Free Following Bliss (The Quest series) by Heather Strang

woman.
    “Oh. My. God.”
Shelby had never seen a ghost like this before and felt a strong impulse to run,
screaming Daniel’s name. Instead she cupped her hands to her mouth.
    Don’t be afraid,
my dear. The woman said as her wispy outline swayed softly. I’m here to
help you. I’m here to help Daniel too.
    “Are, are, oh my
god, are you Daniel’s mother? The one who has been talking to me in my head??”
    The wispy woman
chuckled gently. Well, I’m not actually in your head when that happens. Your
auditory senses are merely translating my vibration into words in your mind.
I’m usually standing right next to you. But technicalities, right?
    Shelby was
officially freaked out. Receiving messages from and connecting with the other
side was fine as long as she didn’t have to see anything. This was too much.
    I understand
this is unusual dear, but tonight the lighting and situation were too perfect
to pass up. It’s easier to appear when it’s in a setting you aren’t normally accustomed
to. But, let’s not waste time with all of the semantics—it takes a lot of
energy for me to appear to you like this, so I want to make it quick. You need
to go to Maui with Daniel, dear. He needs you there.
    Shelby laughed.
This woman was going to a lot of trouble to give her such preposterous messages.
    “Don’t you need
to be saving a life or keeping our government or economy from imploding or
something? Is this really what we do after we die, try to hook up our loved
ones?”
    Shelby didn’t
mean to be disrespectful, but this was becoming too much. She was having a hard
enough time processing her feelings for Daniel, especially with him leaving so
soon. Having to deal with a dead mother who wanted them together seemed a bit
to over the top to her. It was also making her seriously question her own
sanity.
    Oh, Shelby. The
woman sighed, her wispy figure swaying slightly. There is so much you don’t
know about the non-physical when you are in your physical body. We have the
advantage of knowing so much more about the big picture of what’s happening in
the world. It’s a vantage point that is quite challenging to hold objectively
when in the body. I can assure you that this is about far more than Daniel and
you hooking up, as you say. To keep things simple, my assignment is not to save
the government or your silly economic system—don’t even get me started on all
of that nonsense. What I can tell you now is, I am here to save a life, and part
of that includes you going with Daniel to Maui.
    “I would love to
go with Daniel to Maui, but there’s one little problem. He hasn’t invited me.
And we’ve only been technically spending time together for a week. Oh, and
perhaps you’ve noticed that he was invited there by Kaley Hamilton, an agent
who is almost more well known for seducing her authors than she is for her
professional work.”
    Ah, yes,
length of time and seduction. I forgot how much humans worry about time and the
rightness of things. So busy worrying and judging, you miss out on all of the
fun.
    The woman
started fading further away, it looked like she was drifting off. Shelby felt
relieved and frightened at the same time. How was she supposed to bridge this
subject with Daniel? He hadn’t exactly enjoyed her last messages from his
mother. And whose life needed to be saved anyway? Daniel’s? Kaley Hamilton’s?
Hers?
    “Wait! Daniel totally
shuts down when I give him messages from you. How do I tell him this without
scaring him half to death?”
    The wispy figure
disappeared. All Shelby heard was a faint, Leave. That. To. Me.
    And then she was
gone. Shelby looked around the amphitheater. It was completely empty, not a
soul was in sight. She looked where the woman had been floating and now there
was simply a small, motionless, bush. The breeze was completely gone. Shelby
sat down on one of the benches, dumbfounded. She didn’t know what to do. She
wanted to tell Daniel, but she needed to think things