People milled about, talking and laughing and enjoying the drinks and food, and playing games. Kids ran around, going from the game stands to the art and crafts one.
And, close to the willow tree at the side of the square, a small improvised wooden stage rose, and a band played slow rock ballads.
“Yes, the festival,” Landon grumbled. “Every Sunday during summer.”
“I want to see.” I tugged at his arm. “Come on.”
Without waiting for him, I crossed the street and joined the fun.
I walked from stand to stand, tasting all the food samples and the drinks, laughing as the kids didn’t have enough strength to dunk the duck at one of the games, and moving my head and shoulders to the song coming from the huge speakers set beside the stage.
I didn’t turn to look at him, but I could feel Landon stoic presence trailing close behind me.
I stopped at a stand selling herbal medicine.
“The herbs are all from our farm,” a girl behind the stand said with a smile.
“Do you have anything to cure grumpiness?” I asked. “Because I know someone who could use it.”
She laughed. “Sorry, we don’t have anything like that.” Then, she leaned closer. “Besides, the Sanctum of the Seven doesn’t really like using our witchy potions unless they have to.” She winked.
I gaped at her. “What …? How …?” Realization hit me. “You’re a witch,” I whispered.
“Yes. All women in my family are.”
Landon appeared beside me. “You aren’t buying anything from them, right?”
I shot him a glare. “Don’t spoil my fun. If I want to buy something, I will.”
“Most of the things here are fake,” he said. “They keep the real stuff for themselves.”
The witch looked at him with a knowing smile. “I’ll remember that next time one of you shows up at our door with another request.”
Landon grumbled some more. “You know what I meant.”
She chuckled, and then turned to a new customer approaching the table.
“Wow, I just spoke to a witch,” I said as we turned and walked through the square.
Landon huffed out what sounded like an attempt of an amused laugh. “You have spoken with many supernatural beings in this town already.”
I glanced back at all the stands I stopped by. I had exchanged at least one short sentence with each person manning the tables.
My eyes bulged. “They are all supernatural.”
“Most of them.”
That was …. Even knowing about supernaturals all my life, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around how they all lived peacefully in Willow Harbor.
A stand with a cotton candy machine caught my attention. “I want a cotton candy. Want one?”
Landon frowned at me, probably wondering if I was crazy for asking such a stupid question. “Hm, no.”
I sidestepped him and bumped into a woman. “Sorry,” I said.
“Oh, it’s fine,” she said with a smile. She resumed walking, but I stared at her. It was Lola, the woman Landon and I had seen talking to a man, George, outside the coffee shop the other day.
Not five steps later, she halted in front of another man. “Duke, hi!”
Duke, a tall man with dark hair, turned to her. His face paled and the easy smile he had before slipped away. “Hey, Lola. Long time no see.”
I should have dismissed that and bought my cotton candy, but for some reason, I kept watching them.
“I know, right? I bumped into Liz a few days ago, George on Thursday, and now you.” She tilted her head. “How are you doing?”
He hesitated. “I’m fine. And how are you? Are you back in town?”
“Just visiting my parents, as usual.”
“Oh, cool.”
“Yeah.”
They stared at each other, an awkward tension building around them.
“Hm.” Duke shifted his weight. “I need to … I have to go to the store,” he said quickly. “Take care.”
“You too,” she whispered.
The man zipped away, much like George had done the other day. Clueless, Lola stared after him for a brief moment before walking from stand to stand.
I turned back to Landon. “What the hell was that?”
His gaze was following Lola. “I don’t know.”
“But it was weird, right?”
“It was.”
I shook my head. “They probably have some friends in common but don’t like each other.” I cocked an eyebrow at Landon. “Normal things like that do happen in this town, right?”
He returned his gaze to me and showed me that rebel lopsided grin. “Yes, normal things happen.” He paused. “Rarely.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Okay, then let’s put more normal things on the list.” I hooked my hand on his arms and tugged him with me. “I’m buying cotton candy, and you’re eating it with me.”
“Hell no.”
I giggled as he resisted a little, but let me pull him to the cotton candy stand with me.
Sixteen
LANDON
* * *
I found Tessa in the backyard, lying down on a towel spread on the grass and her, in jean shorts and tank top and barefoot. Her hair was fanned out around her, and her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the summer afternoon.
I halted beside the towel. “What are you doing?”
She put a hand over her eyes and peeked at me. “Sunbathing. It’s a shame I don’t have any swimsuits here. If I did, I would be at the beach, enjoying the rest of my afternoon.”
Shit, if she had had any swimsuit here … I couldn’t even think about it.
“How can you—?” I shut my mouth.
She sat up, still looking at me. “How can I what?”
I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I knew, but I wasn’t sure I should. In the end, her intense blue eyes won and I spoke. “How can you pretend everything is okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your father was killed. We’re after the demon. We battled the demon two days ago and lost. And … everything else. We hunt every day. We see dead people, ghosts, and things from horror stories every day. How can you still lie under the sun and pretend everything is all right?”
