Bedtimes and Broomsticks

by Amanda A. Allen

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m…I’m in my new place,” Grant said weakly.

  “Why?”

  “Um. This—this is where I live now.”

  Scarlett focused on the doorway, counting the squares on it, biting her lips to keep herself from taking the chance to curse him out like he deserved.

  “You’re not coming here to be with us?” There was the tiniest bit of a wail to Luna’s voice, but she held it together.

  “No,” Grant choked out.

  “Oh,” Luna said, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “Here’s Mommy.”

  Scarlett’s littlest daughter handed her the phone, crawled off of Scarlett’s lap, and crossed over to Max who was sitting attentively, waiting for his person. Luna buried her face into his neck, and Scarlett took the phone off of speaker.

  She swallowed back her own tears knowing if she let her emotions go her baby would be further destroyed.

  “Grant,” she said. She doubted her feelings carried through the phone. Her voice sounded flat. She didn’t think he realized how Scarlett’s heart was in shattered pieces for their little girl.

  “That was real nice, Scarlett.”

  Oh. That was her fault? Scarlett hit the power button, shoved the phone into her back pocket as she rose and crossed over to Luna, taking her into her arms and said, “Let’s eat dessert and catch fireflies, huh?”

  “Ok,” Luna said. Her face was dry now, but the look in her eyes was devestated.

  “Did you know,” Scarlett told her, “On the day you were born there was a rainbow?”

  “Was Daddy there?”

  Scarlett had to work to answer because the feelings were so strong in her throat that it was hard to speak around them but she finally said, “Yes. He was…”

  “Oh,” Luna said, winding her fingers through Scarlett’s. And then she didn’t say anything else at all.

  * * * * *

  When the moon rose high, the Oaken druid family made their way to the grove. They each held lanterns and the fireflies were out and buzzing. The stars seemed to find their way through the skies to shine especially bright on the grove and in the grove, Ella planted a cutting of her Spokane willow tree friend. There was a prime place available that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She was followed by Luna who planted an ornamental cherry tree with fairy pink blossoms. The Oaken druids wove in and out of the trees, dancing to a song that only they seemed to hear, until the trees that had been added had grown tall and strong, roots deep into the grove as the roots of Ella and Luna’s hearts were bound with generations of their family’s trees.

  “Well,” Maye said as the girls ran among the trees and the rest spread out under the branches and blossoms of their favorite trees, “What are you going to do? Is it over?”

  Scarlett looked over to her girls, where she could see only shadow, but she could hear their laughter—the healing that being with these women seemed to promote and said, “Oh, I’m not giving up for some time. Luna is safe here—and I’m a fighter.”

  “You certainly fought to keep her your marriage far longer than I did,” Maye said. “Maybe I should have tried longer and harder.”

  “Those days are over, Mom,” Scarlett replied and for the first time in years, curled into her mom’s lap, running her fingers through the grass of the grove and said, “All of that stubbornness is going to be used to keep us here.”

  Maye’s fingers tangled into Scarlett’s hair as she said, “Then I’ll count on you staying around. I found some flooring a few years back. For a song. It’s black walnut and perfect for your apartment.”

  Scarlett smiled into the darkness and said, “Well now. That does sound perfect. Maybe Marta will come paint a tree on the wall in the girls’ room with pink and purple flowers.”

  Maye’s chuckle filled the air and then said they said together, “Do you remember the black flowers on Harper’s bedroom tree?”

  The rumble of laughter carried across the ground and then Harper went darting past, followed by two much shorter shadows and one barking dog.

  “Is she ok?” Scarlett asked, sitting up. She didn’t need to explain that she meant Harper.

  “The sheriff came out here earlier today. Your Gram scared him off. But she’s ok. She’s Harper. ”

  It was an answer that meant a hundred things. Yes. And, no. And all the things in between.

  “Do you know what happened to her arm?”

  Maye shook her head. Scarlett only caught the movement because of the light of the hanging lantern.

  “She won’t say? Or you didn’t ask?” Scarlett tried again, but Maye shook her head once again.

