Free Bewitching You by Viola Estrella

you one bit. However, I am curious why you’re here. Who are you and what is your business?”
    “My name is Hayes Phillips, Gray Phillips’s brother. I need to see to his happiness before I can cross over, and I think your granddaughter, Sofia, can help with that.”
    “Oh? How do you know of my Sofia?”
    “She’s the palm reader’s daughter, right?”
    “Yes, she is.”
    “Well, I’ve been watching her.” He paused and laughed an infectious laugh. “Not in a weird way or anything.”
    Penny smiled. “That’s good to know. Go on.”
    “You see, I was angry with the palm reader at first. I’d been to her a month before my death, and she’d told me to be careful. That’s it. She hadn’t warned me of my looming death. She hadn’t even given me a hint. So, I brooded in their home, watching them, wanting to get even with the so-called psychic. But as time passed, I was more entranced by the daughter. She was sweet, innocent, and pretty in her own way. Not really my type.” He chuckled lightly. “Definitely perfect for my brother, though. I began to think how lucky he would be if he were to find her. Then I remembered.”
    The young man stopped talking, but Penny continued to read his thoughts. He’d remembered how selfish he’d been, leaving his brother. And Rachel. He’d gone to see them after the spirit world had taken his body and saw the ring on her finger. They were engaged to be married, but neither of them was happy with the idea.
    How could they be?
    Penny nodded as she came full circle with the rest of the story. “I understand why you’re here. We have the same goal then, don’t we?”
    “Yeah, I think we do.”
    ~ * ~
    Rachel braked hard, nearly hitting the school bus filled with children on their way home from school. She’d been so consumed with her thoughts she hadn’t noticed the light was red.
    What was wrong with her? She was going to kill someone if she couldn’t get it together.
    Hayes. He was the problem. She couldn’t get him out of her head. All night and all day during class, visions of the intimate time they’d spent together had manipulated her mind. Kissing. Wanting. Spreading her legs for him and letting him have whatever he desired.
    Seeing him again had been agonizing. If the man in her room really had been Hayes, if his words had all been true, then he’d loved her. Who knew what would have happened if he’d lived to tell her? It wasn’t fair to her, and especially not to Grayson. How could she ever go ahead with the wedding, knowing what she knew? After everything was said and done, she couldn’t imagine letting Grayson into the space in her heart where only Hayes had been.
    It wasn’t right, and it had been ridiculous of her to ever think it would be.
    The car behind her honked twice, letting Rachel know the light had turned green. She pressed the gas pedal and carefully continued home.
    The phone call to Grayson this morning had been a pathetic attempt. As soon as she’d heard his voice over the line, she’d chickened out. Not only did she not want to hurt him any more than he’d already been hurt, she didn’t want him to think poorly of her. She didn’t want to see that look of disappointment she’d become so familiar with.
    He hadn’t always been this way. Remote and irritable. Before Hayes died, he was a kind, loving man. Rachel had loved that part of him. If only the passion had been there—the little thing called chemistry. Then she would’ve never slept with Hayes, and she wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.
    Her cell phone chirped on the seat beside her, and she pulled off the road into a convenience store parking lot to answer it. No sense in adding another distraction to her already preoccupied mind.
    “Hello?”
    “Rachel, it’s your mother.”
    “Hi.” Darn it. Why hadn’t she checked the caller ID?
    “I can’t talk long, dear, but don’t forget to meet me at the bridal shop at five for your dress fitting. Olga has a