“Me too,” Ten added.
“If you’re all happy with that decision, then I am too.” Ronan sat back against his seat. Aurora and Everly had crowded around Jude as he read the mac and cheese recipe. Everly wanted to grate the cheese, and Aurora asked to make the roux. Ten got up from the table to check on Ezra and bring him a snack and some juice. Ronan grabbed his ever-present notebook and jotted down the types of seeds he wanted to buy for this year’s garden.
Life didn’t get any better than this.
2
Tennyson
Ten’s stomach felt like it was going to explode. Jude had picked up McDonald’s like Wolf wanted. He’d gone to town on his Quarter Pounder, chowing down like a man possessed. He was paying for it now, feeling like he wouldn’t need to eat again for a week.
After lunch, Jude and Ronan took the kids out to shop for stuff they’d need for their backyard Easter egg hunt, while Everly stayed behind with Ten and Cope.
“I can’t believe how quiet the house is with everyone gone.” Ten put an ice cube in Everly’s tea and brought her mug to the table.
“It’s nice,” Everly agreed, her eyes narrowing on Tennyson. She wrapped her hands around her cup and eyed her father. “So, what’s thisspecialmeeting about?”
Even without Everly’s abilities, Ten would never be able to get anything past his whip-smart daughter. “Uncle Cope and I thought this would be a good time to work with your gift.” Ten had been wanting to do this for a long time but hadn’t been quite sure how to handle it until Cope offered his help.
“No one’s been able to help me.” Everly sank her chin into her hands, looking sad. “Madam Aurora couldn’t help or Callum or that weird guy who wanted me to help him fill out his number test.”
Ten winced thinking about Madam Aurora’s asshole acquaintance who they’d brought in to work with his daughter. Not only could the mannothelp Everly control her gift, but he’d tried to exploit it by asking her to color in little circles on his Powerball sheet. Thankfully, Everly had seen right through the man. She’d colored in the dots like he asked, but with losing numbers. Ten would have paid money to watch the look on his face when the winning numbers were read and the man realized he’d been duped by a six-year-old.
“What are the things you’d like to work on?” Cope asked.
“Well…” Everly’s face scrunched up in thought. “I don’t want to wake up seeing spirits in my room, unless they’re people I want to see like Mimi Bertha and Erin. Strangers are scary.”
Ten couldn’t argue with that. The first ghost he’d ever encountered was sitting on the edge of his bed one morning when he was thirteen years old. Thankfully, he’d known the spirit in life, but his next few encounters had been with strangers, and they’d scared the stuffing out of him. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for his daughter to have seen strangers in her room at the age of two.
“There’s a way you can shut your gift off at certain times,” Cope said. “But it’s all or nothing.”
“What do you mean?” Everly sipped her tea.
“Let’s say you shut off at bedtime. You won’t see any spirits until you turn it on again. Not even Bertha or Erin. They’ll still be around you but won’t be able to communicate with you.”
“I don’t like that idea.” Everly sighed. “I have my best chats with Mimi Erin when she visits at night, and sometimes Bertha comes to me when there’s something wrong. I wouldn’t want to miss those visits.”
“But what about the other visits?” Ten asked, hating that he had to bring this up. “The bad spirits who want to hurt you or our family?”
“Dad always says I’m tiny but mighty. I think this is part of what he means.” Everly wore a thoughtful look.
Ten couldn’t help but see a glimpse of the insightful young woman his daughter would become. If he had a nickel for every time Ronan said that about Everly, they could buy the Boston Red Sox in cash. Twice. “Explain that to me.”
Everly was quiet for a few seconds, her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “There are spirits only I can see or speak with. They need to communicate with us and can’t reach you, so they come to me. Some are nice, but some are mean.”
Every night before bed, Ten shut his gift down so that he could get some sleep. Between waking up with the baby and Ronan’s snoring, he needed to set himself up for the best chances for a good night’s sleep. Was Everly seeing more spirits because Ten had shut down his gift at night? He didn’t like the thought of that one bit.
“How do you get the mean ones to leave you alone?” Cope looked like he was interested in Everly’s technique as a means to help himself.
“I tell them to go, but that doesn’t always work. I also tell them I won’t help them, but that doesn’t send them away.” Everly took another sip from her tea. She looked as if she had more to say on the subject but wasn’t sure if she should continue.
Ten held his peace. He had all the time in the world to wait to hear what was on his daughter’s mind.
Everly’s bottom lip wobbled. “When the spirits don’t do what I ask, I hurt them.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Her eyes had gone glassy, and Ten knew it was only a matter of seconds before tears would start to fall.
“You can’t hurt ghosts, honey,” Ten said softly.
Everly sat up straighter in her seat. “Yes, I can. Mimi, are you here?”
