Free Black Raven Inn: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 6) by Rebecca Patrick-Howard Page B

could feel the tinges of excitement edging around her. “Are you kidding? I don’t just want to have dinner, I want to come to your lecture!”
    “I don’t know. It might be boring. I’m a scientist, not much of a speaker,” he warned her.
    “Oh please,” Taryn scoffed.
    It didn’t matter what he said; once those college girls got a look at his dark skin, long ebony hair, and beautiful smile they’d be putty in his hands. David, full-blooded Creek Indian, was one of the most beautiful men she’d ever seen off the movie screen.
    “I don’t know much about Nashville so I’ll leave it to you to find us a place to eat and hang out,” he told her.
    “Sure. Where are you staying?”
    “Some place downtown. Has a color in the name of it,” he said.
    “Hotel Indigo probably. It’s one of those new, hip places.”
    “I probably won’t fit in very well then,” David laughed. “I haven’t been hip in at least ten years.”
    “You’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll find something within walking distance of it.”
    They spent the next few minutes chatting about his work and the discoveries on Jekyll Island. Taryn had spent several months living between it and St. Simon’s and they had been some of the best months of her life. Having David nearby, someone she could grab for the occasional dinner and day trip, had been icing on the cake to a summer that was relaxing and productive. Although she hadn’t worked once her job was finished on Jekyll, when she moved over to the house on St. Simon’s she had used her time to paint, take photographs, and read at leisure without a thought to bills or money.
    As someone who had held a full-time job since she was sixteen and sometimes worked all day and throughout the night, she’d never had a time like that in her life, a time all to herself. It was wonderful.
    “So what are you up to right now?” David asked at last.
    Taryn leaned back against the wall, relaxed and happy to have someone to chat with after a long day. “Well, guess who my current employer is?”
    He let out a long, slow whistle when she told him Ruby’s name. “Look at you! How’d you swing that?”
    “She was familiar with my work,” Taryn explained. “She found me through a project I worked on with Andrew a long time ago.”
    “Wow, that’s awesome. I am so impressed. My granny was a huge fan. I can remember Ruby Jane being on the Ralph Emery Show when I was a kid. I loved her, I reckon it was that kind of high-pitched squeaky voice of hers, and Granny always let me stay up late when she was a guest.” David laughed. “It was such a big deal back then. I can still remember Granny in her rocker, shucking corn or stringing beans, and me pulling all the cushions off the couch to make a pillow fort with. Ruby’s kind of the soundtrack to my childhood.”
    “Mine too,” Taryn agreed. She was thrilled to have someone to talk about her love of music, and of Ruby, with. “You know, that duet’s album she did just about changed my life. I can remember right after my parents died I was in a real low place and nothing could get me out of that funk. It went on for months. Then one night I put on that CD and fell asleep listening to it. First time I’d slept through the night since their death.”
    “I love the way country music fans form such special relationships with the artists they like. Sometimes I feel like I know the people. I guess that would be creepy to them,” David mused.
    Taryn laughed. “Probably, but I do the same thing. Oh! And guess where I’m working? Black Raven Inn.”
    David was silent for a moment and then, when he replied, his voice was quiet. “You mean the place where…”
    “Yep.”
    “Damn,” he whistled again. “I figured they’d tear that place down. Actually, I guess I thought they had .”
    “Yeah, well, they should . It’s kind of a hellhole,” Taryn agreed. “But it’s also interesting in its own ugly, creepy kind of way.”
    “So how’s that