Description: You get two tickets for a ghost hunt at the Padre Hotel in Bakersfield and try to convince Happy to go with you.

"Hap, please?" I asked. He glared at me and I pouted my bottom a little for effect.

"No," he said.

"Why don't you want to go ghost hunting with me?"

"Ghosts aren't real," he said.

I returned his glare but broke into a smile too quickly. "Babe, I grew up in a haunted house. Please go on this ghost hunt with me."

"No."

"Are you scared?"

"No."

"I think you are Happy. I think the great Happy Lowman is scared of ghosts."

"Absolutely the fuck not. I just don't fuck with that shit," he said.

"Babe, c'mon. This isn't like Ouija boards or summoning demons. This is just talking to what's already present."

"Where is it?"

"The Padre Hotel," I said.

"That old ass place in Bakersfield where they just did renovations?" He asked.

I nodded and smiled a bit. "Please."

He sat down on the edge of our bed and collapsed dramatically backwards. His feet were hanging off the edge of the bed still as he'd already put his boots on for work.

"No."

"C'mon."

"I'll drop you off and pick you up."

"But I have two tickets."

"Take someone else."

"I just think you're scared."

"Stop saying that."

I leaned over and kissed his lips softly. "I love you."

He nodded and stood back up. He kissed me one more time before leaving for work.

I stood up and headed to work myself. When we both got home that night, Happy was much more on edge than this morning.

"Babe," I said softly as I worked on dinner. I handed him a beer and he tools it nodding in thanks. "What's going on?"

"I told the guys at work that you want to go ghost hunting and they all started giving me hell."

"You know you don't have to go with me. I just thought it would be fun," I said. "I'll ask my sister or something."

"I'll go."

"Really?"

"Yes," he said.

"Why the change of heart?"

He just shook his head.

"Thank you."

He nodded. I leaned over and kissed him.

"I love you Hap," I said. He leaned his forehead on mine and I smiled a bit.

I went back to dinner and a few seconds later said, "so did they call you a pussy?"

He glared at me.

"They did huh."

He nodded. "Not them. Tig."

I laughed a bit at that. Sounds like Tig.

"Why don't you want to do it?" I asked.

"My aunt's house was haunted. When I had to stay there while Ma was at work, stuff would move around when your back was turned. Or sometimes doors would just blow open. She always told me it was a ghost. Well as I got older and more logical I quit believing it was a ghost and started to figure out it was the wind or misplacing things. Well, at 15 I saw the ghost in her bedroom. Scared the shit out of me."

"I bet. It's scary to see a ghost. I get it."

"Fucked me up."

"What was it?"

"My grandpa."

"What?"

He nodded.

"I'm sorry babe." I went over to him and hugged him tightly. "You really don't have to go."

"I do now."

I nodded. I knew he wanted to now that Tig had called him a pussy.

"I love you Hap."

"I love you too."