A vision of Matt pressing her up against the wall and devouring her mouth flashed in her mind, and for the life of her, she had no idea if that was her thought or his. “I—”
“Of course she does,” Joy said. “In fact, she’s been dying to go to that new place on Ocean. Abalone? Right, Hope?”
“Right.” Hope shook her head, already knowing there was no backing out of this without looking like a complete jackass.
“So have I,” Matt said, grinning at her. “What do you say, Hope? Are you free for dinner Friday night? I could get us reservations at Abalone and then we could take a drive up the coast to watch the sunset.”
“Yes,” Grace and Joy said at the same time.
Hope rolled her eyes. “I think my social directors have spoken.”
Matt nodded. “Yeah, I heard them. But I’m a lot more interested in your answer.”
The playfulness was gone, and his sincerity touched her. How could she say no to that? He was sexy and fun and not Lucas. “Yes. I’d love to.”
The scene of him pressing her up against the wall flashed in her mind again just as something that looked a lot like desire flashed in his eyes. Then he said, “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me, too.” But as soon as she said the words, she knew it was a lie. All she felt was anxiety.
He handed her his phone. “Mind putting your info in there? I’ll call you to confirm the time.”
She did as he asked, and a moment later he was saying his goodbyes and walking away. After the café door closed behind him, she turned on her friends. “What is wrong with you two?”
“What?” Grace asked, but Joy at least had the decency to look ashamed of herself.
“You guys left me no way of backing out of that gracefully. Now I have to have dinner with him on Friday, and then I have a date with Benji on Saturday.”
“And you’re complaining, why?” Joy asked with both eyebrows raised. She has no idea what I’d do for a date with just one hot guy, much less two.
Hope sighed. How could she sit there and complain about a robust dating life when one of her besties was having such a hard time getting her husband to pay attention to her. She forced a smile and said, “Not complaining. Just a little surprised. It’s been a while since I’ve juggled dating two men.”
Grace placed her fist to her mouth and pretended to cough as she said, “Three.”
“Not three,” Hope insisted. “Just Matt and Benji. Lucas doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Sure. If you say so,” Grace said, winking at her. “But we’ll see.”
Chapter Seven
“I’m out,” Grace said. “I have a house showing in ten.” She got up and held her arms out, waiting for her hug.
Hope reluctantly got to her feet, still annoyed at her friend. Grace was in a happy relationship, with a younger guy no less. She wasn’t having any problems in the bedroom department. If Joy hadn’t been there, Hope would’ve let her have it for pushing her into a date with Matt. She leaned in, gave Grace a hug, and said, “We’ll be discussing this later. You know that, right?”
Grace chuckled and whispered back, “I had no doubt. Just go easy on Joy.”
“Yep.”
Hope sat back down and watched as Joy hugged Grace goodbye.
When it was just the two of them, Joy looked over at Hope. “I’m sorry. I know that was over the line.”
“Don’t worry about it. I guess it won’t kill me to have dinner with a silver fox.” Hope waved a hand, dismissing Joy’s apology. Even if she was fairly certain all Matt wanted to do was rip her clothes off. It wasn’t lost on her that, before Lucas had returned, she would’ve been perfectly fine with that. Now she didn’t know what she thought. She just knew she wasn’t likely to fall into bed with a stranger. It didn’t feel right.
Joy gave her a grateful smile. “I know I was out of line. Thanks for letting me off the hook.”
Hope was about to once again absolve her from her sin, but before she could get any words out, someone shouted, “Hey! Watch out!”
Jackson flew out from behind the counter and lunged for a tall, lean young man in ripped jeans and a tight black T-shirt. But before he got to the customer, the man stumbled backward right into a fancy display of ceramic mugs.
Hope and Joy both stood and raised their hands, each of them shouting, “Levitate!”
There was nothing they could do for the customer. He was already in motion and took the display down with him, along with a handful of mugs, but the majority were saved by the spell and floated in the air.
