Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist (Maple Hollow #1)

“You are so totally fucked!” Lou’s voice yanked me back into the moment.

I angrily snapped my fingers at the air beside me, the only indication I’d heard her.

“I know how to pick ‘em, don’t I?” she gloated, swarming around me like a deranged moth.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and trudged back toward my apartment, all of the delight of the date bleaching from Lou’s exuberance as she trotted behind me.

“Although, I thought we’d never see the inside of a building again the way you two were circling the square. You know you live here, right? You know where all the best places are to sit and have a chat.”

“Do ghosts ever get tired?”

“That’s beside the point.”

“Maybe I thought you’d get bored . . . or take a hint. I can’t believe you shoved me into her like that.” I ignored her critique of the date.

“I wouldn’t have had to get involved if you weren’t being a coward. She gave you so many openings to make a move and you weren’t taking them!”

“Maybe I was taking my time,” I countered, reaching the apothecary door and walking through the darkness of the closed-up shop.

“Do you want me haunting you for a decade, Jords?” Lou asked as we trudged up the stairs to the apartment. “I’m helping expedite things.”

When I opened the door, Iris was on the couch surrounded by a halo of dusty, old books. She peeked up at me. “Well?”

I looked over at Lou then back at Iris. “One date wasn’t the solution, apparently.”

“I’m not surprised,” Iris grumbled, flipping through her books more frantically. “Going on one date seemed like a weird marker of helping a ghost pass over.”

“But why not?” I demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Lou as she casually strolled around the living room. “I’ve gone on my date. I’m actively trying to move on. Now you need to move on too.”

Lou rolled her eyes. “I’m going to need a little more reassurance that you won’t bail on this one for absolutely no reason.”

I walked into the small kitchen in the corner and opened the fridge. The apartment had four rooms: the living space, which served as our living room, kitchen, and dining area, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The benefit was its proximity to work and the rest of the town.

“Oh, I have a reason.” I grabbed two bottles of hard cider and brought one to Iris before taking a long swig of my own. “There’s a ghost haunting me. That’s an excellent reason to hit pause on a relationship.”

“Okay, I’m dying to know, how was the date?” Iris fished a coaster from the coffee table drawer and set her cider on it, careful not to spill on the old books strewn across the surface. “Was it fun? Was she cool? She’s really hot. I bet it was great. Did you kiss?”

I cut Iris a look as she peppered me with all those questions. “Can we deal with the whole Lou thing first?”

I looked over my shoulder as Lou was steaming her breath on the floor-length mirror in the corner and writing, They kissed.

Iris clapped with glee. “Ooh! You did kiss!”

“Will you stop!” I shouted at Lou. It was her latest corporeal party trick.

“What’s the point in being a ghost if I can’t write creepy things in steamy mirrors?”

“I can’t believe you kissed. That’s huge,” Iris said at the exact same time.

All of this talking over each other was breaking my brain.

“It would have been better if Lou hadn’t shoved me into her first.” I groaned and then glared at Lou. “That push was petty.”

Lou folded her arms across her chest. “You weren’t complaining when her face was plastered to yours.”

“No more interfering,” I said. “You can’t be around when I’m dating her. It’s too distracting. I’m going to scare her off.”

“So you’re going to keep seeing her?” Lou and Iris chirped together.