Runes and Roller Skates

by Amanda A. Allen

  Table of Contents

  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

  Also By Amanda A. Allen

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  “I am not going to do that,” Ella said, stamping her foot. “It’s my birthday, and I don’t have to.”

  Scarlett’s eye twitched. Luna was running through the apartment both wet and naked while being chased by the kittens and their massive dog, Max. It felt an awful lot like an elephant stampede with a tantrum for background noise. The windows were open and the east wind was chasing Luna, swirling around the apartment and sending the art projects from the day before and the scraps of wrapping paper flying.

  “I know it’s your birthday, Princess Snothead, but the animals still need to potty, and I have to get Luna dressed.”

  “It’s my birthday,” Ella said again with yet another stamp of her foot. She flipped her long brown hair and her green eyes narrowed on her mother’s face.

  “If you want to have your party,” Scarlett said, leaning down, “You will help me or by goodness, I will put a sign up on the door of the bakery that turns everyone away.”

  “You can’t, it’s my birthday.”

  “I can. I will.” Scarlett’s look told Ella to just try disobeying.

  All to no effect as Ella ran for the door of the apartment and slammed it behind her—not taking the pets with her. Taking the pets down to the garden was a job that Luna usually did with Ella, but Luna was—of course—naked. Scarlett shook her head, taking a deep breath, and telling herself to not react in a way she’d regret. She knew too well where Ella had gone and it took approximately 3 minutes for Harper to drag the protesting Ella back into the apartment. Harper had hold of Ella by the back of her jeans and the nap of her neck.

  “It’s my birthday,” Ella screamed at the top of her lungs.

  Neither Harper nor Scarlett reacted to the shouting.

  “Perhaps Señorita Spoiled Rotten would like to sit in the corner, while I take the pets down?” Harper said. “After which, I volunteer to beat her with her birthday spankings.”

  “I want to be the one who beats her,” Scarlett answered mildly, trapping Luna as she streaked by yet again. “After I beat this one.”

  Luna laughed, but Ella stamped her foot. Scarlett had an overwhelming urge to find an axe and remove that foot. Or perhaps, less drastically, to duct tape Ella’s legs together for the rest of the day. Were straightjackets for children really that wrong? There were times when it seemed safer for everyone to straightjacket and muzzle the child and hang them on a hook.

  Ok, Scarlett thought that might be a little extreme. Earbuds. Noise canceling earbuds were the answer.

  “I’m glad I didn’t get her those sparkly combat boots she wanted,” Harper lied. She sniffed and smoothed her christmas red and black hair before stretching luxuriously. Whatever it took to make Ella squirm. “Because kids who stamp their feet don’t deserve boots. Or birthdays.”

  Ella gasped and a lone crocodile tear rolled down her cheek leaving Scarlett with a flash of guilt until Ella shrieked in frustration, hands clenched into fists at her side. Instead of feeling sorry for her oldest brat, Scarlett forced Luna into a party dress, brushed out her hair, and arranged it into matching french braids. Once the bows were tied at the end of the braids, Luna took off again, dancing with the east wind. She bowed to the flowers growing in pots by the windows and started waltzing before them. The children were ineffably cute at random moments to soothe the savage beast they drew out of their parent.

  “How long do I have to stay in the corner?” Ella asked snidely. She sniffed once to show her disdain and then tossed her hair. In between the tone, the hair tossing, and the foot stamping, Ella was going to be lucky to reach 9.

  “Guess,” Scarlett snapped to Ella as Harper came back into the apartment.

  “I’m sorry,” Ella said, knowing that she’d never get out of the corner without an apology that Scarlett could—at the minimum—pretend to believe.

  Scarlett examined her daughter’s face and then said, “See that your regret changes your behavior.”

  Ella started to roll her eyes, thought better of it, and thanked Harper for taking the pets down to the garden to potty.

  “Why are your children naked whenever I come over?” Harper opened the fridge, grabbed an apple, and sat down at one of the barstools at the counter. “I have seen Luna’s booty more times than I’ve seen my own.”

  “I assumed it was your effect on them,” Scarlett said calmly as she arranged a veggie tray for the party. “I have no recollection of them being naked when we lived in Spokane.”

  “Nice,” Harper said, sniffed, and then turned to her niece. “Ella, there’s a bag for you inside my apartment door.”

  “Auntie Harper,” Luna said as soon as Ella had left the apartment. “You lied about the shoes.”

  “I often do,” Harper admitted, shocking Luna into silence for about 2 seconds.

  With a serious expression, Luna then said, “Mommy says we aren’t supposed to lie.”

  “Your Mommy is boring,” Harper said around her bite of apple. “She says we shouldn’t set things on fire or steal cars or eat ice cream for breakfast too. She ruins all the fun.”

  “That’s not very nice,” Luna said. “You might make Mommy cry.”

  Ella’s joyous shouts about her shoes came to a sudden stop followed by a gasped, “Lex?”

  Scarlett and Harper glanced at each other, and Scarlett put the knife down, crossing the apartment to the doorway. She opened the door and found Lex Warder, warlock and PI, talking to her daughter in the hallway.

