Reunion Read Online Free Page A

couldn’t hear him.
    â€œI told you,” I said. I, on the other hand, had to whisper since there was every likelihood I might be overheard. “Next Sunday.”
    â€œThat long?”
    Jesse looked irritated. I would like to say that he looked irritated because he considered every moment I spent with Gina a moment stolen from him, and deeply resented her because of that.
    But to be honest, I highly doubt that that was the case. I’m pretty sure Jesse likes me, and everything….
    But only as a friend. Not in any special kind of way. Why should he? He’s 150 years old—170 ifyou count the fact that he’d been twenty or so when he died. What could a guy who’d lived through 170 years of stuff possibly see in a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore who’s never had a boyfriend and can’t even pass her driving exam?
    Not a whole heck of a lot.
    Let’s face it, I knew perfectly well why Jesse wanted Gina gone.
    Because of Spike.
    Spike is our cat. I say “our” cat, because even though ordinarily animals can’t stand ghosts, Spike has developed this strange affinity for Jesse. His affection for Jesse balances out, in a way, his total lack of regard for me, even though I’m the one who feeds him, and cleans out his litter box and, oh, yes, rescued him from a life of squalor on the mean streets of Carmel.
    Does the stupid thing show me one iota of gratitude? No way. But Jesse, he adores. In fact, Spike spends most of his time outdoors, and only bothers coming around whenever he senses Jesse might have materialized.
    Like now, for instance. I heard a familiar thump on the porch roof—Spike landing there from the pine tree he always climbs to reach it—and then the big orange nightmare was scramblingthrough the window I’d left open for him, mewing piteously, like he hadn’t been fed in ages.
    When Jesse saw Spike, he went over to him and started scratching him under the ears, causing the cat to purr so loudly I thought he might wake Gina up.
    â€œLook,” I said. “It’s just for a week. Spike will survive.”
    Jesse looked up at me with an expression that seemed to suggest that he thought I’d slipped down a few notches on the IQ scale.
    â€œIt’s not Spike I’m worried about,” he said.
    This only served to confuse me. I knew it couldn’t be me Jesse was worrying about. I mean, I guess I’d gotten into a few scrapes since I’d met him—scrapes that, more often than not, Jesse’d had to bail me out of. But nothing was going on just then. Well, aside from the four dead kids I’d seen that afternoon in Jimmy’s.
    â€œYeah?” I watched as Spike threw his head back in obvious ecstasy as Jesse scratched him underneath the chin. “What is it, then? Gina’s very cool, you know. Even if she found out about you, I doubt she’d run screaming from the room or anything. She’d probably just want to borrow your shirt sometime, or something.”
    Jesse glanced over at my houseguest. All youcould really see of Gina was a couple of lumps beneath the comforter, and a lot of bright copper curls spread out across the pillows beneath her head.
    â€œI’m certain that she’s very…cool,” Jesse said, a little hesitantly. Sometimes my twenty-first-century vernacular throws him. But that’s okay. His frequent employment of Spanish, of which I don’t speak a word, throws me. “It’s just that something’s happened—”
    This perked me right up. He looked pretty serious about it, too. Like maybe what had happened was that he’d finally realized that I was the perfect woman for him, and that all this time he’d been fighting an overwhelming attraction for me, and that he’d finally had to give up the fight in the light of my incredible irresistibility.
    But then he had to go and say, “I’ve been hearing some things.”
    I sank