Hobgoblins and Homework

by Amanda A. Allen

  Table of Contents

  Hobgoblins and Homework

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also By Amanda A. Allen

  Copyright

  HOBGOBLINS

  AND

  HOMEWORK

  BY AMANDA A. ALLEN

  MYSTIC COVE MYSTERIES

  BOOK 5

  For Noah

  Whatever would I do without you? Being your mom

  is everything.

  Chapter 1

  “Mommy,” Ella said.

  Scarlett glanced up without really seeing her daughter and said, “One moment.”

  “Mommy,” Ella said more insistently.

  “Just a second, Elles,” Scarlett said as she rolled out another round of pie dough. Thanksgiving was approaching and she was stocking her freezer with as many pies as it could hold. She had 20 more to make today.

  “Mommy,” Ella said again, tugging on Scarlett’s apron.

  She finally turned to her daughter and demanded, “What?”

  “That girl looks like Lex.”

  Scarlett blinked and then turned to look out at the dining area of the bakery. A girl a few years older than Ella with a squat little build and cool blue eyes was staring at the cookie display. Scarlett blinked as the girl shrugged enigmatically and then asked for one piece of bread with butter and a cup of ice water. She counted out the $0.69 slowly.

  “Hello,” Scarlett said, crossing to stand behind her barista, Belinda.

  The little girl looked up and then defensively said, “Hello.”

  “What’s your name?” Scarlett asked brightly. She grinned and then ladled up a pot of soup, trying to hide her mom intuition which was spiking pretty hard.

  “Alexis,” she said. Her gaze darted to the side and then she grinned a pretty arrogant little grin that looked far, far too much like Lex. Scarlett felt something grab at her heart as well as the druidic knowing at her soul.

  Scarlett forced a smile and then said, “How about some soup?”

  The girl’s glance shifted sideways and then she said, “No thanks.”

  She was hungry. Her gaze had brightened before her pride kicked in. She was hungry, she was Lex’s, and she was alone. Scarlett’s fury kicked into high gear as did the mama lioness in her.

  “We made too much,” Scarlett lied. “We’ll just have to throw it out at the end of the night. Ella go get her some cookies and chicken noodle.”

  Scarlett sat down across from the girl and unobtrusively pulled out her phone and sent a quick text, “COME NOW.”

  Scarlett ran her fingers across the silverware across from the little girl and then asked, “And what’s your last name?”

  The girl just shrugged and smiled and her brilliant eyes shifted sideways before she took another far too hungry bite of soup. Belinda’s sharp gaze saw what Scarlett was doing, and the barista brought over some extra sourdough rolls and butter. That wordless shrug that the girl had given—that was a pure Lex move. Scarlett wouldn’t have thought it was written into his genetics. She’d have guessed it was just his arrogance, but maybe he couldn’t help it. Even if he couldn’t help it, he was still arrogant, and the shrug had made her eye twitch more than once.

  The angle of Scarlett’s chair let her see the sidewalk outside the bakery and she immediately saw when the Mystic Cove Police Department SUV parked two buildings down. Scarlett rose for a moment and said, “I’ll just be right back.”

  She opened the door of the bakery not noticing the ring of the bell. She didn’t notice moving past the witchery shop or Quinton’s bookshop to reach Lex.

  “What,” she had to pause because the rage she felt was leaving her without words, “is a little girl with your eyes and your build and your mother…” She bit back the curse when she saw a little boy pass by with his mother. She cleared her throat and then said, “…build—the poor thing—in my bakery eating as if she were starving.”

  “What?” Lex’s gaze glanced to the bakery and back to Scarlett. There was the edge of panic in his gaze and that better be because he realized his kid was alone and hungry.

  “This is why you are so cagey,” Scarlett said and then she punched him in the arm. “This is why you’ve been spiking my knowing. I knew something was off with you.”

  “Scarlett,” he said, but the tone of his voice said that she wasn’t wrong.

  Scarlett shook her head totally incapable of forming words. He, he…he was her friend. He’d helped her. He’d helped save her and her girls. She cared about him….and he was a deadbeat dad. He knew all that was important to her about being a mother and he was a deadbeat dad who didn’t even tell the people in his life about his daughter.

  He shrugged and she punched him right in the stomach before sniffing as hard as possible to hold back the tears she was not going to let fall in front of him.

  Scarlett marched back to the bakery, swung the door wide and said, “Here.”

  She moved past the girl before she told her dad what she thought of him in front of that child.

  “Amelie?” he asked, shock coloring every facet of his tone as if he hadn’t been able to believe that his kid really was in the bakery.

  “She said her name was Alexis,” Scarlett told him as she went through the half door to the kitchen and made her way back to the pies.

  He flinched a bit at her tone and the statement, but straightened his shoulders and walked right to the little girl, lifting her up, squeezing her tight.

  Scarlett watched it—saw the love in it—and hated him a little more for not telling her about his daughter. His mouth formed the words, “Baby,” and Scarlett saw him breathe in his daughter, his wrestler’s shoulders were stiff with power behind that squeeze.

