Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) (6 page)

“
God, this is
weird,” Dex said under his breath as we parked at the end of Uncle
Al’s driveway. The house, a large rancher, looked the same, and my
twin cousins, Matt and Tony, had their two cars parked outside. I
remembered Matt’s truck well—Dex and I had to share the backseat
together rather awkwardly.

“
Oh, it wasn’t
awkward for me,” Dex said with a knowing smirk as he jammed the
Highlander in park.

I flushed at the unexpected
intrusion. “Could you hear me think that?”

He slid his hand across the
steering wheel. “First time in a while, but it was so worth
it.”

“
You heard her
thoughts?” Rebecca asked, leaning forward. “Lucky duck. I never
hear anything.”

I gave her a look. “You know
you’re not missing out.”

“
Well now I
want to know what wasn’t awkward.”

Dex turned to her. “Perry and I
were squeezed in the back of that old truck there while we went
down the road. Her boobs were banging around from the potholes and
I was trying to keep my massive erection hidden.”

She wrinkled her face. “Ugh.
Nevermind, you guys keep your thoughts to yourself.”

I frowned, both turned on and
strangely flattered. “You had an erection from that?”

Rebecca’s manicured nails
fluttered in my face. “I said, keep your bloody thoughts to
yourself. I don’t want to hear about anyone’s erections. Boobs,
maybe.”

Dex sighed. “Rebecca, you’re
missing out on so many beautiful wonders about the male body.” He
gave me a sly look. “And yes, I had a hard-on most of the time I
was around you. Why do you think I was so fidgety? It wasn’t always
the meds, baby. It was your tits and ass and face and everything
else I thought I could never have.”

I couldn’t help but smile at
that, at finding out what he first thought of me. And now I wanted
to prod him for more. God, I was such a doofus.

Fortunately Rebecca was spared
from further tidbits because the front door to the house swung open
and Uncle Al appeared in the doorway, eyeing us suspiciously like
we were lost tourists or trespassers.

I took in a deep breath. “We
better get out and say hello before he pulls a Clint Eastwood on
us.”

We climbed out of the car, the
scent of the dunes and meats grilling on the BBQ bringing me back
again.

I’d last seen my uncle and
cousins in December, so there wasn’t much difference to them over
the last six months. But oh, wait. Behind the jovial grin of Uncle
Al and his thinning slicked back hair was the look of a man in
peace, a man in love. Before I had a chance to wonder if he was
still with the woman he had been seeing, I saw her appear behind
him: a tiny woman with vivid eyes and a long, delicate face. Marda,
I think her name was.

I quickly tugged down the
sleeve of my shirt, planning to keep my tattoo hidden from him
until my parents had a chance to see it.

“
Perry!” my
uncle exclaimed, throwing his arms open. As if I were a little girl
again, I ran over to him with a shy smile on my lips and threw
myself into his embrace. He smelled like this strong cologne he
always wore but I inhaled the scent anyway.

“
Hey, Uncle
Al,” I said as I pulled away, looking up at him. “You’re looking
great.” A little bit tubbier but I wasn’t one to talk. Looks like
we’d both put on the “love pounds.”

“
Perry,
bella,” he said, giving me another quick hug. “You’re still blind,
I see.” He winked at me and then turned to his lady friend. “You
remember Marda, of course?”

“
Of course,” I
said, offering my hand to her but she pulled me into a hug instead.
I felt like I was crushing her bones. “Nice to see you
again.”

I looked behind me at Dex and
Rebecca who were hovering between us and the car. Dex was trying to
smile but I could tell he was nervous; he’d taken off his hat and
was holding it anxiously in his hands. You’d think he was about to
meet the President or something. It was actually damn
endearing.

“
This is Dex
and Rebecca,” I said, though I knew he knew who Dex was. He knew
very well. Not just because of the ruckus we caused in his
lighthouse, but because he saw how in love with Dex I had been. He
was the one who told me that my infatuation for him was creating a
hole in my heart and that I’d get hurt and be stronger for it.
Well, he was kind of right about all that.

