Between a Wolf and a Hard Place Read online

  “Hell,” CJ said.

  “Yeah, see? They’re probably stressing about what could happen, based on whatever already has.”

  “Okay, gotcha.”

  “So what are you going to do? Call Laurel and apologize?”

  “What are you going to do concerning Ellie?”

  “I told you. We’re doing fine. I’ll do some research about Matilda. After that, we can talk about it and go from there. But if I were you, I’d clear things up with Laurel now.”

  * * *

  “Did you tell CJ we heard the piano playing?” Ellie asked Laurel as they finished their cocoa.

  Laurel shook her head and took her empty mug into the kitchen. “I didn’t have time to explain much at all. I was too angry. Of all the brothers, I really believed CJ thought our claims were real. And to think he’s just been humoring me all along!”

  “I really don’t think he has been. I believe he’s just shook up that we think we can see his great-aunt. You’ve got to agree that it could be unsettling if you don’t see ghosts yourself and never had any indication your great-aunt was still hanging around Brett’s house.”

  “Okay, you may be right.”

  “So are you going to tell CJ you love him anyway?”

  Laurel laughed. “Just don’t get yourself into an ordeal with Brett over this.”

  A key turned in the lock to the front door, then opened. Meghan was smiling like she’d had the time of her life as she came in and locked the door. Then she frowned. “What are you doing over here? Is CJ working late again?”

  “If Peter doesn’t believe in ghosts, dump him.” Laurel headed for the stairs.

  Meghan stared after her. “Aww. She told CJ about his great-aunt, and he doesn’t believe us.”

  “Or doesn’t want to believe us. What did you expect?” Ellie asked.

  “True. I don’t blame him, really. Is she going to stay here for the night?”

  “Yes,” Laurel said from upstairs.

  Ellie and Meghan laughed.

  “You can’t stay mad at him forever,” Meghan called out.

  “He’ll come around or else,” Laurel hollered back. Then she shut her bedroom door, and they heard the master bath’s shower turn on.

  “Well, I’m ready for bed.” Ellie headed for the stairs.

  “I haven’t talked to Peter about any of this. I guess I need to before we go much further with any kind of relationship.”

  Ellie turned to look at her. “You haven’t talked to him about this ghost business?”

  “Nah. Never came up. And I guess I’ve been avoiding it.”

  “I don’t blame you. It can really be a dead end to a relationship.”

  “So what did the two of you do?” Meghan asked.

  “Dinner, Brett hung the photo of his great-aunt on the wall next to the piano, helped hang lights, and then played some Christmas songs by ear.”

  “On the piano?” Meghan closed her gaping mouth. “Did he kiss you there again?”

  “Yeah, but nothing happened this time. Maybe your little talk convinced Great-Aunt Matilda to leave well enough alone.”

  “Or she’s waiting until the place fills up with guests to show us who’s got the upper hand.”

  Ellie groaned. “Okay, tomorrow you and I are going to try everything we know to get her attention, speak with her, and try to convince her she doesn’t belong here.”

  “Sounds good to me. If that doesn’t work?”

  “I’ll research what I can about her. With the guise that if we get questions about the piano, we’ll know more about the previous owner.”

  “Sounds good. What about Laurel?”

  “I’ll be helping with the whole project,” Laurel said behind her closed door.

  “Good,” Meghan said. “Did you leave me any hot water?” She headed into the spare bathroom to take a shower.

  Ellie figured she wouldn’t get any sleep tonight, not with worrying about how Brett was taking the news. She was certain CJ would have talked to him about it, as close as they were.

  She had just climbed into bed and pulled up the blanket and comforter when her cell rang. She looked at the caller. Brett. She took a deep breath, unsure how she was going to approach this. “Hello?”

  “Life is too short,” Brett said, and she was afraid he planned to propose a mating. Maybe he’d decided he might lose her if she started dating someone else.

  No way could she go along with a mating until they settled the ghost issue.

