Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

HIRO

“Last night, Keaton cradled me to his bare and quivering chest while he whispered sweet nothings into Maddox’s ear,” Reggie announces.

“Maddox cheated on me ?” I say with a gasp, as if anything the ghost is saying could be true. Reggie is known for his dramatics, which I quickly learned when I first entered his life. He was so pesky that he’d pretended to be Maddox’s fiancé in an attempt to scare me off. And instead… I somehow became one of his best friends.

“When? Where? With who?” Maddox asks. It’s all very sarcastic as he grabs the luggage to head out to the car waiting in the driveway.

“With Keaton,” I explain as Keaton stares off into space, like he’s not even part of this conversation. We are all aware that none of this ever happened. Before the man’s death, he was the most stoic, stubborn man I’d ever met, and while he has opened up some since passing, he definitely hasn’t opened up enough to go whispering in Maddox’s ear. Not that Maddox could hear him, seeing as Keaton’s a ghost and all.

Maddox nods approvingly. “Ah, yeah. We totally did that. All of that.” His agreement on the topic makes me grin wildly. I love the fact that even though Maddox can’t see or hear ghosts, he has taken to treating them like he can. I’m sure it can’t be easy interacting with something he can’t see, feel, or hear, but he does it with such ease. Yeah, he was skeptical as hell when I waltzed into his life claiming to see the dead, but the man is now prepared to go all in to amuse me and my many spectators.

Maddox is always handsome, but the moment he tosses a smile my way like he’s doing right now, it does something to me. He must see me watching him because his eyebrow quirks before he winks and runs his free hand through his hair while giving me a mischievous look like he knows I’m over here appreciating his good looks and even better personality. It makes me laugh at how ridiculous it all is.

And it makes me come to the only possible conclusion. “You should definitely take your shirt off while carrying the luggage.” I watch him steadily gather both his suitcase and mine, as well as both of our personal bags.

“Ooh, I agree, I agree. Keaton agrees too,” Reggie says, even though Keaton sure doesn’t say anything.

“Reggie and Keaton both agree,” I assure Maddox as I pull his shirt up before tucking it in so it looks like a belly shirt. Then I give his toned stomach a nice smack and watch him head out the door where he nearly runs into my adoptive brother Nicolás.

“I was going to ask if you needed help carrying anything, but I see that you have Maddox trained to carry it all while you watch,” Nicolás says.

“Right? My arms are just sooooo tired from carrying soooo much.” I make sure to sound extra sarcastic as I hold my phone and nothing else.

“Yeah, yeah, sure looks like it. I’m digging the shirt, Maddox,” Nicolás teases.

Maddox nods approvingly. “Thanks. I’m just glad Hiro didn’t rip it off,” he says as he heads over to open the back hatch of Patricia’s SUV. While she isn’t my biological mother, she adopted me as a teenager, so I’m happy to consider her my mom. She’s always been there for me and supported me in so many different ways that she really deserves the title. Sadly, at this point, she’s been in the position of my mother longer than my biological one was ever given.

Patricia shifts from where she’s seated at the wheel to smile back at us. “Maddox, are you going on vacation or did you get a new job stripping?”

“These are his comfy clothes,” I assure her. “He’s gonna be ultra comfy, and if I get cold on the plane, I can just heat my hands up.” I demonstrate by pressing my hands against his bare skin while he packs the suitcases in the back.

“Honey, do you remember the talk we had about how you should cherish Maddox if you don’t want him to realize that there is a high possibility that he could… you know,” she says.

I stop my hand warming to give her a look. “That he could what ?” I ask. “Do what , Patricia?”

“You know…” Her eyes flick off into the distance.

“Do better? That he could do better?” I ask with a gasp.

She shrugs. “You said it, not me.”

“You… are evil .”

“I know, honey, but as your family, it’s best for me to speak to you with honesty,” she says with a grin as Maddox and Nicolás laugh. I swear, everyone is out to get me! First the ghosts, and now the living.

“I’m just getting it from all sides now!” I protest.

“Sounds like a porno,” Reggie unhelpfully adds.

I slide into the back seat as Maddox gets in beside me and Nicolás takes the passenger seat.

“You’re going to be ultra careful, right?” Patricia asks.

“Japan is a very safe country,” I assure her.

She doesn’t look reassured in the slightest. “You are also phenomenal at getting involved in things.”

“I would never!” Maybe my level of dramatic emphasis here isn’t needed.

“Do I need to run this car off the road just to give you a look?” she threatens.

“So I’ve frolicked with a couple of ghosts who frolicked with a couple of bad people, definitely pretty typical.”