  “Damn it,” Scarlett snapped, rising and crossing to tell Ella and Luna they got to have a few more sleepovers with Harper and Nana and Gram while Scarlett got to hunt up the bastard who had hexed her baby and then she was going to track down Harper Oaken and shake her until she said what happened to her arm and whether she was ok.

  Chapter 13

  When the knock came soon after Scarlett got home, she answered the door to find Gus in the doorway and Lex just behind.

  “What are you doing here?” Gus was demanding of Lex, as Scarlett started to shut the door. Lex, moving with the vampire speed that belonged to Gus, shifted enough to stick his foot in the door.

  The two of them were, in many ways, foils of each other. Gus was much taller—having at least six inches on Lex. But Lex was wider—in the way of a wrestler or football player. Both were strong, but Lex had the muscles of a man who worked at it and Gus had the elegant, length and strength that belonged to a vampire by nature.

  Lex bristled power while Gus’s power was understated. Gus’s eyes were as black as night while Lex’s were the brilliant light blue of a summer’s day. They were both handsome—amazingly so. Lex had that raw masculinity that seemed to almost slam into you where Gus was almost pretty—he was definitely masculine, but the square jaw, perfect, prominent cheekbones, thick lips and the flush of a man who was eminently healthy. The truth was, though, Scarlett thought—each was handsomer than the other. It would almost be as if whichever you’d seen last was the one be handsomest.

  And, if she let herself, either one of them could fascinate her. Maybe...she was wrong. Maybe she was ready to move on. Maybe, whether it be Lex or Gus or someone else, she could fall in love again. But right now—with all that was happening—even before the murder, she had shut down that side of herself as tightly as it could go, and she was NOT opening it up any time soon.

  Scarlett slammed the door again hitting Lex’s foot as hard as she could. When they didn’t leave, she demanded of them both, “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s me,” Gus said, glancing over his shoulder and then back to Lex with a massive scowl.

  “We need to talk about the investigation,” Lex said, completely ignoring that they didn’t have an investigation. He might have one. She did have one. But THEY didn’t have one.

  Her eye twitched and she clenched her teeth. Then she looked at them. They were strong. They were healthy. They probably could use a hammer or be really good at pulling out the old flooring. She wanted to have as much of the apartment done and unpacked as possible before her girls got home.

  She swung the door open and said, “If you come in, you work.”

  Lex raised a brow and crossed the threshold of her apartment. Gus paused and then looked at her and at the doorway.

  “Gus, you’re invited in today.”

  She watched his face pale because that invitation had been limited.

  “I would never hurt your daughter, Scarlett,” Gus said, crossing the threshold.

  “Of that, I have no doubt,” Scarlett replied. “But the killer couldn’t have known that Luna was mine. I can’t take any risks. Not with them.”

  “Even if it was me, and it wasn’t,” Gus snarled, his fangs showing, “Luna is in no danger from me. Surely you see that?”

  “Calm down, vamp,” Lex said stepping between S
carlett and Gus, but Scarlett kicked the back of Lex’s knee and sidestepped to face off with Gus.

  “Honestly,” she said again, “Everything inside of me says there is nothing to fear from you for my girls, Gus. EVERY single piece of me says that. But if you think I will take the smallest chance with my daughters, you’re crazy. And you don’t know me nearly as well as you think you do.”

  She jabbed her finger into his chest as she spoke until he grabbed her wrist, showing a vampire strength she had never experienced from him. It was in the moment of his stark strength overtaking her that she realized how much the tides had shifted between them. Her breath caught, and it wasn’t in fear. She searched his face and found the man who had loved her—always. The hair on the nape of her neck rose, and she told herself to ignore it, but more pieces of her were awakening—parts of her that had always been dormant around him weren’t dormant now.

  He probably sensed that something shifted. She hoped he hadn’t, but there were those eyes—those dark eyes, and they had always seemed to see right into her. But now—now that she was older, that she was smarter, she realized how very sexy it was for someone to know the deepest, darkest, weakest parts of you and still want you.

