After the morning we spent together, Aiden is having trouble keeping his hands off of me.

I get it. I’m feeling the same way about him.

I was aching to get back into his arms my entire shift at the flower shop. Showed up to get him from City Hall a full hour before he was done with work, hoping that he might get out early. My heart skipped like a rock across a river when he stepped out through the main doors, his blue eyes searching for me, the top button of his dress shirt undone.

He smiled with his entire face when he saw me waiting for him on the hood of my car.

Even the short drive back to my place felt too long. All I wanted to do was curl up in Aiden’s warm embrace, hear his huffing laugh, put my head on his shoulder.

I’ve been doing exactly that, ever since we got back to my place.

I keep starting to worry that I’m suffocating Aiden, not giving him room to breathe, needing him too much. But whenever I get up to move away, give him some space - he makes a pouty face at me and pulls me right back down.

The magnetism between us is particularly powerful today, humming nonstop in my heart.

I think that Kasey and Will would have noticed by now, but Kasey is bent over the note we found at the collapsed farmhouse. The code she’s been trying to crack. And she sat herself down on Will’s lap to do it, so he’s not noticing anything.

He’s got one hand behind him on the floor, keeping himself upright. His cheek is resting against Kasey’s back, and based on his expression, he’d be happy to stay this way for the rest of time.

Kasey, on the other hand, is starting to get mad.

Her lips are twisted to the side in a scowl, and her black eyes are turning fiery.

“Goddamn,” she mutters, her voice filled with frustration. And then, much louder - “Fucking why, why can’t I figure this shit out? Will? Any suggestions?”

Will blinks hard when he hears his name, as if he’s waking up from a dream. “Oh - sorry, what?”

“Oh, my god,” Kasey groans, rubbing her temples. “Aiden, what about you? You want to take a crack at this?”

“No, thank you.”

“Come on, Bicep Boy, Mr. Protein Shake, prove that you’re not all brawn! Jamie says that you’ve got some brains, too, so. Let’s see it.”

Aiden keeps his eyes fixed on the wall above Kasey’s head. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

She arches a suspicious eyebrow. “You already tried, didn’t you? You couldn’t do it, either.”

Aiden bites the inside of his cheek, and Kasey sighs deeply.

“That’s what I thought.”

“It’s hard, okay?” he protests. “Where are you even supposed to start? It’s basically a wall of letters, there are no markings, nothing underlined-”

“Yeah, I know, Aiden! Why do you think I’m having so much trouble with-?”

Kasey breaks off in surprise as Will wraps his arms around her. It looks like he’s just going to give her a tight hug, but then both ghosts vanish from the floor.

They reappear a split second later, standing up in front of the couch, Will holding Kasey by her waist.

Before she can say a word, he gently pushes her down onto the cushions. Then he leans over her, one strand of shiny blonde hair falling over his forehead.

Kasey sits back, her dark eyes blinking rapidly as Will takes her chin in his hand. Her fingers automatically curl around his muscled forearm, and he locks his gaze with hers.

“You,” he murmurs, in his soft southern lilt, “Are in dire need of a break, beautiful shade of mine. You’re working too hard. Give that brilliant mind a moment of rest.”

He brushes a kiss onto her lips, lingers for a moment with his mouth against hers, and then draws away.

Kasey is motionless for a second, staring up at him. Then she turns her head and catches my eye, her lips pressed into a thin line that does nothing to conceal her smile.

I rarely see Kasey snapped out of her frustration so quickly and effectively. I almost start laughing at the wide-eyed, speechless expression on her face, but narrowly manage not to.

Before she can get herself together enough to say anything, Will drops down onto the couch by her side. He scoops Kasey up, gathers her into his lap again. Then he locks his burly arms around her, holding her where she is.

“You know I could just disappear, right?” She traces a thumb over the little scar on his jaw. “Reappear right by the paper, get back to work?”

“I recognize that, Miss Lavoe,” Will says, playfully nuzzling his nose into hers. “I’m trying to make it so that you won’t want to.”

Kasey opens her mouth to argue with him, changes her mind, and smiles again, plucking at his suspenders.

“Should’ve known you were gonna be a problem the minute I laid eyes on you,” she giggles.

“Aw,” Aiden says, grinning widely.

Kasey looks over at him, nibbling her lip. “Sorry, Aiden. I didn’t mean to get so snippy with you.”

“S’fine.” He flaps an unworried hand at her. “Mr. Protein Shake forgives all.”

“Stop it,” Kasey groans-laughs, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“Will is right, Kase-face,” I jump in. “You’ve been staring at the code like, nonstop. You need a break.”

