by Bella Falls
No telling who might be stopping by. As the town council member who held the high seat position, Nana was always in demand for someone’s attention. But at this early time of day, nine times out of ten it would be me or Matt. As soon as I saw the silhouette filling up the screen door, I celebrated that this was that one rare time and rushed to let the visitor in.
“Mason,” I exhaled with relief, barely waiting for him to step inside before throwing my arms around him and burying my head on his shoulder. “Oof huv nidee how mph aw nidded ew.”
His broad frame shook as he chuckled. “I didn’t understand a word you just said.”
Leaning my head back, I gazed up at him. “You have no idea how much I needed you. Especially this morning.”
In the months after returning from Charleston, we had both made great efforts to forge a new relationship. Although his full memory never came back, he didn’t let his frustrations stop him from courting me. In his words, he would rather enjoy the present than be pulled down by a past he couldn’t recall. And I took full advantage of his unwavering support while my powers returned bit by bit until life ironed itself out.
Mason’s strong hold banished the frustrations of my morning. He squeezed me back and kissed the top of my head. Standing on my tiptoes, I planted my lips against his and reveled in the warmth that grew from our more intimate embrace.
Nana cleared her throat. “Detective, I believe you take your coffee with a little cream?”
I snickered at her formality. She only called him by his warden position whenever she thought our PDA was a little too unseemly.
Mason’s muscles stiffened at being caught, and he finished our kiss with a slight peck and stepped back from me. “Yes, ma’am.”
“We’ll join you in a minute, Nana,” I insisted, willing her with wide eyes to give my boyfriend and me one more moment just between us.
My grandmother clicked her tongue. “Mm-hmm.”
Once she left us alone, I playfully pushed Mason. “I can’t believe you. I thought you were going to stand at attention and actually salute her.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know what happened. But for a second there, I felt like a naughty kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.” Closing the distance between us, Mason kissed the top of my head, the tip of my nose, and pressed his mouth against mine again.
The front screen door slammed shut. “Hey! Hands off my sister, mister!” Matt barked.
Mason ignored my brother’s edict, placing his hand on the back of my neck and pulling me closer. It revved my engines whenever the rule-abiding warden rebelled a little. Bonus points for it grossing out Matt to boot. Just to needle my brother even more, I groaned for good measure.
“Leave them alone. You and I did far worse when we were dating,” my sister-in-law teased through the screen while she still stood on the porch. “And how about you stop bothering them and come open the door so your wife, who is carrying your daughter, can come inside.”
The kiss ended in giggles, and I leaned far enough to see my brother shamed into helping his family. “Thanks for the solidarity, TJ,” I called out with a wave.
She shot my brother an exasperated glance as she entered and handed him my niece before giving Mason and me quick hugs. “Don’t let him give you too much heck. Now, I’m going to go stuff my face before heading into work. If y’all don’t get your behinds in there soon, I can’t promise I’m gonna leave you anything.”
Matt glowered at me as he followed his wife. “You better be right behind me, Birdy. And Detective, when you’re in my family home, rank doesn’t matter.” While his words sounded like a threat, the effort he made not to snort into laughter relaxed me.
I swatted my brother’s backside. “You better git!”
“Don’t do that,” he complained with a mock frown.
I stuck out my tongue once. “Make me,” I teased.
My niece squealed in delight at our playful banter and pointed a spit-covered finger at me.
“That’s right, sweetie. Your aunt is being a big ol’ brat.” Matt bounced his daughter up and down, encouraging her bubbles of adorable tittering.
“Nope. I’m teaching Junior how to be a strong woman who stands up for herself,” I countered.
Matt scoffed and held his daughter out for me to take. “Here. If you’re so big on teaching her, you take her. And while she’s in your arms, no PDA. I definitely don’t want her learning that until she’s like, what, thirty? Forty?” He skedaddled towards the kitchen with a snicker. “And her name is Rayline or Sunshine. Not Junior,” he shouted as he disappeared.
Mason reached up to stroke my niece’s plump little cheeks. “She is a cutie pie.”