Slowly, she stood and faced me as if she were as tall as I was. I admired her confidence. “Everything isn’t all right and never will be. Life isn’t perfect. This is what we talked about the other day. Are you living your life, or just going through the motions and killing demons? Soon, I’ll be back to my usual life, but in the meantime, I won’t pretend to be anything else but me. I like summer and sun and sunbathing and swimming and shorts and flip-flops. I like drinking wine and dancing and singing, even though my voice is terrible. I like going to college and having a normal routine.”
I gulped. This girl was something else. She knew exactly what buttons to push, what spots were soft and hurt the most. She made me wish for more in life.
I cleared my throat. “Hm, I was thinking we could order something from the Dark Horse Diner tonight. For dinner.”
A knot appeared between her brows. “This morning, I saw several hunters around the manor before they all vanished. And when we arrived from the library, I saw a few more around.”
“Yes. And?”
She turned and started marching toward the mansion. “Call or text them all. Tell them to be here at six thirty,” she said over her shoulder, a smile on her lips.
“Why? What are you doing?”
“Just do it.” Then she disappeared up the steps leading to the manor.
What the hell was she up to?
It took me almost thirty minutes to follow up with her request and text all the other manor’s residents and tell them to be here at six thirty in the evening. Aidan, Nathan, Cole, Douglas, and a few others called me after, asking what the problem was. I almost laughed, since I had no information to give to them.
At five, I had showered and was anxiously waiting for Tessa in Isaac
’s office. I tried to focus on research, but my mind was elsewhere. At five thirty, I surrendered and called her.
“Hi,” she answered.
“Where are you?”
“In the kitchen.”
“You mean here?”
She chuckled. “Yes.”
I turned off the call and raced from the office to the kitchen on the other side of the house.
Amber and Sophia unpacked the many grocery bags on the kitchen island, while Tessa opened and closed the cabinets, looking for something.
“What the hell?”
“Hey,” Tessa said, without stopping her search. She turned to the girls. “Hm, where are the pots and pans?”
Sophia pointed to the cabinets between the fridge and the oven. “There.”
“Of course,” Tessa said, opening them.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What does it look like?” She got a big pot from under the cabinet. “Dinner.” She grabbed two other pans and placed them all on the cook top.
I watched, stunned, as Tessa told Amber and Sophia what to do—chop this, cut that. Simmer this, mix that. The other girls obliged, seemingly happy to help.
“What’s going on?” Aidan asked, entering the kitchen. I gestured to the show in front of me. He stepped up to Tessa and put a hand on her shoulder. “This smells good. How can I help?”
“How about setting the table in the dining room? Landon probably knows how many of you answered his text.” She waved her spoon to me once, and then went back to mixing whatever was on that pot.
“Sure,” Aidan said. He opened another cabinet and grabbed up a high pile of plates. “How many?” I stared. “Landon, how many plates should I get?”
“Hm …” I counted in my head. Douglas, Aidan and Amber, Nathan and Ash, Sophia, Cole, Caleb, Luke, Owen, Tessa, and me. “Twelve.”
“Here.” He passed me the plates. “I’ll take the rest.”
Still a little stunned, I took the plates to the dining room. Aidan brought the cutlery.
“This is nice,” he said, spreading the forks and knives around in front of each chair. “I don’t think we have had a meal with everyone in forever.”
I frowned. What was this girl up to?
Next, we picked up serving spoons and glasses and napkins and drinks.
The other hunters started arriving. Douglas, Cole, Nathan, Ash, Caleb … They were all pleasantly surprised about the dinner. Nathan and Aidan flocked around the kitchen with Tessa, Amber, and Sophia, while the rest took their places at the long dining table. The first two minutes was awkward, with everyone fumbling for something to talk about. But then Douglas asked Ash about the case he was working on and the conversation seemed to flow easily.
I glanced to the head of the table, where Isaac usually sat. The seat was empty now, but there was a set of plate and utensils in front of it.
Frowning, I marched to the kitchen. Tessa was alone, manning the oven and the cooktop all by herself.
I halted beside the island and crossed my arms. “What are you doing?”
She glanced at me over her shoulder with a little frown. “I thought I already told you. Dinner.”
“I know you’re cooking dinner. But I wanna know what you are doing?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea what you mean.”
I walked up to her. “Why are you cooking dinner for us?”
“Because I’m tired of eating fast food. I wanted a nice, homemade meal,” she said, her tone flat. She was lying.
“Tessa—” I started.
“Done!” She turned off the cook top burners. “We can take these pots to the dining room. Just be careful, they’re hot.”
I sighed. “And this one?” I pointed to the oven.
“That’s done too. I left it in there to keep it warm.” She handed me a pair of oven mittens. “You can take it.”
I opened the oven and besides the heat, the smell of warm, buttery steak hit my nose. I inhaled deeply. Aidan was right. This really smelled good.
We set it all up in the center of the table while everyone tried to take a peek at the food and uttered how nice it all smelled.
