Authors: Kathryn Meyer Griffith
“Rain’s coming and coming soon. Feel the temperature dropping?” Abigail shivered.
Out on the lawn the mists had crept in. It was like a churning wall working its way across the grass towards them. Spookie and its infamous fog. Abigail shook her head, thinking about it. “The fog’s getting really thick, Frank. You ought to go home before it gets any worse and before the storm hits. The roads out to your place could be treacherous if you wait any longer.”
For an answer Frank pulled her closer. “I’ll go in a few minutes.” His voice had fallen to a husky whisper. He turned towards her and kissed her. A long lingering kiss.
“I hate having to leave you, Abby. I hate it more every day. We need to be under the same roof, in the same bed, every night. Together. I need you to be a part of my daily life, all the time. I love you.”
Abigail held her breath. She could sense the tension in his body and hear the excitement in his voice. Something wonderful was about to happen. Something she’d been waiting for for a very long time.
“Frank?” Her heart was racing and her face felt flushed.
Then after three long years of being each other’s friend and lover Frank spoke the words she’d been waiting for. “Abigail Sutton…will you marry me?”
Even in the dimness under the porch she could see the ring he held in his fingers. It sparkled in the faint light like a tiny star in his hand. He’d slipped from the swing and was on his knees holding the ring out to her. “Please marry me. I love you more than my own life. I love the children. I want us to be a family. Together. Forever.”
Abigail knew her answer but her happiness froze her words. Tears trickled down her face. “Yes,” she finally whispered. Then louder, “Yes, I’ll marry you Frank Lester. I love you, too. I think I have for a long time.”
The ring was slipped on her finger and Frank got up from his knees and drew her into his arms. His embrace was gentle and sweet. He kissed her again as tears streamed down her face. She could feel his love because it surrounded her like the night and the fog.
“How about an August wedding, Abby?” he breathed. “I don’t think I could wait any longer. I’ve waited long enough.”
“But it’s already August now.”
“I know,” he countered. “I don’t want a long engagement. I don’t want any engagement. Both of us know how quickly life goes. We don’t have all the time in the world any more. Marry me in August.”
“Then August it is. Is next week soon enough for you? How about on my birthday, August the eighteenth?”
“It’ll do fine.”
Abigail’s thoughts were whirling around so she could hardly catch them. But she was so happy her tears wouldn’t stop. Frank wiped them off her cheeks and kissed her lips again.
“What kind of wedding shall we have, Abby?”
“A simple one,” she answered, smiling up at him. “Just us, our family and our friends from Spookie.”
“Well, we have a lot of friends, you know. Everyone in town will want to be there. You think my cabin will hold them all?”
“No, let’s not have it at your cabin…let’s have it here at my house where it all began. Where we solved our first mystery together from those scraps of paper I found inside these walls. We can put up a tent for the guests in the backyard and Father Mac, I’m sure, will do the ceremony.”
“You can arrange all that in eight days?”
“I know I can. Martha and Kate will help. The children will help. And where will we live after the wedding?”
“We can decide that later, Abby. We have a little time.”
The rain, a soft curtain of water, began to fall.
“Very little,” she said as they got up from the swing. But she laughed. They’d work it out. They always did.
She lifted up the finger with the ring on it and watched the diamond sparkle. A wave of memories of her first husband Joel rushed over her and for a moment she felt sadness, but it passed quickly. That was her past; this was her present and future. Frank was her future. How she’d loved Joel, but Joel had been gone for years and she had a life to continue living.
The most astonishing thing was that she’d found love again when she never believed she ever would. She’d found Frank, Laura and Nick and all her friends in Spookie. She’d found a new life and joy in spite of the occasional mysteries, dangers and murders. And she knew how truly blessed she was to have a second chance at life and love in a town she’d grown so fond of; with friends she’d grown to care about. Now she’d have it all. At last.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She walked Frank to his Goldwing, where he swung his leg over and settled onto its seat. She didn’t care that it was raining. She didn’t care about anything but the happiness she had as Frank smiled at her. “I’ll be at Kate’s in the morning serving out coffee and donuts and showing off my beautiful ring.” She let go of his hand. Sending him home alone was hard, but soon they’d never be apart again. What was a week?