“Back up,” Hope ordered all the customers surrounding the man splayed out on the floor. “Give him some air!”
Jackson waved the customers back. “Give Hope and Joy space to put the mugs down.”
The customers retreated, and Joy was able to guide all the mugs to the ground without breaking any more.
Hope ran over to where Jackson was standing over the customer, shaking his head. “What happened?” she asked.
“He ordered a coffee cake, and then before he could get his drink order out, he started shaking violently and stumbled backward right into the display,” Jackson said.
Kneeling, Hope placed a hand on the man’s chest. His heart was racing, and his eyes were shifting back and forth in a rapid motion. “I think he’s having a seizure. Someone call an ambulance.”
“I’m on it,” Joy said, already tapping on her phone.
Hope turned her attention back to the man and pressed two fingers to his wrist. Yes, his heart rate was definitely too elevated. And his skin was clammy to the touch. She didn’t have any idea what to do in this situation. All she knew was that the man wasn’t in good shape, and she was going to stay by his side until the paramedics arrived.
She didn’t have to wait long. The sirens sounded in the distance, and even though it seemed like hours went by, Hope was certain the two women who rushed into the café in uniform had come as fast as they could.
“I’ve got it from here,” the woman with bronze skin said, gently nudging Hope aside. Her partner, a tall dark-haired woman with her jaw set, took her place on the other side of the man and immediately went to work administering an IV.
“Looks like a drug overdose.” The bronze-skinned woman looked up. “Anyone know what he took?”
Everyone, including Jackson, was silent.
“Anyone know this man?” she asked.
“His name is Spencer,” Jackson said. “He comes in here a couple times a week. I think he works over at Cryptic.”
Cryptic was the local bookstore down on Main that also had a huge section of board games and puzzles.
“All right.” She sighed and told her partner they needed to get him to emergency ASAP for a tox screen. The two paramedics were fast and efficient, getting the man on the gurney and expertly wheeling him out to their vehicle.
Jackson stared at them through the front window and ran a hand through his dark curly hair.
“Are you all right?” Hope asked him, lightly squeezing his arm.
He shook his head. “That’s the third OD this town has had in two weeks. The second one I’ve personally witnessed.” He glanced down at her, his eyes full of worry, and she noticed his hands were shaking slightly. “Before I left for college four years ago, I knew there were some people in town who did drugs, but they were a small population that usually just kept to themselves out on their land where no one would know what they were up to. But wow, have things changed. First there was Lex’s Mom’s boyfriend and that crowd he was hanging out with, and now this guy, a nineteen-year-old girl, and a woman in her thirties. I don’t know what’s happening or why our town is suddenly a hotbed for drug use, but it’s really got me shaken.”
Hope placed a hand on his arm for reassurance, but then pulled him into a hug. “You did great handling this.”
He let out a scoff. “No. You did. You’re the one who kept him from falling into a pile of broken cups, and you sat with him until the paramedics go
t here.”
“You kept the customers calm and didn’t freak out. You did good. Trust me. Now come sit down with me and Joy for a minute.” She started to tug him toward their table.
“I can’t. I have to clean up this mess and get back behind the counter.”
Hope glanced over to see one of the staffers had already righted the display and was busy sweeping up the broken shards, while a young woman had stepped behind the counter to take care of the few customers who’d stuck around. “I think your coworkers have it under control.”
Jackson followed her gaze and then slowly nodded. “Yeah. Okay. But just a minute. I want to make sure they are okay, too.”
Once Hope got him seated, Joy passed him a bottle of water she’d retrieved while they’d been talking.
“Drink this,” she said.
He grabbed the bottle but didn’t lift it to his lips. “Do you think he’ll be all right?”