“All right,” Tessa said, taking the cover of a pot. “We have two types of steak. One wrapped in bacon, the other with a spicy parmesan crust. Then we have white rice with my secret seasoning. Here—” She pointed a spoon toward a big glass pan. “—is a sweet potato casserole, minus the pecans and marshmallow, sorry.” She smiled at some disappointed faces. Then, she pointed to the other big glass baking pan. “And this is a creamy mashed potato. I hope you guys like it.”
Plates were passed around as people helped each other serve a little of each dish. As the hunters started eating, the moaning and the compliments started.
“This is amazing.”
“Oh my God, this is so good.”
“Are you sure you did all of this? By yourself? I’m impressed.”
I finally sat down with my plate in front of me. I stared at the food, as if it would bite me back.
Tessa took Isaac’s chair. “You don’t like steak and potatoes?”
I looked up at her. “I do. Why?”
“Because you’re just looking at your food while everyone else is almost done.”
Skeptical, I cut a piece of steak and ate it. I had a little bit of the sweet potato and the mashed potato. And rice. Damn. Even her white rice was good.
I looked at her again. “It’s really good.”
The proud smile that landed on her lips made my heart clench.
“I have an idea,” Cole said. “Tessa, can we hire you to come cook us dinner at least once a week?”
Amber raised her hand. “I second that.”
“Third,” Sophia said before shoving a big forkful inside her mouth and moaning.
Tessa chuckled. “Wait until I serve dessert.”
Nathan’s eyes bulged. “There’s dessert?”
“Of course,” she said. “I don’t do things halfway.”
“I think I’m in love,” Ash said.
“I’m straight, and I’m in love too,” Amber said, batting her lashes at Tessa.
Everyone chuckled.
After another moment, she pushed out her chair and stood. “Well, excuse me. I have to check on the dessert.”
I watched as she walked out of the dining room and crossed the hallway to the kitchen. I glanced around the table. Everyone looked so satisfied. So light. So happy. Cole and Ash told Luke and Caleb and Owen about a funny thing that happened this afternoon. Amber and Sophia talked about Sophia’s senior year in high school, which was coming up soon. Douglas, Nathan, and Aidan talked about cars. No one mentioned hunting, demons, or death. It was as if I was observing us in a different dimension, where we could laugh and be carefree and have a real life.
But it wasn’t an alternate dimension. It was right here, right now. And Tessa had done that by asking everyone to meet here and cooking a nice—okay, a very nice—meal.
Nathan clasped my shoulder tight. “Man, I have to say, I don’t think we have ever experienced such a good night in this house.”
Aidan nodded. “True.”
The only one serious in this room besides me was Douglas. He looked at me and said, “She’s a keeper.”
* * *
TESSA
* * *
I had scurried out of the dining room not only to check on the dessert—though I was glad I did otherwise the brownies would have been in the oven for too long—but also because it was so great to see them all having a good time, it hurt.
It hurt because my father wasn’t here to see this. To experience it. Instead of having this, of wanting this, he pushed my mother and me away. And, from what I had gathered, none of the other hunters had had nice family dinners before, not even the father and sons in the business. Why? Was it so hard to take a break from hunting and enjoy life? I mean, there were demons and rogue vampires and shifters all around. The world wouldn’t end if they took one night off, w
ould it?
However, what had hurt the most was the hard look on Landon’s face from the moment he came into the kitchen and discovered what I was doing. Why? Why did it bother him so much that I wanted to cook a good meal and do something nice for them? I had been in their house for a few days now, eating their food and using one of their guest bedrooms. I had wanted to express my thanks. For letting me stay here and for letting me help avenge my father’s death.
With a spoon, I carefully picked up one of the brownies from the mini muffin pan and put it in a bowl. Next, I added a scoop of ice cream and a lot of my hot fudge sauce.
“Need any help?” Douglas asked as he entered the kitchen.
I smiled at him. “Well, you can help me by scooping the ice cream while I pick up the brownies. This way, it’ll be faster and the ice cream won’t melt before I can take these—” I gestured to the twelve bowls spread over the kitchen island. “—to the dining room.”
Douglas took the ice cream scoop from me. “You could have asked for help.”
I shrugged. “It’s okay. You all looked like you were having a good time. I didn’t want to interrupt it.”
Douglas scooped some vanilla ice cream and dropped it on a brownie, and then he looked at me. “We are having a good time.” He placed a hand on my arm. “To be honest, I don’t remember ever having a nice dinner like this before. With my family. Thank you for showing us we can take the time to breathe and enjoy each other.” He squeezed my arm once, then let go.
My throat burned. I might not have had the perfect family. God knew how much I felt like an outsider with my mother, Paul, and my sisters, but never having shared at least a couple of nice moments with the rest of your family? I couldn’t imagine that.
“You’re welcome,” I whispered.
Douglas grinned at me. “You know, I like Cole’s idea. If you don’t stick around, we might hire you to come cook for us once a week.”
If you don’t stick around …
I pushed that comment out of my mind and smiled at him. “No need to hire me. Just call me. If I can, I’ll come.”
Hunter’s Revenge: Willow Harbor - book 3 Page 12
