by Lynn Cahoon
“Which probably means money in your mom’s eyes. Don’t worry about it; you get to choose how much time you spend with your brother and his soon-to-be new wife. You’re not a kid anymore.” Mia picked up the last potato.
“You’re not mad?” Christina turned away from the sink and stared at Mia. “You were together for years. Why aren’t you mad?”
“Because Isaac and I were never meant to be. I didn’t realize that until after I left. Believe me, I’m not a fan of your brother. He was a jerk and he betrayed me by going outside our relationship before we broke up. But you and I talked about the power of forgiveness. If I hold on to the anger, that’s only hurting me.”
“I’ll say it again: You’re a good person. If I had your”—Christina paused and looked around to see if anyone was nearby before continuing—“special skills? I would have made him remember what he did to me every day of his life.”
“Vengeance isn’t a positive trait either.” Mia smiled as she finished the potatoes. “But believe me, I thought about leaving Isaac with a going-away present. It just wasn’t worth the karma rebound.”
Christina was quiet for a few minutes while Mia put the potatoes on the stove to boil. She was making a potato salad for one of the delivery dishes. She was thinking about the recipe as she got several onions out to chop.
“Is that what Cindy did? Put a revenge spell on someone?” Christina blushed as Mia looked up at her. “Sorry, I heard the discussion from the hallway. I was going to come in, but then Cindy started talking and your grandmother was mad, so I thought I’d just hide in my bedroom. I’m afraid of your grandmother, just a bit. Look what she did to Dorian.”
“That was an accident and he was already dead anyway.” Mia thought about Christina’s interest. The girl hung around kitchen witches and dated one of the local coven witches; she guessed the question wasn’t too out there for her. “We don’t know yet. I think Dorian’s death made Cindy’s spell book more powerful and she set something loose. We’re just not sure what yet, and she isn’t being very forthcoming.”
“She’s a little full of herself,” Christina added. “Speaking of people who worship themselves, I’m having dinner with Bethanie tonight. She wants to hear about Bermuda.”
“Just be careful there. I’d hate to see you get involved in one of her schemes.” Bethanie might not be as bad as her father or half brother, but you never knew.
“She’s okay. She just grew up rich. I could have totally been like her if you hadn’t come into my life when you started dating my brother. Maybe that’s why you were with Isaac—because I needed a good role model in my life. You know, the universe has a plan for everything.” Christina finished peeling the last carrot and held it up like a trophy.
“Who’s been talking about destiny and the universe’s plans for us? Grans?” Mia nodded to the peppers. “Julienne those, please.”
“Levi. He’s trying to make a romantic proposal without the proposal part.” Christina nodded and moved to the fridge. “I left my knives down here the last time I cooked. Should I keep them in my room?”
“Maybe in my office would be safer. It’s locked up when we’re not here. I take mine upstairs and leave them in the kitchen. You can do that too; there’s room. So whatever you want.” Mia studied Christina as she drew out her chopping knife and carefully sharpened it. Then she set up her cutting station. The girl was learning. She could make a living in the restaurant industry if she wanted, but she had other plans, which either were event planning or going into the management part of hospitality and, specifically, high-end hotels. She did aim high. “What’s Levi’s pitch? Does he want you to move in with him?”
Christina laughed. “Not even close. I think he’s just talking about being exclusive. I told him I went out with that guy in Bermuda a few nights when I was down there. Just casual fun, not even anything physical, and he about flipped. I guess I didn’t think we were at the exclusive stage yet.”
“Just because he’s there doesn’t mean you have to be.” Mia thought about her dates with Trent. Both of them were older, ready to settle into a relationship, if not the relationship. But maybe . . . It felt right to be with Trent. So much different from when she dated, then lived with Isaac. This never felt like work. Being with Isaac, she’d felt like she’d had to prove herself over and over.
“I don’t know; I really like him.” Christina held up her knife. “He’s just so . . .”
