No More Secrets (Book 2)

16. The Other Way

Before I had a chance to ask Jenny what the option was, the group of old women had finally decided on a book. They each had a copy of some romance novel with a half-naked hunk of a man on the cover.

I smiled at them, putting down the phone, and trying not to show my judgement of their choice. Everyone had their thing, and if this book club wanted to read sex stories, then who was I to judge?

"So tell us about your girl, Travis," the woman who had originally saw my ring asked as I rang up the book.

I shrugged. "Well, there is no girl. I'm in love with a man."

All of their faces turned into ones of shock. Only one stayed that way. The first woman smiled. "Well I'm sure he's a lucky man."

I smiled even wider. "Yeah, I'm pretty lucky, too. He's more than perfect." I noticed Jenny rolling her eyes and I had to keep myself from laughing. I didn't know how Dylan was so good at keeping a straight face when out in public. Jenny was a handful sometimes.

The women kept asking me about Dylan and the wedding while I rang them all up individually. The only one that kept quiet was the one that still seemed unable to grasp the fact that I was gay. But it didn't matter to me what she thought. She still bought the book.

Once they were gone, Jenny and I were finally alone in the store. "Alright," I said. "What's this way that you know of?"

"I just want to say that I'm definitely telling Dylan that you had all those women fawning all over you just now. Maybe I'll leave out the bit where you were talking about him, but still. It's fun watching him get jealous over you."

"How often have you done that?"

She shrugged. "Once or twice. Maybe a lot. Who knows?"

I shook my head. "Stop doing that. Please." If she's been doing that for a while now, it would explain the occasional moods Dylan would get in. Sometimes he wouldn't leave my side, constantly telling me that he loved me and that I was his. I always thought it was cute, but if Jenny kept telling him that people were flirting with me, then that could be why.

"Fine. Anyway. Death is a hard being to track down."

She didn't say anything so I spoke up. "Yeah. I'm aware." Jenny didn't say anything else, her gaze on the floor. It was like she didn't want to say what she needed to say. "Just tell me, Jenny. If no one has to die, then we need to know what to do. We can't keep living in fear that she'll show up again."

Another customer walked in and I cursed silently. I was slightly worried that if we kept getting interrupted, Jenny was never going to tell me. But this was probably our only shot. I wasn't allowing Dylan to risk his life again, and I knew he'd never let me do it. Unless he and Nina came up with a different option today, Jenny's way might be the only way.

Finally, the customer left without buying anything. The thing about bookstores were that we had a lot of people come in just to browse. Normally, that's fine. But it wasn't okay when I had a very important matter to discuss with a ghost.

"Alright, spill," I said as soon as the door closed behind the customer. "Before someone else comes in."

She sighed. "Okay. So when I said no one has to die, that wasn't exactly true." I felt my heart sink, but she kept talking before I could say anything. "I can do it. I can negotiate with Death. But I probably wouldn't be able to come back."

I shook my head. "Dylan's never going to let you do that."

"Exactly. Which is why I'm telling you."

I sighed, leaning on the counter in front of me. "He's not going to listen to me, either. He'll never let you do that."

"I know, so you're not going to say anything about it." She took a deep breath. "I'm already dead. I've been dead. The only reason I've been staying around this long is for Dylan and my mom. But Dylan has you now. You're going to get married and live a great life together. And my mom? She's doing okay now. She no longer cries at night because of how much she misses me. Probably helps that she knows I'm still here, kinda, but she knows that I'm okay. And I'm okay with doing this. If it's to protect you and Dylan and our families, then I need to do it. There's no other way."

"Jenny -"

"No." She shook her head. "I know the risks. Death will keep me in exchange for the rest of them. I've pissed him off before, there's no way he'd let me go. I'd rather be officially dead to you and Dylan than to see either one of you hurt."