“And we’ve gone all out,” Marnie said. “We have a pork roast and a beef roast, we have a full array of summer vegetables, and we have three summer salads, including that cucumber and dill one you love so much, Bay.”
“Oh, yay!” I’m surprised I’m not as wide as the kitchen the way my family cooks.
“I’m having two desserts tonight,” Landon said, winking in my direction.
“You have such a fresh mouth,” Aunt Tillie said.
“Oh, he’s just happy to see Bay,” Twila said. “He’s been away for days. He’s a man in love.”
Landon froze at Twila’s words. My aunt was teasing, but that was a phrase neither of us had uttered. Not yet, at least. Instead of addressing the elephant in the room, Landon changed course.
“So, did you hear what Bay did today?”
He had a funny way of showing his affection. Instead of dealing with what Twila said, he’d decided to offer me up. “I ran into Lila Stevens,” I interjected smoothly.
All three of my aunts made identical faces, causing Landon to smirk. “I see you all like this Lila as much as Bay does.”
“We haven’t seen her in years,” Marnie said carefully. “She was a … troublesome child.”
“She had issues,” Twila agreed.
“She was a little … .”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Marnie warned, waving a finger in Aunt Tillie’s face. “She had a few personality defects.”
“And most of those defects were pointed at Bay,” Aunt Tillie supplied.
Landon studied me for a moment as I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, I pretty much figured that out.” He decided to change the subject again. “Do you need help taking this out to the table?”
“No,” Twila said. “It’s not that we don’t trust you to carry the food out, but … .”
“We don’t trust you,” Marnie said. “We’ll take the food out. You two go and get settled, maybe have a drink or something. Dinner will be on the table in about twenty minutes.”
“Mom told me to … .” I glanced at Aunt Tillie, unsure how to proceed.
“What did your mother tell you to do?” Aunt Tillie asked.
“She told me to make sure everything was okay in here and then do exactly what you suggested we do,” I said.
Landon snickered, but he followed me out of the kitchen. Once we were safely on the other side of the door, he dropped a quick kiss on my cheek. “Coward,” he whispered into my ear, causing a shiver to run up my spine.
“She wasn’t doing anything,” I protested.
“I’m sure your aunts would beg to differ.”
“I … do you want a drink or not?”
“Oh, I want a drink,” Landon said. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a feeling,” Landon said.
“I think you’re wrong,” I said. “I think everything is going to be fine.”
Landon smiled. “I love that you still seem like a little kid sometimes. You have this earnest quality that sneaks in from out of the blue. It’s … refreshing.”
“Are you saying this is one of those times?”
“I’m saying that tonight has all the makings of a disaster written all over it,” Landon said. “Come on. Let’s get some alcohol in you. I bet you’re going to need it.”
Six
“Did we miss anything?”
Thistle and Marcus let themselves into the library where Landon and I were hiding out. They’d been together almost a year now, and his calm demeanor was welcome when Thistle worked herself into a snit. Since seeing Lila this afternoon charged her revenge batteries, Marcus’ presence could only help.
“We’ve been in here,” I said.
“Oh, come on,” Thistle said. “What good are you if you can’t fill me full of awesome gossip? I heard you ran toward gunshots this afternoon, by the way. Good job.”
I shifted my gaze to Landon briefly. He merely raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t tell her.”
“It’s all over town,” Thistle said. “Lila has been telling everyone she tried to run into danger to save everyone, but you got in her way.”
I scowled. “I hate her.”
Landon reached over and rubbed the back of my neck. “You need to relax. Don’t let her get to you. She’s just a … .”
“Filthy, lying, disgusting, whorish … .”
“Thank you, Thistle,” Landon said, rolling his eyes in her direction. “Maybe you should get a drink. You seem … testy.”
“Lila Stevens makes me testy,” Thistle said.
“From the sound of it, she makes your whole family testy.”
“That’s because she’s evil incarnate,” Thistle replied.
“I thought Aunt Tillie was evil incarnate,” Landon said.
“She’s a different kind of evil,” Thistle explained, deadly serious. “Lila is the kind of evil that tries to suck your soul. She feeds on you. She tries to make you weaker so she can swoop in and peck your eyes out while you only have the strength to sit there and let her.”
“Nice visual,” Landon deadpanned.
“Aunt Tillie is the kind of evil that wants to get her own way no matter what,” Thistle said. “Lila wants that, too, but they go about it in different ways. Aunt Tillie wants to crush her enemies. She doesn’t want to feed off of them. She doesn’t need their strength. She has more than enough of her own.”
Landon snickered. “You have a way with words,” he said. “Some people might even consider you paranoid.”
“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me,” Thistle said.
Marcus sat down on the sofa next to Landon. “She’s been this way since I picked her up from the store an hour ago. She’s got some interesting revenge plans for Lila.”
“I heard them this afternoon,” I said.
“Oh, we came up with more after you left,” Thistle said. “How would you feel about giving her a month-long visit from the period fairy?”
Landon made a face. “Gross.”
“How could you even tell? She already acts like she has constant PMS,” I pointed out.
