Chapter 11

Eleven

Charlie was exhausted. He worked fifty hours a week at the hotel, and then he was at the house, putting in another forty to fifty to help Kaleb.

There was so much work to be done—electricity, plumbing, cleaning, plaster work. And they had to get things done. Now.

They had a baby on the way. Which was totally a joy. It was. But he was freaking out.

The roof was in the dry. The floors were in. The drywall was good. Electrical and plumbing were up to date. The furnace was up to snuff. The air-conditioning could wait until next year if they needed it.

So now it was time to start decorating.

He had paint chips, but he needed to see what they looked like in the light up at the house. And Kaleb was in Montrose, picking up a load of lumber to work on the side porches.

Maybe he would just run up there and look. It would take five minutes. "We could go together, right, guys?"

Neo wagged, his tail flopping on the couch.

"Okay, let's go. We'll send him a text from the house." He leashed up the dogs and headed down the stairs to his pretty little car. Kaleb had surprised him with it—a new-to-him low-mileage Subaru that he absolutely loved.

It was so baby safe. Good on snow and ice, good back seat and cargo room for the dogs, good air-conditioning. The puppers loved it.

He headed up the mountain, the view really lovely now with all of the summer flowers blooming, everything green and pretty. He parked at the house, then sat there for a moment, hands on the wheel, staring up at the imposing facade of the mansion.

Charlie grinned at it. "We need to come to an agreement. We have to start thinking of each other as friends."

He sent Kaleb a quick text, then let the dogs out to wander. They were trained to a treat, and they knew not to go too far. The way Kaleb loved his dogs was one of the things that had made Charlie trust him.

Then he went back to talking to the house. "Seriously. I love you. I want to have a family with Kaleb and fill the rooms with laughter." He unlocked the front door and went in.

There was a gust of wind behind him that stirred some leaves that still needed to be cleared out, and he shivered even though the day was nice and warm. Whew, what a weird breeze.

"I'm serious. I want to be happy here. I want you to be happy too. Please, let us stay?" He needed to go to the second and the third floor, and hang up paint chips, and he was not going to be scared in Kaleb's home.

He took a deep breath before heading inside, and suddenly, the dogs were there with him, flanking him on either side. That gave him a nice little shot of courage, because he needed it. He just had to know he wasn't alone.

He locked the door behind him but opened up windows. Kynan and his crew would normally have them open, but it was the weekend, and the place was empty.

His footsteps echoed as he walked into the foyer, and he looked around, pleased with how the wall sconces looked. They'd replaced the old gaslight ones with electric, but he'd chosen good replacements, and they totally looked period.

He peeked into the ballroom, imagining a huge Christmas tree in there, a lovely grouping of sofa and rugs and places to visit. They could have all the alpha diner club up, which Kaleb was a part of now, and Hank and all of his ghost tour folks.

He smiled, thinking of all the kids who could come up. How fun would it be to do a day camp for Saul maybe. The kids could learn all about the history of nineteenth-century Colorado.

This was going to be a special part of Secret Springs, a pocket of history and beauty and family.

Ezekiel… The whisper made goose bumps rise on his skin, and he turned in a circle to see where it had come from.

"Did you hear that, puppers?"

They bought wagged.

"Hey, uh, Augustus? I'm not Ezekiel. I'm sorry. I'm Charlie." He knew that Augustus was supposed to be the murdery alpha, but that whisper wasn't mean. In fact, it sounded sad and scared.

Ezekiel, where are you?

Oh. Charlie put a hand to his chest. That cry made his heart hurt it was so desperate and sad. "Oh, honey. I don't know. I don't know where he is."

Another gust of wind slammed the main door, and he jumped at least a foot. Trinity barked, and Neo whined and tried to hide behind him, but then he could breathe. The ghost seemed to be gone.

Hank would have a cow when Charlie told him about this.

But still. He'd managed it, hadn't he? He hadn't panicked, and he'd dealt, and he was heading upstairs to look at paint chips.

The light coming in the windows was perfect for him to make a decision, too. Whew. It was a bit hot up there, though.

He opened up one of the windows, sucking air. Sweat was pouring off him, and he sat on the windowsill.

His vision swam a little, and he wished he'd brought some water. He was queasy as hell, too.

Cool air poured into the room, making him gasp. Oh, that felt good.

"Better. Whoa. Better, guys." He smiled at the dogs, the grossness easing back. "We're going to have to make sure we leave some windows open when we're up here, huh? That was wild."

The weather factor had to have been nuts back when the house was built. Up at this altitude it was extremes.

"Still, I think that this peachy cream will be beautiful up here, don't you?"

He held the paint chip he'd decided on up to the wall one more time, which was when he heard the crunch of tires on gravel. He looked out the window to see Kaleb pulling in behind his car.

"Huh. That was fast." He leaned out of the window, waving as Kaleb got out of his truck. "Hey, love!"

"Careful, honey." Kaleb waved back, but he looked a little worried. He hurried into the house, and Charlie heard him thunder up the stairs.

He brought his paint chips. "I like this one for this room. What do you think?"

"I like it." Kaleb came to kiss him, neatly sidestepping the dogs. "Everything okay?"

"Yes. I wanted to see the colors in the light. I think the alpha ghost talked to me."

"Yeah? What did he say?" Kaleb looked around as if it was an automatic reflex.

"He was asking for Ezekiel. I told him we didn't have him."

"Which is true enough as it is." Kaleb tilted his head. "The last time I heard something it was Augustus calling for Ezekiel. Why would they be searching for each other?"

"Well…if they loved each other…" It sort of made sense to him.

