On Borrowed Time Read online

  There was a tankini that seemed promising. The top didn’t show much of her stomach. The bottoms were a little high-cut, but it wasn’t awful. She left her shorts on for the time being and headed back out.

  More people were on the docks. Lady could make out the tall shape of Dom and a smaller shape she assumed was Crispin. Great. She had hoped she would be in the water before they got there.

  “That blue looks good on you!” Destiny called as Lady approached.

  “Thanks,” Lady called back sheepishly. Blue was a good color on her. Her hair was pale enough that it always gave her an airy, pastel look she kind of liked. “I left the other suits in the office.”

  “That’s fine.” Destiny waved a hand, indicating it was no big deal.

  “Are you going to go swimming in your shorts?” asked Otsuya, wearing a smirk and giving Lady a once-over.

  “I’ll take them off when I’m good and ready,” Lady shot back. She could see that Otsuya was ready to go, wearing nothing but a bikini covered in blue and white stars.

  Destiny was wiggling out of her own shorts. “You’re fine, Lady. Now Crispin, I’m not sure he’s going to get into the water at all.”

  Crispin was standing a few feet away rather pointedly looking out across the water. His face was red, like he wasn’t sure where to let his eyes land with all these women undressing around him. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. It was the most casual Lady had ever seen him look, but it certainly wasn’t swim attire.

  “He’s not going swimming,” Dom said bluntly. “Consider yourself lucky I managed to drag him down here at all.”

  “That new assistant not working out?” asked Destiny.

  “Hmm?” Crispin gave a start and looked back at her. “No— I mean, yes— I mean— He’s working out fine. I think.”

  “He’s great,” said Dom. “Crispin just likes to worry over nothing. The new kid is doing well.”

  “Is he though?” asked Otsuya without really asking. No one was going to be able to change her opinion. She clearly still had her doubts about this new guy. She shot Crispin a smile. “Come on. Go swimming with us.”

  Crispin shook his head. “I’m not much of a swimmer. You guys go on. I’ll stay here. The weather is nice.”

  Otsuya didn’t wait around to argue with him. She backed up far enough to get a good running start. Seconds later she was pounding down the dock and leaping off into a cannonball. Water splashed up and onto everyone. Destiny laughed and jumped in after her.

  “Having some fun wouldn’t kill you, Crispin,” Dom said, removing his own shirt.

  Lady found her attention glued on Dom as he undressed. It should have been no surprise that he was built. He looked big with a shirt on. It wasn’t like he had a defined six pack, but there was definitely definition there. The idea of him as a Viking came to her mind again. He had ink too. No big surprise there either. On his back was the eye he was always graffitiing onto things. When he did it, it allowed him to keep an eye on things going on around the town. Lady wasn’t sure if the tattoo on his back served the same purpose. She would have asked, but he was already jumping in.

  It was time for Lady to finish undressing. She began to step out of her shorts. “You sure you don’t want to come in?” she asked, giving Crispin a smile.

  They met each other’s gazes for the first time since she had gotten there. He smiled back at her. “I’m sure. I’m not a very strong swimmer. Honestly, this lake makes me nervous.”

  “That’s fair, I guess. I watched someone drown in it.”

  “You did, didn’t you?” Crispin looked like he was making a concentrated effort not to smile at the dark humor of that. “Are you sure you want to go swimming?”

  “No, but I’m rarely sure of much.” With that, she jumped in.

  The water was cold, but that was nice. Welcome even. It was a hot day, but she hadn’t realized quite how hot until feeling the alternative.

  They were at the marina, so the water was deep. Her feet couldn’t touch the bottom. All of them swam back to the dock often to hold on and catch their breath. It was something Lady ended up doing a lot. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was tired of treading water or if she just wanted to chat more with Crispin. Now that they were on their way to being “a thing,” she found herself wanting to talk to him more. It was like meeting him for the first time again. Everything had an entirely new context now.

  Of course, she still hadn’t said anything to Otsuya, so she needed to be careful.

