Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(29)

“I’m impressed,” Odelia says. “Maybe we worked together at the Harvard Observatory. I was there from 1895 until just after the turn of the century?” She phrases it like a casual question—as if asking Bella whether they might have been simultaneously shopping at the local mall without having run into each other.

Bemused and amused, Bella shakes her head, and Odelia forges on.

“Some of my past lives make no sense at all, though. For example, I was once a doe. A mule would seem exactly right, but a doe?”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s face it, I’m not the most graceful gal around. And I’m very stubborn. My ex-husband may even have called me an ass now and then. Maybe he was the psychic. He was certainly an ass.”

Bella can’t help but laugh at that. Nor can she help but find Odelia as lovable as she is kooky. As much as she wants to believe the woman is off her rocker, she seems utterly earnest.

Not that that means anything, Bella reminds herself. Just because she believes in all this crazy stuff doesn’t mean it’s real. She might as well be Max talking about the tooth fairy.

“The thing is, Odelia . . .” She pauses, choosing her words carefully. “What if it wasn’t an accident after all? Leona, I mean. What if Jiffy really did see someone out here on the pier that night?”

She waits for Odelia to assure her that wasn’t the case, that the boy was merely dreaming or that he makes up stories all the time.

“He may have seen someone,” Odelia says quietly, staring again over the water, “or he may have had a vision.”

“Wait, is he . . . he’s psychic, too? But . . . he’s just a little kid.”

“Children are often far more open to spiritual experiences. Unlike adults, they haven’t yet fully learned what they’re supposed to see and feel—and what they aren’t,” she adds with a wry smile. “His mother and his aunt are both mediums.”

“So . . . you mean it runs in families?”

“It certainly runs in mine. I never realized until after she’d passed that my daughter Stephanie was gifted, but her daughter—my granddaughter, Calla—certainly is.”

“She’s a medium, too?” she asks, wondering what happened to Stephanie. Odelia’s tone is matter-of-fact, but there’s a hint of sorrow in her expression.

“It’s not her career. She just published her first novel,” she says proudly.

“But she’s spiritually gifted, like you are?”

At Odelia’s nod, she wonders how that works—especially for a young professional woman. Does Calla chat with dead people in her spare time, like a hobby, or . . . or more like a bizarre extension of her social life?

“Some of us may be more perceptive than others,” Odelia tells her, “but anyone is capable of developing the ability to communicate with Spirit.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think of it this way: Some people are born with extraordinary musical talent or natural athletic ability. We all can’t be virtuosos or sports heroes, but just about anyone can learn to play the piano or catch a baseball, right? The key lies in willingness and practice.”

“So you’re saying. . . I can talk to the dead?” Seeing Odelia’s expression, she amends, “Communicate with Spirit. I can do that?”

“Is it something you want to learn to do?”

Absolutely not.

Unless it’s Sam, in which case . . .

“No,” she tells Odelia, her thoughts still muddled from the crash course in mediumship. “I don’t think I . . . no.”

“Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

I won’t.

Time to steer the subject back on track. “Can you ask your spirit guides about Leona if you can’t reach Leona herself?”

“That depends. I can ask, but keep in mind that our questions aren’t always answered in a way we might understand or expect. Spirit gives us what we need to know.”

As Bella digests that, the screen door creaks and slams again. The boys are coming back.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Odelia tells her.

Later . . . after what? After she’s asked Spirit?

Bella watches Max and Jiffy running toward them clutching Popsicles, carefree in the sunshine.

Forget Spirit. Forget later.

Forget everything for a change—everything but this moment and the fact that her son is smiling and he’s made a new friend.





Chapter Seven


After the Popsicle break, Odelia leaves to get ready for a Mediums’ League meeting—whatever that is—and sends Jiffy home to check in with his mom.

Lost in thought, Bella heads inside with Max, accompanied by Chance.

Fate may have handed her a free place to stay and a way to pay for the car repair, but a few crucial details seem to have escaped her when she agreed to help run the guesthouse—or rather, to run the guesthouse . . .

Wow—what the heck am I doing running a guesthouse?

The more she mulls over the curious turn of events, the more conflicted she feels. One moment, it seems to make perfect sense; the next, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Stuck and outa luck.

Having her son share a roof with a houseful of strangers wouldn’t be an appealing prospect under ordinary circumstances, but in the wake of Jiffy’s pirate tale—