Keeping Secrets (Book 1)

Chapter 24: Gratitude

I scrambled to find the blanket. "Jenny!" I exclaimed, finding the blanket on the floor and throwing it over me and Travis. "What are you doing here?"

He caught on very quickly. "Jenny's here? How?"

"Can I open my eyes now, you perverts?"

"Hey, you're the one barging into people's bedrooms unannounced," I said. "Be lucky you didn't come five minutes sooner. But yeah, we're covered."

She dramatically peaked through her fingers and, realizing it was safe, put her arms at her side. "Well you two sure looked like you were having fun while I was stuck in ghost jail."

I ignored the comment. "How are you here? How'd you get out?"

"I don't know. All of a sudden, the fences were gone and we could leave. So I came to find you."

"Huh." I repeated what she had said to Travis, and he had the same reaction.

"Well," Travis said after a moment. "Jenny, I'm glad you back and all, but do you mind giving us some privacy?"

She didn't react to his words, only started looking at the bookshelf. I looked at Travis, confused. It's almost like she didn't hear him.

"Uh, Jenny? Did you hear what Trav said?"

She turned back to me. "Travis said something?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. He asked if you could give us some privacy."

"I did not hear that but yeah. Probably a good idea. I don't want to see what's under that blanket." Then she was gone.

I traced my fingers over the pendant that was still hanging around Travis' neck. "I guess this thing is more powerful than we thought. She didn't hear a word you said."

"I'm just glad it works at all." He sighed. "You haven't seen her around here again, have you?"

I shook my head. "It's only been a day, Trav. But I'm hoping that my apology to Death this morning worked and that's why he let the ghosts out. Maybe he took your mom back too."

"I can only hope. So what now?"

I chuckled a bit. "Now I have to go home and shower. Somebody made a mess all over me..."

Travis leaned over and kissed me lightly. "I don't remember you complaining when it happened." He smiled and kissed me again before saying, "You can shower here. I'll even help."

"Ooh. Tempting." I slid out from under the blanket and reached for my leg to put back on. "I do, unfortunately, have to go back to Nina's at some point today. If the ghosts are back, I need to talk to her. Again." I shook my head with a soft sigh. "I feel like I'm always there."

Travis wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek. "If you weren't strictly into guys, I might have to be jealous..."

I turned my head to give him a quick kiss on the mouth. "You're hot when you're jealous, though." I then quickly finished putting on my leg and then clothes. "I really do hate to run like this, Trav. I'm sorry."

"I didn't think you could run anywhere anymore, babe."

I rolled my eyes. "Ha, ha. You're hilarious."

With one more kiss, I left his bedroom. Thankfully, Travis was right behind me to help me get down the stairs, since I had forgotten we were on the second floor for a moment. But it wasn't long before I was pulling up outside of Nina's for the third time today.

To my surprise, the door was actually propped open, unlike all the other times I've ever been here. The 'open' sign was sitting in the window, too. I guess Nina got the memo that the ghosts were back.

So I walked in. "Nina?" I called. I went to say her name again, but stopped when I realized she wasn't alone.

She was sitting on the couch next to an older woman. The woman looked like she had been crying, a crumpled tissue in her hands. On the other side of the room was the ghost of a teenage boy, probably only a couple years younger than Jenny.

Nina glanced up at me and shook her head. Obviously, I was interrupting, so I turned around to wait outside. I could faintly hear them talking inside, but I couldn't make out any of the words. It made me wonder why people seek out psychics in the first place. Obviously it was to have one more conversation with their loved ones or proof that they're still around, even after death.

When the woman finally left, she was smiling widely. Her eyes were still red from crying, but I don't think they were sad tears. When she saw me waiting, she smiled even wider.

"Nina is wonderful, dear," she said. "The real deal, I'm telling you. I'm so glad she reopened. I've been missing my baby."

I nodded. "Yeah, she's great." The woman started walking away, but I called after her. "Does it help?" I asked. "Knowing that your son is still here with you?"

She looked at me. "Absolutely."

Once the woman left, I headed inside. Nina was cleaning up the area a bit, not that it was dirty in the first place, but looked up at me when I walked in. "Hey," she said. "I guess you talked to Death?"

I nodded. "And it didn't take you long before you opened your door back open to people."

She smiled. "Yeah, Donna has been coming here weekly for years. As soon as her son showed up, I called her. I was going to call you next."

"Are they all that happy, being able to talk to them?"

Nina thought for a minute. "The ones that believe, yeah, I'd say so. Why?"

"When I was outside, I started thinking. My mom's been so upset without Jenny. Maybe it's time I told her that she was still here. Grandma too. I think she might appreciate being able to talk to them, at least one more time, you know?"

Nina smiled. "I think that's a great idea, if that's what you want to do. And Dylan... I just want to thank you. I wouldn't have been able to do this on my own, so I'm glad you found me and made me include you. I'd also like to think I made a friend out of this whole ordeal too."

I took the few steps to close the distance between us to pull Nina into a hug. "Of course you did," I said, backing out of the hug a bit to look her in the eyes. "Two, actually, since there's Travis too. You helped save his life, and for that, we both couldn't be more grateful."