“Plus, Jamie and I are going back to Port Sitka tomorrow,” Aiden adds. “Maybe we’ll find some new information, something that could help.”

Kasey tips her head to the side, confused. “I thought you were gonna go see Floyd?”

“We were, but he’s busy. He’s got a shipment coming in tomorrow. He needed to do a stock reorder for the bookstore. For probably the first time ever.”

Kasey nods, then lapses into silent thought. Her eyes dart back to the paper with the code.

Will’s leaf-green eyes follow hers there. He thinks for a moment, then gathers Kasey closer up against him, looking up at her earnestly.

“Would you care to accompany me on a walk, Miss Lavoe?” He smooths a translucent, calloused hand up her back. “I hear that Benton Street is quite beautiful, this time of night.”

Kasey laughs, breaks her gaze away from the problem she hasn’t been able to solve, and looks down at Will. Again, that warm, affectionate smile rises on her face.

She lets out a long breath, then plants a kiss on Will’s nose.

“Yeah, you know what? Yes. Let’s do that.”

Will matches her smile. Kasey starts to get up, but he holds her where she is.

He turns his head, gives us a nod.

“Evening, gentlemen,” he says, and vanishes, taking Kasey with him.

I have just enough time to hear her let out a bright, happy little laugh before she’s gone.

~~~~

Aiden parks my car next to the curb, pulls the keys out of the ignition, and looks over at me.

“Alright, we’re here. You ready to-?”

He stops, biting back a smile. I swallow the big mouthful of cinnamon swirl bread I’d been chewing on, looking back at him with questioning eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Aiden huffs out a deep, rumbling laugh. “You had some chipmunk cheeks, for a second. And you’ve got, like - a lot of sugar on your mouth.”

I run my hand over my lips, then look over at Aiden again. “Better now?”

“No. You missed some.”

“Where?”

Aiden leans across the console, takes my face in his hands, and treats me to a long, deep, cinnamon sugar-flavored kiss. After an extended, breathless moment, he eases us out of it, then starts nibbling and licking my lips, slowly and methodically working every grain of sugar from my mouth.

He seals it with another kiss, this one soft and quick.

He sits back, surveys my face, and smiles. “There we go. All gone, now.”

I stare at Aiden, my cheeks on fire, then realize that I dropped the pastry bag from Mugshot, spilling sugar out onto my jeans and all over the floor of my car.

“God!” I sputter, bending down to grab the bag. “Aiden!”

“What’d I do?” he asks, all innocent, then laughs when I throw him a look from across the car. “Alright, alright. C’mon, we gotta work, so - where we going, man? Got anything in particular you want to hit first, or-?”

Aiden breaks off when I open the glove compartment, then lifts his eyebrows as I extract my inhaler. “What - really?”

“Yes,” I gasp, giving the canister a shake. “Really.”

I puff on it a few times, get my breath back. Realize that Aiden has placed a concerned hand on my knee.

He waits until he sees that I’m okay, then gives my leg a squeeze.

“Seriously, Keane? Just - because I did that? I’m sorry!”

“Yes, just because you did that, but no, definitely don’t be sorry.” Finally breathing again, I let out a helpless laugh. “I don’t think you know what you do to me, Callahan.”

He opens his mouth to say something, closes it again, and turns away, smiling.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Maybe bring the inhaler with you?”

“I will, but really, babe, I’m alright. Can’t you hear it?”

Aiden listens for a moment, his head tipped to the side. “You… sound happy, actually.”

“I am.” I hold up the inhaler and point at it. “This, when it’s caused by you, it - it definitely doesn’t mean that I’m unhappy.”

For a moment, Aiden just looks at me, something unreadable moving behind his blue eyes.

Then he adjusts his snapback, flashes a small, relieved smile at me, and pops open the car door.

I get out, too, and the cinnamon sugar all over my jeans showers down onto the pavement. I do the best that I can to brush it off of me, and out from the floor of my car.

“Okay,” Aiden says, his eyes traveling over Port Sitka. “You ready to go solve an ages-old murder, explore some potentially terrifying places, commit a break-in, and possibly take on unforeseen, unknown enemies?”

“Yeah, just hold up for one sec. I got sugar in my shoes.”

Aiden lets out a startled laugh, then groans loudly. He drops his arms onto the car, his head onto his arms.

“I think we might be unqualified for this,” he tells me.

I stride around the car, give Aiden a hug from behind. Press a little kiss between his shoulder blades.

Then I drop to sit on the curb, and start unlacing my Converse. “Good thing that’s never stopped us before, right?”

Aiden huffs out a soft laugh through his nose. “Right.”

Before we leave my car, I grab my inhaler and slip it into my pocket, as instructed.

When Aiden takes my hand so we can get going, when he smiles down at me with those sweet, affectionate blue eyes…

It does seem possible that I might need it again.

