Home>>read Falling for the Ghost of You free online

Falling for the Ghost of You(8)

By:Nicole Christie


I’m nearly weak with relief. “Oh, thank God. Same here.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Excuse me, missy? You have a sex life?”

“No, some of us are still pure, here.” Not like Matt and Rachel, the sex-crazed traitors.

Mom looks at a loss for a second. Then she shakes her head. “Anyway, what I was going to say…well, Bill…he surprised me with an early wedding present—an extended tour of Europe for our honeymoon!”

My jaw drops open. “Mom! That’s fantastic! You’ve always wanted to go to Europe!”

She nods excitedly. “Yes, it would be a dream come true. England, France, Italy…can you imagine? But the thing is, Bill’s got a really important business merger, like, right after the wedding, so he wouldn’t be able to take a day off, let alone a month. So…” She pauses and looks at me uncertainly. “He was thinking that maybe the best idea would be to go on our honeymoon before the wedding. It makes sense, especially with the house undergoing renovations, and right now it’s Jane’s slow season—I could work on her website from anywhere, and, you know we hired that wedding planner, and she said that she can communicate with me via text and email, she does it all the time with some of her other clients, and…”

Mom has a tendency to babble when she’s nervous. I wonder how long she’d go on like this if I let her?

“Well, that’s great,” I finally interject when she pauses for a breath. "It sounds like you have everything worked out. And you totally have my blessing, if that’s what you were after.”

“Thank you,” she says, reaching over to squeeze my hand. “That means a lot.”

I shrug. “You deserve it.” I flop down onto my comfortable puffy desk chair. “When do you leave?”

“Well…next week.” Mom peers over at me. “So I talked to Jane, and she said she’d love to have you stay over at her place. Would that be okay with you? Because if it’s not, I can—”

“Wait, why can’t I stay here? I’m seventeen, I don’t drink or do drugs. You can trust me—I’m boring.”

“I do trust you, Violet,” she says. “But it’s not like I’m away for the weekend. I’ll be gone for a whole month, in Europe. I couldn’t enjoy myself if you were here alone. And,” she continues when I start to protest. “we have to completely moved out of this apartment by the end of the month, remember?”

I get a sudden slap to the face by reality. We’re not going to live in this crappy apartment, anymore. I’m going to have a rich stepfather! Our lives are going to change drastically.

Oh, yeah, and I’ve been cheated on and dumped by my first boyfriend. Yes, Matt was my first boyfriend. I’m a late bloomer.

It’s all a tad overwhelming.

Mom’s still talking. “No, it’s fine,” I say. “I’ll stay with Jane. She’s cool, and we get along pretty good. Besides, it’s only for a month, right?”

Mom’s blue eyes are bright with unshed tears. “Right,” she says quickly. “Thank you so much, Violet! I know I kind of ambushed you with—with all these changes, but you’re being so wonderful about it.” She jumps up to give me a big hug. “I’m so happy! I can’t wait for you to meet Bill.”

I hug her back, thrilled with the strength of her embrace. I decide right then and there that I wasn’t going to do anything to screw up this up for her.

God knows she deserves it.







Chapter 4



I don’t wear the sapphire colored dress after all. Instead, I slip on a pair of tailored black pants that do good things for my butt, and a short sleeved crimson blouse. It’s still hot at five in the afternoon, so I put my hair back up. I inspect myself in the full-length mirror on the back of my bedroom door and decide I don’t look like I’m trying hard enough. Eyeliner and lip gloss help a little, and that’s as far as I’m willing to go.

Mom seems pleased by my appearance. She’s wearing a dress remarkably similar to the one she wanted me to wear—clearly, she was aiming for the twinsies look. I don’t like to disappoint her, but there’s only so much a good daughter can take.

The restaurant is a beautiful brick and glass building with a stunning view of the bay. And they have valet parking, which Mom and I both handle awkwardly.

“They’re going to see all the candy wrappers I left in there,” Mom whispers anxiously after she hands the guy her keys. “We’ll look like slobs!”

“We are.” I try to shrug it off, already starting to feel nervous.