“Which part was typical?” Maddox asks.

“Maddox, what the hell, you’re supposed to be on my side! Patricia, we’re going on vacation. I’m going to meet a few people from my mom’s side, that’s it. I promise.”

“Yeah…”

She doesn’t sound reassured in the slightest , and a moment later I get a text from Nicolás.

Nicolás: She’s very stressed about this trip.

Me: Why?

Nicolás: I think because you’re going to see family.

“Aww, does she think you’d just like find a new family?” Reggie asks. “Does she not realize that no one would want you besides her?”

I grin before giving him a flick. “Be gone with you, foul demon.”

“No! I don’t wanna be gone!”

“Is something bothering you, Patricia?” I ask.

Patricia glances back at me. “Of course not! I think it’s so exciting you’re getting to meet your family! Like how exciting! That’s awesome! I bet it’ll be really neat meeting people who are blood-related to you! Do you think you’d like visit them on holidays and stuff?”

“There was a lot of emphasis in all of that,” I comment.

“What? No,” she says. “Not at all!”

“Yes, I will be with my family on every holiday because my family is in this car right now,” I assure her. “I don’t need another family. I mean, just because they’re related to me doesn’t mean that they suddenly boot my real family out of the way.”

“What? You think I don’t want you to meet your family or something? That’s not it at all. I’m just like…” She falls quiet and I can’t tell if she’s lost in a train of thought or not wanting to share her true feelings with me.

“I would hug you right now if you weren’t driving. You and Nicolás and Maddox and Libby and my sketchy ghost army are my family. These people might be blood-related to me, but when Mom and Dad passed… they didn’t take me in. You did. They didn’t deal with my weird… quirks. They didn’t have to deal with me speaking to ghosts or running off to do shit that I shouldn’t have. There’s so much that you put up with that most people wouldn’t have, especially for a kid who wasn’t biologically yours.”

“You’re always my kid… I’m being a jealous monster, aren’t I?” Patricia asks. “It’s so stupid. It’s not like you’re going to run off to live with them in Japan. I don’t know why I’ve just… felt weird about it. I guess… Sean’s mother being able to take him back until I was able to adopt him myself showed me how easy it was for them to take you guys from me. But I know you’re not a kid anymore. I know they can’t take you from me.”

“Nope.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been stressed with work lately, and I’m thinking foolish stuff.”

“No need to apologize,” I assure her.

Maddox shifts in his seat. “If it makes you feel any better, last night, Hiro was going, ‘What the fuck am I doing? I don’t want to meet these random people! This whole thing is a dreadful idea. Why am I going? Why would I ever go?’ It was a whole thing,” he says. “Then he was trying to get a ghost to teach him how to say, ‘Where is the bathroom?’ in Japanese. And the ghost was like thinking they were going to take a bath together. There was a lot going on. It was very confusing.”

“But did you take a bath together?” Nicolás asks.

“He was in the bathroom a very long time,” Maddox says. “I went to knock to see if everything was okay, but there was so much giggling it made me uncomfortable.”

“I didn’t bathe with him!” I protest. “And we weren’t giggling!”

“Patricia is hilarious if she thinks anyone else would take you once they realize how weird you are,” Reggie says, which makes me glare at him.

“He’s glaring at the window. Patricia, are you sure you even want him? Maybe you can get a refund,” Nicolás suggests.

“I can glare at you too!” I say as I swing it over to him while he laughs. “I didn’t burn the shed down or run over her precious roses.”

“That’s true…” Patricia agrees. “But you were a strange child. I’m… Hiro… I love you to death, but you creeped me out a little when I first got you.”

I’m positive I heard wrong. “Oh. My. God! How?”

Nicolás and Maddox are both trying their hardest not to laugh as I gape at the back of her head.

“Ohhhhh, this is so funny. I need to get Natalie,” Reggie says, disappearing before reappearing with Natalie, the ghost who has haunted me since I was ten. I say “haunt” in the most loving way possible, too.

Natalie looks between us before settling on my lap. “This better be good. The neighbor was dancing naked. Is this better than dancing naked?”

“Patricia is about to tell Hiro how creepy he was as a child,” Reggie informs her.

That seems to quickly please Natalie. “Oooh, nice. I’m ready.”

“Patricia,” I say since she’s just taken to checking the GPS like she can make me forget that she said I was creepy!

“Yes, honey?”

“Please expand on how I ‘creeped you out.’ I would love more information on this.”

“Come on, Hiro. I’d come down the stairs and you’d just be in the corner chattering away to nothing. The first time, I thought maybe you had a phone and some secret girlfriend and were planning something until you started going on about ‘Why are you naked? You’re so naked! Please put some clothes on!’”

