Ghostly Interests by Lily Harper Hart

you were best friends,” Gloria said. “Don’t best friends talk about things like that?”
    “Harper doesn’t have a frame of reference and she freaks out at sex talk,” Zander explained. “I can’t explain it. I think she might be frigid.”
    “I am not frigid!”
    “Oh, chill out,” Gloria said, rolling her eyes. “I need a skirt.”
    “I don’t have a slutty skirt,” Harper said. “I already told you that.”
    “I think you’re making that up,” Gloria challenged.
    “Go and look in my closet,” Harper said, pinching the bridge of her nose to ward off the raging headache she was sure was only seconds away from descending. “Take whatever you want.”
    Gloria brightened. “Thank you.”
    She disappeared down the hallway and Harper waited until she was sure her mother was out of earshot before she turned on Zander. “You did that on purpose,” she hissed. “You know I don’t like it when you encourage the sex talk from her.”
    “Your mother is going through an … awakening,” Zander said. “I think you should support her instead of making faces every time she shows up for guidance and help.”
    “You know she calls you ‘the big poof’ when you’re not around, right?” Harper asked.
    “Fine. Set her on fire.”
    Harper scorched Zander with a look. “That’s not helping. I don’t want to deal with this. I’m too old to deal with this. I don’t want to hear about how much sex she’s having with Walter.”
    “Walter Shanks is a really crappy name,” Zander mused. “I wonder what he does for a living.”
    “He’s a lawyer,” Gloria said, breezing back into the room with a black skirt draped over her arm.
    Harper’s cheeks burned. Was her mother eavesdropping? Had she heard everything they’d said?
    “What did you find?” Zander asked, unruffled by the possibility of being caught talking badly about Gloria.
    Gloria held up the simple black skirt. “It’s the only thing she had that made me think I wouldn’t want to kill myself if I was forced to wear it.”
    “It’s not very sexy,” Zander said.
    “It will be when I get done putting a slit in it,” Gloria said, moving toward the front door. “I’ll bring it back when I’m done.”
    “Keep it,” Harper said, waving her mother off. “I’m not going to want it after you finish … whoring it up.”
    “Way to stay positive, Harper,” Gloria deadpanned. “Zander, have a good evening with your date … and I only call you a poof on special occasions.”
    “That’s good to know,” Zander said, dropping a kiss on Gloria’s cheek. “I’ll walk you out. I’m leaving anyway.”
    “Oh, that’s nice,” Gloria said.
    Zander shot one more look in Harper’s direction. “Try to do something fun while I’m gone. Going to bed early and reading a book doesn’t count.”
    “I’ll keep that in mind,” Harper said, her tone dry.
    Once the door was shut and the house was empty of everything but Harper’s busy mind, the intrepid blonde ghost hunter waited exactly five minutes before she flipped the magazine shut and got to her feet.
    She’d been lying when she told Zander she had nothing planned. She had something planned … it was just something he wasn’t going to like. After a few hours of searching on the Internet during the afternoon stretch, Harper found an address for Annie Dresden. Zander mentioned it before but she didn’t want to bring it up and tip him off regarding what she had planned. She was going to visit the woman’s house in search of a lost soul. She didn’t want to tell Zander because he was likely to cancel his date to watch her. She didn’t want that.
    Once Harper was sure Zander wasn’t returning, she grabbed her keys off the table by the front door and hopped out of the house. She thought briefly about changing from her comfortable pink sleep pants and tank top but decided better of it, instead grabbing a hoodie to cover her should she get cold.
    It’s not like she was going to see