  Scarlett knew that reaction. It was the relief and fury combined. Relief because the child was fine and in front of you and fury that they could have been hurt so very, very bad. Just where had the child traveled from and how dangerous was her getting here alone?

  “Mommy?” Ella’s gaze darted between Lex’s daughter and Lex. Ella’s eyes were wide with concern and flashes of her own history. Ella’s dad had been less than stellar since before Scarlett and Grant had broken up.

  “Come back here baby,” Scarlett told Ella and began angrily rolling out another pie crust.

  Ella came immediately probably because there was something in the tone of Scarlett’s voice that was scary even to her normally intrepid daughter.

  “Mommy,” Ella’s voice was tremulous, “Is that girl Lex’s daughter?”

  Scarlett didn’t answer because she was too busy watching Lex almost fall into a chair across from his little doppelgänger. The girl looked at him—worship in her gaze—but anything else was totally unreadable. The two of them looked at each other with the same intense eyes. Finally, Lex leaned forward and said something, but he was speaking too low for Scarlett to overhear.

  “Mommy?”

  Scarlett looked down at Ella, imagined how an awkward reunion with her would feel, and decided—Amelie—if not Lex—deserved the privilege of privacy.

  “Belinda, go take a break. I’ll text you,” Scarlett said, crossing the dining room with Ella. Scarlett flipped the closed sign and walked out of the front door of the bakery giving the little girl the privacy she deserved.

  Scarlett took Ella to Harper’s shop where Scarlett’s younge
st daughter, Luna, had spent the morning.

  “Mommy!” Luna called when they walked in, but she ran to Ella and started telling her sister about her scrambled stories. This one included wolves, elves, and someone named Trixie.

  Scarlett didn’t say anything, but blew a kiss and then simply took the armchair that looked over Arbor Avenue, watching for Lex to leave the bakery. What was he going to do? Would he take the child with him? Of course, he would, Scarlett thought. He wasn’t a monster, and he knew that little girl. As much as Scarlett didn’t want to admit it, Amelie was his daughter. Scarlett only cared about him having a daughter—because they’d been friends for months and he’d never once mentioned Amelie.

  Amelie was a female, adorable version of him. And, Scarlett felt through the druidic knowing that the child would effect her life. By extension—her daughters’ lives. What did that mean? A good thing? A bad? Was this like Maeve? Scarlett’s newly adopted sister had come out of nowhere and become forever. It wasn’t until Maeve slipped into their hearts and filled a place they hadn’t realized was empty that they realized they had been missing her.

  “Have you talked to Mom?” Harper flopped into the chair next to Scarlett leaving Ella at the register. That Harper had taught Ella to check out customers should bother Scarlett, but she was glad her daughter was busy. “She called right before you walked in. She’s upset about something.”

  “Her and me both. You think Luna left another kitten there? Maybe in a basket with a name and note asking to be loved?”

  Harper snorted, crossed her legs, and admitted, “It might have been a little rat dog. I saw her talking to a clearly pregnant chihuahua a couple weeks ago.”

  Scarlett dropped her head to her knees for a second, knowing Luna intended to find Gram a little snappy dog and had to giggle when she imagined the look on her sour Gram’s face.

  “Is mom coming by?” Harper didn’t answer, so Scarlett looked back at her sister and asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Something. I don’t know. Something’s up with Mom. She doesn’t sound right.”

  “Is it Gram? You think something’s wrong with her?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well…” Scarlett took a deep breath and then told her sister all about Amelie and Lex.

  “Shut up,” Harper said and then cursed under her breath. “How did Ella take it?”

  Right to the horrible heart of the matter, Scarlett thought. Her ex-husband hadn’t fully abandoned their daughters, but he’d certainly been failing the girls lately. Scarlett knew she’d taken off across country when he’d left her for his girlfriend, but it had been bad before they left, and it hadn’t been great since then. And lately…he was trying.

  “I don’t know,” Scarlett admitted, glancing towards Ella. The girls were checking themselves out at the register with a basket full of things Harper would have to put back later. The two of them were giggling and trying on bracelets and earrings. Ella had a large fluffy scarf wrapped around her neck and Luna was wearing a cat ear headband.

  “Given that their dad called them freaks and then disappeared…” Harper trailed off and the two sisters gazes met.

  Scarlett looked at her daughter and then said, “The feelings will crop up and lash out again and again over the course of the next several weeks, and Ella may just add Lex to her list of people she doesn’t care for.”

  “That’s too bad given how you have a thing for Lex. But, of course, Gus is back. So you have options.”

  Scarlett paused. Harper hadn’t said anything about Gus being back since Scarlett had told her sister how she’d seen someone was in his house on Halloween. Mystic Cove was small enough that Scarlett expected to see him or hear of him any day, but it hadn’t happened yet. Which was weird. This was Mystic Cove. Small towns didn’t lend themselves to keeping secrets or going around unobserved. She had been waiting for someone to come to drop the news. They’d want a reaction, and she’d gone over it in her head time and again, so she wouldn’t feed their need for gossip.

  The timer Scarlett kept pinned to her apron went off, and she raised a brow and then rose. It was that or her bakery would burn down. Hopefully, Lex and Amelie had the time they needed.

