“Is there any way to find out?” CJ asked Darien. “If the ghost busters are human, and the previous owners weren’t, they’re not related.”

“We’ll ask some of the old-timers to see if anyone knew for sure.”

“Agreed. And these men might be trouble. They were over here this morning, wanting to see the place before the other guests arrive tomorrow. Laurel said no, but they weren’t buying it. Not only that, but she told them they didn’t have permission to use their ghost-busting equipment to videotape or photograph the hotel.”

“Good. Then you’ve got grounds to charge them if they give you or the sisters trouble. Keep an eye on things then. Let me know if they get out of hand.”

“Will do.” CJ ended the call with Darien and shook his head at Laurel’s questioning glance. “Darien doesn’t know if they’re related to the ones who ran the hotel, or even if the earlier owners were wolves.”

“They have to be related. Maybe they think they can lay claim to the place.”

Laurel seemed so disheartened, CJ reached over and grasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. “They’d have to have proof they were related. We’d have to ensure that the former owners didn’t die of unnatural causes. And that they had willed the properties to these men.” Hell, he’d thought the problem was that the men might discover werewolves existed. Now this? Then again, the men didn’t smell like wolves, so if they saw someone shifting, the pack would still have trouble.

“Wait. On second thought, though I don’t know the situation entirely, if they disappeared and no one paid the taxes, Darien’s father, as pack leader, would have paid them to keep the property with the pack.”

“Okay.” Laurel took their plates into the kitchen, though she looked visibly upset and hadn’t finished eating her breakfast.

CJ wanted to ask about the similarity of the C on the hand-quilted comforter and the one on the wall, but he figured Laurel was probably more worried about the ghost busters now.

“Are you going to tell your sisters about the men and the former owners?” CJ asked.

“No. Not while they’re trying to take care of other business. When they get home tomorrow night, I will. I can show them the pictures and the documents, and we can discuss it.”

CJ and Laurel returned to the hotel, and he headed for the basement. She unlocked the door for him but didn’t go down this time. He hurried to retrieve one of the rollers and the paint tray and climbed back up the stairs.

Laurel was carrying a box of Christmas lights out to the sunroom. “I’m going to start hanging lights around the gazebo. I’ll see you out back when you’re done here.”

“Sure. Oh, one thing. Brett said he wanted to take pictures of the backyard once it’s decorated for Christmas. And he wanted to get a picture of the hotel with all the lights on in the front windows tonight.”

“Okay, super. Thanks so much to you and your brother for helping out. And…for all the promo. We’d like to invite you over to dinner some night.”

“We’d love it. I was thinking… Since this is your last night before you open, would you like to go for another wolf run? We could go to the tavern, have drinks to celebrate, and eat supper there.”

“A run would be nice.”

“But no on the tavern?” He could see her reluctance.

She shook her head.

He wondered if she felt it would be too intimate. Too much like a date.

“Supper tonight at my place?” He wasn’t giving up on the idea of eating with her. She was alone. He was alone. They had to eat. It couldn’t be more perfect with her sisters away for the night.

“How about if I fix supper at mine?” Laurel finally said.

“Okay, works for me. What can I bring?” He was thrilled she’d go for it. He hoped he didn’t sound overly eager.

“Wine? Dessert?”

He smiled a little.

“Chocolate,” she clarified.

“Sure. Sounds like a winner. I’ll join you outside in just a bit.” But it was still hours before supper and he had to come up with another plan to spend more quality time with her.

He went to work on painting the wall, again, and once he was satisfied that he’d covered the entire area, he washed the paint out of the roller in the basement. He didn’t sense anything spooky or see anything that made him feel the basement was haunted. Just that wall he’d been painting. He walked upstairs and into the room where the X had appeared on the ceiling, but there was no sign of it.

The painters would have had a ladder set up in one of the rooms. It would have been easy for someone to enter through the unlocked door and paint an X on the ceiling after everyone had gone.

CJ walked outside into the brisk morning breeze. The air was chilly, but the sun was shining today, and with the snow all over the backyard, it truly looked like Christmas.

Lauren looked just as festive in her sparkly white sweater, with her red hair curling about her shoulders and her jeans showing off her curves as she stretched up to hang white lights on the top edge of the gazebo.

“Here, let me help you. Unless you want me to do something else.”

“Sure, you can do this and I can hang the garland on the lower railings.” She climbed down off the ladder, and he changed places with her while she hung the garland. “Is the letter still on the wall?”

“Yeah, it is.”

She let out her breath in the frosty air.

“Hey, do you want to decorate that tree out here too?”

She considered the silver spruce. “Sure. I hadn’t thought of that. What do you think? Just lights or red bows and lights?”

“Why don’t we decorate it with lights, and if it looks like it needs something more, we can add red bows.”

“Okay.” She smiled up at him as though she really appreciated the suggestion. He was glad he’d made it.

He glanced up at the attic window. It was dark, but it reminded him of what Brett had said about the light being on in the room when he went to take pictures. “So did you…leave the attic room light on last night?”

Laurel stopped hanging the garland and looked up at him. “No, why?”

“Brett said it was on last night when he went to take a picture of the hotel all lit up in Christmas lights.”

“Maybe one of my sisters left it on by mistake.”

“And turned it off this morning?” CJ finished hanging the lights on the gazebo and went to work on the silver spruce.

“Right.” Laurel didn’t sound sure of herself. She finished the garland, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and called someone. “Hey, Ellie, did you leave a light on in the attic last night? Okay, if you didn’t, ask Meghan, will you? If she did, maybe she turned it off this morning before you both left. All right. Thanks. Everything’s fine here. I told the ghost hunters that they weren’t allowed to photograph anything inside the hotel. They were not happy.” She smiled.

“Yeah, they looked a little shocked.” She glanced in CJ’s direction. “The letter C? Even after the paint dried all night, the letter was still there this morning. CJ painted over it again just a few minutes ago. Yes, I told CJ the room was haunted. Thanks.” Laurel ended the call and pocketed her phone.

She moved over to help him with the lights. “No one turned on the attic-room light that they remember. Both know for sure they didn’t turn it off this morning before they left.”

“Burned-out bulb, probably,” CJ said.

“Right.”

“Would you like to go skiing with me sometime?” CJ unraveled more of the light string.

“I’ve never skied before.”

“Easily remedied. I’m one of the best ski instructors there is. I can give private lessons.”

She laughed. “I bet you can.”

“I can. Free of charge. I’ll pay for your lunch at the ski lodge and—”

“I have a hotel to run.”

“On your days off.”

“Okay, I’ll take you up on it.”

“Hot damn!”

She smiled.

“Oh, and by the way, Darien will look further into the ghost busters’ backgrounds. He’ll try to find out if they’re related to the previous owners.”