“That’s true,” Thistle said, tilting her head to the side. “I still think incontinence in the way to go.”
Landon rolled his eyes again. “Why don’t you just send Aunt Tillie after her?”
“That was my suggestion,” I said. “Thistle wants to do both.”
“You have no idea the things she did to Bay when we were growing up,” Thistle said. “I’m not just letting it go, so don’t even suggest it.”
Landon shrugged. “Do what you want,” he said. “I spent five minutes with her this afternoon and I already dislike her.”
“You can help me plan,” Thistle said.
“I can’t wait.”
We all glanced up when Twila poked her head into the library. “What are you doing in here? You know dinner is served at seven on the dot. It’s three minutes past the hour.”
“Sorry,” Thistle mumbled.
Twila studied her daughter’s vibrant pink hair for a moment. Thistle had switched it over from blue the day before. “That color is much better with your complexion,” she said. “It doesn’t wash you out like the blue does.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Thistle said, faux sweetness dripping from her tongue. Twila’s hair was from the Ronald McDonald hair care line, so casting aspersions on her daughter’s hair choices was akin to tossing gasoline on the low flame that already was Thistle.
“It makes you look … friendlier,” Twila said. “With your attitude, that can only help. Now, get your butts to the table. Everyone else is already there.”
Thistle scrunched her face up as she watched her mother go. “She does that on purpose.”
“What?” Landon asked.
“She compliments my hair so I’ll be forced to change it.”
“I don’t think that’s what she was doing,” Marcus said.
“That’s exactly what she was doing,” Thistle said. “I should know. I do the same thing to Clove.”
“See, evil is genetic,” I teased.
WE FOUND the table busy in the dining room. Landon and I settled at the near end next to Aunt Tillie, and Thistle and Marcus made their way to the far end. Once seated, and after receiving a scathing look from my mother for our tardiness, I took the opportunity to scan the table.
Most of the faces belonged to people I didn’t recognize. Sure, somewhere in Hemlock Cove’s illustrious past these people had been a part of the everyday comings and goings, but I didn’t know them. It was the face at the very end of the table that jumped out, though. That one I did recognize.
“Nick Spencer.” The name was out of my mouth before I realized it.
“Bay Winchester.” Nick hadn’t changed much since high school. His brown hair was a little longer, and he was dressed in a mock turtleneck and simple blue jeans. His brown eyes flashed when they landed on me, and his smile was as charming as ever.
“Oh, that’s right, you two graduated together,” Mom said, her gaze bouncing between Nick and me.
“We did,” Nick said. “You look … good.”
My cheeks were burning. “Um … well … thanks.”
Landon tilted his head so he could give Nick his full attention. “You went to high school with Bay?”
Nick nodded. “And Clove and Thistle, too, but we were ahead of them. We graduated together.”
“Were you friends?”
“Sure,” Nick said.
“You weren’t friends,” Thistle said, startling when Clove elbowed her in the stomach. “Why did you do that?”
“Because we’re supposed to be having a nice dinner,” Mom said, her voice tight.
“Well, he’s the one lying,” Thistle said. “Blame him. He wasn’t friends with Bay. He dated Lila. He was mean to her – just like his girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t mean to her,” Nick argued. “I was just … you have no idea how hard it was to date Lila.”
“Then you should have dated someone else,” Thistle suggested. “I think a garden slug would have been a step up.”
“Thistle,” Marcus warned.
“What?” She was incensed.
“Shut up and eat your dinner,” Mom ordered.
“You shut up,” Thistle grumbled.
“Listen, I’m really sorry if I did anything in high school that upset you,” Nick said. “That’s what happens in high school. You do stupid things. If it’s any consolation, seeing how you turned out, I wish I’d dated you.”
“Oh, well, that’s possibly … flattering,” I said.
Landon cleared his throat. “Well, your stupidity is my gain.”
“Oh, are you two dating?” Nick asked, unruffled.
“We are,” Landon said, reaching for the platter of roast in the middle of the table.
“For how long?”
“Long enough that you don’t have to concern yourself with it,” Landon said.
I shot him a look. “What are you doing?”
“I’m eating dinner,” he said. “And I’m having a discussion with your former … classmate.”
Then why did it feel he was marking his territory? “Okay.” There was no way I was picking an argument with him now.
“Don’t worry about it,” Aunt Tillie said, directing her attention to Landon. “Nick doesn’t have enough personality to entice Bay. He never did. You’re safe.”
“Thanks,” Landon said dryly.
“I have personality,” Nick said. “It’s just … high school is hard. I wanted to fit in. That’s why I dated Lila. It’s not like I liked her. Although … I hear she’s still hot.”
“Of course you didn’t like her,” Aunt Tillie said. “That would make you an idiot.”
“Aunt Tillie!” Marnie glared at her. “You need to eat your dinner and be quiet. Our guests don’t want to hear your … opinions.”
“That’s not true,” a woman at the center of the table said. “That’s why we picked your inn. We were told you have dinner theater every night.”
Landon snorted. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”
“We do like our dinner theater,” I said. “I just didn’t think we were going to put on a show quite this soon.”
