Excerpt: QUITTING THE HERO BIZ, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 6

  

Legal action against the Ghost? The nerve of those lazy, self-righteous—

"Hey, did you hear?" Sylvia Daystrom squealed as she bombed through the propped open door into the spa.

Jane stopped in mid-crumple, her hands shaking.

"Yeah, I guess you did." Shaking her head, Sylvia made her way across the large main room to the nook where she had her manicure and pedicure station set up, open for business four days a week. "Can you believe the nerve of those morons?"

"Nothing about this town surprises me anymore." Jane managed a smile. Sylvia was one of the more commonsense people in Fendersburg. Knowing she was disgusted by the story on the bottom half of the page helped release some of the pressure that threatened to take off the top of her head.

The Old Poops need to see this.

The town was abuzz with the story. Jane's spa sat in the middle of the tiny business district. She kept her door open all day in the summer and the biggest gossips in town always sat on the benches in front of her store, so she heard everything. All day. Speculations and reminiscences and laughter and criticism. Every time someone agreed with her assessment of the irresponsible, immature twits in Fendersburg, someone else came along to dump everything back into the Ghost's lap. Jane watched the clock as the hour hand inched around, until she could finally close her shop.

She mentioned to half a dozen people, including one of the gossips out front, that she was tired, had a headache, and was going to take a sleeping pill and take her phone off the hook. That would ensure everyone in town knew by nightfall that no matter how many times they called or knocked, no one was going to get through to her. People who ignored posted store hours would just have to wait to get their detox cream or a new lipstick tomorrow.

Jane went to her apartment and made a sandwich. She needed the energy even if she wasn't hungry. While eating, she tucked the newspaper into her backpack, then phased into Ghost mode and went up through the roof. She took her last bite of sandwich while hovering in the air, looking down at Fendersburg and wishing it could be as quiet and friendly as Neighborlee. At eighty feet higher than the tallest building in town, she headed west and north for the Sanctum. 

Thank goodness for secret identities. None of those idiots can follow through on their threat to sue the Ghost, because they can't find me. Jane snorted and grinned into the setting sun. Not to mention they think I'm a guy.