Page 23 of Road Trip With the Ghost Hunter
I opened the door and found her sitting on the bed. She was dressed and ready, which was good, but I could see a piece of the broken vase in her hand. The color was so similar to the vase that broke at the ranch, I got a chill. Maybe this was why she broke down last night. All the more reason to send her away.
“I thought you left me.” Her voice was so light and sad, I almost reconsidered the ticket.
“I wouldn’t do that.” I closed the door behind me.
“We need to talk.” She ran her thumb over the grooves embedded in the vase.
“We do.” I took another breath and held out the ticket toward her.
“What’s this?” She didn’t take it.
“A bus ticket to Rustic Junction.” She looked up at me. “It leaves in forty-five minutes.”
“Excuse me?” She stood up and faced me. “I thought you were going to Rustic too.”
“I was.” There was no way I could stop there now. It was better for her if I put as much distance between us as possible.
“What’s going on, Lucas?”
“You can’t stay.” The words hurt. “Not after last night.”
“What?” She rocked back on her heels.
“I should never have let you come with me to the ranch. Never put yourself in that kind of position. I told you that I would take care of you, and I failed. I always fail.” If I had been with Uncle Filip that day, he never would have been on that roof. He wouldn’t have had to lie there until one of the neighbors came home and called an ambulance. He’d still be with us now.
“Lucas.”
“I know you don’t believe in any of this, but I can’t stop. I need answers.” I wanted to tell her everything, but after last night, I wasn’t going to burden her with anything else, including my presence.
“What if you never get them?” I could see her eyes glistening and damn it, I wanted to be the man I was before I got that call. Before I rushed to the hospital, only to have a few short minutes with the man who had always been my hero.
That Lucas wouldn’t let her go. He would have stayed up late and made his own playlist of songs to surprise her and make her laugh. He wouldn’t have left her in Heartstone, and he for damn sure would have kissed her by now.
God, I missed him almost as much as I missed Uncle Filip.
“We should get going.” I couldn’t answer her question. Not when I didn’t know what the answer would be.
“So, this is it?” She didn’t mask the hurt.
“This is it.” I walked around her to pick up her bags.
Part of me wanted her to fight me. To tell me that she wouldn’t leave. That she wanted to stay, but she didn’t. Instead, she walked over and started picking up the broken pieces of her vase on my sweatshirt.
“Keep it.” I liked the idea of her having something of mine. Something to remember me by. God knew I wouldn’t forget her.
“Thank you.” She put all the pieces back down and wrapped them up. The sweatshirt was held close to her chest.
I put her bags in the backseat and held the door for her to get in, and drove us to the bus depot. The whole time questioning if I was doing the right thing.
We sat there waiting for them to start letting people on. “Will you be alright?”
“Do you care?” Li didn’t look in my direction. She was still holding my sweatshirt.
“Of course I care.” How could she ask that? If I didn’t care so much, I wouldn’t be able to do this.
“I’ll be fine.” Her voice choked on the last word.
“Li–”