I snuggled her into me, taking a long whiff of that fresh baby scent at the top of her head. “Yes, she is, but my brother is one big bucket of water. Although I did like watching you stand up to him.”
“Pfft. He doesn’t scare me. Your grandmother, on the other hand…” he trailed off.
“You ain’t the first and you surely won’t be the last to tremble in her presence,” I joked. “Now, give me one last kiss before we go stuff our faces.”
Obeying, Mason leaned his face closer to mine, but my niece blew spit bubbles at him and placed her hand over his mouth, stopping him from achieving his goal. Instead of kissing me, he planted one on top of her delicate fingers.
I rolled my eyes and spoke directly to the baby. “You are definitely your father’s daughter.”
Too hungry to delay any longer, I gave up trying to have a private moment with Mason and made my way to the kitchen. By the time I reached the room full of love, laughter, and good food, I’d forgotten all about my morning woes. Pecking the top of Rayline’s head, I took Nana’s advice to heart and chose to live the rest of the day in the joy of this very moment.
Chapter Two
Following right behind everyone else, I moseyed out the front door and onto the porch. My bad mood had evaporated like the steam coming off of my plate full of buttermilk biscuits with slices of country ham with jelly. I couldn’t turn down stacks of fluffy blueberry pancakes smothered in butter and drowned in maple syrup. I barely had room for crunchy hash browns with scrambled eggs on top and one of Nana’s gigantic cinnamon rolls with an obscene amount of frosting dripping off the sides. Somehow, I rose to the occasion and gobbled it all up.
Sunlight dappled through the trees, and I grinned at the bright day ahead of me as I patted my engorged tummy and finished the last couple bites of the piece of bacon I’d stolen from my brother’s plate.
“Now, that’s what I like to see. Detective Clairmont, don’t you think my granddaughter looks so much prettier with a smile on her face instead of a frown?” Nana teased, holding Rayline while she saw us out.
Mason draped an arm over my shoulder. “I think she looks pretty no matter what.” He pressed his lips onto the top of my head while heat rose in my cheeks.
“Good answer,” my grandmother declared with a wink to me. My niece agreed with a throaty baby giggle.
Matt cleared his throat in agitation at the detective’s public display of affection for me. “I should be heading to the station. We might as well go together, don’t you think, Detective?” He raised his eyebrows at Mason.
I shot my brother a glare of death, but before I could mutter a single word of sass, TJ jumped to my defense. “Don’t go ruining a perfectly fine start to the day. Leave your sister and her boyfriend alone. Plus, you promised to come help me muck stalls and feed the horses.”
My brother groaned and rolled his eyes for dramatic effect. “Fine. But I’m not dealing with the unicorn.”
“You got something against Sparkles?” I asked. Matt had to be crazy if he didn’t like the adorable mythical beastie.
He scrunched up his nose. “I like her just fine, but each and every time I get around her, you know what she does. And this is my only clean uniform, so if she farts rainbow glitter all over me, I’ll have absolutely nothing to
wear to work.”
Rayline squealed and clapped her hands, and we all broke into laughter with her. Nana kissed her great-granddaughter’s forehead. “You forgettin’ that you’re a witch? Why don’t you just spellcast a protection shield over your clothes?”
Matt’s jaw dropped. “I swear, it never occurred to me.” With a shake of his head, he escorted his wife to their car. “Man, that’s a lot of laundry I didn’t need to do. Nana, TJ will be back to pick up Rayline after lunch. Detective, I’ll be seein’ you at the station soon enough.” He scooted around the front of his car to the driver’s side. “Birdy, I’ll see you tonight at the town potluck.”
My brother’s farewell wrinkled my improved state of mind. In all of the chaos, I’d plumb forgotten about the Welcome Potluck at the park. Well, frosted fairy wings with a side of unicorn manure! How was I ever going to get everything on today’s list done and cook something?
“If the chess pie you’d made hadn’t been destroyed, I could have brought that,” I moaned.