~~~~

Aiden and I don’t plan to break into the shuttered convenience store until it gets dark out. But we got to Port Sitka a little early, because we want to do some exploring.

We’re trying to solve the mystery of something that took place here, and it can’t hurt to know more about the town itself.

Ketterbridge has its beaches, but Port Sitka is a true coastal town. Walking down the main street of its downtown area, you can hear the rushing of the waves, the cries of seabirds.

Aiden and I follow that sound down to the water. A wooden walkway stretches between the beach and the town, its boards covered with a light dusting of sand. We stop there and lean our elbows on the railing, breathing the salty air, taking in the view.

Before us, the ocean dances in the choppy wind. An endless, whitecapped, sparkling span of deep blue. Waves crash against the coast, sending up glittering bursts of spray. I close my eyes for a second, so I can listen to the rushing, powerful sound of it. Feel the cold ocean breeze ruffling my hair. Taste the salt.

The wide bay that shelters the town is lined with huge black boulders in their natural formations. Some smoothed by the sea, others rough and jagged. Most of them bear a dusting of snow. Tall, golden-brown beach grass grows around them, spreading all the way down onto the dunes. Winter birds flit from stalk to stalk.

It’s all very beautiful, but my eyes go right to the trees.

The towering conifers rise up from the foggy coastline like giants. Ancient beings of near-mythic proportions. Some of them must be over a hundred feet tall. They have remarkably straight trunks, from which swell burls easily big enough to hold both me and my Companion Plant. Some of those burls are bigger than my car.

Millions of bluish-green needles with white-streaked undersides make up the conical bodies of the massive trees. An ocean of windswept, rippling movement. An intensity of growth so heavy that the lowest branches sweep the ground.

Even in the winter, the evergreens thrive, and the rocky headlands are overflowing with growth. The trees are pulling in the fog, breathing in its moisture.

Behind them, the afternoon sky is a soft shade of pale gold.

I turn to look at Aiden, to see if he’s as floored as I am by the sight. I find him looking out at the ocean, a worried pinch between his eyebrows.

His anxious blue eyes are scanning the rough, turbulent waves, like he’s checking for anyone who might have been reckless enough to go for a swim or take out a boat. He’s so focused that he doesn’t even notice me looking at him.

My heart swells up with love, watching him. This town isn’t even under his protection, but my Guardian can’t help himself.

I thread my fingers through his, and he blinks, looks down at me.

“Hey,” I say softly. “D’you know what those are?”

Aiden’s eyes follow my pointing finger to the headlands surrounding the bay, enfolding the town. The forest there is thick with hemlocks, redcedars, and lodgepoles, but he can tell right away that I’m talking about the giants. The ones rising high above all the rest, the ones with the blue-green needles.

“No,” he says. “What are they?”

“They’re Sitka spruces.”

Aiden looks down at me, then back up at the trees. This time his eyes linger longer, absorbing the sight, recognizing the scale.

“God,” he breathes, his gaze roving over them. “They’re beautiful. Is that old-growth?”

“Hard to tell from here,” I answer, squinting at them. “The oldest ones don’t have needles on the lower parts of their trunks, but I can’t really see through the fog, so. I could tell how old they are by the bark, too, but again. Not from here.”

“Of course you could.” Aiden huffs out a quiet laugh, without breaking his gaze away from the Sitkas. “How old could they be, though?”

“If it’s old-growth?” I shrug my shoulders, considering. “Up to about… eight hundred years old?”

“Wh-?” Aiden’s eyes snap back to me. “Really? Holy shit.”

“I know.”

“That’s - pretty fucking amazing,” he murmurs.

Smiling to myself, I turn my eyes back to the trees.

We stand there for a long time, just looking, the sounds of the ocean spilling up the beach towards us. Aiden curls his arms around me, puts his chin on the top of my head.

He looks calm and peaceful by the time I turn around, as if his blue eyes absorbed all the light from the pale afternoon sky. I tuck a windblown strand of chestnut hair out of his face, brush a kiss onto his lips.

We look at each other, and as one, turn to face the town.

Unlike Ketterbridge, Port Sitka is a tourist destination. But few tourists make mid-winter trips to beach towns that get heaps of snow. Only locals sit at the restaurants and step out from the stores.

It’s quiet, no one in a rush. The soft light tumbles down on the shops and businesses that line the street leading to the beach, and people stop to say hello to each other.

It looks tranquil, serene.

But we know that this place has its secrets, and we’re here to uncover them.