Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

shoulders tensed. “He’s only hit me that once since we broke up, and that was because I pissed him off. As long as I don’t make him too mad, he doesn’t do anything but talk. I can deal with that.”
“Jesus, Greg.” Adrian rubbed a hand over his face. “Listen to yourself. You’re making excuses for his behavior.”
“They’re not excuses. I know him, Adrian. I know what he’s like, and I know how to handle him.”
The steel in Greg’s voice brooked no argument. Adrian gritted his teeth and switched tactics. “Fine. He’s just pestering you. What happens when it escalates like it did before?”
“It won’t.”
“But what if it does?”
Greg shot an irritated look over his shoulder. “I’ll handle it.”
“Really? Like you’ve been handling it up until now?” Adrian swerved around a woman pushing a stroller. “He’s the one you were talking to at Groome Castle the day we were taking down the haunted house, wasn’t he?”
“What if he was?”
“What if—” Adrian’s bag slipped off his shoulder. He heaved it back up again. “Ryan saw you talking to some guy under a tree the other night. He thought it was me, but it wasn’t. Obviously. It was Harrison, wasn’t it?”
He got a barbed glare in return. Greg set his jaw and walked faster.
The angry silence was answer enough. Adrian sighed. “Dammit, Greg. Why didn’t you tell me about all this before?”
Greg stopped walking and turned around so fast Adrian almost ran into him. “Yeah, that was him at Groome Castle, and it was him your fucking loudmouthed friend saw me with the other night. And he’s found me and talked to me several other times that you never knew about. And I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you would do this if I did.”
Adrian blinked, surprised. “This? What do you mean, ‘this’?”
“ This . Interfering. Trying to rescue me.” Greg pointed at him. “I don’t need rescuing.”
Adrian gaped at him. “I didn’t mean—”
“Do I look like a damsel in distress to you?”
“No! I was just—”
“I can handle him, okay? Just stay out of it.”
“Wait, okay, just wait a minute—”
Greg held up a hand. “No. I’m done for tonight. I’m going back to my dorm. Call me when you’re ready to apologize.”
Anger spiked through Adrian’s brain again. “Shit. I’m sorry, okay? But it bothers me that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me he was still stalking you.”
“I just told you why.”
“I know. But I’ve never given you any reason to think I’d treat you like a…what, a damsel in distress? So why would you think that?”
Greg’s mouth curved into a bitter smile. “Does it matter? I was right.”
Adrian had no rebuttal to that. Feeling utterly defeated, he walked the few steps to the closest bench, sank onto it and dropped his bag beside him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry.”
“I know.” Greg fiddled with the buckle on his laptop bag. He wouldn’t look at Adrian. “I’m sorry too. Just… Yeah. Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Greg walked away without looking back. Adrian sat and watched him go. At least Harrison didn’t seem likely to harass him any more tonight. Which was a good thing, because in spite of what Greg had just said, Adrian had to fight the urge to get up and follow him to make sure he got home okay.
Adrian ran a frustrated hand through his hair. Would he ever be able to get this relationship thing right?
He waited a few minutes, then pushed to his feet and started the trek back to his apartment. His stomach rumbled, and he felt a moment of irrational anger at himself for still being hungry after what had just happened with Greg.
As he passed the neighborhood leading to Groome Castle, he stopped and peered up the empty road. The streetlights shed pools of soft yellow illumination on the pavement at intervals until the road curved out of sight. He couldn’t see it, but he knew that a ten-minute walk would bring him to the old home.
When he veered off his path and onto the sidewalk toward the castle, he told himself he only wanted to look at the outside of the place in the moonlight, that he wouldn’t go inside.
He believed it until he touched the stones of the castle wall and felt the pull of Lyndon’s energy.
Unlocking the front door with a thought, he strode inside and headed straight for the tower. Maybe he and Lyndon could help each other. God knew he could use a friend tonight.
~ * ~
    Adrian crouched in the blackness