Dreams of Dani Read Free

around to be sure none of the other three people in the office were listening. “It probably wouldn’t, if Danielle had left. She’s still there, Sela. I see her every night.” He couldn’t bear to elaborate.
    She laughed and then stopped when she saw he wasn’t joking. “Nick, I know you write sci-fi and those strange stories, but are you expecting me to believe—”
    “I’m not expecting anything, Sela. I’m just trying to piece together what I know. I have a ghost in my house—a beautiful, sexy, red-haired ghost with the same face as a woman who died there five years ago.”
    “That’s ridiculous.”
    He took a step closer to her. “You’re sure about that? When you left my house yesterday, did you notice how windy it was?”
    “It wasn’t windy at all,” she said. “It was a beautiful day.”
    Nick looked at her. “Then where did the gust of wind come from that blew open the door and spilled my drink?”
    “Well…” she hesitated.
    “I’ll tell you where it came from.” He lowered his voice. “I was thinking about taking you to bed yesterday. I was one second away from pulling you into my arms when my ghost—Danielle—interrupted.”
    Sela swooned, and caught herself against her desk. “Oh, Nick.” Her face flushed and he knew she was thinking about his taking her to bed rather than his ghost. “I would have liked that very much.”
    He gave her a regretful look. “I would have liked it too, Sela. But I have a problem, and I can’t start anything new until I resolve this situation with Danielle.”
    Sela’s eyes flashed angrily. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”
    Nick snapped back at her “No, I fucking am not. I know enough about ghosts to understand that Danielle has some unfinished business. I’ve got figure out what it is, and then hopefully, she can cross to the other side and rest in peace.”
    Sela took a step away from him and shook her head. “You’re nuts. You’ve been writing too many weird stories.”
    “So I assume this means you’re not interested in helping me?”
    “Fucking-A, that’s what it means,” Sela snarled at him. “I could have showed you a real good time. I don’t care if you write about that psycho bullshit, but I’m not interested in a guy who actually believes it. You’re a real whack-job, buddy.”
    Nick smirked and started to leave. “Guess it’s a good thing you found that out now, before anything happened between us.”
    She gave him a look akin to shooting darts out of her eyes as he left. He was halfway home before he remembered the article about Danielle—he left it on Sela’s desk. It didn’t really matter, he found out what he needed to know. Nick also found out how other people would react to the mention of a ghost in his house. He hadn’t even told her he was having nightly sex with Danielle and Sela freaked out at the mere mention of the word ghost . He wondered how she would feel about ghost intercourse ? Personally, he liked ghost humping , and he found himself getting defensive and feeling protective of his relationship with Danielle.
    Walking into his house, Nick kept going to the bedroom and tossed his keys on the dresser. “I found out who you are,” he said loudly. “Your name is Danielle. I bet people called you Dani.” He listened, but the house was quiet. “I like the name Dani, so I’m going to call you that, okay? If you don’t like it, you’ll have to let me know.” Silence. He sat on his bed.
    “The newspaper said you killed Ross Lenhart.” Nick’s car keys whizzed past his head and slammed against the wall before they dropped to the floor. “Ooh, struck a nerve there! I didn’t say I believed them. In fact, I don’t think you did it. I don’t know much about you, but what I sense is that you loved life, and it’s doubtful you would have killed yourself. Would you like me to help you clear your name?”
    Nick watched in amazement as his car keys returned gently to the dresser top.