“Don’t worry,” Mason assured me. “David wanted to help me make lasagna. I can check and see if he can pick up the ingredients to make two instead.”
I’d forgotten about the former bellboy from Charleston who was in the first wave of newcomers to Honeysuckle. True to his word, Mason had offered to let the half dryad room at his house for the time being.
“Why, that’s mighty generous of you,” Nana declared with admiration while she rocked my niece back and forth. “You keep treating Birdy this good and you won’t be able to get rid of her.”
Prickly heat scorched my cheeks, and I shot daggers at my grandmother for making such a pointed statement. “I appreciate the offer, but since I’m on the welcome committee, it wouldn’t look right for me not to bring something on my own.”
While Mason had lived here long enough not to be quite the outsider he used to be, he still didn’t get the importance of everyone contributing for themselves.
With relief, I came up with an easy solution and snapped my fingers. “I know! I’ll bake up a few batches of cornbread.”
“You need any extra skillets?” Nana asked. “I can send over one or two of mine.”
I rushed up the porch stairs to give my grandmother a proper goodbye. “No, I can use the ones I’ve already got.” Kissing her on her cheek, I also kissed my niece on top of her head, careful not to mess up her soft, wispy hair. “Be good to her.”
Nana clicked her tongue at me. “I’m always good to our little ray of sunshine.”
“I was talking to Junior,” I joked over my shoulder as I fetched my bike. “I’ll see you both tonight.” The screen door slammed shut behind Nana as she took my niece inside.
Full from breakfast, I worked for a couple of seconds to fix the tire and inflate it again good as new with my rejuvenated energy.
Mason pulled his keys from his pocket. “I would have offered to drive you to your first appointment, but it looks like you don’t need the help anymore.”
Holding onto the handlebars of the bike, I leaned in far enough to peck his stubbled cheek. “It wouldn’t make sense for you to go out of your way. But I do appreciate the sentiment.”
He brushed his hand down my arm. “I don’t suppose you have any free time today? There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, and I’d rather do it when we can have a moment to ourselves.”
My brow wrinkled as I listed off everything I had going on today. “I’ve got a meeting with Twinkle about a plumbing issue at Sweet Tooths, an appointment with a potential renter for the old hardware store space, a lunch meeting with the welcome committee, and I’m supposed to have coffee with Clementine after, and—”
Mason chuckled and placed a gentle finger over my lips. “Okay, so your day’s pretty full. Guess I’ll have to wait until tonight after the potluck to grab a moment with you all to myself.” He moved his hand to cup my chin. “Or maybe I need to make an appointment, too.”
A little regret seeped into my heart. “I know. We’ve both been so preoccupied trying to help others that I know I’ve forgotten to make us a priority.”
“But it’s that big heart of yours that makes you the person I want to be with,” he admitted in a low whisper.
I placed my palm on his chest over his heart. “Same here, Detective.”
While the sun rose higher in the sky, birds twittered their good mornings, and the Spanish moss rustled in the wind, we stole a romantic moment just for us.
With reluctance, we let each other go. Mason kissed the tip of my nose. “I actually should be getting to the station. No need to give Big Willie anything to complain about before the day’s barely started.”
“A smart man would stop by the Harvest Cafe and get one of Sassy’s fresh-baked pies for him just to make sure he doesn’t jump on your case,” I suggested, straddling my bike.
A wide grin spread on Mason’s face. “Add that to my list of reasons I lo…listen to you. You have great ideas.”
My stomach exploded with emotional butterflies fluttering their wings. Maybe my head was playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn my boyfriend was about to say a very important word that neither one of us had said to the other yet. In fact, I hadn’t uttered any form of that word to any man since Tucker before I broke our engagement. Was I ready to hear it now? Was I even ready to say it back?
I waited a beat to see if he wanted to add anything, but after a tense silence, I cleared my throat and hoped he didn’t notice the sweat beading on my upper lip. “Well, guess I’ll be going. See you at the potluck.”
