“Good evening, Bill. How are you today?”
He nodded and didn’t bother to answer the greeting. “Sarah, meet Reg Rawlins. She has just arrived in town and is looking for accommodations.”
“Oh!” Sarah’s face lit up. “Well, my dear, isn’t that wonderful! I just happen to have a cottage that I am trying to rent out! Would you join me for dinner?” She motioned to the tables in the dining area. “I’m afraid I can’t manage bar stools these days.”
“Sure,” Reg agreed, sliding down from hers and taking her drink with her. “That would be nice.”
She didn’t bother saying goodbye to Uriel, irritated with his distant, disinterested manner. Sarah led her to a table which was probably her regular, as there didn’t seem to be any problem with her seating herself instead of waiting to be seated. She smiled and chatted with some of the other patrons as she made her way to her seat.
“Sit down, sit down,” she encouraged Reg, as if Reg had somehow been holding her back. “Reg? Is that short for something? Where did you come from?”
“Regina. I’ve lived all over.”
“Well, that’s a pretty name. Did you pick it, or was it already yours?”
Reg laughed at the question. “I was saddled with Regina, but I picked Reg.”
“Very nice. I like it. And what do you do?” She made a little gesture to indicate Reg’s costume. “You read palms? Tarot?”
“A little of everything. Mostly, I talk to the dead.”
“Oh.” Sarah nodded wisely. “That’s a good gig. Have you been doing it for long?”
Reg studied the woman, not sure how honest to be. She wasn’t sure whether she should be open about being a medium or a con. Both paths seemed equally treacherous.
“I’ve always had… certain tendencies… gifts, if you like…” she said obliquely. “I’m just testing the waters now… seeing whether this is something I should pursue…”
Sarah nodded. A waitress came over and handed them menus, introducing herself and showing off a couple of rather long canine teeth when she smiled. Sarah took no note, and barely gave the menu a glance. She’d obviously been there enough times to know what she wanted.
“What’s good?” Reg asked, glancing over the offerings.
“The seafood is fresh. Other than that… burger and fries… I wouldn’t try anything too adventurous.”
“Good to know.”
After placing her order, Reg leaned back in her seat, looking Sarah over.
“How about you? Did you retire to Florida, or have you always lived here?”
“I’ve lived lots of places, dear. Florida is good for my old bones. As for retiring… maybe someday, but not yet.”
“What is it you do?”
Sarah raised her brows, as if surprised that Reg didn’t know. Was she supposed to have guessed? Did Sarah think that Bill had told her?
“Well, I’m a witch,” Sarah said, as if it should have been obvious.
“Oh.” Reg sat like a lump, with no idea what to say or how to respond. Sarah had turned the tables on her. Reg was used to provoking a reaction from other people. She liked to dress up and to say extravagant things to see how people reacted to her different personas. This time she was in the hot seat. “Oh. I guess I should have guessed.” Reg threw her hands up in what was both a shrug and indicating their surroundings. “After all, we are in the Magic Cauldron.”
Sarah blinked. “The Crystal Bowl.”
“Whatever. This is a witch hangout, right? So of course that’s what you are.”
“I thought you knew. You didn’t just wander in here of your own accord, did you?”
“There was an old bum down the boardwalk… he called me a witch, and he pointed me this way. So, yes… I knew… It’s all just a bit much.” Reg looked around the restaurant. “I mean, everyone here can’t be a witch.”
“Of course not,” Sarah agreed. “We have people of all different spiritual and paranormal persuasions. Witches, warlocks, wizards, mediums,” she gave Reg a nod, “fortune-tellers, healers… people who are gifted and people who are seekers.”
“Okay, then.” Reg looked around at the patrons and shook her head, having a hard time believing that they were all running the same con. “And there isn’t too much competition for the same… customers?”
