“Yes, please,” Meggie said, and both children smiled.
Destiny didn’t want Reggie to stifle her son’s openness to new experiences. Okay, so he didn’t understand death as a loss, yet, but he accepted the spirit world, and for now that was enough.
“Meggie does want to play,” Destiny said, letting Morgan and Reggie in on the decision. “But today is Meggie’s birthday, too, Jake, because she’s Morgan’s twin, so let’s light those candles, Reggie, and we’ll sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Meggie and Morgan.”
Reggie lit the candles, while Morgan shut the bathroom door on a cooling tub of delayed satisfaction.
Meggie slipped a finger into the flame of a birthday candle.
“Don’t!” Jake snapped. “You’re gonna burn yourself.”
“It’s okay, Jake,” Destiny explained. “Ghosts can’t get hurt.”
“ ’Cause they’re dead, you mean?”
So much for him not understanding.
“Did you cry, Uncle Morgan, when your little sister died?”
Morgan bent to Jake’s level and squeezed one of Jake’s shoulders. “I sure did, Jake. I miss my sister every day.”
Jake stepped into Morgan’s arms and got a crushing bear hug. “You can be sad, Uncle Morgan,” Jake said patting his back. “It’s okay to be sad when you miss someone.”
Morgan swallowed hard as did Destiny and Reggie. Wow. They didn’t call Jake Baby Einstein for nothing.
He started singing “Happy Birthday” first, not nearly as shaken as the adults. Horace joined in, while Buffy, the angel, watched. When they finished singing, Morgan and Meggie blew out the candles together, though Morgan didn’t realize it.
Jake hopped up and down. “Boy, do we got a present for you, Uncle Morgan! Oh, but we don’t have a present for Meggie.”
“Playing with you can be Meggie’s present, okay?” Morgan said. “She hasn’t had a chance to play in a long time.”
“Okay! Can I get ’em now, Mom? Can I?”
Reggie pulled up the five-year-old’s droopy shorts. “Go ahead.”
When Jake went out to the porch, the barking that erupted raised Morgan’s head, and his suspicions, by the looks of him.
Jake came back with two pups on leashes. He released them, and they ran in circles around Meggie, Horace, and Buffy. Like Caramello, the pups saw the ghosts, too.
Morgan bent to catch the ecstatic silver schnoodle in his arms, like they’d been reunited or something, and Meggie got close, petting the pup somewhere over her back, and winning the pup’s wild, tail-wagging enthusiasm.
“I know you can’t tell, Morgan,” Destiny said, petting the pup as well, “but you’re sharing your birthday present with your sister.”
“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me,” he said, his voice breaking. “She wanted a schnoodle more than anything. I was saving to buy her one for her thirteenth birthday, but the day never came.”
“She thanks you, Morgan,” Destiny said. “She’s touched.”
Meggie kissed her brother on the cheek, or as close as she could get, and Morgan touched the very spot a moment later, whipping his head her way.
Destiny nodded.
“Really?” he said. “I felt her touch?”
“You felt her kiss.”
Morgan blew out his breath and swallowed. “Thank you, Jake, Reggie, from me and my sister.”
“Oh, it’s not from us,” Reggie said. “Thank Destiny. It was her idea and her money. On the other hand, I have a bone to pick with her. When we went to get your little girl teddy bear pooch, Jake wanted Einstein, and I fell in love with him, too, so now Jake has an
early
birthday present.”
“Einstein?” Destiny and Morgan asked.
Jake was holding Einstein so Meggie could pet him. “I wanted a real nickname, so I decided to call him Einstein, so nobody could call me that anymore.”
“Nothing gets by my boy,” Reggie said.
Morgan took Destiny’s hand and brought it to schnoodle licking level. “Thank you for my birthday puppy. I was trying to wait until after I bought the lighthouse, but I don’t think King will mind if I move here from my no-dogs Boston apartment before the paperwork is done.”
“By the looks of the affection passing between you, I think she was meant to be yours. What are you going to call her?”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Morgan said.
Destiny cupped the pup’s sweet little face. “Meggie just suggested a name.”
“This is the dog she always wanted, so what’s her name, Meggie?”
Reggie leaned near Destiny, everyone on the floor with the pups. “Does he actually believe Meggie’s here?”
“Sometimes,” Destiny whispered.
“He seems less and less like the grouch I met at the castle.”