“I hope so,” Hope said, remembering what she’d heard the night before at Lucas’s opening about someone wanting to use his shop to move drugs. She wondered if that person was already distributing drugs and if he or she was the one responsible for the overdoses. A chill ran up her spine. Premonition Pointe had always been a relatively safe beach town. If drugs were taking over, she didn’t see how she had a choice other than to try to find out who was at the center of it. “How well do you know him?”
“Not well at all.” Jackson finally took a drink of the water. “He’s a customer who’s flirted with me a few times. I’d actually been trying to work up the nerve to ask him out, but the last few times he came in, it was clear he was on something, so I abandoned that idea. I don’t need that shit in my life, you know?”
Hope nodded.
“Then this happened today, and I don’t know how I feel. Shocked, I guess. Worried. Pissed that drugs have found their way here. You know I was hoping to build my graphic arts business here and just settle down with a cute guy and a couple of dogs and enjoy life. But now I’m wondering if I made a mistake.”
“You didn’t,” Joy said, shaking her head. “This town is too resilient to let drugs take over, right, Hope?” her friend asked, sounding as if she needed Hope to reassure her.
What if that had been one of my kids? Joy’s thoughts were as clear as day. Hope gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course it is. And I have some ideas on what we can do to help.”
“You do?” Jackson and Joy asked at the same time.
“Yep.” She quickly filled Jackson in on her new telepathic ability.
His eyes went wide, and his mouth fell open before he cleared his throat and asked, “You’re a mind reader now?”
“Not exactly. I sometimes hear random thoughts. But I haven’t heard any from you.”
He let out a nervous chuckle. “Does that mean I’m simple minded?” Jackson tapped his temple. “Nothing going on up here?”
“If that’s the case, then so is everyone else. I don’t hear a lot. Just snippets here and there. For instance, I heard Joy worrying about her children getting caught up in the drugs, but that’s all.”
“It terrifies me that one of them will fall into the wrong crowd, make some dumb decision, and then the next thing you know, something like this happens.” She waved a hand toward the display. “We’ve all heard the stories. Sometimes all it takes is once to get addicted.”
Hope nodded. “Yes, that worries me, too. For your kids, for Lex, for you, Jackson.”
Jackson jerked back. “I wouldn’t do drugs. That’s not my thing.”
She believed him, but he was also a twenty-two-year-old who’d just graduated from college and was living in a small town while trying to make it on his own. “I know, but it doesn’t stop me from worrying. You’ve been friends with Lex and Kyle for so long I feel like your auntie. The worry comes with the territory.”
He rolled his eyes, but she didn’t miss the tiny twitch of a smile that he hid. He was a good kid; she knew that. She just wanted to keep him and the rest of the young people of the town safe. Not to mention that she didn’t want Lucas’s business anywhere near drug runners. If they decided to use him and his business, who knew what they’d do to try to force him into it? Those types of people didn’t play nice.
“So, now that you know I have this new superpower,” she said. “I can tell you that last night when I was at Lucas’s open house at Against the Grain, I heard someone thinking that his business would be a perfect place to use to run drugs.”
“What? You don’t think he’d do something like that do you,” Joy asked.
“No, he wouldn’t. At least not the Lucas that I know,” Hope agreed.
“Who was thinking that?” Jackson asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. The place was crowded, and I couldn’t connect the thoughts to a specific person. I don’t even know what they meant by ‘run drugs through his business.’ He sells handmade furniture and accessories. Unless they are smuggling drugs in through his wood shipments, it doesn’t make any sense to me. And even if they were doing that, they’d need Lucas’s cooperation to get their goods.”
Jackson and Joy were silent as they gave each other a skeptical look.
“What?” Hope asked.
“You can’t tell what we’re thinking?” Jackson asked, his eyes narrowed.
“No, but if you’re asking me to try to read your mind, I can do that. It’s not something I particularly want to be able to do, but I’ll work it if I have to.”
Joy sighed. “I think we’re both wondering just how much we can trust Lucas. He’s been gone for a long time, and now he’s back with what looks like a pretty good-sized bank account. He bought a house with a fair amount of property and then turned around and opened a retail business. Both of those presumably take a fair bit of capital.”
