Page 77 of In All My Dreams
He shrugs. “I’m not opposed to the idea,” he says. “In fact, I think it’s a great idea. I wasn’t around for the newborn stages for Auden, and I think you’d be insanely sexy with a big ol’ bump.”
He wags his eyebrows at me, breaking whatever tension we taut between us as I laugh loudly in response. “Please don’t ever refer to me as big, ever again!” I smile and wrap my arms around his neck. “But yes, I’m open to discussing it. It might be nice for her to grow up with a friend in this house—the way I had you and Irene.”
I kiss him on the cheek, just a peck. “Plus, imagine all the fun we'll have trying?” I smirk at him.
“Jesus, woman,” he groans. “Do you know how difficult it’s going to be not to sneak you out of bed tonight so we can start practicing? It’ll be impossible. Truly. How will I resist you when you flash that smile at me?”
I kiss him on the nose before I pull away from him. “You’ll behave because our daughter will be asleep between us. Now let’s go to sleep.”
The three of us head upstairs and squeeze together in the queen-size bed in the same room that Ian and I have shared since the first day Auden and I came back to Crane Manor over three years ago now.
I’m not ready to inhabit my parents’ room yet. That’ll be something I have to take on eventually, but not tonight.
“I love you, Mom,” Auden says softly as she snuggles up to me. “I love you, too, Dad.”
I lift my head and smile at Ian, just as he does the same thing. We both laugh silently as we stare at each other.
“It’s very cold in here,” Auden says, following it up with an exaggerated shiver.
I sit up to grab the blanket at the end of the bed to drape over her when my breath catches in my throat.
“Dad?” I choke out.
Ian sits up instantly and lets out a strangled gasp. I know without looking at him that he sees them, too.
My parents are standing, hand in hand, at the end of our bed, smiling at us.
My mother’s ghost doesn’t look the way I remember it. She’s beautiful. Just like the last time I saw her before she drank the lemonade that was meant for me.
Her dark hair is in soft curls that cascade down her back. Her white dress isn’t covered in her own blood any longer. It looks just as I remembered it when she was alive. Like a princess in her pretty white dress.
Her eyes are twinkling with unshed tears as she stares down at me before she steps forward and places her hand against my cheek.
I let out a broken sob when Ifeelher palm against my skin.
“Mama?” I say.
“Hello, sweetheart,” she responds with a smile.
“How—why do you look so different now?”
She brushes my tears away with soft fingers. “You saw me as a monster because you truly believed I was the one who tried to hurt you. You know the truth now, so you don’t see me as a monster any longer.”
I sob loudly against her palm.
“I must go now, sweetheart. But your father and I”—she pulls her hand away and steps back to stand next to my father’s ghost—“wanted to tell you how much we love you and how proud of you we are. You may not see us again, but never forget we are always watching over you.”
“Take care of my girls, Ian,” my father says, fondness shining clear in his voice. “I love you, Bug.”
“I love you, too,” I whisper, refusing to break my gaze as I stare back and forth at my parents before they slowly fade away, hand in hand.
Ian reaches over and grabs my hand in his own, squeezing tightly as I turn to him. Tears brim in his eyes as he stares into mine.
“I told you so,” Auden says. Ian and I turn our gazes toward her.
I clear my throat and wipe my face with my free hand. “Told us what?”
Auden smiles that sly smile of hers, the same one that’s playing on her father’s lips. “I told you she was the good ghost.”
THE END