  By the stars Scarlett, she thought, shut it down.

  “Scarlett,” Lex said, placing his hand on her arm, and Gus growled. But it was the move that Scarlett needed, she snatched herself from Gus, glanced at Lex, reminded herself of what was at stake and with those thoughts—shut her body right up.

  “Stop it,” Scarlett snapped at Gus as if she was snapping at her dog, Max. Maybe if she pretended her body hadn’t come to life, he wouldn’t realize. Maybe if she treated him like her little buddy, he’d give her the space she needed—because she was pretty sure that if he realized she was even slightly interested, he would press for something more. “Stop it right now.”

  “He’s a vampire,” Lex said evenly. “You have to remember…”

  But Scarlett cut him off. Gus was a vampire. But he was also the boy she’d spent nearly every day of her childhood with. Of the two men in her apartment, she knew which one she trusted.

  “What you need to remember,” Scarlett snapped, shoving Lex from Gus, “Is that Gus is important to me. And you’re here because I have flooring to pull out and you won’t leave me alone. Whereas Gus would be here regardless of that fact.”

  “Vampires are dangerous.”

  “We’re all dangerous,” Scarlett sighed. She handed Gus a crowbar and said, “We’re pulling out the flooring in the bedroom of the girls' room first. I want their room done before this is all resolved.”

  The apartment included three levels above the bakery. The highest level was attics that were filled with decades of stuff. The next level down was entirely unfinished except for flooring and Scarlett wasn’t sure what she was going to do with. The main level was big enough for her family—three bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a wide open space off the kitchen for eating and living.

  “What did you find out?” Lex asked twirling the crowbar. To give him credit, he went right to work.

  Scarlett glanced at Lex and started working herself. The nasty carpet was easy enough to remove and it didn’t take them long. Regardless of Lex’s help, she wasn’t ready to give him her thoughts or tell him what she had found out. She was a druid—she needed a feel of his energy and him before she’d trust him.

  When he asked again, she told him. “Earn your answers, warlock.”

  Scarlett led the way out of the girls' room and across to the living space. She jabbed a large knife, cut into the carpet and started to pull. Gus was next to her a moment later, yanking and it came up in one huge streak. In the end, Gus did most of the hauling and carrying and it only took a few minutes given his vampire strength. Except underneath this part of the apartment was old, stained nasty wood flooring.

  “I don't think it’s worth trying to fix,” Lex said, hands on hips as he surveyed the floor.

  “My mom already got flooring,” Scarlett said, suddenly more grateful than before. The echoes of life from the wood weren’t feelings she wanted around her daughters. She wanted them to live in a place that was bright and airy. A place that didn’t whisper hard times and loss. And this wood didn’t have good stories to tell.

  The vampire strength of Gus combined with Lex’s knowledge—he’d done this before—had all the flooring in the main floor of the apartment removed in near silence. Lex tried to broach the investigation a time or two but then seemed to think better of it.

  It was when they were yanking out the kitchen cabinetry that Scarlett glanced over, saw the focused look on Lex’s face and said, “It’s getting late.”

  His cool blue eyes searched hers and he said, “Yeah.”

  Gus took a section of the cabinetry down to the back of the property to pile up all the trash together, leaving Scarlett and Lex alone.

  Lex didn’t point out that she hadn’t answered a single question while he’d been working. He searched her face and then glanced at the time on his phone. When he looked up, she grinned at him, and the wickedness in it seemed to pull a corresponding grin out of him.

  “Did you play me, druid?”

  It wasn’t a threatening question. It was soft and there was an edge of something else in it. Something she hadn’t heard for a long time, but it was a feeling that she recognized. Desire. Her gaze searched his, truly surprised. She knew what she was. She was the girl next door. The one with freckles on her nose and the brown hair of tree bark. She had the soft green eyes of moss. She did not have the curves or height of a model. She had the shape—in fact—of a woman who had given birth twice and things weren’t quite the same as before.