  ***

  It was foolish of her to think that Otsuya wouldn’t notice if she took too long to say something to her. It had been a nice day. They had spent several hours swimming. Now Destiny was off work, and they were walking back to her place for a snack.

  Destiny had a home within walking distance, a quaint place out in the woods that sat in a clearing. Otsuya caught Lady by the wrist as they walked. She slowed her pace and Lady slowed down with her. She could tell that Otsuya wanted a moment alone.

  Otsuya waited to speak until they were trailing behind a few yards away from the rest of the group. “You’re really settling in here, huh?”

  Lady’s heart was beating hard in her chest. She had an idea of where the conversation was headed, but she didn’t want to steer it there just in case she was wrong. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, I hope so. What do you think?”

  “I think people really like you.” Otsuya’s usual bright smile was beginning to falter. “Is there anyone you really like?”

  Yeah, this was definitely headed toward a subject she would rather not approach. “I like everyone, honestly. Well, not everyone, but— You know what I mean. I like everyone here fine. Dom is a little annoying, but you’re all great people.” She lowered her voice. “I like you a lot. You’re probably the best friend I’ve had in a while.” She was saying all that to butter Otsuya up, but that didn’t make it any less true.

  “I mean more than friends,” Otsuya pressed without missing a beat. “You kind of like Crispin, right?”

  “I mean…” Lady trailed off. She knew that Otsuya already knew she did. It was something they hadn’t talked about in a long time. The one and only time they had, Otsuya hadn’t responded particularly well. “He’s a good friend too.”

  Otsuya’s expression darkened. Lady still had her eyes ahead, keeping an eye on where she was stepping. She could see it from the corner of her eye anyway. Feel it too. There was a dark energy emanating from Otsuya. She wondered if anyone else sensed it. They were still happily talking amongst themselves and not looking back, so probably not. “That’s not what I mean. You know what I mean.”

  Lady sighed. “And you know that… That I think he’s cute. He’s a nice guy. I like him.”

  “Does he like you?”

  This was getting out of hand. Lady stopped walking and turned to face Otsuya. “Look, I didn’t want to say anything yet. I’m not sure anything is ever going to come of it, so maybe there’s not even a point in saying it now, but… Crispin asked me on a date and I sort of said yes.”

  Otsuya’s stormy expression was difficult to read, but her black hair had started floating. That was probably a bad sign.

  “I don’t want to… I mean, if you like him… I can call it off if it’s important to you.” Lady was willing to do that; partly because she really did value her friendship with Otsuya, and partly because she didn’t want to be murdered by a vengeful spirit right now. Should she call for help? It felt like maybe she should call for help. Honestly, she hoped Otsuya wouldn’t ask that sort of thing of her. It felt kind of unfair that she might. It wasn’t like she had made a move on Crispin in all the time she had known him. You couldn’t just reserve a person like that.

  Otsuya didn’t say anything. She continued to stare. That was somehow worse than her having a few choice words to say. Lady shifted uncomfortably. She felt her gaze drifting elsewhere. It was difficult to look Otsuya in the eye.

  Suddenly there was a shriek and a puff of fine mist. Lady tur
ned her attention back to Otsuya, but she was gone.

  “What was that?” asked Destiny. Everyone had stopped and looked back. That had been hard to miss, apparently.

  Lady looked around. There was no sign of Otsuya anywhere. She swallowed. “Um… Otsuya… left?”

  “She left?” Destiny repeated.

  “Why?” asked Crispin.

  Lady opened her mouth without being entirely certain what she would say. Finally, she just shrugged. “I dunno. She just… poofed.”

  “Huh.” Destiny raised her eyebrows at that. “Maybe they needed her at work or something.”

  Dom didn’t say anything, but his eyes did linger on Lady as everyone else turned around and kept walking. He knew there was something she wasn’t saying. He hadn’t put his shirt back on, and Lady could still see the tattoo on his back. She wondered if that had caught everything or if she was just bad at concealing things. Maybe everyone knew there was information she was leaving out. Maybe they were just too polite to say anything.