“So what, Ms. Adams? Who are you talking about while you wave that deadly knife?” Mark Baldwin walked into the kitchen and paused in the doorway. “Is there something I need to know?”
“No. And I don’t have to talk to you. My mother said.” Christina refocused on chopping the peppers.
“Well, I hate to disagree with anyone’s mother, but that’s not quite true, but I’m here to see Ms. Malone anyway.” He pointed to her office. “Can we chat?”
Mia took off her apron, then went to the sink and washed her hands. “When you’re done with that, check the prep list if I’m not back yet. I’m hoping this will be quick.”
He smiled at them both as he waited. When Mia stepped past him and toward her office, he called back, “Been nice chatting with you, Ms. Adams.”
“Stop messing with her. You’ll make her cut herself.” Mia unlocked the office and turned on the light. “How did you get in the building anyway?”
“Your grandmother let me in and told me you’d be in here, cooking.” Baldwin pulled out his notebook. “I found out more about the man we found in your backyard on Saturday. His name was Denny Blake. Did you know him?”
Mia shivered. “Not by name. Honestly, I didn’t even see him. I kind of glanced over when the utility guy was on the line with 9-1-1, but I didn’t want to see a dead body. Especially not someone who died so close to the school.”
Baldwin took out a photo from an envelope and slid it across the desk. Mia was expecting one of those morgue photos, but instead, it was a prison shot. Or an arrest shot, whatever they called those. “Take a look; do you know him?”
Mia studied the picture. Dark hair, mean eyes, a nose that had been broken more than once, and a snarl to his lips. She pushed the picture back. “No, and I’m glad. That guy has a lot of anger in him. You can see it through the camera.”
“You’re right about that. He’s a professional hit man. Not a very good one. He’d been caught and served time for the last job he tried to do. The guy lived and pointed him out of a lineup after the LAPD tracked him down using fingerprints he left on the scene. He may be mean, but God didn’t give him any brains at all from what I can see in his rap sheet.” Baldwin studied the picture too. “The problem is, I don’t know why he was here or, specifically, on your property.”
“You don’t think he wanted to kill me, do you?” Mia laughed at the idea. “My background is squeaky clean except for maybe the time I lived with Christina’s brother. I could have been arrested for thinking about all the ways I wanted to kill that guy. But thinking about and doing are two different things.”
“True, but this guy didn’t go anywhere without a contract. And he’d been living in Florida on the beach in a condo the last time he checked in with his parole officer. Why come to Magic Springs?”
That was the question, wasn’t it?
Chapter 7
The smell of Italian seasonings and tomato sauce cooking met Mia on the stairs after she’d closed up the kitchen for the day. Tomorrow they’d pack the containers in the back of the van and she and Christina would complete the deliveries. Tonight her feet hurt and she was glad she didn’t have to deal with what to serve for dinner. Grans must have started dinner preparations when Christina went up to get ready for her night out with Bethanie. She was glad Mia’s Morsels was doing well already, but if the business expanded anymore, she’d need to hire a third person. She liked it just being her and Christina. At least for a while, she needed to get her feet beneath her so she could make the company successful. Which reminded her: she needed t
o set aside a few hours to do her monthly planning this week.
When she entered the kitchen, her grandmother looked up from the book she was reading. Or scanning. Mia couldn’t tell which. “You look beat. Let me make you some tea.”
“Just tea. No energy spell, or love spell, or confidence booster, okay? I just want some dinner; then I’m crashing in my room for a while. I haven’t had a good romance moviethon for a while.” Mia sank into a chair, but then got up and got her planner.
“I thought you were tired.” Grans shot the planner a dirty look as she stood to turn to heat the kettle.
“I am, but I need to set a time for next month’s planning session so I don’t forget. And I need to start training Christina in how to do these so she has some practical experience in project management.” She scanned the week and boxed off a time next Monday. Then she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the time, date, and the office under the heading Strategy Meeting. She glanced down the hall. “Is she still here?”