“
Hello,
Dex,”my uncle said, walking toward him to shake his hand. Dex
smiled sincerely and I could tell he was giving him one hell of a
handshake. It was a lot different than the first time they met. Dex
was really trying to make a better impression.

“
Thanks for
having us over,” Dex said. “Really appreciate it.”

Oh boy, was he ever trying.

Even Uncle Al seemed a bit
taken aback, raising his brows before shrugging. “It’s no problem
at all. When Perry said she was coming for a visit, I was
overjoyed. We all were. We never get to see her anymore.” I
detected a bit of strain in his voice when he said that, probably
thinking about his brother. I wondered how often he talked to my
parents and if they talked about me. I guess I’d have to pry him
for info after he had a few glasses of wine.

The rest of the introductions
to Rebecca and Marda were quickly made before we made our way into
Uncle Al’s cozy living room to have a drink. The twins were nowhere
to be seen; apparently they were at the beach trying to impress
some neighborhood girls, much to Uncle Al’s dismay. He said Tony
and Matt were still a bunch of troublemakers, and when you added
women to the mix, it usually ended in disaster.

“
Ain’t that
the truth,” Dex joked as he sat down on the loveseat. He looked up
at me with an expectant expression, wanting me to sit with him. To
tell you the truth, I hesitated. With Rebecca taking an armchair
and my uncle and Marda on the couch, there wasn’t anywhere else for
me to go, but I didn’t want to immediately announce to Uncle Al
that Dex and I were a couple. I mean, I figured he knew since I was
living in Seattle, but then again, I had no idea how much my uncle
knew about the falling out.

Dex didn’t let me hesitate for
long. He reached up and pulled me down by the arm until I was
sitting back in the loveseat and his arm was placed snuggly around
me. I dared to meet Uncle Al’s eyes. He was staring at us with
judgement. Figures. But before I could feel uncomfortable about it,
he wiped the expression off his face, as if he realized he was
doing it, and got off the couch.

He pointed at me and Dex. “What
do you two want? Beer? Wine?”

We both took a beer while
Rebecca went for a small glass of wine. The wine would be better on
my figure but beer was easier.

We lapsed into easy chit-chat,
most of the attention on Rebecca since she was from England, and
Uncle Al waxed poetic about his time living there when he was a
“young lad.” Rebecca wasn’t always the most talkative person but
she certainly was tonight, maybe because she felt awkward, maybe
because the whole situation was still a teeny bit awkward in
general. Yeah, the whole elephant in the room? It was languidly
parked behind Uncle Al’s couch and no one would dare to look at
it.

Finally Matt and Tony came home
to alleviate some of the tension. Like, straight up.

“
So you two
are shacking up now,” Tony said as he nodded to Dex.
“Cool.”

I rolled my eyes. “I live with
Dex, if that’s what you mean.” I quickly eyed Uncle Al who just
clucked his tongue and excused himself to go check on the grill.
Marda followed after him, the screen door swinging shut.

“
I had a
feeling this would happen,” Matt said as he grabbed a beer from the
fridge. Though they were under twenty-one, the rules were always
lax for them.

“
You did?” I
asked.

He grabbed an extra can of beer
for Dex and threw it at him. Dex caught it without looking, also
eager to hear what Matt had to say.

“
Totally,” Matt went on, leaning against the counter and
cracking the beer open with a loud
snap
. “Don’t you guys ever see
those movies where the girl and the guy are, like, under
duress
,”
he said duress like he just learned it from his Word of the Day
toilet paper, “and they totally hit it off after? Like
Speed
with
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Meet on a bus. Bus gets a bomb on
it. They make out. Awesome flick, even today.”

Dex grinned and then took a
large swig of beer. “Thanks, man. I think Keanu Reeves is a fine
actor if you put him on mute. Otherwise, it’s…”

And then Dex launched into his
repertoire of Keanu impersonations. They weren’t half bad, and I’d
heard a lot of them before, but when the twins encouraged him to
try talking like Jeff Goldblum, I had to draw the line.

Luckily Uncle Al came back in
with the grilled chicken and everyone gathered around the table
before Dex could continue talking about Chaos Theory.