  ***

  Destiny handed out cool drinks and a bowl of grapes at her place. Everyone sat around and chatted. It was nice—or would have been if Lady hadn’t had so much on her mind. “You okay?” Crispin asked quietly as Destiny and Dom went into the kitchen looking for something more substantial than grapes.

  “Yeah,” said Lady, but she quickly thought better of that response. “Well… I don’t know. Do you think we could talk for a minute?” She looked around. Destiny’s cabin was small. There wasn’t really a good spot for privacy.

  Crispin’s brow furrowed, but he nodded. “Hey, guys! We’re going to take a walk for a minute,” he called into the kitchen.

  “Sure!” Destiny called back, not sounding at all concerned or suspicious.

  Crispin stood and led the way out the front door. He had a glass of lemonade in his hand that he sipped as they walked to the edge of the trees. “What’s up?”

  Lady took a moment to sip at her own lemonade. She wasn’t sure what she would say. Did she tell Crispin how Otsuya felt about him? That didn’t really feel like it was her place.

  “Is this about Otsuya?” asked Crispin.

  It wasn’t a huge leap of reasoning to make. Lady and Otsuya had been talking alone. Otsuya had poofed, and now Lady “needed to talk.” There was obviously something up. “How long have you and Otsuya known each other?”

  That was an awfully roundabout question. Crispin looked a little disarmed by the randomness of it. “I don’t know.” He ran his fingers along the condensation on his glass. “A long time. She wasn’t corporeal for most of it, I don’t think. So I didn’t really meet her until we were… teenagers, I guess. Yeah, high school. I’d say that’s when we properly got acquainted.”

  “You two are pretty close, huh?”

  Crispin shrugged. “She likes books. She likes the library a lot. Obviously. I’m at the library all the time, so… yeah. I guess we see a lot of each other.”

  “Do you like her?”

  “Otsuya? Sure. I know I complain about her stealing books and I’ve banned her more than once, but she’s a good person, er, ghost. She’s nice.” He nodded to Lady. “But you know all that. You two are friends now, aren’t you? She talks about you a lot.”

  “Does she?”

  “Yeah.” Crispin smiled. “I think it’s nice. I think she was kind of lonely before, living with just Doyle and Ms. Poole. She spent time with us, but… I don’t know. She seems a little happier ever since you and Lion moved in.”

  Well, that made Lady feel like crap. “I think she’s mad we’re going on a date.” She might as well just put it out there.

  “Huh” Crispin’s hand slipped along his glass. He had to steady it with his other hand. “Did you tell her about that?”

  “Was I not supposed to?”

  “No,” Crispin said quickly. “I guess not. I just didn’t think we’d be talking about it to… everyone.”

  “I didn’t mean to. She sort of asked. Well, she asked if I liked you and…” Lady took a deep breath. She could feel her face growing warm. “She was asking questions where it felt dishonest to leave out the fact that we had planned a date together.”

  Crispin nodded. “I see.” He still sounded confused. He heard the words but clearly didn’t understand what she was getting at. “And that’s… why she left?”

  “Yeah,” Lady said slowly. “You, uh, know she has a crush on you, right?”

  Crispin fumbled his glass again. “What?!”

  Lady shot out a hand and relieved him of his lemonade before they were both covered in shattered glass. She still wasn’t wearing shoes. “I don’t want to make any assumptions, but… Yeah. I think she does. It seems kind of obvious.”

  “Does it?” Crispin’s blue eyes were wide. “She never said anything. I don’t—Are you sure? That doesn’t… That doesn’t seem right.”

  “I think that’s why she’s mad at me. I kind of knew how she felt too, so I guess that’s fair. If I were her I might be mad too.”

  “She doesn’t think of me like that.” It sounded less like Crispin didn’t believe her and more like he wanted her to be wrong.

  “I think she does.”

  “She would have said something.”

  “Would she?” Lady considered that. “I don’t know how it works with ghosts. I mean, if I was a ghost I don’t know that I’d be hitting on people. I guess I might still get crushes and stuff, but… I dunno. How does your love life work if you’re a ghost?”