“Speaking of dinner theater, I heard Bay tried to stop a bank robbery today,” Aunt Tillie said.
I froze in my chair. I fought the urge to look in my mother’s direction, knowing exactly the expression I would find there.
“What?” Mom’s voice can echo on a normal day. When she kicks it up a notch, it’s terrifying.
“I did not try to stop a bank robbery,” I said carefully. “I was just trying to … see what was going on.”
“Did you know this, Landon?”
“I was made aware of the situation,” he replied, keeping his eyes on his plate.
“Wow. Hemlock Cove had a bank robbery? That’s out there,” Nick said. “Nothing that exciting ever happened when I lived here.”
“That’s because you’re a milquetoast,” Aunt Tillie said.
“Aunt Tillie,” Twila warned. “You leave him alone.”
“What’s a milquetoast?” Nick asked, confused. “Is it something really bad?”
“It means you’re boring,” Thistle said, reaching for a bottle of wine. “Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure you already knew you were boring. It shouldn’t come as some big shock to you.”
“Thistle!”
“Oh, what? Aunt Tillie started it,” Thistle said.
“You’re on my list, missy,” Aunt Tillie said, extending a gnarled finger in Thistle’s direction.
“I’ve been on your list for weeks,” Thistle pointed out.
“That should give you a hint of just how much of a pain you’ve been the past few weeks,” Aunt Tillie said. “I wouldn’t push it.”
“Don’t you push it either,” Mom admonished her. “We gave you very clear instructions about how you were supposed to act this week.”
“They must be caught in my spam filter,” Aunt Tillie said. “Well, I never got the list, so I can’t be expected to abide by rules I haven’t been made aware of. Bummer.”
“Spam filter?” Clove wrinkled her nose. “Since when do you use email?”
“I’ll have you know, I’m very computer savvy,” Aunt Tillie said. “I could be a hacker if I wanted to.”
“When did you even get a computer?” Clove asked. “I thought you were banned from the Internet after you ordered all of those bugs … I mean things … when the Dragonfly was under construction?”
“I’m an adult,” Aunt Tillie said. “You can’t ban me from anything. Shut your mouth and eat your dinner. You’re going to be on my list, too, if you’re not careful.”
“What did I do?” Clove protested. “It was an honest question.”
“Where did you get a computer?” Mom asked, turning to face Aunt Tillie. “We lock ours up now so you can’t get on it. You can’t buy one in town, so where did you get it?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Aunt Tillie said. “Now, someone hand me some pork roast. I love a good baked pig.”
Mom made a face. “I am worried about it. Where did you get a computer?”
I shrank in my chair, something that didn’t escape Landon’s attention. “Did you give her the computer?”
“I … .”
Five sets of eyes swiveled to me.
“How could you possibly give her a computer?” Thistle asked. “You know what a menace she is when she has a credit card and unlimited access to military surplus stores.”
“I … you have to understand … .”
“I issued very specific rules,” Mom said. “Your great-aunt is not allowed on the Internet. You know why.”
“Porn?” Nick asked, clearly enjoying the conversation.
“That’s not funny,” Mom said.
Nick sobered. “Sorry. I thought it was part of the show.”
“What happens to people on the list?” A man asked, intrigued.
“Horrible things,” Marcus muttered.
“Karma,” Aunt Tillie corrected.
“You can’t distract me,” Mom said. “Did Bay give you a computer?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Aunt Tillie said. “Is someone here going to feed me? I think my blood sugar is crashing.”
Landon reached to the middle of the table and stabbed a slice of the pork roast so he could deposit it on her plate. “Happy?”
“I need potatoes, too.”
“Bay, did you give your aunt a computer?”
I sighed. “She said she wanted to play euchre on it,” I said. “I loaded a few card games on my old laptop. I needed a new one. Since she can’t go to the senior center these days, I thought it might keep her busy.”
“Why can’t she go to the senior center?” Nick asked.
“Because she poisoned all the people there when she thought they were cheating,” Thistle said.
“I allegedly poisoned people,” Aunt Tillie said. “Allegedly.” She looked to Landon and sent him her best “I’m innocent” look. “I’m really persecuted in this town.”
“I’m sure,” Landon said. “What harm can she really do on the computer?”
Marnie rolled her eyes. “You’ve met her. She can do harm with a cotton ball if you give her enough time.”
“Oh, you’re on my list, too,” Aunt Tillie said, getting to her feet. “In fact, you’re all on my list. Every single one of you.” She moved toward the kitchen. “I’m so upset I can’t even eat. I hope you’re all happy. Upsetting an old woman like this, you should all be locked up.” She flounced through the kitchen door. “I’ll know if you talk about me when I’m gone,” she called from the other room. “And you’ll be sorry!”
“Yay!” A middle-aged woman at the middle of the table broke into applause. “This dinner theater really is amazing. I’m so glad we came to stay here. If this is the first night, what’s going to happen the rest of the week?”
That was a very good – and terrifying – question.
Seven
“Well, that was fun,” Landon said, linking his fingers with mine as we moved along the back pathway that led from the inn to the guesthouse I shared with my cousins.
Witch Me Luck (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 6) Page 5
