The Ghoul Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page B

trouble?”
    “The spooky kind,” I said.
    “Yikes. Well, thank God I’m free this evening. What time is dinner?”
    “Who said you were coming?” The last thing I needed was a snarky, acerbic-tongued dinner guest when we met Steven’s fiancée.
    Gilley rolled his eyes. “Honey, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
    I glared at him. “No.”
    Gil gave me an appraising look. “Sugar,” he drawled, “you’ll need me.”
    “Ha!” I scoffed. “Like a hole in the head.”
    Gilley shook his head and
tsk
ed. “So, you’re going to rely on Heath to have your back when you meet this gorgeous neurosurgeon with a giant rock on her finger?” Glancing at Heath, Gilley added, “No offense, doll.”
    Heath narrowed his eyes at Gil. “None more than usual taken, Gil.”
    But I was more focused on what Gilley had just said. “Who said she was gorgeous?”
    “Oh, please, M.J.,” Gil said. “Have you ever known Steven to date anyone who wasn’t gorgeous?”
    “I’ve only known him to date
me
,” I said levelly.
    Gil inspected his nails. “I rest my case.”
    “Em,” Heath said, wrapping an arm around my waist. “It’s just dinner. You’ll be fine no matter who shows up because I’ll be there to make sure Sable knows I got the better end of the deal.”
    I looked up at my sweet, sincere, sensitive boyfriend and caressed his cheek. Then I turned to Gil and said, “Dinner’s at seven. At Tango’s. Be there on time for once.” And then I headed out of the coffee shop to sprint home and get ready.

Chapter 2
    Gilley didn’t disappoint. He showed up at my condo in the middle of a full-scale wardrobe meltdown. “How’s it going?” I heard him ask as I threw one of the last remaining pairs of slacks out the door of my closet.
    “How do you think it’s going?” I replied. Behind me the bed was a mess of rumpled clothing, hangers, and shoes. I had absolutely nothing suitable to wear because for much of the past ten months, I’d been dressing for demons—not ex-boyfriends and their gorgeous, brainy fiancées.
    I heard Gilley clear his throat. “This might work,” he said.
    I turned and poked my head out to see Gilley standing there with a garment bag and a shoe box. “What’d you do?”
    “Took care of you,” Gil said lazily. “Just like always.”
    I grinned and rushed over to take the bag from him. Unzipping it, I peered inside and my breath caught. Inside the garment bag was a gorgeous sheath dress in oh so touchable electric blue suede. Cinched smartly at the waist, it also had a deep V-neck, and a slight slit in the back of the formfitting skirt cut just a few inches above my knee.
    I pulled the dress out of the bag and marveled at it. Then I caught sight of the four-hundred-dollar price tag. “Gil!” I yelled.
    He rolled his eyes. “Honey, that was before the markdown.”
    My brows lifted along with a little hope. “You got a discount?”
    “Of course,” he said easily.
    “How much?”
    “Ten percent.”
    I hung my head. “I can’t afford a three-hundred-and-sixty-dollar dress, Gil.”
    “You can if you’d do a few readings,” he reminded me. Now that we were on hiatus, Gil had been pushing me to read for some private clients again. I’d resisted because we were awaiting a big bonus from the network for shooting at a seriously dangerous location, but the network was dragging its heels on the money, and the latest rumor was that we weren’t going to see the check until the middle to the end of the summer.
    We were also supposed to make a ton of money off the movie that shoot resulted in, but before heading home from Wales, we’d been told that it’d take at least a year or two for that to be released and then another year before we saw any money from it.
    And people think that all you have to do is get on television and your money worries are over.
    Still, I was reluctant to commit to readings because I’d gotten so burned-out the last time I opened myself up to readings