by Lucy May
It was then I realized she hadn’t even ordered anything. How did she know where to find me? I shook it off, assuming she must have known where Gabriel was. It was a little eerie to feel as if I was being constantly watched and monitored.
“I’m really sorry about that,” Gabriel said.
“It’s fine,” I mumbled, still trying to recover from the Coral whirlwind.
“She can be a bit of a spitfire,” he joked.
“Ya, she sure can. If you’re busy, please don’t feel obligated,” I said, secretly hoping he would back out.
“I would like to take you out, that is if you still want to.”
I thought about it for a second and threw caution to the wind. “Sure, I’d like that.”
He grinned. “Can I pick you up at six?”
“Yes, I would like that very much.”
“Perfect, I’ll be there.”
I took a sip of coffee. “Gabriel, uh, I didn’t bring anything fancy to wear.”
“Good, because I don’t do fancy. I prefer casual and comfortable,” he replied nonchalantly.
We each drank our coffee in silence for a few more minutes. I was still mortified by Coral’s actions. I couldn’t believe she foisted me on her nephew. I was going to have to talk to my mom about her friends trying to set me up. It was not okay.
“I should go. I need to track down the sheriff,” I said, standing to leave.
“Yep, me too. I’ll see you tonight.”
I smiled at him and left the shop. To think I had been bored earlier in the day. This had quickly turned into one of the strangest days of my life and the day was only half over. I couldn’t imagine what the evening held. I shook off the feeling of foreboding and headed to the sheriff’s office, hoping to catch him. The sooner I got this whole mess sorted out, the sooner I could go home and forget all about witches and magic spells.
Chapter 7
My hopes of resolving the situation with the sheriff were immediately dashed when I discovered he would be spending time in a neighboring town. As I drove back to my grandma’s house, I thought about everything my mother had said. It was too crazy to believe. The practical side of me wanted to dismiss it all, but there was another part of me that accepted it as the truth. I didn’t even know what to think about that. Every time the thought that it felt true passed through my mind, I swatted it away and reminded myself that was plain crazy.
I wasn’t prepared to spend another night in town and would need to pick up a few things. The small market with inflated prices was my only option. I pulled in, but before getting out of my car, I looked around. Lila and Coral always seemed to appear out of nowhere. I wasn’t prepared to see either of them. Not now. Not when I was still trying to make heads or tails of my mother’s revelations.
I grabbed a basket and began to browse the aisles, looking for staples to sustain me for another day.
“Oh, there you are, honey!”
I froze. It was uncanny how these women managed to find me so quickly. It made me even more suspicious of them all.
Slowly, I turned to face Lila. “What do you need?” I asked, almost afraid to ask.
“I’ve been worried about you.”
“Why?”
“You left in such a hurry. I just wanted you to understand that your mother wasn’t trying to hurt you or make you mad,” she explained.
“It’s fine, Lila.”
Turning back to face the numerous bags of chips before me, I was aware of someone coming down the aisle.
“Lila! What brings you here? I never see you in here,” a woman’s voice called out.
I turned to see who was talking. It was a familiar face, but I couldn’t remember her name. She was about the same age as Lila and my mom. I studied her close, wondering if she was one of the other women in the coven my mom referred to.
Hoping to slip away, I ignored them, hoping I could ease on out without Lila noticing. I didn’t get far.
“So I hear you have a date tonight with our handsome Gabriel?”
I stopped walking, took a deep breath and spun around to face her. The other woman was still there.
“Our Gabriel?” the woman repeated. “Coral’s nephew?”
Lila was grinning and nodding her head. “Yes, Coral set them up earlier this afternoon.”
Suddenly I wondered if maybe the town was bugged. The way information traveled at lightning speed was nothing short of a miracle.
“They are a perfect match,” the unidentified woman declared.
Staring at her, I decided she had to be one of them. She didn’t look like a witch, but did I really know what a witch looked like?
“Gotta run. I’d like to shower before my dinner date tonight,” I said, somewhat sarcastically.
Lila grinned. “How exciting! I hope you two have a great time, and I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
It was my fervent hope that she heard nothing about it. She didn’t need to know every detail of my life.
A thought occurred to me. “Lila, can I have a minute?” I asked.
She turned to the other woman, said her goodbyes and then came to stand close to me. “What is it, dear?”
“Is she one?”
“One?” she asked, a confused look on her face.
I lowered my voice to a whisper, “One of the coven.”
“No, no. It’s just me, Coral, Magnolia, and your mother. Our numbers have dwindled. When things got a little, uh, dicey, we were forced to go underground. It’s just our four families now,” she said, in a decidedly wistful tone.
Nodding, I wasn’t sure I believed her, but it made sense. Well, as much sense as any of this whole witch thing made.
“Okay. Well, I better get going,” I said, and quickly headed down the aisle.
Tossing in a few more things, I quickly paid and managed to escape before Lila could corner me again.
