To Spell With It

by Amanda M. Lee

I certainly hoped so. Romance would be out of the cards if this kept up. Vomit is never sexy.

  4

  Four

  Galen made sure to give me a lingering kiss before dropping me in front of the lighthouse. He promised he wouldn’t be long, that the drive would take longer than the notification, and I waved him off while managing to hide my anxiety.

  I was agitated. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why or when it had started. I glanced over my shoulder as I completed the walk to the front door — Galen didn’t leave until I was inside — and studied the group of bushes to the east side of the property. Did I sense something there? Not really. That didn’t stop me from feeling as if someone was watching me.

  The feeling didn’t last long once I was inside. There, I found my grandfather Wesley playing Monopoly with my dead grandmother. They seemed to be getting along this evening, which was a welcome sight. When they were first reunited after my grandmother’s death they’d spent weeks arguing. Since I put my foot down about privacy and respecting the feelings of others they’d saved the fights for Wesley’s property and the pleasant conversations for mine.

  “You look tired,” May noted as I threw myself in the chair across the way. “Did you and Galen have a fight?”

  “Why did you jump to that conclusion?” I was legitimately curious. “Can’t I be tired for other reasons?”

  May and Wesley exchanged looks that weren’t lost on me and I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

  “Ugh. This day seems endless,” I complained.

  “Let’s go back to the beginning,” Wesley suggested, the game forgotten. He was trying to be a more hands-on grandfather. That wasn’t easy for either of us because I was a grown woman who had only recently met him, but we were both doing our best. “Did you have a fight with Galen?”

  “No.”

  “Then why isn’t he here? You two have been attached at the ... hip ... for weeks. You haven’t spent a night apart in as long as I can remember. Why has that suddenly changed?”

  “We’re not spending the night apart. Something happened after dinner.” I filled my grandparents in on what happened at the dock. When I was finished, they were more puzzled than excited. “He had to drive out to some mega-mansion to inform David’s mother about his untimely passing.”

  “That’s too bad.” May made a clucking sound and shook her head. “I didn’t know David well. He always struck me as ... well, to be truthful, he always struck me as something of a ponce. He thought a lot of himself and expected others to bow down. That doesn’t mean I wanted him to die.”

  “What about his mother? Galen seemed worried about seeing her. He didn’t come right out and say that, of course, but I could tell by the look on his face.”

  “Cora is ... not the easiest woman to get along with,” May hedged. “She has a certain reputation on the island.”

  “You know you’re allowed to gossip as much as you want now that you’re a ghost, right? No one will stop you and the worst has already happened, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  She shot me a quelling look. “I’m not averse to a little gossip. It’s just ... Cora is going through something terrible. I don’t want to kick her while she’s down.”

  “She won’t even know you’re kicking her. I’m just looking for some information.”

  “I can see that.” May mimed touching her finger to her forehead, a gesture I was sure she carried over from life, and shifted from one ethereal foot to the other. She had several nervous mannerisms. I recognized a few from my repertoire, which I found amusing, because we didn’t meet until long after she was dead. “I’ve known Cora for a number of years. She’s a good twenty years younger than me, but she always has been imperious.”

  “Her family managed to buy a huge piece of Moonstone Bay in the 1940s,” Wesley volunteered. “They slipped in at the exact right time. I think they bought something like a hundred acres for around fifty-thousand dollars.”

  “And that’s cheap?” I wasn’t familiar with real estate prices. I’d never owned as much as a townhouse. I always rented.

  “That’s unbelievably inexpensive,” May confirmed. “One acre on the water now would go for a good two-million dollars.”

  “Even without a house?”

  “Yes. I believe Galen explained not long after you inherited the lighthouse how real estate is at a premium on the island. Everyone wants to own something, but there’s not enough property to be had.”

  He had gone into great detail about that not long after I moved to Moonstone Bay. It played into my grandmother’s murder, because the man who poisoned her wanted to inherit the land she owned. Now, instead, I was the proud landowner of a vintage lighthouse, which meant I was in the middle of Moonstone Bay’s wacky politics. “You both owned property. Does that mean you’re as revered as this Cora Fox?”

  “Well, we do fine financially,” Wesley countered after a moment. “I do quite well and I’m happy where I am. My property isn’t adjacent to the water, though. There’s not as much of a premium on it.”

  “The lighthouse is different,” I mused.

  “It is,” May confirmed. “This property could make you a millionaire several times over if you wanted to sell it.”

  My eyebrows migrated up my forehead. “Seriously?”

  “Yes.” May looked worried. “I hope you won’t do that.”

  “I have no intention of selling the lighthouse.” I meant it. “I consider it my home now. It’s just ... interesting. This property the Fox family owns makes them like island royalty. I wondered why Galen was so fidgety when he realized who was dead.”

  “Galen probably understands that Cora is the type who will lash out and blame him,” May explained. “If she’s hurting, she’s willing to hurt everyone around her until they’re as miserable as she is.”

  “Still, she’s in mourning,” I argued. “She’s allowed to be upset. It’s her son, after all.”

  “He is most definitely her son,” May agreed. “Cora has numerous faults, but I’ve always believed that she loves her children.”