“I’ll see you tomorrow and every day after that for the rest of our lives, my love.” He kissed her and she watched him drive away into the foggy, rainy night. Then she went into the house and up to bed.
She looked around her home as she moved through it. So much had happened since she’d bought the fixer-upper and made it hers three years ago. Only three years? It felt like a lifetime ago. Now it was also Laura and Nick’s home. She loved this house and wasn’t sure she could leave it if Frank wanted them to live at his place. Maybe she wouldn’t leave. Maybe she and Frank and the kids would live here?
She caressed the walls with her hand as she climbed upstairs to bed. No, Frank’s cabin was much bigger and a far better place to raise a family. Out in the woods where the air was fresh and clean. They should live there. It was the smartest move.
She could rent her house out to someone who would love it as much as she had. She wouldn’t have to sell it. She’d never have to sell it if she didn’t want to.
Stop thinking about it. Tackle it tomorrow in the light of day.
Things were always clearer in the morning. Sleep was what she needed.
In bed, in the moonlight from the window, she stared at the ring Frank had given her. It seemed to glow and sing to her. Its song was so full of future promises. She couldn’t wait for her new life with Frank and the children to begin. But now sleep, sleep.
Because tomorrow would be a big day. She and Frank had so many people to tell about the mystery they’d solved and about their coming wedding. There was so much to do and she so much wanted it all to begin…another chapter of her new life with Frank and the children in Spookie.
If this is the first of my Spookie Town Murder Mysteries books you’ve read, be sure to check out its two prequels
Scraps of Paper
http://tinyurl.com/ocs9y7l
and
All Things Slip Away
, available for Kindle on Amazon here:
http://tinyurl.com/kgjppef
.
Both, as well as twenty of my Audible audio books, are also available in audio books here:
http://tinyurl.com/oz7c4or
Text copyright © 2015 by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Ghosts Beneath Us
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
(Spookie Town Murder mystery #3)
Cover art by: Dawné Dominique
Copyright 2015 Kathryn Meyer Griffith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form,
including digital and electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
the prior written consent of the author, except for
brief quotes for use in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names,
places and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
For my family, as always, with all my love…
Other books by Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night
The Heart of the Rose
Blood Forge
Vampire Blood
The Last Vampire
(2012 Epic EBook Awards Finalist)
Witches
The Calling
Scraps of Paper
-The First
Spookie Town Murder Mystery
All Things Slip Away
-The Second
Spookie Town Murder Mystery
Ghosts Beneath Us
-The Third
Spookie Town Murder Mystery
Egyptian Heart
Winter’s Journey
The Ice Bridge
Don’t Look Back, Agnes
A Time of Demons
The Woman in Crimson
Four Spooky Short Stories
Human No Longer
Night Carnival
Forever and Always
Dinosaur Lake
(2014 Epic EBook Awards Finalist)
Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising
Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation
*All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books can be found here:
*All her Audible.com audio books here:
About
Kathryn Meyer Griffith
...
Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-three years ago now, and have had twenty-one (eleven romantic horror, two horror novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance and three murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press; and I’ve self-published my last five novels with Amazon Kindle Direct and my dinosaur novels are my best-sellers.
I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-six years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cats Sasha and Cleo, and live cat Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.
2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for my horror novel
The Last Vampire
-
Revised Author’s Edition
~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *FINALIST* for her thriller novel
Dinosaur Lake
*All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books can be found here:
*All her Audible.com audio books here:
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches, The Nameless One short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (Spookie Town Murder Mystery #1), All Things Slip Away (Spookie Town Murder Mystery #2), Ghosts Beneath Us (Spookie Town Murder Mystery #3), Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes,
Before the End: A Time of Demons, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories Collection, Forever and Always Romantic Short, Night carnival Short Story, Dinosaur Lake, Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising and Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation.
My Websites:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathryn-Meyer-Griffith/579206748758534
http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/889499.Kathryn_Meyer_Griffith