Destiny chuckled. “Thank goodness.”
“I can hear you,” Morgan said.
“It’s too bad you can’t hear Meggie, because she suggested that we name the pup after her doll.”
Morgan nodded. “Samantha, she is. Hear that, Samantha, girl? You’re named after a doll, who was named after a sitcom character on
Bewitched
, of all programs.” He looked at Destiny. “Don’t tell me that Meggie believes in witches.”
“Okay I won’t, but cheer up,” she said, winking at Meggie. “It’s not a conspiracy.”
“You’re sure about that?” Morgan asked, but he didn’t seem to expect an answer. “Nevertheless, Reggie, we need to hitch a ride to town in your boat to pick up some dog food and supplies.”
“Nah,” Jake said. “We got all that stuff in the boat already. Destiny thought of everything.”
Destiny saw Caramello take a flying leap from the top of the stair rail. As she caught her cat, Samantha and Einstein barked, and Caramello gave them a
friendly
yowl, judging by her tone as she scrambled right to Morgan.
Empty-handed, Destiny shook her head at Morgan sitting there with Jake, Meggie, two pups, and a cat shawl crowding him. “I can’t imagine why they find him so fascinating.”
“Can’t you?” Reggie asked.
She shrugged. “Everybody ready for cake?” She chose plates and cups from the weird assortment left to them.
“Me and Meggie want to take the pups out back to play,” Jake said.
Reggie shook her head in the negative. “Wait until we’re ready to take our cake out to watch you.” She helped Destiny with the cake. “You’re sure Jake isn’t talking to thin air?”
“He’s talking to Meggie, and Horace, the old lighthouse keeper. Meggie’s angel’s there, too, but I’m not sure Jake can see her, because I’d think he would have said something about such an imposing entity.”
Reggie frowned. “Okayyyy. But he’s not related to you. Why can my son see ghosts?”
“Children are open to every new experience, and Jake, especially, is so smart that even you said he sucks up knowledge like a sponge.”
“Right.”
Morgan rubbed his hands together. “This is my first party at the lighthouse. Between our guests, Destiny, and your generosity, our ghosts and our pets, this suddenly feels like a home.”
“I’d say that’s one big step for a debunking man.” They kissed.
Reggie gave them a wolf whistle as she went outside.
The adults sat on wooden benches watching the children—one living, one not—a cat, and two pups, tumbling and laughing their way down a sandy hill, with butterflies chasing them.
The butterflies must look peculiar to Reggie, Destiny thought. “You can always tell where Meggie is when she’s outside, because butterflies follow her.”
“That’s freaky,” Reggie said, “but thanks for the heads-up. Jake, move closer to us and away from the dock!”
“Meggie, let’s—Mom! Megs fell in the water!” Jake jumped off the far side of the dock and disappeared.
Chapter Thirty-nine
DESTINY and Reggie ran and screamed, while Morgan jumped into the water and swam beneath the dock.
Less than a second later, Jake was climbing on the dock. “An angel saved me!”
Reggie caught him up, wept, and clutched him. “You’re gonna be punished big time, mister, but right this minute, I just need to hold you.” She pulled away. “Why aren’t you wet?”
“I told you. An angel saved me. She scooped me up with one huge wing”—Jake spread his hands as far apart as they could get to demonstrate—“
before
I hit the water. You couldn’t see me because the dock was in the way.”
“Oh God,” Reggie said. “Have you ever
seen
an angel before?”
“Sure, she’s Meggie’s angel. Buffy. Why?”
“Never mind.” Reggie pulled her son close again, while Destiny stepped out of her shoes, worried about how long Morgan had been under.
Jake squirmed. “Mom, you’re hurting me.”
“Morgan hasn’t resurfaced,” Destiny said, going in after him.
Destiny found him at the deep end of the dock. He looked dazed, but he was focused on Meggie holding his hand and bringing him up. Destiny took his other hand to get him out more quickly.
They surfaced to a circus of noisy animals and Reggie’s helping hands. “Jake, you’re okay,” Morgan said, still trying to catch his breath as he gave the boy a bear hug. “Thank God. You know, I think I hit my head down there. I was having hallucinations.”
Destiny rolled her eyes. He’d seen his sister, and still he called her a hallucination. “Here’s where the dense don’t believe what’s right in front of them,” Destiny told Reggie. “Morgan, go get some dry clothes on before you catch pneumonia.”