  “How many does she have?”

  “Just two, I believe. David and a girl. The girl left not long after high school. I didn’t blame her, although at the time there was a lot of chatter. David was the favored child and got all the attention. She was an afterthought and her parents treated her as such.”

  “Galen didn’t mention anything about a father,” I pointed out. “Where is he?”

  “Ashton Fox is technically still married to Cora, but in name only,” Wesley supplied. “He lives on the mainland. I think in some ritzy community in southern Florida. Cora lives here. They rarely see each other. Ashton is notoriously open about running around with young women on the mainland and Cora pretends she doesn’t hear the whispers. It seems to work for them.”

  I had my doubts that could work for anybody, but who was I to judge? “Well, it’s just incredibly sad.” I pushed myself to a standing position. “I’m heading up to take a bath. Galen will probably be another hour or so. You can finish up your game.”

  “That’s okay.” Wesley shuffled forward and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He was a sweet man with a gruff exterior. He’d gone out of his way for me several times since I’d arrived, and we were forging a legitimate bond. “We can take the game out to my place. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

  “Things were good until David decided he could fly,” I offered. “I got to see the cupids arriving for their conference. That was entertaining, especially when Booker showed up with his mother.”

  May lifted her head, her eyes going wide. “Judy is back on the island?”

  Oh, well, that was interesting. May didn’t look any happier with the turn of events than Booker did. “She is. Galen said this is the first conference they’ve had here in, like, fifteen years or something. He’s on edge.”

  “I don’t blame him.” Wesley snapped a photo of the game board with his phone before packing up the money and
houses. “The last cupid conference here turned into a bloody massacre.”

  “He might have mentioned that.”

  “Cupids can’t behave themselves.” He made a face. “They’re jerks most of the time. They play with people’s emotions for sport.”

  “Most of them don’t do that,” May corrected. “Only a few of the bad apples play games that way, and the cupids are diligent about weeding them out.”

  “They’re also diligent about covering up for them,” Wesley argued.

  “Well, that’s kind of true.” May looked uncomfortable as she shifted her attention to me. “Cupids are an acquired taste, my dear. Not all of them are trustworthy. Be careful around them.”

  “What about Booker?” The question was out of my mouth before I thought better of it. It didn’t matter what they said. I trusted Booker implicitly. I didn’t expect that to change.

  “Booker is not cut from the same cloth as the rest of them,” Wesley replied. “He pulled away from that little cult of personality a long time ago. He doesn’t want anything to do with their shenanigans.”

  That was good news.

  “Booker is a good boy,” May interjected. “Sure, he’s a bit of a Romeo and enjoys romancing as many women as possible, but in his heart he’s a good boy. You don’t have to worry about him. He’s loyal to a fault.”

  “I wasn’t really worried about him,” I admitted. “His mother is another story. She has so much attitude I’m surprised it isn’t spurting out of her ears.”

  “Judy is ... a horrible woman,” May said after a moment’s contemplation. “She was always strict with Booker, demanded certain things of him. That came back to bite her when he was old enough to make his own decisions and opted to shun the cupid coalition. She was mortified, but refused to give up her leadership position. Booker’s insistence on being his own man weakened her position. Everyone knows that.”

  “I sensed a bit of tension between them,” I said.

  “Judy loves her son. I have no doubt about that. She would love him more if she could control him.”

  “Well, I’m glad he’s not the type who blindly follows orders. I kind of like him the way he is.”

  “We all do.”

  IT WAS ALMOST MIDNIGHT BEFORE Galen let himself into my bedroom. I’d fallen asleep waiting for him, my e-reader open on my chest. I felt him slide into the bed next to me, his warm skin touching mine, before I actually registered his presence.

  “Hey.” I was sleepy and it took everything I had to stay coherent. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He kissed the ridge of my ear as he spooned behind me. “I’m sorry it took so long. Cora completely fell apart. I saw it coming, but ... she was difficult to deal with.”

  “Did you tell her you think it was a suicide?”

  “I did and she called me the dumbest man alive. She said David would never commit suicide and I should be stripped of my badge and title – and forced to work as a janitor at a bathroom for men who can’t aim – because I dared suggest such a thing.”

  I thought about what May and Wesley told me. “She can’t make trouble for you, can she?”

  “She’s a rich woman. She can make a lot of trouble if she sets her mind to it.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “Right now I’m tired.” He kissed my cheek. “Go to sleep. We can talk more in the morning.”

  “Okay, but I thought you were going to wow me tonight. This is a disappointment.”

  He poked my side. “Neither one of us is up for wowing. I’ll carry out my duties in the morning.”

  “That’s cheating, but ... whatever.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He let out a heavy breath. “I kind of felt sorry for her,” he added after a beat. “She believes money can buy anything. It can’t buy her son’s life back. That realization will eventually crush her.”

  “You’ve done everything you can do.”

  “I guess.”

  I SLEPT HARD. MY DREAMS, often tumultuous, were weirder than normal. I was trapped in a dark house, no lights other than the ambient moonlight – which seemed brighter than normal – filtering through the windows.