“
So, Perry,”
Tony said as we all dug into the food. The chicken was grilled
perfectly—no surprise there. Uncle Al took the barbeque to a new
art. Summer was almost here, but I knew he’d been using the grill
all winter long.

“
So, Tony,” I
said to him, pointing my fork at him with a smile.

He looked to me, Dex, and
Rebecca. “Tell me again why you’re here. I mean, in Oregon. On the
coast. It’s another episode, right?”

I felt defensive for one second
before I remembered that both Matt and Tony watched the show and
totally believed in what we were seeing—and doing.

My shoulders relaxed. “Yeah,
it’s a haunted school.”

“
No way,” said
Matt. “Not the one in Gary that used to house the sick
kids.”

“
The very
one,” Rebecca said. It was the first thing she’d really said to
them other than, “Hi, I’m Rebecca,” and the twins eyes flew to her
and her cherry-print dress.

“
And you’re
the new partner,” Tony said, trying not to drool. “You know, I used
to watch you on Wine Babes all the time.”

I groaned internally. I felt
like I was about to have fucking déjà vu.

“
Were you ever
in Maxim like Jennifer was?” Tony asked.

Yup. Déjà vu. My upper lip
involuntarily curled. Dex put his hand on my knee. Uncle Al looked
at me with a dry expression.

Rebecca let out a laugh. “Me,
in Maxim? Oh mercy, I’m not a bloody whore, you know. My tits and
arse aren’t for the world to see.”

And Rebecca saved the day.

“
That’s a
shame,” Tony supplied.

“
Anthony!”
Uncle Al warned. “Eat your damn food and shut up.”

“
Back to the
ghosts,” Matt said, always the smarter one. He eyed me closely.
“Have you been there before? It’s really fucking
creepy.”

“
Language,
Matthew,” Uncle Al said.

Matt took a long gulp of his
beer, staring at his dad over it before saying, “Whatever,
Dad.”

“
No, I
haven’t,” I said. I haven’t been to Oregon for months, I wanted to
say. “But apparently all the hauntings started
recently.”

“
Don’t you
think that’s odd?” he asked, leaning forward like it was a
conspiracy theory.

“
Why?”

He took a lazy bite of chicken.
“I don’t know. We always knew about that place…our friends live in
Gary and they’d go there at night, way before it was a school. They
said they’d see soccer balls going down the dark hallways by
themselves and shit. They’d hear, like, the wheels of a gurney
being pushed. Children crying. It’s just funny that the school has
been operating for a while and only now they think there are
ghosts.”

I thought back to the teacher,
Brenna McSomething, who reported the hauntings. I had to wonder if
she was anything like Dex and I, if her very presence caused things
to happen. And if her being there caused the hauntings to
increase…what would it be like for Dex and I?

“
Perry?” Dex
asked gently, his hand pressing down on my leg.

I looked up at him and his
deep, dark eyes, and realized that everyone else was staring at me.
“Sorry,” I said. “Must have zoned out.”

“
Matthew,
please stop with this ghost talk,” Uncle Al chided him. “It’s not
appropriate for dinner.”

Matt mumbled an insincere sorry
and Marda quickly took over the conversation by asking us if we
were hooked on any TV shows. Rebecca, her, and Tony got in an
argument over Breaking Bad for a bit until it was time for
dessert.

Dex leaned into me, his breath
hot on my neck. “I really hope they’re serving pie,” he
murmured.

I flushed from my head to my
toes and bit my lip. I shot him a sly glance, glad my hair was
shielding my red cheeks from everyone else. “You remember that, do
you?”

His gaze intensified, mouth
parting open. “You have no idea. Of course, you were the one who
was baking it.”

“
You know you
can have pie any time you want,” I teased him.

“
Are we
talking pussy or pie right now?”

I giggled, hoping no one could
hear him. “Take your pick.”

Alas, it wasn’t pie but plain
old ice cream with chocolate syrup. I opted out of it, relishing
another beer instead. As soon as we were all finished, Rebecca and
her impeccable manners started taking all the plates over to the
sink to do the dishes, and naturally I had to help her.

Meanwhile, Dex took that moment
to pour Uncle Al another glass of wine and ask him if he could
speak with him, in private.