. "Wait, Jules. I don't even know what days they'll need me yet."

"The schedule just came in another email," Harper said, looking at her cell. "We need to be in Utica Monday morning. They'll need us through the end of the live show Halloween night. And, oh?—"

"Oh, what?" Natalie asked, suspicious at what had stopped Harper mid-sentence.

Harper glanced up. "There will be a camera crew here tomorrow morning at eight a.m. sharp to interview all of us."

Natalie drew in a breath as all of her fears came true. On camera interviews were not her favorite.

"Great," she said.

She glanced at Liam, who now wore a smirk as he said, "Have fun with that."