Too Hard to Forget by Tessa Bailey

Author:Tessa Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2017-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Peggy stood at the entrance to the room she shared with Sage, squinting into the darkness to find her best friend asleep, buried under a pile of wedding venue brochures. After what she’d done with Elliott, there was no way she could lie down and sleep, but there would be no Golden Girls marathon tonight. Her emotions were a pile of shredded cheese, every erogenous zone on her body singing with satisfaction, which she really didn’t want to acknowledge.

Moving as quietly as possible, Peggy slipped into the room and snagged her laptop, along with the manila folder resting on top, then ducked back out into the hallway. No sooner had she set up camp in a cross-legged position than Belmont came pacing closer from the opposite end, carrying a green-labeled soda, presumably from the vending machine. Ginger ale?

He tucked it into his jacket pocket before she could confirm, leaning against the wall across from her and watching her with all-knowing blue eyes. Maybe it was the current tangle of her senses or her lack of sleep since arriving in Cincinnati, but a thought flitted through her mind as she regarded her brother, who appeared and disappeared at will.

He’s a ghost.

As soon as the brainwave occurred, she hated it. Wished it had never passed through her mind. But it stuck anyway.

As a teenager, she could remember studying for history exams, lying on her bed with an open textbook…and searching the old grainy black-and-white wartime photographs for Belmont’s face. It made no sense then and it still didn’t. He was standing right there, solid as humanly possible. Maybe it was the way he didn’t like to be touched very often, or the way he spoke so differently and with such gravity, that made her wonder if someday, when he wasn’t looking, she would lay a hand on his back…and it would pass right through him. And she would trade knowing looks with her other siblings, as if they’d suspected all along.

Belmont’s spirit was more substantial than time.

“What are you doing out here?” Peggy asked, staring down at the floral-patterned carpet. “Standing guard over Sage?”

She could sense his abashed expression without glancing up, so his dark rumble surprised her. “Not only Sage.”

“But I wasn’t even here,” she pushed past rubbery lips.

“You’re here now.” He paused. “Or are you?”

Her laughter was short and humorless. “I was wondering the same thing about you.”

Peggy finally looked up at her brother and immediately wanted to take back her words. They’d caused the blue of his eyes to go almost black, but she didn’t think making light of what she’d said would help, either. Who was her brother really? If she hadn’t wondered the same thing thousands of times, she would accuse herself of using the mystery of Belmont to distract her from Elliott.

Elliott.

Hearing his name echo in her head was enough to make her fists clench. Goddamn him for what he’d done outside. Ruining her chance to escape. To move on without any more struggling. I need your hands and eyes.

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