“It’s okay, Carlin, we both knew you weren’t staying here in McKinton. I meant what I said to everyone at the table today. You’ve always been up front about where you belong and I would never expect you to leave your dad alone in New York.” Matt unbuckled his own seatbelt and opened his door. “So, beef or cheese? You never said.”
“Beef, with lots of cheese.”
“Then that’s what we’ll have. Come on.” Matt got out of the car and walked over to the trunk. He hit the button on the fob and pulled the trunk lid up all the way. They grabbed the luggage and Matt slammed the trunk shut then walked beside Carlin until they reached the door. Maybe it was creepy, the way he wanted to touch Carlin constantly even though he refrained from doing so, but he couldn’t make himself keep what his mother would call a respectable distance.
“Can I ask you something?”
Matt set down the suitcase he was carrying and looked at Carlin. “Sure. Anything.”
Carlin sniffed then tipped his head to the side, reminding Matt suddenly of a certain rooster. “Why is it I smell cookies when I’m with you most of the time?”
Shit. Ask me anything but
that. Carlin would definitely think Matt was off his rocker if he told the truth, but he didn’t want to lie, either.
“You asked me about whether or not I smelt cookies the first time you came to the motel,” Carlin mused. “I know it’s not your cologne. You don’t wear any, and if you did, I’d think you’d pick something that didn’t remind people of baked goods.”
Matt fumbled the key into the lock as he tried to think of a plausible explanation that wouldn’t make him come across as unhinged and wasn’t a lie.
“See? Or rather, do you smell it? It’s even stronger now.”
“Damn it all to Hell,” Matt muttered. The scent
was
stronger, almost cloying. He unlocked the door and opened it quickly, hoping the odour would dissipate once they were inside. “Come on.” Matt picked up the suitcase and carried it inside to his room. Carlin locked the door and was behind him, nearly stepping on Matt’s heels.
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“It followed us inside,” Carlin pointed out. “It’s everywhere in here.” He walked around the bedroom then wandered out into the hall. Matt followed him and watched as Carlin opened every door and sniffed. “I haven’t seen any of those plug-in air fresheners, or potpourri, nothing like that. But every time I catch a whiff of that scent, I feel kind of warm and…” Carlin stopped in the middle of the living room and blushed to the roots of his hair.
“This is going to sound crazy, but it almost feels like Aunt Mary is with me.” He groaned and walked over to the couch then plopped down. “God, I’m losing it.”
Matt’s stomach clenched with fear as he thought
he
might lose Carlin, but he didn’t have a choice, not when Carlin was so obviously upset and thinking like he was.
Taking a seat beside Carlin, Matt steeled himself for the worst. He took Carlin’s hand in his and cleared his throat. “You’re not crazy. Severo, he’s…” How the hell did he explain what Severo did? Matt ploughed ahead before he could change his mind. “I guess you’d say he’s a psychic, though he really doesn’t like that term. He can, uh, he can hear ghosts, spirits he likes to call them. Says ‘ghosts’ reminds him of kiddie cartoons and Bill Murray.”
Instead of looking like he thought Matt was full of shit, Carlin was staring at him with a hopeful expression. “Can he really do that?”
“Yeah,” Matt said, thinking about some of the weird crap he’d seen in the past year.
“He used to consult with police departments all over the United States. You can get online and type Severo Robledo and psychic and you will get thousands of hits. A lot of them are accountings of his work with the police, but he cut back on doing that once he and Laine became a couple.”
Carlin grunted and scooted closer to Matt. “I’ve heard about people like him before.
Didn’t you tell me he came to McKinton around the same time Laine’s stalker did?”
“A little before. He said a spirit nagged him into coming but wouldn’t tell him why, or maybe the spirit couldn’t tell him, I’m not sure which. Turns out it was Laine’s deceased lover, Conner, who wanted Severo here to warn him about McAlister. Conner nearly froze Severo to death trying to get the message across, but things worked out in the end.”
“Except you were nearly killed.” Carlin smoothed a hand over Matt’s stomach. “And you had your heart broken by Rich.”
“Not broken,” Matt corrected, knowing that would come when Carlin left. “Just bruised, along with my pride. As for nearly getting killed, I wasn’t, so that worked out, too.”
