Free Sidekicks by Linda Palmer Page B

Bookman?" Mom asked Cooper as she spooned steaming pasta onto his plate.
    "For now. Do you know him?"
    "I know his whole family. They eat at the restaurant a lot. Both your parents were from this area, right? You don't have any relatives around?"
    "No ma'am."
    I slashed my hand across my throat to kill that line of questioning.
    Dad quickly took up the slack, asking Cooper about his new job, school, and football. "What position do you play?"
    "Tackle."
    "How's the season going?"
    "We're five and one. Two more games left."
    Since I had no interest in sports, even one Cooper loved, my mind wandered while they discussed game details and the upcoming basketball season. For some reason, a spirit I knew but didn't know approached, startling me. Strange ghosts seldom showed up at the Tagliaro house, something I constantly thanked Nick for. I figured he was protecting me from unwanted intrusion since I wasn't very good at doing that, myself.
    Hard to ignore, this spirit--an Asian mix, I thought--hovered. As I shoveled pasta into my mouth, I became more and more disturbed and, as a result, jittery. I dropped my fork, which clattered onto my plate but didn't chip it, thank goodness. I bobbled my stemmed glass, spilling Coke. Then I knocked over the bowl of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
    "Are you okay?" asked Mom, quickly righting it.
    "Uh-huh." I laid my cloth napkin on the table and pushed my chair back. "Excuse me. I'll just be a sec." Practically running, I went to the bathroom and locked the door. "What do you want?"
    Though it felt as if the spirit had followed me into the room, I got no response. Impulsively, I turned off the light, which doused the area in darkness, any specter's playground. I instantly saw an apparition that was mostly a face with a wispy body. I couldn't make out clothing at all. Had the spirit from the hospital followed me home? And if so, she'd sure faded a lot. And why didn't she feel the same?
    A new possibility came to me. Was this the woman lying in the leaves in that snapshot in Detective Simms's office? She had bruises and scratches that told me she'd died a violent death. But how had she found me?
    Weirded out, I flicked on the light to chase her away. A nanosecond later, I puked over the toilet, heaving until my ribs hurt and I thought I'd keel over.
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Chapter Seven
    Someone pounded on the door. Bang. Bang . I nearly jumped out of my skin.
    "Mia! Are you sick?"
    Mom.
    "I'm fine. Be out in a minute." I quickly flushed and rinsed my mouth. Then I looked in the mirror. A pale, wide-eyed girl with brown eyes and black hair looked back at me. I pinched my cheeks for color, pasted a smile on my face, and opened the door. "Yuck. Something did not agree with me."
    "So Cooper said."
    It didn't surprise me that he knew. Naturally I wondered if he'd seen the spirit, too. "Hope nobody else gets sick."
    "So do I." She led the way back to the dining room.
    I slipped into my chair, next to Cooper.
    "Are you feeling better?" he asked.
    "Yeah," I said, avoiding his intense gaze.
    I played with my food during the rest of the meal, unsure if I should try eating again. But by dessert time--good ol' American apple pie--I managed to get something down. After dinner, Mom and I sent the guys to the den. We quickly cleared up and joined them just fifteen minutes later. I immediately invited Cooper to accompany me to the back deck even though it was a little cool out.
    He snagged his hoodie; I snagged mine. We went out through the door in the utility room. A black sky spangled with stars drew us into the night. Since I'd deliberately left the deck light off, we were nothing more than shadows in the dark as we sat on the steps descending onto the lawn. Cooper chose the step above mine, which left me free to settle right in front of him. Leaning back, I rested my arms on his thighs. I looked around, half expecting that scary spirit to show up again. But she gave us our space.
    "You saw her?" I asked.
    "For a split second.