  “Hello,” Scarlett said. Such a simple word, but it was layered in nuance. What are you doing here? Why are you lurking in the hall with my child? I thought you’d left. You didn’t say anything when you did. Jerk move.

  “Hello,” he said. His greeting was far less layered. I can explain. He grinned that too-charming grin that said he knew she’d forgive him because he was so pretty. He must be confusing her with every other female in Mystic Cove.

  Mmm-hmmm, Scarlett thought. She wasn’t sure she believed it. She raised a brow and said, “Ella turned eight today. We’re just going down for the party.”

  She did not invite him. But she also did not tell him to go away. He took that as in invitation with his usual arrogance and greeted Harper, took the box of presents by the door, and led the way down the stairs. The stairs let out at the back of the bakery, Sweeter Things. Scarlett had bought the bakery in the previous months but closed it for her daughter’s birthday party. It was decorated with a Harry Potter theme which did a lot to make Scarlett forgive her eldest demon. Having a child who loved the best books in the world was a major perk for a parent. Reading them with Ella at night was one of Scarlett’s favorite parenting experiences.

  She had made a cake that was covered in scrolls and owl. The flavors of the layers were butterbeer, lavender champagne, and peach. And her sweet devil, Ella squealed when she saw it. Maye, Scarlett’s mother, and Gram had done the decorations along with Scarlett’s cousins and aunt. There were floating candles, stars on the ceiling and a whole wall that was pinned with butcher paper and painted to look like the Forbidden Forest.

  “Hello, everyone,” Scarlett said as she followed her daughters into the seating area.

  She didn’t need to look over to know that Gus was staring. She’d come in with L
ex, and her oldest friend did not like that one little bit. Lex was the warlock who’d intruded into her life and solved a murder with her and Gus. But Lex had kissed her once and made his interest known while they’d been investigating. The thing was, Scarlett hadn’t ever been sure that he was truly interested or just trying to manipulate her into working with him. He’d needed her help, she still wasn’t so sure she had needed his.

  Gus, on the other hand, had made it clear that he wanted a chance of his own with Scarlett. And with Gus, she had zero doubt that he was truly interested. That he truly loved her. That he truly would be there for her. It was just…she wasn’t so sure she was ready. And if she was—she wasn’t so sure she felt the same about Gus as he did about her. And in not being sure, she felt a bit like if she gave it a go and whatever they created fell apart, she’d lose her best friend. It was the classic problem from TV and books, and she hated that it was.

  She wished she was more complicated. Or original. But she was a 30 something divorcée whose husband had cheated on her and knocked-up his assistant. Scarlett had run home to the town she’d grown up in to start again. Only to find comfort in the things she’d hated as a girl. Here, everyone knew her. Here, everyone knew everyone. They knew where the sheriff would be at lunch time, they knew the names of every member of any particular family, elderly best friends spent their days chatting on the bench outside the diner and the tea shop was gossip central, followed closely by the diner, and Scarlett’s daughters would have a slew of people she didn’t know show up at her party. But that slew of people would show because they loved Scarlett and her daughters and genuinely wished them well.

  They’d also go home and talk about how that “Lex boy” was back and he was sniffing around Scarlett as if she were a dog in heat instead of a full grown woman innocently celebrating her daughter’s birthday. Scarlett took a deep breath and tried to focus on the moment at hand. With an audience, Ella lost her disdain and regained her childlike wonder. She had her arms wrapped around the back of Scarlett’s mother and was happily telling Nana that what Ella wanted more than anything was english horseback riding lessons.

  Excellent but unsurprising news since that was what Scarlett had purchased for Ella after weeks of her daughter asking, pleading, and then full-on begging.

  * * * * *

  “There’s a box here for you, Mommy! And Luna.” Ella had seemed happy enough about Scarlett being the recipient of one of the boxes but was distinctly less excited about Luna’s gift. Ella handed a large square box to Scarlett and grudgingly shoved over a somewhat smaller box to Luna.

  “Let Ellie go first, Lune,” Scarlett said lightly entirely ignoring Ella’s sour puss. It was her birthday, what could be ignored, would be ignored.

  Ella yanked the paper off of her gift, bypassing the card, and squealed. She tossed the lid of the box aside and pulled out a pair of lavender roller-skates with darker purple stars stitched on the side.

  “Oh. My. Gooooddddnnneeeesssssss,” Ella squealed. “Oh my goodness! Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness!”

  She leaped up and danced around while Luna looked on in wonder and then frantically pulled the paper off of her box. Scarlett could see Luna was almost afraid to hope, but she was not disappointed. Her skates were small bright pink things.

  Scarlett didn’t need to open her box to know that someone had got her skates as well. Instead, she opened the card while her mother and Harper put the skates on the girls.

  “Thank you, Gus,” Scarlett said. “It’s possible they’ll have manners enough to thank you once they’re able to speak again.”

  Ella had lost all irritation and was happily watching Scarlett’s mother, