Ghostly Interests Read Online Free Page A

free dessert?” Zander asked.
    “No,” Harper said, her tone dry. “That you never bring up incest again. It makes me feel … uncomfortable.”
    “Fine,” Zander conceded. “Can I still lift my shirt to wow the waiter?”
    “Go nuts.”
     

Three
    “This place has the best clam chowder in the world,” Zander said, dipping his spoon into the thick white soup as he brandished a warm roll in Harper’s face. “Why aren’t you eating your lunch?”
    Harper was lost in thought, her mind on the afternoon’s ghost hunt instead of Zander’s wild food proclamations. Ever since she was seven years old and her grandfather visited her after his death, the willowy blonde knew she was different. She screamed to the high heavens that her grandfather visited her that night – but no one believed her. They thought she was a sad little girl making up stories.
    When she was in middle school and the lunch lady’s ghost told her that her body was behind the Dumpster in the parking lot, everyone said Harper made a lucky guess but thanked her for helping put Darlene to rest before her body was covered with snow and possibly lost until spring.
    When she was in high school and Tori Owens came to her after drinking too much beer at a keg party and Harper led police – and Tori’s distraught parents – to the spot where panicked classmates dumped the teenager’s body so they wouldn’t get into trouble people started to look at her in a different way … and it wasn’t a friendly one.
    It wasn’t until her senior year that Whisper Cove lived up to its gossipy name, though. That was when a St. Clair County woman’s ghost begged Harper for help and led her to the site of a car wreck – where her three-year-old daughter was still alive – that people started to realize that Harper Harlow was not a normal girl. She was … special.
    The big cable channels aired the story – and begged for interviews – but Harper declined every request. She wasn’t looking for accolades. No, what she wanted was answers. They never came.
    She had no idea how she sent spirits on their merry way. She simply knew that’s what happened when she stomped her foot on the dreamcatcher and the bright light engulfed her. In that split second of illumination, she was caught between two worlds and she could see hints of movement from beyond before returning to Earth. She never saw faces, but she did immerse herself in the warm feelings. The money was nice, but it was the emotion of the other place that helped fuel her.
    “Harper, what are you thinking about?” Zander asked, exasperated.
    Harper forced her attention to her best friend. “I … um … what were we talking about?”
    “I was going on and on about how great the soup was – and how hot the waiter is – and you were lost in another world,” Zander said. “That’s it, isn’t it? You were thinking about that other world you see whenever you release a ghost, weren’t you?”
    “I can’t help it,” Harper admitted. “It’s always such a … great … feeling. It takes me a few hours to come down. You know that.”
    Zander smiled fondly at her. “I do know that. Still … we’re here to talk about me. Do you think I should ask the waiter out?”
    Harper glanced over her shoulder, studying the waiter in question for a moment. Donahue’s Pub was Zander’s current favorite place to eat thanks to the recent staff addition. He was young, buff, and openly flirtatious whenever Zander and Harlow visited. As much as she liked the soup, Harper was starting to yearn for more variety when it came to their lunchtime food choices.
    “I think you should definitely ask him out,” Harper said. “That way you can go on two dates and then break up with him for whatever nonsensical reason you come up with this time and we can go back to a few of the other restaurants in town.”
    “I do not have nonsensical reasons for dumping people,” Zander argued. “My reasons are always sound.”
    “You