  “I’ve always wanted to take piano lessons but couldn’t when I was younger and never made time later. You know Remer Cochran? The piano teacher? He came here in the beginning of the year, and he said he’d be willing to teach us how to play.”

  Ellie started to object. She really didn’t think she could sit at a piano for hours and practice all the time. Besides, what if doing that set Matilda off?

  “Remer has a piano at his home in a private room where he teaches students of all ages. He said he’d accommodate our schedules and is eager to teach some older pupils. I think it’s more that my cousin is the pack leader, and my brother is one too. It never hurts to get good publicity for your business. And he’s having a bit of a time encouraging the local wolves to sign their kids up to play the piano. This way, we’ll will help him, something we always try to do to encourage new wolf businesses to stay in the area, and we’ll have fun at the same time.”

  Ellie didn’t think practicing to play a piano sounded like fun.

  “So starting tomorrow, he’ll take us. Please, please say yes. I don’t want to do this on my own, but I want to see if I have at least half the talent my great-aunt did.”

  Ellie couldn’t say no when Brett was begging her like that. He really was a sweetheart. “Okay—”

  “Yes!”

  “Wait. Hear me out. If I can’t do it, I’ll drop out and you can continue playing because that’s your dream. I’m not good at sticking with things. Especially something like programmed lessons.”

  “I completely understand. Thank you for saying yes. We can celebrate after each lesson, just for having given it a shot.”

  She was waiting for him to mention having spoken to CJ. Maybe because of the disagreement CJ and Laurel had had, CJ hadn’t talked to Brett about their ghostly great-aunt visiting the inn. Ellie didn’t want to open that can of worms tonight. “What time are we doing this?”

  “Would ten work for you? Then we can have lunch afterward and go back to our respective jobs.”

  “All right.”

  “Ellie, no matter what, I want this to be fun for us. Not a chore. We’re not trying to be concert pianists. If it stops being fun, we can quit and try something else.”

  That made her feel better. And she loved that he was interested in doing something else with her if this didn’t work out. “We could take up macramé.”

  “Yeah, like that.”

  She couldn’t believe he’d agree. “Do you know what it is?” She couldn’t really believe he’d be interested in anything like that, but she’d always thought it would be fun to try.

  “Braiding wool and knotting it, or something like that. But let’s try the piano lessons first. You might find you have a real talent for it.”

  She secretly hoped she would.

  “And we can do the macramé too, if we find we have more free time on our hands.”

  “You know what? I’d really like to try my hand at wood carving. My dad made my sisters and me all kinds of small carvings—fish, beaver, bear. He always made them in threes, one for each of us.”

  “I’d love to. I’ve whittled some, but not made anything more than a primitive bear.”

  “All right then. Tomorrow, we’ll start the piano lessons,” Ellie said, getting excited about the prospect. She was always enthusiastic when she began a new projec
t.

  “I’ll pick you up and drive you over there.”

  “Sounds good. Night, Brett.”

  “Good night, Ellie.”

  After they ended the call, Meghan headed down the hall to her bedroom. “Got another hot date with Brett?”

  “Piano lessons.”

  “Piano lessons?” Meghan sounded like she thought Ellie was kidding.

  “Not on Matilda’s piano,” Ellie said.

  “Okay, so you know that after you take the lessons, you’re supposed to practice. Every. Day. On. A. Piano.”

  Ellie opened her bedroom door and frowned at Meghan.

  “And the only one we have ready access to is in our lobby, being guarded by a persnickety ghost.”

  Ellie hadn’t considered that part of the equation. Once Brett said they would be using Remer’s piano, she’d thought that was all there was to it. “Well, we still have two weeks before our guests arrive.”

  “Right. Where is Brett going to practice? With you? With his great-aunt supervising?”

  “You know, maybe that would be a good thing. If he hears her or senses her, we can get this out in the open.”

  “And if he can’t? But only you can, and it’s so bad that you can’t practice?”

  “We’ll just have to give it a try and see what happens.”

