The Ghost in Love Read Online Free PDF

always be around it.
    â€œWhy are you here, ghost?”
    Ling had not heard the dog come into the living room. Turning around, it saw the animal staring from a few feet away.
    â€œHello. My name is Ling. What’s yours?”
    â€œI honestly don’t know. I’ve been called so many different things in my life that I have no idea what my real name is. These days it appears to be Pilot.”
    â€œPilot? All right, then, that’s what I’ll call you.”
    Before the dog could respond, Ben Gould walked into the living room and over to the bookshelves. After stroking the dog on the head a few times, he squatted down and ran a finger over the spinesof his books until he found what he was searching for:
Serious Pig
by the great food writer John Thorne. Ben wanted to read one of Thorne’s essays to German.
    When the man had left the room again, Ling asked, “Do you like living here with these people?”
    Pilot considered the question before answering. “Yes, I do. It’s been a very nice change for me.” But the dog got no further than that because a scream suddenly exploded from the bathroom. The door flew open with a wall-denting bang and still-naked German ran out with both hands over her mouth.
    â€œBen!”
    The dog, the ghost, and the man all hurried down the hall to find out what the problem was. When German saw Ben she took one hand away from her mouth and pointed back toward the bathroom. Her eyes were frantic and unfocused.
    â€œIn the bathtub. The water’s
brown
and there are
fish
in it!”
    Ling’s shoulders relaxed now because it knew why the woman screamed. Sea serpents have unimaginably filthy mouths and tongues due to the vast array and number of disgusting things they are constantly eating. Dirt takes a holiday in a sea serpent’s mouth. That accounted for the brown water. And scores of small fish cling to a serpent’s body. Ling assumed that a few of these fish had made their way into Gould’s tub after the monster’s brief appearance there.
    Pilot didn’t understand anything the woman said, but her voice was high and screechy. When it came to humans, this was not a good sign. Not good at all. When they used that hysterical tone, it usually meant a dog was either about to be smacked or else ignored way past feeding time.
    Ben didn’t know what to do. He’d already seen the sandy-brown water in the tub a few minutes before. Ever the gentleman, he’d chosento remain silent. But now he was being summoned to look at it in German’s presence. That meant he was going to have to ask his new girlfriend embarrassing questions he really did not want to ask. In addition, there were now fish in the tub.
    Ling was curious to see how Gould would handle this.
    The dog walked over to the woman and tentatively leaned against her bare leg to test her mood.
    â€œBen?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œAre you going to go look or not?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œBut you’re not moving.”
    â€œOh, yes . . . yes, I am. I was just thinking if I needed to bring anything in there with me. I guess not. I’m going right now.” Defeated, he flapped his arms against his thighs and knew there was nothing else to do now but go.
    Sure enough, his bathtub was half-filled with water the color of café au lait, and two very small black fish were swimming close enough to the surface to be visible.
    German stood pressed against his back. With one hand resting on his shoulder, she, too, peered into the water. Feeling her warm breasts and body against his back, his head filled with sexy images of what he would love to do with her right now instead of staring at dirty water and fish in his bathtub.
    All his life, Ben Gould had a thing he did whenever he was in trouble. For a few seconds before having to face facts and figure a way out of a fix, he would fantasize a perfect instance in a perfect world where he did not have to deal with