Free A Triple Scoop of I Scream by Gabrielle Holly Page B

and flourished in huge pots on the floor. Life in the Roaring Twenties was depicted on brightly-coloured advertisements lining the walls. Toni looked at the others in the booth. Their awestruck expressions told her that they saw it too. They all watched as the door from Ex Libris swung inward and Daisy walked through it looking as solid as a living person. She stopped near the booth and stared at the front door.
    “Keep reading,” Liam whispered.
    Toni licked her lips and continued. “After hours of screaming and crying for him to let me out of that office, I had no voice or tears left to weep for you. Your father is inconsolable. He has built cabinets over the door between our shops. My father has done the same on the other side of the wall. One barrier built of grief and another built of anger. But nothing can wall off my love for you and my bottomless regret that you died thinking that I’d changed my mind.”
    The hair on Toni’s arms stood up. Daisy turned and smiled at her. This time when the ghost spoke, her lips moved and her voice was clear. “He’s coming.”
    They all looked towards the front door. It swung open and the brass bell jangled. Vinnie entered and rushed into Daisy’s arms. The two ghosts embraced. Vinnie turned to Toni, the gratitude overtaking his handsome face. “Thank you,” he said. He turned back to Daisy and the two kissed.
    A white aura fanned out from the ghost lovers, growing in size and intensity until it filled the room with a blinding light. Toni had to shut her eyes against the glare. When she opened them again, Daisy and Vinnie were gone along with the 1920s décor. The mirror was still cracked, one cabinet leaned against the counter and another was laid out on the tile floor.
    Toni closed the journal, put her head in her hands and wept tears of joy.

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    Toni Bianchi stood at the corner of State and Main and looked across the street at the renovated building on the opposite corner— her renovated building on the opposite corner. The broken windows had been replaced and the smooth glass shone in the setting August sun. The crumbling bricks had been repaired and the mortar joints repointed. The wood trim had been scraped and given a new coat of paint. Above the freshly stained door was a bright new sign, ‘Ghost of a Chance Sweet Shop’.
    She crossed the street and peered in through the window on the river side of the block. The interior of the shop had also undergone a facelift with the help of Liam and the Paranormal Research Team. They’d had to work exhausting hours in order to have the grand opening on the Fourth of July holiday, but there had been few complaints. Each evening as they’d unwound over beer and takeout pizza, the conversation had invariably turned to Vinnie and Daisy and the experience they all had shared. The magic of it seemed to fuel their labours.
    The guys had focused on the downstairs renovations. They’d replaced the broken mirror behind the soda fountain and repaired the plaster where the shelves had ripped away from the walls. Mike had spent two neck-wrenching weeks on a tall ladder stripping and refinishing his beloved tin ceiling.
    Toni and Bridget had concentrated on cleaning and repainting the upstairs. The bedrooms were the priority. Toni had claimed the larger one. Mike and Bridget had moved their suitcases into the smaller. They’d kept the art deco bureaus but swapped out the beds and linens for more modern—or as Bridget called them ‘fuck-friendly’—versions.
    The bathroom had required a little elbow grease, but, by the time they were done, the glass gleamed, the fixtures sparkled and the window sills looked brand new.
    The women had saved the most daunting project—the catch-all room—for last. It had taken them two full days to go through the stacks of dusty boxes. Most of what they had found was trash—old ledger books and yellowed newspapers shredded by mice. But the few treasures they had uncovered were