He went, still looking dazed. Maybe his doubt was more like a last bid for sanity.
“Meggie’s okay, too, Mom,” Jake said. “She can walk on water. I wish I could. Hey,” he said to Meggie as they met on the beach, “you’re not wet, either. Why do butterflies like you? Do you see Meggie’s butterflies, Mom?”
“I see them,” Reggie said. “Come here. We need to have a talk.”
Jake came, but he knew a scolding was in store.
Reggie took her son to the bench where she sat him down and knelt in front of him. “Don’t try to save Meggie again. She can’t die, if she’s already dead. My point,” Reggie said, “is that I can’t see Meggie, and neither can Uncle Morgan. So, if
you
had fallen in that water, and drowned, I wouldn’t be able to see you anymore, or hug you, and I sure wouldn’t want that to happen. So you stay out of the water, unless I’m with you!”
Jake threw his arms around his mother’s neck. “I love you so much, I could hug you forever.”
“Same here, baby.”
Jake held on. “I’m not a baby, anymore, remember?”
“Right, sorry. But you’ll always be my baby, no matter how big you get.”
Jake sighed as if he understood these things. “I know. How come Aunt Destiny and me can see Meggie, and you can’t?”
“Let me answer that,” Destiny said, taking Jake on her lap. “You and I have a gift, Jake. We can see ghosts. But not everybody will believe you, if you talk about seeing them, so let’s keep your gift to ourselves for a while, until you get older and learn how to handle it better.”
“I can do that. Me and my mom kept lots of secrets on our way here to find Grandpa.” Jake jumped off her lap to follow his pup tugging at his pants with its teeth, and he went back to playing. Jake and Meggie with Samantha, Einstein, and Caramello—two kids rolling in the grass, three pets yipping, yowling, and rolling as well.
“We need to get back to Salem,” Reggie said. “I closed the shop for a few hours, but it’ll get busy tonight. Let’s get Morgan’s pup supplies out of the boat.”
“Sure thing,” Destiny said.
“You want to tell me what’s going on with you two?”
“What? Nothing. We’re sharing the place.”
“I can see that. Playing cards with enough water on the stove to fill a bathtub. All very innocent, except for the fact that I saw Morgan zipping his jeans as the door opened. Strip poker, I take it?”
“Geez, Regg, you expect me to confess?”
“No, but the priest might.”
“Where did you hear that bit of skewed and incorrect information?”
“From a crazy woman who came into the Immortal Classic this morning to tell me that my sister was seducing her son, the priest.”
“When you go back to the shop, neutralize the negativity with a smudge stick the way we taught you. That woman’s certifiable, and I’m not kidding. Plucking patchouli, I’m gonna smudge her son, too.”
“Is smudging what they’re calling it these days?”
Destiny raised a brow. “Morgan had a narrow escape from the asylum he was born into, but his sister didn’t. It’s a wonder he’s almost normal.”
“Des, you’ve been calling him crazy for months.”
“I’ve revised my opinion, mostly.”
“That good, is he?”
Destiny turned to lift a bag of doggie chow.
After Reggie and Jake left, Destiny and Morgan skipped the bath for a reunion shower, then they went to bed, where she spelled them some gentle privacy.
“Thank you for Samantha,” Morgan said as they lay entwined afterward, their naked bodies slick with sweat, the sea stroking the shore outside their window lulling them further. With her head on his chest, his heartbeat matched the slowing cadence of hers. She traced the line of hair arrowing toward the sated, sleeping giant.
The doorknob turned on the closed door, and in fell Caramello and Samantha, who’d been standing on their hind legs. “Great,” Morgan said. “Between them, they can turn doorknobs.”
Their pets jumped onto the bed, curled up at their feet together, and went to sleep.
“Sweet sassafras tea,” Destiny said. “I think Samantha has replaced you in Caramello’s affections.”
“Good. Now I won’t be afraid to kiss you and piss her off.”
As Destiny smiled and drifted toward sleep, Morgan’s stroking touch went from soothing to agitated and chafing. “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking up at him and covering the now tender skin of her arm.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was thinking.”
“About?”
“You’re psychic. You should know.”
“Stop being a smart-ass, and answer me.”
“I got to thinking about Meggie and how my parents felt about her being psychic. I remembered something, but I’m not happy about it.”