  Laurel opened the door to her bedroom. “You are taking piano lessons? With Brett?”

  “Yeah.” Ellie smiled at the shocked expressions both her sisters were wearing. “What? You don’t think I can learn how to play?”

  Meghan sighed.

  Laurel shook her head. “It’s not so much whether you can or can’t play, but that you are going to aggravate Matilda.”

  “What if that’s the key to her happiness? One of her grandnephews learning to play?”

  “You playing the wrong notes or at the wrong tempo could really annoy her.” Laurel let out her breath. “It’s not that you can’t learn to play well, but in the beginning, any of us would make a lot of mistakes.”

  “Yeah, but it’s like I told Meghan. What if Brett senses Matilda’s presence? That could be a good thing.”

  “Be sure he’s not just saying what you want to hear and doesn’t really believe in your abilities.”

  “Amen to that,” Meghan said. She walked off to her bedroom. “Night, Laurel, Ellie.”

  Ellie wanted to prove to her sisters and to herself that she could play the piano. Not that she would be a concert pianist, but enough to play a simple song or two. Putting on special programs for their guests at the inn could be really fun. But with her history of not sticking with anything long enough to perfect it, she was afraid her sisters were right.

  “We’re doing a séance early tomorrow morning,” Laurel said and went to bed.

  They rarely did séances. When they did, one of them—usually Laurel—would act as the medium and guide the session. Sometimes a spirit would talk through Ellie, sometimes through Meghan, but never through Laurel.

  Once, a friend’s departed mother had sought to speak with her daughter and begged the sisters to have the séance. To make things right. It wasn’t normally done that way. Usually, when a grieving family learned the sisters had the gift, the family wanted help in saying good-bye to their family member. The mother wanted to beg her daughter for forgiveness for not liking her choice of mate and for disowning her. She wanted to make amends. Since the sisters knew both parties—and the mother was causing them grief with her constant appearances—they had agreed. But the daughter didn’t believe. The mother finally thanked the sisters, gave up on trying to convince her daughter she loved her with all her heart, and found the light.

  The sisters believed the mother had been happy when she gave up her quest to make amends with her daughter, believing she had done all she could. But the séance hadn’t gone as planned at all. Anything could happen at one. Unwelcome spirits could appear. Here at the inn, they already had two to deal with. They didn’t want any more.

  Ellie sighed. Tomorrow, first thing, they’d have the séance. But she was going to contact Matilda on her own before that because Matilda had only appeared to her.

  When Laurel went to bed, Ellie put on her coat, dug out one of the sage smudge sticks they had in the pantry for emergencies, and headed over to the inn. Everything was quiet and dark there, as would be expected. Ellie turned on the lights and lit the sage, then went from room to room waving the smudge stick, hoping to cleanse the inn. She and her sisters didn’t mind living around ghosts, but the same didn’t hold true for guests staying at their inn. Afterward, Ellie sat down at the piano and looked up at Matilda’s memorial. If the sage hadn’t worked and Matilda was still here, Ellie hoped she liked the picture and sentiments.

  Ellie sighed and spoke from her heart in case Matilda was around. “We know you loved to play the piano for family gatherings when you were alive, and your family loved you for it.”

  Ellie spied the box of sheet music and stood, then opened piano bench and began to neatly place the music books and sheet music in the storage compartment. “Brett has always wanted to play the piano because of your talent. And he’s asked me to take lessons with him.” She thought it was important to let Matilda know. Maybe she would be more understanding if Ellie shared their intent. If not, so be it, but she felt she owed it to Matilda to tell her first. If she hadn’t moved on.

  “He really cares for me, and I really care for him. So I think he wants me to do it as something we could enjoy doing together. But I don’t know the first thing about playing a piano and… Well, the thing of it is, we’ll have to practice on yours, but I don’t want to disturb you by doing so. I might be horrible at this.”