“Doesn’t sound creepy in the slightest,” I declare.

“And that’s the moment you asked him about how he lost his head. His head , Hiro. You were trying to ask him where his head might be.”

“Hmm… I still see no issue. If someone loses something, you should definitely help them find it.”

“Did you ever think that he could possibly be a serial killer?” Maddox unhelpfully asks.

“Ooh yeah, he definitely has serial killer vibes,” Natalie says. “I would have returned that boy so damn fast. Totally would’ve gotten my money back on that one. I’d have probably asked for compensation for him scarring me as well.”

I push Natalie out of the way. “You… heard all of that and you didn’t… get rid of me?” I ask, honestly a little impressed.

“You were such a sweet boy that I sat in my bedroom and told myself you definitely couldn’t be a serial killer. You were just… secretly talking to someone, likely about a video game or a book. You did like to read a lot.”

“A lot of serial killers are able to mimic what the people around them perceive as normal. They learn from a young age how to fit in so others don’t suspect them,” Maddox contributes.

“Thanks, Maddox,” I grumble. “I’m glad Patricia didn’t go to you for advice back then.”

He chuckles but squeezes my leg to assure me he’s just teasing.

“So… you were like, this is fine?” I ask a bit skeptically.

“You were a little… unusual to deal with. You obviously kept a lot of secrets, but when we interacted, you were such a good kid. I mean, Nicolás was off burning sheds down.”

“I will never live that down, will I?” Nicolás says with a sigh. “I burn one shed down, but I also go to college, I get a master’s, I get a good job, a nice house, but nope… I will forever be known as the shed burner.”

I grin before giving his shoulder a smack. “At least you weren’t summoning demons in the corner like Patricia clearly thought I was.”

“True. How embarrassing,” he says. “If I did that, I’d just be too embarrassed to even show my face to people.”

“I’m just starting to wonder if any of you actually even like me that much,” I grumble.

“Oh, we still totally like you. We’re definitely not letting anyone else have you,” Nicolás says. “And why can I feel a presence around here?”

He waves in the general direction that Reggie is now sitting, which is on his lap. While Nicolás can’t see ghosts, something about being around me seems to make it so he can sense something off. He says it’s more of a general feeling than anything.

“Tell him I like the way his shirt fits,” Reggie says.

“Just Reggie trying to make Keaton jealous.”

“How many ghosts are in the vehicle?” Patricia asks.

“Three. Keaton is seated between Maddox and me since he dies a little inside every time he has to sit on one of our laps. Natalie is on my lap and Reggie is on Nicolás’s. Patricia doesn’t have anyone.”

“Now I feel left out,” Patricia complains.

“I can sit on her lap. I’ve always wanted a cougar,” Natalie says, but when she starts to move, I grab her and pull her back, confident Patricia doesn’t need to be her “cougar.”

“I can see the airport,” I say as a plane cruises right above us. “I’m… I’ve decided maybe I’ll just stay here. Nicolás, you can go and pretend to be me.”

“I am very Japanese and super in love with Maddox,” Nicolás intones. “No one will be confused at all.”

“Hiro, it’ll be fine,” Maddox says. “We’re only with them for a few days of the entire trip. It’s going to be a phenomenal vacation.”

“Uh-huh… sure… okay. Yeah.”

He doesn’t seem overly convinced by my tone. “Hiro, you’re fine. What are you even stressed about?” Maddox asks as he reaches over and squeezes my hand.

“Everything.”

“Toss one at me.”

“The plane is terrifying and then what if I can’t figure out the transit once in Japan? What if this is a trap? What if they’re really not even my family but pretending to be my family and they’re going to hold us captive and steal our money? What if we can’t understand them? What if they can’t understand us? What if I don’t like the food and then look rude? What if I just fuck up their customs?”

Nicolás turns in his seat to look at me. “You sure you’re my brother? I didn’t know you were a fretter. Aren’t you the kid who was like ‘Yo, I’m going to follow this sketchy ghost off to this dark corner. Be right back’?”

“I’m definitely not,” I say.

Maddox clearly understands what I do not as he waves toward Nicolás. “Right? I reminded him that the whole reason we met was because he was chasing after serial killers. He was literally brawling with a serial killer one time.”

“Excuse me, what ?” Patricia asks.

“He’s being sarcastic. It was just some random guy who… it doesn’t matter. But that stuff is normal,” I tell her.

“That is not normal,” she says as she pulls up to the door of the terminal.