"Yeah. I think you're on the right track. But how did that turn into Augustus killed Ezekiel?" Kaleb held the paint chip up to the wall.

"I thought Augustus killed his omega."

A rush of cold air hit him, blowing his head. I did not!

"Ow." Charlie blinked. "That was wild. Did you hear that?"

Kaleb peered at him cautiously. "What did you hear?"

"I did not. That was what he said. What did you hear?" He pushed into Kaleb's arms.

"He didn't." Kaleb held him close. "So… So we're hearing different ghosts?"

"Is that a thing? Who did you hear?" They needed to call Hank. Charlie wasn't sure that was a thing, but if anyone would know? It would be Hank.

He knew everything about ghosts.

"I think I heard the omega from back when the house was built…" Kaleb shook his head. "Ghosts were never even on my radar until I came here."

"Weird." He leaned his head against Kaleb's chest. "Mmm…you smell good."

"Do I? Thank you, sweet." Kaleb stroked his back, humming low in his throat. "You scared me a little, I have to admit."

"Oh, I was okay. I can't be scared of being home, love. We have to let them know it's okay." He hoped.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can see that." Kaleb sounded a little dubious, though. Of course, he'd never had a ghost save his life. Charlie had.

"Do you need help unloading the truck?"

"You could keep me company, for sure."

He had to smile. Kaleb was trying to keep him from doing any heavy lifting.

"I'm pregnant, not sick," he pointed out.

"But you are pregnant."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, Kaleb. I am pregnant."

In fact, they'd even seen a picture of their little girl, the baby tiny—mainly head and heartbeat and tiny little hands and feet.

"That's what I remembered. I seem to have heard that my omega was carrying my baby." Kaleb paused and grinned. "Do you know what that means?"

"Uh…"

"It means you can watch me unload the truck, and then I'll take you to supper. There's a new vegetarian place in Montrose that the lady at the hardware store told me about. They have tempeh enchiladas and falafel wraps both."

"Ooh…" He did love some falafel. He hadn't even known about it until Raven at the birthing center had shared some with him.

Amazing stuff, really.

"Right? If you're really good, I'll take you for ice cream afterward. I'm craving a hot fudge sundae."

"Are you now?" That tickled him. "This is one powerful baby, you know that? She can cause her alpha father to crave."

"It's a mystery, but true." Kaleb rubbed one hand over his belly, and to his shock, the baby kicked Kaleb hard, right in the palm.

Kaleb gasped, his eyes going wide. "Babe, was that? Was that?"

"Your daughter?" He nodded, staring and drinking in the shock and joy in his lover's face. "That's her."

"Oh. Oh, wow. I felt her, Charlie. I felt her move." Kaleb sounded utterly awed.

Now Kaleb understood a little bit of the wonder he felt. He'd been experiencing the tiny little flutters and kicks for days, and at first, they had been so gentle he hadn't been sure they were real.

"It's wild, isn't it? I never thought that this was going to be something I could experience, and after the…" He stopped and shook his head. Charlie never spoke about that night. He didn't even want to remember that awful day in the cold room waiting to die, knowing he wouldn't be found.

Thank god for Joe.

Kaleb hugged him tight. "After the what, babe?"

"You know."

"Yeah, but I think maybe at some point you have to talk about it." Kaleb didn't sound like he was going to let it go this time.

Did he have to? He wasn't sure, but he did know that Kaleb was good to him—better to him than anyone ever had been, and it wasn't as if his life had been a terrible thing before.

He'd been happy. He'd had a career, a family, everything, and after the attack, he just walked away from it all.

"I was out here camping. Nothing serious, nothing nefarious. I was totally taken by surprise. I'm still not sure to this day what exactly they wanted. I lost so much…"

Kaleb nodded as if he understood. "I'm so sorry. There was no way that you could go back to playing baseball?"

He shook his head. "There was no way I could go back, even if physically I could have healed. There was no way I could go face anyone I'd known before."

Kaleb looked utterly confused. "I don't understand, babe. Why not?"

"I don't know. Shame maybe? I have a sister out there, a brother too, but I just couldn't let them know what had happened. I'd been so proud of my career, of how I was going to make it as a baseball player. Then suddenly, I didn't have anything, and I couldn't face them."

Kaleb shook his head. "So they don't know where you are? They don't know if you were okay?"

"No. I couldn't tell them." And it was weird, because saying it out loud made it sound so ridiculous, so impossible. These were people that loved him, had loved him his entire life, and suddenly he couldn't believe that he'd just left them behind as if they meant nothing. "I'm a bad person, aren't I?"

"Of course you're not!" Kaleb sounded shocked. "You were traumatized. It hasn't even been that long. You needed time to heal, and I know that, but when you're ready, I'm happy to help you. I'll be there for you when you're ready to talk to them again." Kaleb didn't sound like he was angry or even like he was disappointed. If anything, Kaleb sounded sad.

"You'd do that for me?"

"Charlie, I want you to listen to me." Kaleb sounded so serious. "There is absolutely nothing—nothing at all that I would not do for you. You're the father of our baby."

There was a sound from deep inside the house as if a boiler was going off, an odd pinging, and Charlie tilted his head. "Did you hear that?"

"That I did hear."

"I'm not sure I wanna know." Charlie took a deep breath, and it was like a pressure he hadn't realized he'd been dealing with was suddenly released. "Whatever it was, I'm sure it's going to cost a fortune…"

"Of that I have no doubt." Kaleb laughed, the sound merry and echoing through the house. "Good thing I have money."

"Good thing you do, because I'm sure not setting the world on fire."

Kaleb leaned back, staring into his eyes. "Oh for God's sake, Charlie, don't stand here in the middle of this haunted house and say anything about fire."