Dream Dancer (Ghosts Beyond the Grove Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

to me, it certainly didn’t feel like it.  It was thicker than it should have been—more like the consistency of honey. 
         I paddled as hard as I could to move forward yet went nowhere.  It brought me no fear, merely frustration.  I fought off wave after viscous wave, always staying afloat yet making no progress.  Exhausted, I finally gave up and bobbed up and down in place while watching Zach swim happily away.  That’s when I woke up to Shelly frantically waving her hand around my forehead. 
         “What are you doing?” I asked.  Her behavior was so odd that I questioned whether or not I was still asleep.
         “Don’t freak out and whatever you do, don’t touch your forehead.”
         Okay, this had to be a dream.  There’s no way anyone could say that sentence to someone and expect them not to freak out.  I lifted my hand to check my forehead and she swiftly batted it away.
         “I told you not to touch it!  There’s a honey bee on you.  It’s the strangest thing.  I had the heat turned up a little too high so I opened the window for a few minutes to cool it down in here.  Next thing I know, something buzzes past my face and lands on you.  It’s been perched there for the last hundred miles and won’t move no matter what I do.  Where did it even come from?  It’s October!”
         Great.  Just freakin’ great.  First feathers and now bees.  Coupled with the dream I’d just had and the one involving the Bee Still whiskey refinery, I had no doubt that this was another sign telling me what I needed to do.  Or in this case, what I wasn’t supposed to do.  How could I possibly move forward and be still at the same damn time?
        “I’ve given up on trying to find rational explanations for how this kind of stuff happens to me, Shelly.  It just does.  But it happens for reasons that I’m trying to decipher.  A lot happened while I was in Arizona that I need to explain.  For now, just pull over the next chance you get so I can get rid of our stowaway passenger.”
         Shelly pulled into the lot of the next shopping complex she found and helped me remove the tiny bee from my face.  “Since we’re already here, why don’t we grab something to eat?  I’m starving and you must be too.  When was the last time you ate, Ruby?”
         “Around noon Arizona time.  Roxanne and I went to El Destino in Sedona for some killer Mexican food.  I’ll admit that I’m famished but I don’t want to waste any more time.  I have to get back home to Zach.  I brought back something to protect him until I can get to the bottom of what’s haunting him.”
         “Haunting him?  You think this is all ghost related?  Did you talk to Rita about it?”
         “Again, it’s a long story.  We can talk about it after I see Zach.  Let’s get back on the road.  We’ve wasted too much time already.”
         “But we’re both hungry and there’s a Chicken Shack right over there.  I know how much you love their Triple Crunch sandwiches.  It will only take a few minutes to pull through their drive thru.”
         I was about to protest when my stomach let out a rumble of gastrointestinal thunder.  And Shelly made the final decision for me.
         “That settles it.  Chicken Shack it is.  You’ll thank me in about five minutes when you have an order of spicy hot wedgie fries in your hands.  Let’s go.”
         Five minutes.  I suppose I could wait that much longer to see Zach.  And maybe I could convince Shelly to drive a little faster later down the road to make up for the time we were losing.  Wedgie fries and a Triple Crunch would take the edge off of my over the top anxiety.
         “Fine.  Five minutes.” 
         The Chicken Shack in Charlotte’s Grove was known for having the fastest drive thru of any place in town.  Many days when Zach was in a hurry to get food on his thirty minute lunch break,