Chapter Thirty-One

The deputy—I assumed that's who it was, since she had the khaki uniform, the badge, and a gun holstered on her belt—grasped Carson's wrist and forced his arm to his side with no apparent effort.

"Carson," she said, her voice calm and kind. I realized if she was stationed in Ghost, she probably knew all the locals personally. "Why don't you give that to me? You don't want to do anything you'd regret, now, do you?"

"I have a right to protect myself, Kamilla."

"That's as may be, but accosting an unarmed man in his own home is not a good look for you." She nodded at Ricky, who stepped forward and held out an evidence bag.

He quirked a smile at me as she dropped the gun inside. "I'm a volunteer reserve deputy."

"Of course you are." I laughed weakly. My knees buckled and I ass-planted on the tile, my back to the island, as the deputy cuffed Carson and led him away. "One of these days, you'll need to tell me what your actual job is."

"It's a date." He held up the bag. "I have to accompany Kamilla back to her patrol car, but once Carson's secured, I'll be back. Are you all right?"

"I'm… recovering."

"Good. Hold that thought."

He disappeared down the hall and I heard the front door close. The next instant, Avi reappeared and collapsed next to me. Evidently ghostly legs could get wobbly as much as physical ones.

He braced his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. "I can't believe Carson attacked me."

"Avi." I let my head thunk back against the island. "He killed you. He may not have intended to, but he hit you in the head, knocked you out, stole your work, and didn't even bother to check back to see if you were okay. If he'd gotten you medical attention right away, you might have been fine."

His shoulders lifted and he mirrored my head thunk, although his was silent. "Or maybe not. There's no way to tell." He winced. "I have to admit, I could have been nicer to him about his literary aspirations. If he needed a writing coach—"

"He so did," I muttered. I'd read Borderline , unable to reconcile that Jake Fields with the Jake Fields who knew how to keep readers on the edge of their seats, turning pages and not counting the cost of sleepless nights.

"Regardless, I would have been the wrong choice. I'm not—or rather I wasn't—known for my patience. Or tact, for that matter."

"I'm not sure anybody would have been right. I mean, I like to think I'm good at my job, but I have my limits, and I try to keep them in mind when I evaluate a prospective project. If a concept or manuscript is beyond my skill level, it wouldn't be fair to the client or me to take the job. I couldn't have saved Borderline with the literary equivalent of an IV, a heart transplant, and an iron lung." I smiled at him. "Nice work with the sawdust, by the way. Where did that come from?" I hadn't seen any in the spotless basement.

Avi shrugged. "Same place the dust goes, I guess." He smiled back at me. "If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know."

There was a brisk knock at the front door, followed by Ricky's voice. "Maz? It's me. Okay if I come in?"

"We're in the kitchen," I called. "Come on back."

The door closed softly and Ricky's footsteps padded along the hardwood floor before he peeked into the kitchen, Gil's carrier in his hand. He scanned the room and his eyebrows lifted. "We?"

I gestured to my ghost housemate. "Avi."

Ricky nodded toward Avi. "Hola, Avi." He set the carrier down and opened its door. "Sorry if you weren't ready for Gil's homecoming, but Tia's hosting her scrapbooking group tonight, and he… forgot himself among the embellishments."

"I should have named him Magpie. He can never resist shiny things."

I held out my hand and Gil bounded out. Instead of heading for me, though, he trotted over to Avi, looked up at his face, and mewed.

Avi shared a wide-eyed glance with me as Gil stepped over Avi's crossed ankles as though they were perfectly visible and settled into the cradle made by his legs. Avi lifted a tentative hand and stroked along Gil's spine. He looked up at me, smile filled with wonder. "I can feel his fur. It's so soft."

Indeed, Gil's ginger fur lifted behind Avi's hand, just as it did when I petted him on especially dry days.

"He likes you." I chuckled and scratched behind Gil's ears. "I've always said he's a better judge of character than I am." I looked up at Ricky. "Avi foiled Carson's attack with sawdust until you could get here with the cavalry. Impeccable timing, by the way. Thank you." I glanced back at Avi, whose attention was still focused on Gil. "Thank you both. You'll always be heroes in my book."