Driving straight to the house, I locked the front door and headed for the shower. I regretted not having any other clothes with me. Despite how Coral had all but cornered me into this dinner date, I wanted to look good. Gabriel was handsome and charming, even tempting if I let myself admit it. I pulled the few items I had brought with me out of my small overnight bag. Slim pickings.
The doorbell rang, giving me a small heart attack. It couldn’t be Gabriel. I still had a couple of hours before my date. I pulled on the shorts I had brought to sleep in and threw on my t-shirt.
The doorbell rang again. “Hold on!” I called out.
Yanking open the door, I found my mother standing there with two more bags.
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the bags.
She smiled and breezed past me. “I brought you some clothes for your date tonight.”
“What?” I said, shutting the door.
“You can’t go out with a young man wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I know I taught you better than that,” she lectured.
I raised my eyebrows, “Mom, I don’t think we really have the same style,” I said, horrified at the thought of wearing some of her flamboyant clothes.
She waved away my protest. “I brought conservative choices. You could use some spicing up.”
I rolled my eyes, frustrated. “I don’t need spicing up. I happen to like the way I dress. I don’t need to impress anyone, anyway. I go to work and home,” I said, feeling irritated I had to defend my wardrobe.
She shrugged. “And now it’s time for you to spice things up. Dress up. Embrace your gorgeous figure. Gabriel is a very handsome man. Don’t you want to look good for him?”
“This isn’t the twentieth century anymore, Mom.”
Even if I’d just been thinking I didn’t want to look like a slob, I wasn’t about to admit that to her.
“It doesn’t hurt to put in a little effort, dear. Here, what do you think of this?” she held up a black skirt with pretty silver threads running through it.
Actually, I liked it. It wasn’t too eccentric, and was something I could work with. “Fine.�
�
“Now, I brought a couple of different options for the top. The weather is warm so I thought this sparkly tank top would bring out the shimmer in the skirt,” she said, holding up the shirt in question.
I shook my head. “Nope, I don’t do sparkly.”
She groaned and pulled out a plain black top that had sheer, flowing sleeves. “This?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll look like I’m dressed for a funeral. Or like a witch,” I added, just to get under her skin.
“Stop it. Witches don’t wear all black. That’s an old wives’ tale.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a lavender tank with a flowing waistline.
“That one I like,” I said, taking in the subdued color.
“So plain,” she commented. “I have some black sandals here that I know will match perfectly,” she held up the shoes.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome. Now, go get dressed.”
I grabbed the items and raced upstairs to change. I twirled around, checking out my reflection in the full-length mirror. It wasn’t too bad at all.
“What do you think?” I asked, coming downstairs.
“You look beautiful. Now, I’m going to get out of here. I don’t want you two to feel awkward. I’m sure Coral already did a fine job of that.”
“Yes, she did. Thank you again for the clothes. I’ll call you tomorrow before I leave.”
“Leave?”
“Mom, I have to get back to work. I was only planning on being here for a day.”
“We’ll see. We need you, Violet, but we’ll worry about that later. Have fun,” she said, walking out the door.
Her words were a little strange. We’ll see what? I wondered, but I didn’t have time to ponder what she meant for long. Gabriel showed up fifteen minutes early.
“Hi,” I greeted him.
He was wearing a pair of jeans, a jacket and tie. I was so glad my mom had showed up with the clothes. I would have been sorely underdressed.
“You’re early,” I greeted him.
He shrugged a shoulder, giving me an aw shucks look. “I don’t like to be late.”
“Well, I’m hungry, so it works for me.”
We drove the twenty minutes to the next town and sat down at an Italian restaurant.
“I think I need to be up front with you,” he started, instantly putting me on alert.
“About?”
“My aunt.”
I pretended to be clueless. He could be apologizing for the set-up or any number of things. I didn’t want to show my hand and say too much.
“What about your aunt?”
He cleared his throat. “I assume you know she is a…” he paused and looked around the restaurant “…a witch,” he whispered.
“I recently heard that bit of information,” I acknowledged.
“She and my mom both believed themselves to be witches,” he explained. “I humor them. I’m not a witch or warlock or whatever the correct term is. It’s a family thing, my grandma claimed to be one and so on. They didn’t talk a lot about it. I guess me being a guy and all I wasn’t privy to their secrets. They were open about who they were in our family, but it was never to be talked about in mixed company, as my mom would say.”
“Thank you for telling me. Are there many other witches around here?” I asked, as if joking, but I was dead serious.
He grinned. “I don’t know. I figured we should get that all right out in the open. Aunt Coral is usually really careful, but in case there are rumors or something, I wanted you to hear it right from the horse’s mouth,” he said with a disarming smile.
“Are there a lot of rumors?” I asked, excited to find another source of information.
“I don’t know if you would say a lot. I’ve heard a little since I’ve been here, but nothing bad. Until the death at the factory, that is. That’s got the rumor mill working overtime.”
“Why?”
He studied me closely before taking a deep breath. “Your mom has been at the center of the rumors. A few people suspect she may know more than she says.”
“What! Why would they think that?”