  She’d finished placing the music in the bench when the keys depressed from one end of the keyboard to the other in a neat, orderly way. Chills swept up Ellie’s spine. She didn’t see the older woman, but the room had grown decidedly colder. The keys depressed in the same way again. Was Matilda telling her to follow her lead?

  It had to be her. The sage hadn’t worked. Though she wondered if it had worked on Chrissy.

  “Brett doesn’t believe in ghosts. I haven’t told him I’ve seen you, but my sister Laurel told her mate, CJ, that we did. He’s not happy about it.” Ellie pressed the keys down the way Matilda had. “I want to tell Brett that I can sometimes commune with spirits, but I’m afraid he won’t believe me and that will be the end of any kind of relationship we could have.”

  The keys slowly depressed in a pattern this time, playing a tune Ellie didn’t know. After Matilda finished, Ellie did the same and smiled. She couldn’t believe Matilda was showing her what to do, encouraging her even. Which made her feel a little guilty that she’d tried to exorcise her.

  “I really care for Brett. He’s the most kind-hearted, interesting wolf I’ve ever met, but you see the dilemma we have? It’s not like I haven’t had trouble with this before. A guy I was seeing didn’t like that I could sense or commune with spirits and ditched me. So I’ve been reluctant to tell Brett the extent to which I can get in touch with ghosts.”

  Matilda played more keys, and Ellie copied her. This wasn’t so bad at all. She actually enjoyed it.

  Then Ellie said, “I wish you could be with us today. My father died of pneumonia. He was getting better but relapsed, and we lost him. I haven’t told Brett that yet. But we missed my dad so much. He just kept telling us he’d get better. And we knew he would, because he said so. Was that what happened to you? I guess it would be hard for you to know.”

  A bunch of keys were pressed in a discordant way. Then Matilda banged on the keys for several seconds before she stopped and the lobby was filled with quiet.

  Ellie closed her gaping mouth, blinked, and stared at the keys as if they would magically move again. She whispered, “You didn’t die of pneumonia?”

  The piano remained silent. The room
seemed much colder, and feeling chilled, Ellie turned off the light, locked the inn, and hurried home. She had the dreadful sense that Matilda wasn’t staying here because she loved the piano so much, but because she had died of something other than natural causes and needed to see justice done.

  Before Ellie reached the door to the house, Laurel opened it and Meghan greeted her, ushering her inside.

  “What in the world was that all about?” Laurel asked, sounding half shocked and half annoyed. “I thought we’d try to exorcise her spirit tomorrow morning. Were you trying to get a head start so you could take piano lessons with Brett without having any ghostly interactions with Matilda?”

  “We were practicing just fine together. Matilda was playing and then waiting for me to copy her. But then I mentioned Dad dying of pneumonia, and I think…I think maybe she didn’t die the way everyone thought she did.” Ellie sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case. The sisters headed upstairs to retire for the night.

  “Great,” Laurel said. “So we don’t tell the brothers? Or we tell them? If you’re right, what a nightmare.”

  “I agree.” Ellie had decided she wasn’t going to dream about Brett. She refused to. She didn’t want to. She had to make room for dating other guys and see what happened then.

  Which was why when she curled up in bed, drifted off…and saw Brett standing in her bedroom peeling off his clothes in front of her, she ignored him. Not. She quickly tugged off her tiger pajamas, eager to feel his hands on her, as eager as she was to lay her hands on him. But right in the middle of making love with him, she heard a wolf howl—and it snapped her right out of her dream.

  Ellie lay quietly in her bed, listening for the wolf’s howl again. She’d never heard that howl before, so it wasn’t anyone in her pack. Had she dreamed it?

  She got out of bed and peeked out the window, swearing that the howl had come from the inn. She threw on a robe and slipper boots and headed over there. What if Matilda began appearing in the lobby as a wolf? She’d give their human guests seizures.

  When Ellie entered the hotel, everything was quiet and she saw no sign of Matilda. Sighing, Ellie figured she’d imagined hearing an unknown wolf howl while she was having a sexy time with one hot Silver wolf.