“You just missed her. She was so excited to go meet this girl. I hope she doesn’t get hurt. I don’t think Bethanie Miller has many friends. There’s probably a reason for that.” Grans glanced out toward the road, as if she could see Christina striding toward downtown and the restaurant. “What about oolong?”
“Perfect.” Mia folded the note and stood. “I’m just going to put this on her dresser so she’ll see it. I’ll be right back.”
Grans didn’t respond.
Mia opened Christina’s door and saw her travel bag lying open on the floor. Clothes were strung out, some in piles, which Mia assumed were loads of laundry. The worst part of coming home after a vacation was the laundry. She stepped around the piles and went to her dresser, where Christina had taped pictures of Levi and some of the group she hung around with. One was of Bethanie. The girl looked like she was smirking at Mia. Like she had a secret. She studied the arrangement of photos and smiled. Christina was finally fitting into Magic Springs, even if she was hanging out with coven witches. Mia set down the note on the top of a pile and turned to leave.
She was almost out of the room when she saw a picture of Isaac on the floor, sticking out from under one of the clothes piles. She picked it up from the floor and realized it was of him and Tanya, smiling at the camera. Really smiling. Had he ever looked that happy with Mia?
Tanya was hanging on his arm like she belonged there. And, Mia thought, she did. The two of them were both shallow and lacked character, but she had to admit they made a lovely-looking couple.
She walked out of the room and closed the door. That was her old life. Her new life was here. With Grans and Christina and, maybe, Trent. She liked this life better.
“Your tea is ready,” Grans said. Then she jerked her head up and stared at Mia. “What just happened? You’re stronger than you were five seconds ago.”
“Am I?” Mia sat and picked up her cup. She sipped the tea that had been her childhood favorite. Especially when her folks had taken her out for Chinese food.
“You deal with issues in such an odd way.” Her grandmother studied her closely. “It’s like a switch was flipped inside that closed a door.”
“Maybe it did.” She glanced at the stove. “That sauce smells amazing. Are we having spaghetti?”
“Ravioli. But close enough.” She glanced over at the part of the front door. “I’m hoping it will stay warm in case Cindy’s hungry when she gets back.”
“Cindy left? Where did she go?” Mia hadn’t felt another presence when she came into the apartment, but she’d forgotten Cindy was even there.
“She had a meeting with one of her agents at the Lodge. I guess they’re working out the details on another contract for her. She’s been pretty lucky lately,” Grans said dryly.
“You think she’s spelling for her good fortune? She has to realize it’s going to backfire on her sooner or later. You can’t use magic for personal gain.” That had been one of the first lessons Grans had taught her, and still she’d tried to get away with doing a spell to finish her history report. The printer had just kept spitting out pages with one word on each until she’d hit her mandatory ten pages. Mia figured karma had an odd sense of humor.
“Dinner’s ready. What did Mark want this morning?” Grans went to the cupboard and took out two pasta bowls.
“Just to make sure I didn’t know the dead guy. He was some sort of contract hit man.” Mia grabbed silverware and paper napkins and went to the pantry for a loaf of Italian bread she’d baked a few days before. She glanced at the table. “We should have a salad with this.”
Grans set the bowls of steaming pasta on the table, then grabbed some grated Parmesan Mia kept in the upstairs fridge. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Mia grinned. That had been Grans’s standard answer when Mia had been feeling guilty about something and said she should do one thing or another. Grans had always called it “shoulding” on yourself. “I think this is just perfect.”
They sat and ate and talked about little things, including a call Grans had received from Mia’s mother. “They love the cruising life. I think they’re trying to get on another one before they come home from Florida.”
“I’m not sure I’d like being on such a big ship.” Mia shivered at the thought. “What if one of those big waves came up? The ship would just go down and no one would know where to look.”
“You watch too many disaster movies.” Grans laughed.