"Ah. Well. Sure." Ricky looked away and scratched the back of his head. "So, are you hungry? You probably don't want to go out for dinner right now, but I can run over to the taqueria and get some takeout."

I couldn't help the sigh that escaped me, because I really didn't want to leave the house. In fact, I might not be able to move from this spot in the foreseeable future.

Like I said. Hero.

"That would be wonderful."

His smile was still edged with that adorable bashfulness. "Trust me on the menu options?"

"Absolutely."

"Excellent. I won't let you down." He raised a hand in Avi's direction and then headed down the hall.

"He's a really nice guy. Always was, even as a kid." Avi's words were nearly drowned by Gil's purr. "You picked a good one."

"Yeah," I sighed again, and this time I sounded more like a moony teenager. "I'm lucky he's willing to give me a chance."

Avi snorted a laugh. "You have no idea, Maz."

I frowned at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." He waved a hand, earning him a bat of Gil's paw, which… didn't pass right through him.

Huh. Too bad Gil couldn't talk, because he seemed to have a better handle on this ghost business than either of us. Clearly we needed to test Avi's… powers? Abilities? Phantasmagorical talents? I sensed a montage opportunity in our future.

When I realized I was still holding All In , I figured this might be a good start. I set it on the floor in front of him. "Can you pick this up?"

He stared down at the manuscript, biting his lip. "I'm almost afraid to try." But he reached out anyway. Unfortunately, his hand passed through it without even budging the Post-it. "Guess not."

"Hmmm." So much for my theory that he could hold things that belonged to him, like his own wedding band, but not Oren's. Gil didn't belong to him, but do cats ever belong to anybody? "Try manipulating the individual pages, the way you did in the library with the deconstructed Borderline . That might be harder to do with the spiral binding, but I can cut that off if it would make things easier."

He cut me a startled glance, but then his jaw firmed and his eyes took on a determined glint.

At first, nothing happened. Then the corner of the blue cover quivered. The next instant, it whipped to the side, the top third tearing away from the binding. I whooped, but he just laughed a little breathlessly.

"Clearly I lack finesse."

"Sure, but this is great! I bet with a little practice, you can nail it. Look at your control over sawdust." I gazed down at the title page. All In by Jake Fields . "Your fans are going to go ballistic when they find out there's a last real Harcourt and Corchran book."

Avi's hand stilled on Gil's back and he gazed at me, expression troubled. "I don't understand, Maz. Why didn't Oren turn the book in to my agent? She could have handled everything with the publisher. The deal for the TV rights hadn't been finalized either because it was contingent on this book."

"I think I know." I stroked between Gil's ears in the place he liked best. "It was his last link to you. His last chance to hear your voice."

"But he missed out on all those royalties." Horror filled his eyes. "Oh god. The publisher's advance. Since I didn't deliver the book, he'd have had to pay it back."

Maybe that's why Oren's estate was asset rich but cash poor. I decided not to lay that on Avi right now.

"I suspect the money didn't matter to him." I met Avi's gaze. "You know where I found it? In a box labeled Left Nightstand . He kept it there, at his bedside, where he could reach out and touch it in the dark. Keeping you close. Even after all those years."

Tears glittered in Avi's eyes and he sucked in a sharp breath before turning away. "I yelled at him, Maz," he said, voice hoarse. "Almost the last time we talked, I accused him of not prioritizing our relationship."

"But he did." I cursed the fact I couldn't at least pat Avi's shoulder. "And your last words to him weren't angry, remember? They were a promise. You promised you'd wait, and you kept that promise."

"And he promised that he'd prove that I was wrong, that he'd show me our relationship was the most important thing—that I was the most important thing in the world to him." Avi glanced down at All In and then held out his left hand, where the wedding band glowed in transparent gold. "He kept that promise, didn't he?"

"I'd say so, yeah. Big time."

Avi met my gaze, eyes bright with hope. "Would you… That is, would it bother you if I stuck around? He also promised he'd come back, so if I keep waiting, maybe he'll make good on that promise, too."

"Wait as long as you want." I smiled, and although his return smile was a little watery, it was still sweet. "We like the company."

Gil, always one to get the last word, mewed.