Page 2 of Ghost Town I Do

The guest list was small, so the living room would do. That seemed to be the logical answer.

Now that Colt had been told about the pregnancy, she’d have to tell her mother. Anna had mixed feelings about that. Nina Miller didn’t like Colt all that much, but then she didn’t understand why he’d lived such a solitary life for the past few years, or why he talked to himself so much.

By the way, Mom, the squirrelly boyfriend you don’t like all that much has knocked me up. Maybe she’d be so thrilled to become a grandmother that she wouldn’t care who the father was. Yeah, right.

The window-rattling knock on the glass door made Anna jump. The sign posted there made it clear the depot was closed today, and for the following week. Colt never took a vacation, but he’d insisted. They would have a honeymoon. She stood, intending to shoo whoever was at the door away as nicely as she could.

When Anna saw the woman standing there, peering in, she knew no shooing would be necessary.

Olive had become a close friend in a matter of a few months. Ghost business had brought them together. Funny how ghost business could do that in record time. Nate Tucker, Tuck to pretty much everyone, had been the one to convince Olive to stay in Seawolf Beach. Since the first of the year she and Colt had been on a couple of double dates with Olive and Tuck, and the two women had lunch and/or coffee on a regular basis.

It had been a long time since Anna had called anyone a best friend, but now there was Olive. Olive, who was going to be her maid of honor. If there was a wedding.

She unlocked the door and swung it open. A damp Olive, wearing a massive yellow raincoat, stepped inside. Her car was parked at the curb, just a few feet away, and still she’d needed that raincoat. Earlier in the day, during a brief conversation over the phone, Anna’s mom had called this a frog strangler. She wasn’t wrong.

Anna closed and locked the door.

Olive shed her raincoat, tossed it onto the back of the bench, and looked directly at Anna. A former ballerina, the dark-haired, dark-eyed Olive was small but undeniably strong. “So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan?”

“I assume a beach wedding is out, so what’s the plan?”

Anna sighed. Her shoulders drooped. “I don’t have any idea. Maybe in Mom’s living room…”

Olive dismissed that option with a wave of her hand and a smile. How rude, to smile at a time like this!

“You do know I’m an event planner,” she said. “Well, I was, and I will be again. It hasn’t been so long that I’ve lost my chops.”

“If you have a better idea than the living room in my old house, you could’ve just called,” Anna said.

Olive blew air between her lips, in a way that revealed her disgust at that idea. “You would’ve brushed me off and told me everything was fine, and that would’ve cost us hours. We don’t have hours to waste. Besides, standing here I can see the worry on your face.”

Of course she was worried! “I can’t think of any option other than Mom’s living room.” Unless she and Colt decided to live there, which they would not, the house would soon be up for sale. They hadn’t yet reached that point. “The living room isn’t huge, but there won’t be many guests so it’ll do.”

“No,” Olive said sharply. “Everyone in town has been so looking forward to this wedding, it would be wrong to exclude anyone.”

Everyone? “Just a few people have been invited.”

“It was supposed to be on the beach and y’all have been talking about it for weeks. Everyone knows, and they want to be there. Surely you realized there would be wedding crashers.”

Well, no. “What alternative do we have?”

“Tuck said you’re welcome to use The Magnolia, if you don’t mind getting married in a bar.”

That wouldn’t be ideal, but at least they’d be married by the end of the day. “I don’t know. Colt doesn’t care for the ghosts there, he’s told me that much.”

Olive pursed her lips. “I know they’re everywhere, but I swear, I don’t want to know about it!” She laughed as she critically scanned the record store. Her eyes narrowed. “What about here?”

Here?

Anna studied the space. Hart’s Vinyl Depot was massive, there was plenty of room, wall to wall. But it was crowded with record bins and racks of T-shirts, as well as a couple of old wooden depot benches. Where would people gather to watch? She and Colt could say their vows by the checkout counter, and wedding guests could stand between the bins. “I don’t see it.”

Olive patted her arm. “That’s ok. I do.”

* * *

A baby. Colt’s mind reeled from the news, though he should’ve expected it to happen. The woman he loved was going to have his baby. He was thrilled. He was terrified. But mostly he was thrilled.