Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) (30 page)

And Alice…well, she was headed to the hospital to meet the man she’d spent almost three hundred years trying to find again.

Chelby Rose, one month later…

Tandie’s novel
Hacienda Moon
was picked up after a bidding war by several publishers. Her story was projected by top reviewers to be a literary sensation. Surrounded by her friends: Norma, Marsha, Frieda, and a few other townsfolk, she felt as if she might explode with happiness. The party wasn’t just to celebrate her book launch, but it also marked a change in Chelby Rose’s ownership.

In the kitchen that now sported a sleek new stainless steel sink and faucet set, Tandie and Frieda prepared deviled eggs and mini hot dogs, poured Chianti, and hid a couple of bottles of Duplin’s sweet muscadine wine.

“Girlfriend, now I know you didn’t pick this menu,” Frieda said, waving a bottle of Duplin in the air. “Eric picked this out, right? Speaking of devilish, where is that stud of a man?”

“Frieda,” Tandie scolded, her cheeks heating.

“Why are you blushing? It’s true,” she said. But her expression changed along with the vibe in the room. “Tandie, I did not know Shania was crazy as a lard cake. You have to believe me. I didn’t even know that Ella was her daughter.” Her eyes pleaded for understanding.

Moving over to her friend, Tandie embraced her and whispered in her ear. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”

Pulling back, Frieda still didn’t look convinced. “We’ve worked in the same office almost every day for the past five years. How could I not know? You could’ve been tortured or killed.”

Tandie placed two fingers on her friend’s lips and said, “But I wasn’t. Come on, people are waiting on their wine. And you don’t want an alcohol deprived Marsha on our hands, trust me.”

The two women laughed, gathered the entrees, and shuffled back into the living room. Tandie refused to let any part of the past cripple her future.

Eric still hadn’t arrived by the time most of the guests left. Since his contract with Saul was done, he took some time to go home and see his brother. Javier’s cancer was in full remission. And when Eric had called with the news, he laughed and cried on the phone.

The next morning brought a bright October sun along with some unusually warm fall temperatures.
Stepping out on the porch, Tandie glanced toward the cemetery where Alice and Eliza’s bones now lay along with the rest of their family.
The blue curiosa roses she’d ordered from the florist gleamed under the light.
She walked off the porch and headed down the path to the left side of the house. Saul had ordered a complete cleanup of the cemetery in the woods beside the house. The vault that contained Rose and Thomas’s bodies was no longer covered in vines. And the angels sitting atop the younger children’s graves stood upright, guarding the tombs below them.

Bending down at Alice’s grave, the only one with a polished marble headstone, Tandie placed three roses atop her plot and one each on Eliza and her brothers’ graves. She closed her eyes and pictured the faces of her own missing loved ones: her mother, Grandma Zee, her beautiful Breena. And for the first time in two years, there was no sorrow wrenching in her chest. Instead, there was a surge of life and longing for new days ahead.

Bushes shuffled. She turned around and found Eric standing behind her, smiling.

“Continue with whatever it is you’re thinking. It looks stunning on you,” Eric said.

Tandie threw her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately beneath the sunlight. They pulled back, staring at each other in silence for a short moment. Tandie didn’t need to hear what he was thinking because she felt the same way too. It had been over a week since they’d last seen each other, and there was a matter of making up for lost time to discuss.

“Why do you think Ella went against her mother?” Eric asked as they strolled back toward the house.

Tandie leaned her head against Eric’s shoulder, recalling the way Ella and Eliza’s spirits held hands that night a month ago. “Even though Mary Jean sold her daughter’s soul to the darkness, it didn’t kill the light inside the girl’s heart. Life is funny that way, sometimes,” Tandie said.

“True. Funny and cruel,” Eric said, his muscles tensing a bit. He was thinking of Virgil again. 

“Norma said there are others waiting to be rescued from curses by witches like the Cropseys,” Tandie said, turning to face Eric.

“So what you’re saying is you want to hunt souls?” he asked.

“I think so,” Tandie answered.

“Well, if that’s what you want.”

“It is.”

“Do I need to make you a sign that says Tandie Harrison, extreme ghost hunter?” He asked, barely containing his grin.

“Maybe, but you can leave the extreme tidbit off. That’s more of a Van Helsing kind of thing, I think.”

“We’ll find them all and set them free.”

Tandie sighed. “That could take years.”

“Not a problem for me,” Eric said. “As long as you wear those painting shorts while we’re fighting the damned.”

“All right, Fontalvo. You’re on.” Tandie didn’t wait for him to kiss her. Reaching behind his neck, she moved his head down to her lips, kissing him the way he did the night they first made love.

Tandie’s life was no longer drifting along a dark and dangerous highway. She was no longer afraid of the world hidden by the rainstorms in her life. Instead, the path she chose steered her life straight ahead, giving her no reason to ever look back.

Dear Diary,

I found him, the man from my dream.
My waiting is over.

Eric and I will sit outside on the porch tonight, enjoying the serene glow of the moonlight, feeling comforted by the way it cradles Chelby Rose, Alice and Enrique’s Hacienda Moon.

THE END