“It is,” I insist as I get out and face Patricia who still looks like she’s fretting. Probably brawling with serial killers didn’t help any of that. Reaching over, I grab her in a hug, squeezing her tightly to me. “You’re my mother, please don’t ever forget that.”

“You don’t have to say that,” she says. “I know… I mean… I’m not trying to replace anyone, especially your mother.”

“Can I not have two moms? I’m pretty sure I’m allowed. And I’m positive my mother wouldn’t mind. If she were here right now, she’d never have asked for me to have a better mom than you, okay? I love you, and I promise I’ll be safe. I’ll chase down a total of zero serial killers. I’ll send you a ton of pictures. And I’ll make sure not to like any family.”

She kisses my cheek. “You’re such a brat, but I still love you to death. Send me all of the pictures, enjoy spending time with your family, and definitely don’t chase any serial killers.”

“I will… to the first two things. I’ll avoid the whole serial killer thing.”

I squeeze her tightly again before pulling back and walking over to Nicolás as my mom goes to hug Maddox. “Be good and send me as many cat pictures as you can,” I say.

“I will. I’ll take very good care of Bandit and Stella. They… might tempt me into getting a cat myself.”

“Good.”

I turn to see that Maddox is carrying everything again, leaving me with… nothing.

“Maddox, I can carry something.”

“I don’t want you looking at anyone else,” Maddox says, stomach still on display as he heads for the door. “I have to prove my worth.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I decide as I dash over and pull his shirt down before giving the two another wave and an “I love you guys!”

I rush after Maddox and my entourage of ghosts who are commenting on everything as they hurry in. Well, two of them are. Keaton is just trailing along. Earlier, he’d declared that he was definitely not going and would enjoy having the house to himself, but for someone who wasn’t going, he sure seems to be right here with us.

“Oooh boy, did you guys see what that woman was wearing?” Natalie asks.

“Not wearing is more like it,” Reggie says. “Like… when she bent over, I saw more than I’ve even seen on Keaton!”

“I’ve seen Keaton wear skimpier,” Natalie says.

Reggie gasps. “You have?”

Keaton just sighs and walks along, weirdly sticking close to me.

“You with me?” Maddox asks.

“Sorry, there was some lack of clothes drama,” I say as I hurry after him.

“How… heinous.”

“Right?”

I turn and call the three ghosts over to me. “We’re going to be in tight quarters, which means that I can’t just freely talk to any of you during the flight. I did bring my iPad, though, so I could message you. I just… don’t want the people seated around me questioning what’s going on. And then… while we’re staying with my family, I’ll only be able to talk to you in private places. I know that one of you”—I look right at Reggie for this—“struggles to understand that.”

“Oh, I’ll be quiet as a mistress on a Saturday night,” Natalie announces.

“You’re just going to be moaning in his ear?” Keaton rightfully asks.

“I will be so quiet. I am like… phenomenal at being quiet,” Reggie says. “They used to call me Reggie the Silent.”

“Who did?” I ask, unable to understand that.

“ They did.” Then he presses a finger against my lips to shush me… or something. It’s all very confusing.

We have no trouble at all going through security and quickly find our gate. By the time we’re set to go, we wait about an hour before heading onto the plane where the flight attendants await us.

“Welcome on board,” a pretty woman says with a smile to no one in particular. I’m fairly sure it’s just her repeated response every ten people or so. “I’m Danielle and I’ll be with you for this flight.”

“Thanks,” I tell her as she examines our tickets and points us in the right direction before I start down the aisle. “This is going to be a long flight.”

“Hopefully we can sleep,” Maddox says.

“I hope so. It’s like thirteen hours, isn’t it?” I ask as I shuffle down the aisle pushing my carry-on since we’d dropped off the main suitcases earlier.

“Yeah. Here, let me put the luggage up.”

“I can get it,” I say, but he’s already snatching the luggage and putting it in the overhead bin. “How about you have the window seat going there, and I’ll have the window on the way back?”

“You sure? You can have the window seat the whole time.”

“I really don’t mind,” I assure him, so he willingly slides in first. With him being a broader guy, I know he appreciates not being crammed between two people. Just as I’m sliding in after him, I see a woman who must be seated next to me struggling with her suitcase. “Can I get that for you?”

“That would be very nice,” she says. “I think I put too much in it.”

I grab it and realize that maybe I should have made Maddox do it because I swear the thing weighs as much as I do. But I heft it up and slide in before she gets in next to me.

“You are just the nicest,” she gushes. “Looks like we will have plenty of time to get to know each other.”

“Oh…” I say because noooooo. That wasn’t in my plans at all. So I manage to avoid the ghosts but… now I have to deal with a human?