Hope gritted her teeth and tried not to lash out at her friend for suggesting that Lucas might have any part in the drug trade. She knew him. Knew in her bones that he wouldn’t ever be a part of such an operation. “I trust him. That’s all we need to know.”
Neither of them said anything, and suddenly there was tension in the air.
Hope sat back with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’d know, all right?”
“Because you’re telepathic now?” Jackson asked.
“No. Because I’d know and that’s all there is to it.” She knew she sounded rigid and like she couldn’t face the truth about someone she loved. But her gut was telling her she wasn’t wrong, and she was a woman who always followed her gut.
“All right. Trust me, I definitely want to believe Lucas wouldn’t be involved in something like this,” Joy said gently. “And that’s what we’ll do unless there’s some reason to believe otherwise.”
“There won’t be,” Hope insisted.
“You’re right, Hope,” Jackson said. “I think we’re all just a little flustered. Let’s focus on who might be behind the drugs. Any ideas?”
“Can you find out the names of the three people who overdosed?” Hope asked him.
“Yeah, I think so. I can certainly shake the gossip tree.”
“Perfect. Just keep it quiet. I don’t want anyone to find out you’re asking questions. We just don’t know how dangerous these people are.”
Jackson nodded. “No problem. My gay network knows how to keep stuff on the downlow.”
Hope chuckled. “Understood.”
“What can I do?” Joy asked.
“You’re going to be my partner in crime while we check out everyone who showed up at Lucas’s open house last night,” Hope said. “You’ll be the one looking for services, and I’ll be your sidekick. We’ll find a way to bring up the issue, and I’ll try to listen in on their thoughts. We’ll also get Grace to investigate who is new in town. See if there’s a connection.”
“Definitely. I’m up for it,” Joy said, sitting up straighter. “Let’s take out the trash.” She put her fist up, waiting for a three-way fist bump.
Hope met her halfway, and then
the pair of them stared at Jackson, waiting for him to join them in their show of solidarity.
Jackson groaned and made a face as he reluctantly put his fist out. “This is so uncool.”
“Maybe, but you love us anyway,” Hope said. Then she stood and pulled him out of his chair and gave him a big hug.
Chapter Eight
“Hope?” Angela Anderson called as she walked through Hope’s house. “Are you still here?”
Hope leaned against the counter and thought, Can’t you hear me?
“Yes, I can now.” Angela rounded the corner and narrowed her eyes at her daughter. “Seriously? Is this how it’s going to be now?”
A flash of guilt swept through Hope. Why was her default with her mother always so combative? “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
Angela sighed. “I know we still have issues to work out, and I don’t expect us to work out everything overnight. I just hoped that we could start trying.”
“Yeah, okay. But Grace and Joy are on their way over to start working on a project. Now isn’t really a great time.” Hope pulled a mug out of the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee, wondering if it was too early in the day to add Irish whiskey.
“It’s five o’clock somewhere,” Angela said, giving her a cheeky smile.
Hope forced herself to keep her expression neutral instead of rolling her eyes like a teenager. Her mother had already told her she couldn’t really control what she heard, so Hope shouldn’t be surprised. What was interesting was that Hope didn’t hear things so clearly. She got snippets, and sometimes if she tried, she’d get a little more, but she definitely wasn’t being bombarded with thoughts all the time the way her mother described her own experience. Even though she knew her mother had probably heard everything she was thinking, she went ahead and verbalized her thoughts. “Is this curse going to get worse as time goes on? Am I suddenly going to wake up one day and start hearing everything everyone thinks?”
“I don’t know, Hope,” she said with a shrug. “For me, it was overwhelming right from the start. For your grandmother, too. If you’re lucky, maybe your curse won’t be as overwhelming.”
Witching For Hope: Premonition Pointe, Book 2 Page 5