  Crispin shook his head. He looked around. Lady wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Otsuya maybe. They still didn’t know where she had gone.

  “Do you need to sit down?” asked Lady.

  Crispin nodded and did just that. He sat down heavily in the grass. Lady joined him. She hoped no one from inside came to join them just yet. “Are you sure?”

  “I guess not.” Lady couldn’t rightly say she was sure of much. “But I’m like… ninety percent sure.” She sat there in silence for a little while, watching as Crispin stared into the distance, turning thoughts over and over in his head. “Do you like her?”

  Crispin looked back to Lady, startled. “What?”

  “Do you like her? As more than a friend, I mean.”

  “I don’t really—”

  “It’s fine if you do,” she added quickly. “I won’t be offended or anything.” It was definitely something she would want to know now rather than later. “It’s not like we’re officially dating yet. You’re not going to break my heart… no offense.”

  That got a smile and a small laugh from Crispin. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I like her a lot as a friend. I’d never thought about her in any sort of… romantic capacity. To be honest, I’m having trouble imagining it even now. Like you said, she’s a ghost. I don’t know… I don’t know how that would work.”

  “Yeah. Maybe that’s why she never said anything.”

  “I guess.” Crispin shook his head, like he still didn’t believe any of this. “I mean, I still want to go on a date with you.”

  “So do I.”

  “But I don’t want to lose Otsuya as a friend.”

  “Neither do I.” Lady bit her bottom lip. “I also don’t want her to, like, haunt me or murder me in my sleep.”

  “I don’t think she would do that.”

  “Are you sure? You’ve seen her angry. We both have.”

  Crispin inclined his head as if to concede that point. “Maybe mention what happened to Ms. Poole when you get home.”

  “Oh, man. I’m not looking forward to that.” She could only imagine what Ms. Poole would have to say about all this.

  “Even so, you probably should. Just so she’s aware that things might be… a little weird.”

  “And so she can keep me safe.”

  “That too. Not that I think she’ll do anything! Just… better safe than sorry, you know?”

  “Yeah.” Lady took a long drink of her lemonade and wished desperately that
it was hard liquor. “What are we going to do?”

  “What do you want to do?” asked Crispin.

  That was a good question. It was also one that Lady knew the answer to. “I still want to go on a date… Does that make me a bad person?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “What about you?”

  Crispin was quiet for a few seconds. Finally, he nodded. “I do too.”

  “Well, it’s settled then,” said Lady, even though she knew for a fact that wasn’t the end of things by a long shot.

  Chapter Three

  Ms. Poole was about as pleased with the whole thing as Lady had expected her to be. “I’m not getting in the middle of this,” she said as Lady stood there helping her cut dough into strips for dinner.

  “But will you make sure I don’t get… you know.”

  “What?” Ms. Poole was an older woman with ramrod posture and sharp features. When she furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at you, it really made you feel small. “No harm is going to come to you under my roof, if that’s what you mean.”

  That was what Lady meant, though she felt silly hearing it said out loud. “You don’t think… she’ll try anything, do you?”

  Ms. Poole inclined her head as if considering the question. That she had to think on it at all wasn’t particularly promising. “It’s hard to say. You can’t always predict what a spirit will do. I believe she’s grounded enough in our world that she wouldn’t hurt a friend, and she does seem to like you.”

  “Do you think I should try to talk to her? Is she in her room?” Lady doubted that Otsuya would be down for dinner after all that had happened. It wasn’t like she needed to eat in the first place.

  Ms. Poole took a moment to consider that as well. “Talking to her might be a good idea. You should at least make an effort.” She paused. “Don’t go just yet, though. You might want to take precautions.”

  Once Lady was done with her part in making dinner, Ms. Poole outfitted her with a small, musky sachet. She wasn’t sure what was in it, but she was promised it would keep her safe. Lady trusted Ms. Poole in matters of magic, but she couldn’t help but feel a little worried she was going to offend Otsuya. It was a little like going to socialize with a vampire while waving a cross around, wasn’t it?