“Maybe because the sheriff keeps questioning her?” he asked, appearing to be just as puzzled.
“My mom is a lot of things, but she’s definitely not a murderer,” I said firmly.
He held up his hands. “Wait, I’m not saying I believe the rumors. Not at all. I like your mom.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, just as the waiter came to the table. We ordered and then sat in silence for several long minutes.
“Gabriel, what are you doing tomorrow?”
He shrugged and appeared to be mulling over his schedule. “Nothing that I know of. Why?”
I leaned forward, not wanting to be overheard. “I want to go out to the factory and look around. I feel like the sheriff was trying to get me to say something or show him something, but I didn’t know what. I didn’t get the chance to ask because Lila showed up.”
He nodded his head. “You want to do your own investigating?”
“Yes. I have the keys so we can go in a different door and never touch the crime scene tape, so I don’t think it would necessarily be illegal. Besides, I own the place and I’ve never really been inside. I want to see if I can find out what those supernatural investigators were looking for.”
His gaze narrowed. “Isn’t that dangerous? I mean, the last guy that snooped around there is dead.”
“That’s why I want you along!”
“You want me to protect you, or you want to up your own odds of escape?”
We both laughed. “I was there with the sheriff. The only thing dangerous I saw was the amount of dust in the place.”
“Okay. I’m up for a little sleuthing around.”
“Great.”
Our food was delivered a short time later. We dug in and our conversation switched to more normal first-date topics about our work and what music we liked.
When he pulled up in front of my house, I paused before getting out of his truck.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“Please don’t tell your aunt about our plans tomorrow. I don’t want anyone else to know, especially my mom or Lila.”
“Got it. My lips are sealed. Good night.”
Chapter 8
There was no way I was going home today. Somehow I knew that as sure as I knew I wanted coffee. The moment I opened my eyes, I had a weird feeling about the day. It was strange. I chalked it up to all the talk about witches and the supernatural, and the fact that I was about to sneak into the factory, the site of an active crime scene.
“Hi,” I said, when Tara answered the phone.
“Hey. What’s wrong?” she asked.
I sighed. “Nothing. I can’t come home today. This whole thing is taking a lot longer than I thought. Are you sure everything is okay there?”
“Everything is fine. The shop is still standing, sales are still coming in. I got this, Violet,” she assured me.
“Thank you, Tara. I owe you a huge bonus for taking on all the extra responsibility.”
“I’m your assistant manager. This is what I’m supposed to do, you just never let me do it. It’s kind of fun being the boss,” she teased.
“Don’t get too comfortable in my chair.”
“What have you been doing down there?”
I hesitated, debating how much I wanted to tell her, but I knew she wouldn’t buy the nothing line. “I went out on a date last night,” I blurted out.
“Excuse me? You did what?” she squealed.
I giggled, feeling my cheeks heat even though I was alone. “I went out on a date with a very attractive, eligible man.”
“How was it?”
“Fun. He’s easy to talk to and isn’t scared off by my eccentric mother. He likes her. He’s really laid back. Oh, and did I mention he is very good looking?”
“Now I see why you don’t want to come back. Tell me everything!”
/> We talked for a while before she had to go. I missed her, but being here in my grandma’s house felt right somehow. I could feel a pull to protect my mother. It was hard to explain, but I assumed it was the mother-daughter bond.
I quickly showered and changed into one of the two outfits I’d brought with me. I was going to have to go shopping. Maybe Gabriel would want to hang out for the day, and we could go over to Ruby Red together.
What was I thinking? I was planning on spending the day with the man, doing things that were typically reserved for actual couples. I was jumping in with both feet and needed to take a step back. I was only here temporarily, I reminded myself. The last thing I needed was to get caught up in the idea of romance.
I heard the doorbell and ran downstairs.
“Hi!” I greeted Gabriel who had a look of apprehension. “What’s wrong?” I asked, hoping there wasn’t anything actually the matter.
“Nothing. I feel guilty. Why do I feel guilty? We haven’t even done anything, yet?”
I laughed. “I do actually own the factory. I can show you the deed if it will set your mind at ease.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s fine. I had to lie to Coral this morning. She asked me what I was doing. I told her I was going shopping in Ruby Red.”
“Actually, maybe you weren’t lying.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was going to ask if you had the day free if you wanted to go over there with me? I need to do some shopping. I only brought clothes for an overnight stay and really need to pick up a few things,” I explained.
I had to take a step back when he turned on that charming smile once again. The man was dangerous. “I would love that. Maybe you can buy me lunch since I’m breaking the law and everything for you.”
I laughed and grabbed my purse. “It isn’t breaking the law. Not really, I don’t think. Now, let’s go before you chicken out.”
He playfully glared at me before turning around and heading out the door. I didn’t want to admit I was on the verge of backing out myself. My stomach was a jumble of nerves, but I had to do this. Something felt off and I needed to figure out what it was. My intuition told me my mother and her friends were involved. I didn’t know to what extent, but they definitely knew more than what they were saying.