“What’s your name?” she asks.

“Uh, Hiro.”

“Hiro! You don’t have an accent.”

“Nope, I was born and raised in the US.”

“Ah. I’m Charlotte.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say as I turn toward Maddox, hoping that will be the end of that conversation. I don’t dislike speaking to people, but I definitely get enough interaction every day that I just want some time to myself with only Maddox and my small handful of ghosts.

“Hiro, check if they have any new movies,” Natalie says as she plops down on my lap.

Reggie pops up in front of me. “Hiro, there’s this kid up there throwing a tantrum like nobody’s business, and you should have seen the threat the mom inflicted on that child. God, it was priceless. Best thing I’ve ever seen. It made me shiver.”

“It… it was kind of funny,” Keaton says. “Hell, would have made me shut up.”

Reggie grabs my shoulder so my eyes are only on him. “I felt my balls constrict when she laid down that threat. Constrict, Hiro.” He’s now cupping imaginary balls in front of him and squeezing them. “Like tightening up, considering going back into my body, her threat was so good.”

“I wish I had balls,” Natalie says. “And a penis. Ooh, but I like my clit. You know? Hmm… Let me see your penis again, Reggie. I want to think about this.”

Reggie shockingly doesn’t pull it right out. “Hiro said if I whipped my dick out again, he’d be mad.”

“But he can’t talk to you right now,” Natalie says.

This revelation seems to rock Reggie’s world. “Oh. My. God. You’re right. Keaton, do you want to see it too?”

“Tell Maddox that movie looked good,” Keaton says as he leans over the back of Maddox’s seat like none of this is going on. How is he so talented at ignoring them? Like I want to ignore them. I want to ignore them so badly, and instead, I’m staring at them in morbid fascination.

“You know?” Charlotte asks.

I suddenly realize she was talking to me, and instead, I was listening to my strange collection of ghosts. “I’m sorry, I missed that.”

“I was just saying how nice it is to meet a gentleman like yourself in this day and age. There are just soooooo many nasty people out and about now. My daughter would love you. I should give you her number.”

“No, no, I already have a partner,” I say. “Thank you, though.”

“Oh nonsense. You don’t know that she’s your forever. My daughter is just special.”

Maddox leans in to join the conversation. “Oh, Hiro… that’s true. Your partner is just… you know what I think about them.”

Charlotte covers her mouth like she’s just been let in on some hot gossip. “Ohhhhhhh no,” she says, sounding aghast. “See, even your buddy thinks you could do better.”

“Does he?” I ask as I give Maddox a look.

He nods with a sad expression. “I mean, did you hear your mom?”

“Yeah, I heard her go on about how my partner could do better,” I remind him.

That makes Maddox laugh.

The woman is now stuffing her phone in my face, and I realize she’s trying to show me a picture of her daughter. “Isn’t she just… gorgeous ?”

I spare the phone the briefest of glances. “She’s very pretty,” I say before turning to give Maddox “please help me” eyes. But he is all smiles.

“Maddox, even though you don’t deserve it, Keaton said he thinks you’d like that movie,” I inform him as I point.

“Oh, I’ll watch that one first,” he says as he clicks on it.

“Glad to see you’ll listen to Keaton and not me,” I grumble.

“She’d love to talk to you,” the woman says, clearly trying to set me up on a date.

“I’m sorry, I’m really like… not interested,” I respond, not sure if there’s a nicer way to get this across.

“I don’t know, Hiro. Your partner seems kind of like a drag,” Maddox says.

I make sure my eyes get even bigger as I give him another look.

Charlotte looks aghast at this revelation. “Ohhh no, honey, you’re too young to just settle.”

“I’m not settling,” I assure her.

“You sure?” Maddox asks. He’s obviously having far too much fun with this.

“I was positive. But weirdly, I’m starting to second-guess my decisions. Oh my, but you know who would just be perfect for your daughter, Charlotte? My friend Maddox here,” I say as I wave toward him.

“I’m only into older women,” Maddox says. “The older, the better.”

“Oh?” Charlotte asks, interest piqued.

“Honey… oh honey, are you about to lose your man to a nosy woman?” Natalie asks.

“Nosy women are the absolute worst,” Reggie declares.

“You are literally the nosiest person I’ve ever met,” Keaton says.

“Which means I’m like a professional at it and have the credentials to judge other nosy people.”

I ignore them all and reach for the screen just as a ghost’s head pops right through it. My finger slams right into the dead man’s eyeball as he reels back, and I yelp out a “Fuck!” as I jerk back, equally startled.