My excitement overloaded the little bit of magical energy I fed into the bicycle, and it jolted forward hard enough that I almost fell off. My heart thumped in my chest as the bike careened through the streets and my mind raced with the possibility that Mason and I might be on the verge of a big confession to each other.
“If our number of residents continue to grow as fast as they have recently, then we’ll need to talk about preparations for security,” Flint stated, reading off the statistics on the increase of newcomers from a printed report.
I scarfed down the last bite of my grilled fried green tomato and pimento cheese sandwich, wiped my mouth with a paper napkin, and pushed the basket from the cafe away from me, not needing the temptation of the last sweet potato fries. Although math had never been my best subject, even I could calculate how too big of an influx of beings into our small town would exhaust our resources if we didn’t prepare better.
Clementine sat at the head of the long table as the elected leader of the committee, her brow furrowed. “And at the same time, I hate to turn anyone away. I would love to hear any suggestions for how we could continue as a safe refuge for those who need help. David, do you have anything you could share that might help us?”
The former bellboy brushed back his long green locks that fell down a little past his shoulders. He’d taken Mason up on his offer to live with him, leaving Charleston at about the same time we did months before. As one of the first disenfranchised fae that had been here the longest, he had gone out of his way to help others who were flocking to our small town for refuge after mistreatment elsewhere as well as serving on our small committee.
“I think those who wanted to come from Charleston are here already. But the problem I foresee is that the original invitation made to us at the hotel may have been a little too open-ended,” David said, his eyes focused on his hands resting on the table.
Confused, I tried to replay the exact words I’d used when I said he and his colleagues could come to Honeysuckle. “What do you mean?”
The half dryad turned to face me. “When I asked you on the rooftop of the hotel whether or not the possibility of living in your safe haven of a town was open to anybody, you did not specify any limitations. I fear this is my fault. In my relief of finding kindness among witches, I did not assist you in defining your generous offer.” He glanced across the table at Juniper, some unspoken understanding passing between them.
“But our town is open to those who seek sanctuary,” Ms. Patty said from her seat next to me.
Juniper’s wings shook and quivered. “Promises and offers made to the fae must be worded very carefully. If Charli meant the invitation to be offered solely to those who worked in the hotel, then she needed to make that clear through her words.”
Realization dawned on me. “And because I didn’t say who I specifically meant when talking with David, then who did I actually invite?”
David shrugged. “It is hard to estimate, but good news travels fast amongst our kind. However, I have more information that may alleviate some of the worries I believe the committee has. Several of the new arrivals have already made themselves useful in town with jobs thanks to those willing to hire them.”
Ms. Patty, my mom’s friend who continued to run their shop Life’s a Stitch, spoke up with enthusiasm. “I’m thrilled to have Phacelia and Tansy working with me. Both have great skill with needles. I’d like to help Phacelia sell some of her handmade lace on the internet. And Steve got some much-needed staff to assist with the cooking at the cafe. If I get can get him to stop trying to control everything in his kitchen, I may even be able to get him to take some time off.”
Juniper nodded and added, “My cleaning business has acquired several more pixies, including some from your home, Ms. Hawthorne.”
Color rose in my cousin’s cheeks. “Call me Clementine, please. All Tucker and I did was release them from whatever contract that had been made more than a century ago for them to serve the household. Those who wanted to leave had the freedom to go and those who stayed now get paid as they should.”
Murmurs of approval rose in the room, and my cousin brushed them off with a wave of her hand. I beamed at her once, and she bowed her head with a pleased grin on her face.
Clearing her throat, Clementine asked, “Blythe, what’s the housing situation like?”
More pride swelled in my chest as one of my best friends spoke in a commanding tone. “Right now, everyone has found a place to stay thanks to several people inviting more than their share of new temporary tenants into their homes.” She nodded in my direction with appreciation. “We aren’t quite at the point of need to ask everybody to evaluate their living space and determine whether or not he or she could take on potential boarders, but if David’s right and the invitation is so open that any and all may be coming our way, we’ll need to have more spaces available.”