  I didn’t recognize the house. It was big, cavernous really, but all the windows were open and a terrific cross breeze blew strong enough that my hair whipped back and forth as I tried to find my way through the corridors.

  I called out occasionally for those I knew. I wanted to find Galen most, and yet, instinctively, I recognized he wasn’t in the house. I had no idea where he was, but he wasn’t close. That realization left me unsettled.

  I kept searching for a long time, to the point of exhaustion. Eventually the dreamscape faded and I was plunged into darkness.

  When I woke the next morning, I was flat on my back and Galen’s head was propped on his hand as he watched me sleep. His expression was unreadable and it threw me.

  “Did I drool or something?” I wiped at the corners of my mouth as he chuckled.

  “You didn’t drool.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “You did, however, sleepwalk.”

  Whatever I expected him to say — most mornings he’s flirty and handsy — that wasn’t it. I furrowed my brow and vigorously rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I regarded him. “Get out. I don’t sleepwalk.”

  “Last night you did.”

  “But ... no way!” I had no idea what I was supposed to say. “Why would I suddenly start sleepwalking out of nowhere?”

  “I don’t know.” His fingers were gentle as they brushed my morning-mussed hair from my face. “Yesterday was stressful. I don’t know much about sleepwalking, but I’m betting stress triggers incidents.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t just dream that I was sleepwalking?”

  “Why would I dream that?”

  “I don’t know. Why did I dream about having a pet hippopotamus in the lighthouse several nights ago? Dream logic makes no sense.”

  “You were sleepwalking.” He was firm. “I didn’t know what to do. I once read that you shouldn’t wake sleepwalkers because they could accidentally hurt you or themselves due to surprise. I followed you around for a bit and didn’t say anything. It was weird.”

  It sounded weird. “Did I do anything interesting? I mean ... I didn’t get naked or anything, did I?” I lifted the covers to check and was relieved to find I was still in my pajamas from the night before.

  Galen let loose a low chuckle. “No. Were you dreaming about getting naked?”

  “No.” I thought back to the dream. “I was dreaming about being lost in a really big house. I remember that. I kept calling for you ... and Lilac ... and Wesley ... and even Booker. No one came, though.”

  His eyes were sober as he smoothed my hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to you.”

  “It’s my subconscious. I very much doubt there was anything you could do about it.”

  “True enough. I’m still sorry.”

  “Well ... .” I broke off and chewed my bottom lip. “You don’t think it’s dangerous, do you? The sleepwalking, I mean.”

  “I don’t know. If you’re upset I could take you to the hospital. They might be able to run a few tests.”

  That sounded like the worst possible way to spend a day. “I think I’ll pass.”

  “I thought you might say that.” He rubbed his nose against mine before rubbing my lips with his. “You didn’t do anything but walk to the window. You looked out at the water for a long time.”

  “My eyes were open?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s creepy.”

  “I still think you’re adorable.” He gave me another kiss and rolled on top of me. I had no doubt how he wanted to start the day, and I was fine with it. I wanted to shake the dregs of the weird dream. “I tried talking to you after a few minutes. I asked you to go to bed and you just sort of turned around and did it. I was relieved.”

  “I guess maybe watching David Fox plummet to his death affected me more than I realized,” I mused, my hands mov
ing to Galen’s strong back as he rubbed his stubbled chin against my cheek. “Are you feeling romantic?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me.”

  I laughed, delighted, when he kissed my neck. “If you do a good job, I’ll make you breakfast. How does that sound?”

  “Like a challenge. You know how much I love a challenge.”

  I did indeed.

  5

  Five

  I went all out for breakfast, whipping up blueberry pancakes and bacon. Galen was smug when I slid his plate in front of him.

  “I take it I met your lofty standards.”

  “Ha, ha.” I flicked his ear before sitting across from him at the large kitchen table. He’d already poured me a mug of coffee, so I dove right in and started with the caffeine. “Is it wrong that I’m still worried about the sleepwalking?”

  He shifted his eyes from the newspaper he was flipping through — Moonstone Bay had its own publication, although there wasn’t much hard news to cover — and focused on me. “I’m not joking. If you’re worried about it, I can take you to the hospital to have you checked out.”

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital if it’s nothing.” I felt slow and stupid. “I’ve never done it before. It seems weird to happen out of the blue like this.”

  “Well, I’m not a doctor, but I would guess seeing David die the way he did was traumatizing. I’ve seen things like this before and I was traumatized by it.”

  “I guess.” I doused my pancakes with syrup. “I’m just confused because I’ve never done it before.”

  “How do you know? You didn’t remember doing it last night. You only know because I told you. There’s a chance you’ve done it before and simply didn’t realize it.”

  I hadn’t considered that. “Oh, well ... huh. Maybe I should call my father and ask.”

  Galen struggled to keep his face neutral ... and failed. He wasn’t my father’s biggest fan. Even though they’d never met, Galen was convinced my father kept me from May and Wesley as a child — which was true — and he was slightly bitter about it. “Are you sure he would know? I didn’t get the feeling from the stories you told that he was a hands-on father.”