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Carlin humphed and ran his hand from Matt’s stomach down to his groin. Matt moaned when Carlin squeezed his erection. “Carlin, damn it, I want to fuck you so bad but we don’t have—”
“Condoms,” Carlin finished. “Yes, we do. Severo gave me a handful and said he and Laine don’t use them anymore. But I can still smell cookies, and the idea of fucking while we may be in the presence of my aunt’s, um, spirit, borders on gross. Actually, I think it bitch-slaps gross.”
“I thought you’d freak out and think I was nuts,” Matt said as he cradled Carlin’s jaw in his hand.
Carlin stiffened and sniffed the air, then pulled away. “It doesn’t freak me out, but the way the odour vanished as soon as I said that?
That
freaks me out.”
Matt took a deep breath and felt a little freaked out himself. “Okay, I’ll give you that.
Why don’t you shower if you want and I’ll get dinner started? Maybe we’ll feel better after a couple of hours without any…distractions.”
“Sounds great to me. A shower, enchiladas, a handsome man—who’s back I need to doctor again, by the way—condoms, and no cookie scent. I’m definitely in.” Carlin jumped up and planted a smacking kiss on Matt’s lips before heading towards the bathroom.
Matt watched his delectable ass every step of the way until Carlin was out of sight, then Matt got up and adjusted his dick into a less painful position. He walked around the couch then stopped and looked over his shoulder when he caught a whiff of cookies.
Feeling only a little foolish, Matt scolded, “Mrs. Hawkins, I love you dearly, but you need to go keep an eye on someone else for a while, if you would.” The scent vanished as soon as he finished speaking, and Matt smiled and went into the kitchen to make dinner for his man.
* * * *
“Okay, maybe I’m a little freaked out,” Carlin admitted to himself. He dug his laptop out of the suitcase and sat down on the bed. Once he popped in the broadband card, he started the computer up and within minutes had a newspaper article loaded. Carlin read the story, praising the abilities of Severo Robledo, though there were no quotes from the man himself. The reporter cited Severo’s refusal to comment more than once.
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“Interesting,” Carlin mumbled as he pulled up another article, this one from a newspaper in Fort Worth. His stomach twisted and settled into a queasy state as he read the reporter’s account of the events that had occurred in McKinton several months ago. Severo was mentioned as being a psychic who had been pivotal to breaking the case, but the specifics Matt had shared with Carlin about Conner being the spirit who helped Severo keep Laine safe, those details weren’t in the article.
Carlin mulled it over in his mind and decided he believed Matt anyway. He wondered what had happened to Conner’s spirit. Had Conner been able to go…wherever people go when they die? Was it his need to have his killer caught that had kept Conner here on Earth?
Or—Carlin jerked his hands back from the keyboard.
The keys are moving!
“Ohmyfuckinggod!” Carlin squeaked and tried to shove the laptop off his lap but it wouldn’t move. His heart pounded so hard he worried he was going to die of fright, but try as he might, Carlin couldn’t move the computer, and what should have been a slight weight held his legs pinned to the bed.
The laptop’s screen flickered, then a blank document came up. Carlin was on the verge of hyperventilating as letters appeared on the document, then words, then a sentence and another, followed by a single letter and a period.
Carlin shook so badly he could hardly focus to read, and he was embarrassingly close to pissing his pants. His cheek was caressed by something…
other
, and Carlin really wanted to scream, but a calm sensation settled over him.
“W-what the f-fuck?” Was he possessed? What was happening? The screen flickered again and another sentence appeared above the first two, and this one was in a much larger font. Carlin read the sentence and wasn’t entirely reassured.
NO YOU ARE NOT POSSESSED SO RELAX.
“Yeah, because
that’s
going to happen when I can’t move my legs and
someone or
something is reading my mind!
” And just like the scent in the house had dissipated instantly, so did the unnatural weight on Carlin’s legs and the forced sensation of calmness. Somehow, that made Carlin truly feel better—until he read the rest of the sentences, then he was just back to being freaked out, but on a milder level.