  “I’ll keep the girls then,” Harper said winking. Everything about that had been sarcastic though and Scarlett knew Harper would be dropping by later.

  Scarlett grinned in reply—knowing Harper wouldn’t buy that careless smirk—but Scarlett figured an attempt at it was better than nothing. She walked out the back door, past the two shops in between Scarlett’s bakery and Harper’s eclectic little boutique, and stepped back into Sweeter Things. It was empty, but there was smoke rolling from the ovens. That shouldn’t have happened. Those cookies should be golden brown not…whatever this was. She yanked the door open but flames burst into the open.

  Scarlett gasped and instincts kicked in. She had the fire extinguisher in her hands and spraying into the ovens before she could even register that the espresso machine was making a funny noise and the sink was overflowing.

  “By the stars, what the…”

  What happened?

  Scarlett ran to the espresso machine unplugged it and then, as she watched, the trolley that had been set out for dirty dishes tipped and crashed onto the floor. She spun from that to turn off the sink which was far, far harder than it had ever been before.

  “What the what?” Scarlett gasped as she crossed back to the dining room where the dishes had crashed to the floor. Several of the plates that were supposed to be unbreakable cracked and two had full-on shattered, leaving a spray of glass across the floor in tiny little granules. “I…”

  Scarlett didn’t even have a moment to react when one of the chandeliers over one of the furthest tables crashed down, knocking a watercolor painting off the wall. She gasped and stared mouth hanging open.

  “Don’t come in,” she cried, but a sense of tension seemed to have snapped the second the bell rang and…and…whatever had been causing this…goodness…what was this…whatever it was—it stopped.

  “By the leaf,” she muttered, glancing around again in utter shock, and then looked up.

  Her mom was standing in the doorway of Sweeter Things with her mouth hanging open. Behind her was a tall man with silver hair and piercing blue eyes.

  “What happened?” Scarlett’s mother, Maye gasped.

  “I have no idea,” Scarlett said.

  “If I didn’t know better,” said the man standing behind her mother, “I’d say you really upset a hobgoblin. Looks like an earthquake went off in here.”

  “What?” Scarlett asked, intending to ask him to explain. But as she glanced towards him again, something caught her attention and she actually looked at him.

  “What…” Her voice trailed off, she completely forgot the mess as she stared at him.

  He was tall, his shoulders were wide, but he wasn’t like football player big. His jaw reminded her of something and there was the way he had the mole at the end of his eyebrow. He grinned at her and held out his hands as if she’d caught him taking cookies out of the cookie jar.

  She had that mole. His jaw…by the stars…his jaw reminded her of hers.

  She tried to speak again, “What…um….Mom?”

  Maye bit her lip, and she started to say something. Whatever it was faded away as their gazes met. Scarlett’s moved past her mother’s face to the man again and her voice was a croak when she asked, “Dad?”

  Chapter 2

  He nodded and stepped forward, opening his arms for a hug.

  Scarlett looked at her mom and asked, “Is he serious?”

  Maye turned and saw him with his arms open and smacked him on his arm hissing, “I told you not to.”

  “Look,” Scarlett said, glancing at the two of them and then saying, “This isn’t a good time.”

  “I told you,” Maye muttered to Scarlett’s dad.

  Scarlett’s head cocked, eyes narrowing. This was clearly why Mom had been upset before. Bu
t…Scarlett wouldn’t have ever expected that her mom was even talking to her dad. Not after everything.

  “I traveled a long way to see you,” Dad said as if she should drop everything to throw herself at him. As if she should…just forget that he’d left without a word.

  “Maybe you should have considered a phone call before you came then,” Scarlett said striving for an even tone. She failed. The bell over the door rang and Scarlett’s barista, Belinda, came back. Scarlett didn’t hide her relief. Both for the help in resetting the bakery, and the barrier between her and her parents.

  “What in the world?” Belinda gasped, spinning, to examine the mess.

  “Scarlett,” her dad started, ignoring both Belinda and Scarlett’s reaction.

  “No,” she snapped. “I have enough going on and I’m not doing this now.”

  Belinda’s eyes widened, and Scarlett could well imagine what was running through the kid’s head. By the stars, Scarlett thought wishing she could shriek, but she wasn’t going to let them make her that crazy.

  “Take care of the dining room,” Scarlett snapped to Belinda, immediately feeling bad about the way she spoke to Belinda. Scarlett softened her voice when she added, “I need to check out the ovens.”

  Scarlett turned and walked into her kitchen, ignoring her dad. She hadn’t seen him since she was 9-years-old. How could he just…show up and expect her to be happy about it? Was he…drunk? Was he that out of touch with relationships and feelings? He’d never been that great of a dad, not that attentive, but…he’d at least…been around.

  Scarlett grabbed the first baking sheet with scorched cookies, slammed them into the trash and moved through tray after tray until she heard the bell over the door of her shop ring again. She glanced towards the door and saw that her parents had left.

  How could her mother, Maye, just show up with Scarlett’s dad and not even say anything? Not warn Scarlett in advance? She wanted to be angry, but…there was no doubt in Scarlett’s mind that Maye was fully on Scarlett’s side.