A few minutes later Cindy came in the front door. She paused by the kitchen. “Well, I’m back.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” Grans said, even keeping a straight face. “Do you want some dinner?”
Cindy looked at the two of them as if they were eating poison. Or something exotic. Like carbs. “That’s fine. I had a salad at the Lodge.”
“Okay, but if you get hungry, there’ll be leftovers in the fridge,” Grans called after her. She waited until she heard the door shut in the hallway. “That girl needs to figure out what she really wants before she gets lost.”
Mr. Darcy meowed in agreement.
Mia glanced over at the hallway. “I don’t know. It looks like she has her life pretty much together. She has a job and a life in California. All she needs to do is put away her book of spells and leave it alone. Some people aren’t meant to have power.”
Grans stood and got the water pitcher out of the fridge, then filled both of their glasses. “Looks can be deceiving, dear. Besides, she wasn’t meeting someone about a new opportunity. She met John Louis at the Lodge to talk about Dorian’s land holdings. Mike is going to be upset when he hears that she’s going behind his back on the estate distribution.”
Mia stared at her grandmother, who now had put the water away and was resuming eating her dinner. “How on earth did you find that out? Did you put a tracking spell on her?”
“Heavens no. I have a friend who works at the Lodge who just so happened to call me when Cindy arrived. Harriet didn’t hear the whole conversation while she filled the water glasses, but she heard enough. It’s a good thing Cindy drinks a lot of water to keep her skin clear.”
“What are you going to do? I don’t want you getting involved in this, especially in a fight with John. We both know he fights dirty.” Mia remembered her last run-in with the man when he’d tried to get his way.
“Don’t worry about it. No one will know I’m even aware of the situation. Having Cindy here gives us more information and some control over her actions. At least in the realty situation. She’s afraid of what she’s done with the book and doesn’t want to ruin her chances of fixing it with me.” Grans smiled as she speared the last ravioli on her plate. “I might have told her some horror stories about other witches who got their power inheritance early and failed to follow the rules. She’s willing to work with us and learn what she needs to do at least until she figures out that she’s in control. I just hope Mike can get here before she signs off on her share of the holdings.”
“I take it you’ve
called him?” Mia picked up her plate and took it to the sink to rinse. She was beat. And listening to Grans’s plans was draining her energy even more. “I really wanted a calm week. I’ve got back-to-back catering gigs the next two weekends. I’m not sure I can deal with one more project.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it all under control.” Grans met her at the sink. “You go to bed. I’ll clean this up. I’ve got some thinking to do and washing dishes always helps.”
Mia would have argued, but even her fingers hurt. And she had to agree—washing dishes by hand in warm, soapy water was the best time to work out problems. At least she’d always thought so. She kissed her grandmother on the cheek. “Leave the apartment door unlocked. I have a feeling Christina might have taken off without her keys.”
“I have a feeling she might be home early.”
With that, Mia headed to the bedroom. She soaked in the claw-foot tub the last principal of the school had had the forethought to upgrade to, the steam wafting out of the water and making shapes around her. Mia needed to focus on food and the business. Not dead guys in the backyard and whatever this thing was with Cindy and Grans. She took a deep breath and gave up the investigation to Baldwin, Cindy’s spell work to Grans, and her business to the Goddess. All she had to do now was do the work that was put in front of her.
A tiny laugh echoed in the back of her mind. Gloria, her familiar and kitchen witch doll, was chiming in her opinion. Which Mia knew basically was “Good luck with that.” She sank down farther in the water.
* * *
The next morning Christina was at the breakfast table and ready to go when Mia entered the kitchen. A sweet smell of vanilla and blueberries came from the oven. She went over to the coffeepot and poured a cup. Sitting down at the table, she studied Christina’s too-serious face. “You cooked? How long have you been up?”
“Since five, but I didn’t come out to the kitchen until seven.” She pushed the local paper across the table. “I got that from the front porch.”