Yes, Severo does speak to us, and he listens, too. Matt’s telling you the truth, and your Aunt
Mary says she loves you, go shower, and use as many of the condoms as you can—okay that last bit’s
from me. C.
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Carlin closed the laptop and pulled the broadband card out. He stood and carried it over to his bag where he packed it away. Then he turned and glared around the room, looking for any evidence of a ghost, spirit, whatever. Now that he wasn’t terrified, he was mad even if he was also a little relieved.
Pointing a finger at the centre of the room—either there was a spirit in here or there wasn’t, and if he was pointing the wrong way, oh fucking well.
“That wasn’t very nice, even if you were just trying to help. It’s creepy as hell and nearly scared the piss out of me, and how attractive is that? Stay out of my laptop, and go…somewhere else!”
Carlin dropped his hand back to his side and headed to the bathroom. He yelped when something slapped his ass. Instead of spinning around and delivering another lecture, he did what any man would do. Carlin squealed and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. If any spirit dared to come through there, he’d…he’d…do something. Carlin waited, his heart still racing though not as bad.
Once he felt reasonably sure he was alone, or at least not going to be harassed by Conner or Aunt Mary or God only knew who, Carlin started the shower. He’d get cleaned up, then, if Matt was still fixing dinner, Carlin was going to call Severo and he and the ghost psychic were going to have a nice chat.
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Matt stopped chopping up onions and cocked his head to the side. He could have sworn he heard Carlin talking to someone in the bedroom. Shrugging when he didn’t hear anything else, Matt resumed his odious task—he
hated
chopping onions but loved to eat them—only to hear what sounded like a yelp coming from the bedroom. Setting the knife down, he rushed to the bedroom and opened the door just as he heard the shower come on.
He walked over and tapped on the bathroom door, and that was definitely a yelp he heard then.
“Carlin, are you okay?” Matt called out as he tried the door knob.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Carlin said. “You just startled me. All this talk about ghosts has got me kind of jumpy.”
“You don’t say,” Matt mumbled under his breath before speaking louder so Carlin could hear him. “If you’re all right, I’ll get back to dinner.”
“You do that. I’ll be out in a few minutes, then I’d like to call Severo if you think Laine wouldn’t mind.”
“He’ll be fine with it. See you in a few.” Matt left the bedroom and went back into the kitchen. He walked over to the cutting board and a bolt of panic shot through him. The onion was chopped into perfect tiny bits, just like he preferred them to be.
Matt grabbed the knife and turned to put his back to the counter as he looked around the room. Finding no one hidden behind any of the appliances, Matt checked the living room next.
His skin prickled as a sensation like a weak electrical current rippled over him.
Something brushed over his short hair, and Matt yelped and nearly dropped the knife. “Shit!
Cut it out!”
The odd sensation stopped and Matt glared around the room. Then he remembered Carlin’s yelp and wondered what had caused it, and why Carlin wanted to talk to Severo.
Well. They were going to have a talk of their own first.
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dinner. By the time Carlin strolled into the kitchen, the enchiladas were baking in the oven and Matt was seated at the table with a cup of coffee in his hand.
Carlin smiled nervously and Matt pointed at the chair across from him. Once Carlin was seated Matt passed him the full cup of coffee. Before Carlin could take a sip, Matt casually asked him, “Did anything happen in the bedroom you want to tell me about?”
Carlin’s eyes widened and he set the coffee cup down.
Matt took that for a yes and continued. “Maybe you had a visitor or two? I heard you yelp, pretty much like I did after I came back in here, found the onion I’d left on the cutting board chopped up, then had something decide it’d be funny to play with my hair. I didn’t catch a single hint of oatmeal raisin cookies, though, so I don’t know who or what it was that decided to pay me a visit.
That’s
what made me yelp. What was your adventure?”
Carlin swallowed audibly then lifted the coffee cup back up and took a long sip. He set the cup back on the table then clasped his hands together beside the cup.
“Well, you said I could look Severo up, so I did, then my laptop went wonky and the keys started moving like someone was tapping them, then—” Carlin took a breath and glared at some point past Matt’s shoulder. “Then a blank document opened up on its own, and presto, a message from, uh, I think it was from Conner, appeared.”