“Some people think Black Sands has gotten too commercial, and some people complain it has gotten too crowded. But for the most part… people are willing to live and let live. We are peaceful people.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sarah launched into a lyrical description of the town and its more interesting citizens. Reg tried not to sit with her mouth open as she listened. The waitress eventually came over with their meals. Reg hadn’t realized how hungry she was getting, but when the platter was placed in front of her, she suddenly realized she was famished.
“This looks lovely,” she told the waitress, not expecting to be getting a beautifully plated fish at the offbeat witches’ diner. She dug in immediately, taking several delicious bites before looking at Sarah to ask her if she was enjoying her food.
Sarah’s eyes were closed and her hands hovered over her plate as if she were warming them in the steam rising from the food. Reg turned to look at the waitress, but she was already gone. Reg looked uncomfortably at Sarah, wondering if she should follow suit.
Sarah’s eyes opened, catching Reg staring at her.
“Uh…” Reg fumbled. “Amen?”
Sarah nodded slightly. Then she started to eat.
“It really is good,” Reg said. “Really nice.”
“I wouldn’t eat here all the time if it wasn’t,” Sarah agreed. She patted her stomach. “I wouldn’t have to worry so much about my waistline if I was cooking for myself!”
She was plump, but in a grandmotherly sort of way. Reg couldn’t imagine her skinny; it just wouldn’t have fit. Adele, Erin’s witch friend back in Tennessee was tall and slender, and that worked for her, but it just wouldn’t work for Sarah.
“So why don’t you tell me about this cottage of yours?” she asked. “Bill seemed to think that we’d be able to come to terms.”
“He’s very empathic,” Sarah said. “He reads people.”
“Ah. Of course.” It made sense for a bartender. Reg had known her share of good and bad barkeeps.
“It’s just a little two-bedroom,” Sarah said, answering Reg’s question. “But it’s just you…?”
“Yes. No dependents.”
“So you could use one room as your bedroom and the other as an office, and still have space for entertaining in the living room.”
“Right,” Reg agreed. She hadn’t thought about seeing clients in her home. She wasn’t sure she wanted anyone to know where she lived. If they didn’t like what she had to say, they wouldn’t know where she lived to confront her. She had thought she would go to them, do readings in their own spaces. She could read a client a lot better if surrounded by their own things. People gave a lot away by the way they lived.
“It’s separate from the main house, so we wouldn’t be on top of each other. We can each keep our own hours. That can be a problem with night people and day people mixing. The kitchen is small, really just a prep area. You could come use the big kitchen if you needed to do any major baking or entertaining. I really don’t use it that much.”
“I don’t expect I would either. I don’t do a lot of my own cooking.”
“You see? You’d be perfect. You wouldn’t be complaining to me that there’s no oven. It really does have everything you really need.”
“Well, maybe we could go see it after dinner, and talk business.”
“You’re going to like it just fine. I can tell.”
As Reg wasn’t that picky, Sarah was probably right. If Reg didn’t like it after a month or two, she’d have a good idea by that point of where to look for somewhere better. It wasn’t a long-term commitment.
Which was good, because Reg Rawlins didn’t like long commitments.
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What the Cat Knew, book #1 in the Reg Rawlins Psychic Detective series, is available now.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For as long as P.D. Workman can remember, the blank page has held an incredible allure. After a number of false starts, she finally wrote her first complete novel at the age of twelve. It was full of fantastic ideas. It was the spring board for many stories over the next few years. Then, forty-some novels later, P.D. Workman finally decided to start publishing. Lots more are on the way!
P.D. Workman is a devout wife and a mother of one, born and raised in Alberta, Canada. She is a homeschooler and an Executive Assistant. She has a passion for art and nature, creative cooking for special diets, and running. She loves to read, to listen to audio books, and to share books out loud with her family. She is a technology geek with a love for all kinds of gadgets and tools to make her writing and work easier and more fun. In person, she is far less well-spoken than on the written page and tends to be shy and reserved with all but those closest to her.
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Please visit P.D. Workman at pdworkman.com to see what else she is working on, to join her mailing list, and to link to her social networks.
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Vegan Baked Alaska (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 9) Page 23