  Lex, on the other hand, was a perfect specimen of manhood and virility. Scarlett felt almost like the belle of the ball, except she wasn’t sure if either of the men who seemed so interested truly were. Gus, she could almost buy. Gus had loved her forever. And yes, she’d known of his feelings. She wasn’t stupid. But she’d never thought it was abiding love. She thought it was the easy affection of long friendship.

  She rubbed her brow, glancing aside and trying to pretend that there wasn’t this force between her and Lex. And then he reached out a hand and rubbed the edge of his thumb along her jaw.

  “You’re a surprise, Scarlett Oaken.”

  She shifted and tried to look away, but the simple pressure against her face seemed to hold her prisoner.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. She sniffed and pushed back the wisps of her hair that had freed themselves from her messy bun.

  “I think you might,” Lex said and his voice was deep and husky and tinged with something dark.

  The sound of Gus’s boots on the stairs had Scarlett jerking back. She tried to recover her reaction but stumbled across the kitchen to the fridge and yanked it open as Gus opened the front door.

  She glanced around and then pulled out three cold beers and grabbed a bag of chips.

  Gus looked at her offerings and said, “I’m having flashbacks to 3rd grade.”

  Scarlett grinned and they said in unison, “Cheetos and root beers.”

  “What have you learned, Scarlett?” Lex pressed his beer against the back of his neck.

  “I don’t know,” Scarlett said. “I don’t feel like I know anything, but Lacey…I don’t understand her life.”

  “What do you mean?” Gus took a long drink of the beer and stretched his neck.

  “She was mayor? That doesn’t make sense. We are barely past 30. And Lacey Monroe got enough of the people of the town to vote for her? We’re still kids to half these people.”

  “Yeah,” Gus said, probably imagining up Mr. Throdmore or old Mrs. Lovejoy.

  Scarlett sighed. The apartment smelled musty and old. She opened the windows and called to the wind and it fluttered through the apartment and around them.

  Scarlett pressed her hands to her head and then she said, “A lot of people didn’t like Lacey. Henna sure
didn’t.”

  “What did those old coots say?”

  “She died before most of the town was awake.”

  “Have you talked to Brad or Kelly?”

  Scarlett searched Lex’s faced and glanced over at Gus. “You seem to know a lot about Lacey’s friends for some out-of-towner.”

  Lex sniffed and said, “The rumors that I spent some time with Lacey are not entirely wrong.”

  Scarlett and Gus snorted, an expression of pure sarcasm.

  “But,” Lex continued, “You need to talk to Brad and Kelly. They’re of far more concern than I am.”

  “And what,” Gus demanded, “Ask them if they murdered Lacey? What would Scarlett even do if she finds out? She’s a druid. They’re strong in their circles. What’s she supposed to do on her own? Run and hope that Brad is drunk again but too drunk to give chase?”

  Scarlett punched Gus on the arm and said, “I am not helpless. And they aren’t going to talk to me as easily as everyone else has. It’s no big deal to talk to Abby or Henna or Mr. Jueavas, but Kelly stormed out of Harper’s shop, furious with me. Brad never liked me.”

  Gus snorted because of course, Brad had never liked anyone. Even in high school, he’d channeled his inner crotchety old man, but he was pretty and his parents made good money. It was why Lacey had wanted him then and maybe why Kelly wanted him later.

  “Brad likes anything with breasts,” Lex said. He glanced Scarlett over and said, “Wear a tight shirt and use your nice mom voice, and he’ll be as soft as pudding.”

  “A tight shirt!” Gus snarled just as Scarlett said, “My nice mom voice?”

  She didn’t really need an explanation, she was surprised Lex had noticed it. The nice mom voice was the talking to your kid on the phone, happy to see them after school, soft sweet voice.

  Scarlett sighed and then said, “I know I need to hunt them up. I’m not ready to, yet. I don’t want to ask blind questions.”

  “What about the accountant?”

  “She’s…” Scarlett paused and then admitted, “She’s my prime suspect based off of the crazy eyes alone.”