Free Ghosts of the Falls (Entangled Ever After) by Sarah Gilman Page A

here.”
    “You will.” His eyes, dark brown with flecks of green, shifted back in her direction. Her heart sped up under the force of his intense, honest stare. “I swear.”
    Let’s hope so . She wouldn’t mind sticking around to see those eyes again. “Tell you what, Mr. Vernon, I’m staying in the park’s campground. Tomorrow I’ll have a better idea what I’m dealing with. Would you be willing to give me a tour in the morning? I need to see the burial site you mentioned when you called.”
    “Of course. The grave is on the other side of the gorge. It’s tricky to find but not impossible to reach.” He paused, his gaze wandering over her face. “And you can call me Dutch. See you then, Jade.”
    He walked away along the road, and the corners of Jade’s mouth grew heavy. If only there’d been something to talk to him about besides the haunting. When had she last had a conversation with a good-looking man?
    She shook her head. Her regular schedule left no time for dating or romance. Though far from either of those, spending the morning with Dutch would be a welcome change of pace.
    With a sigh, she returned to her car, checked her scribbled directions, and headed for the campground.
    …
    Dutch’s corporeal body dissolved into the breeze like a wisp of fog. All physical sensation faded, leaving him with only his thoughts and his disappointment.
    Despite the reputation of the Clarence family he’d gleaned from the computer in the park’s office, Jade hadn’t picked up on what he was even after looking him in the eye and shaking his hand. Hopefully, his physical body had simply masked him from whatever senses she relied on.
    He drifted through the trees, moving like a gust of wind toward the campground on the far side of the ten-thousand-acre park. Beyond the gorge, the river calmed and widened. A cluster of colorful tents lined one side of the rock-strewn bank. He skimmed the ground, passing through the trunks of pine and oak trees. A Labrador sitting in front of a red tent lifted its head and growled.
    Rustic cabins sat on a cleared knoll with a view of the river. A black Chevy sedan sat in front of the park office, a Tinker Bell doll hanging from the rearview mirror—Dutch had seen the character many times on the tiny, fascinating computers children carried around these days.
    He hovered at the base of a flagpole and waited.
    Jade emerged from the office, clutching paperwork, and eased the screen door shut. Her earthy coloring reminded him of the Abenaki Native Americans who owned the land north of the park.
    She froze halfway to her car and shivered, despite the sun that lit up her features. She scanned her surroundings, her eyes half-closed as if paying more attention to senses other than sight.
    That’s more like it . Dutch drifted closer and stopped a foot in front of her.
    Her gaze didn’t focus on him. She closed her eyes and inhaled a slow, deep breath. “Hello, Spirit.”
    Dutch stayed silent. By focusing energy behind his thoughts, he could manifest his voice without his physical body, but she would recognize him. They had a date in the morning, and he longed for the opportunity for a normal conversation, absent of the “I’m a ghost and I want to be exorcised” topic.
    Seeking company every so often, he would assume his corporeal body and speak with fishermen about trout and the weather, but he hadn’t spoken to a woman since his death. None of the female tourists who visited the park over the years had been worth the trouble, and most came with their husbands and children, anyway. In his non-corporeal form, he spent most days hovering among the guests so loneliness didn’t drive him out of his incorporeal skull.
    A date, even if it wasn’t really a date, would be a good note on which to end his dead-end existence.
    “Can you hear me?” Jade’s voice jerked him from his thoughts.
    He lacked hands, but he reached toward her face with the concentrated energy that comprised his self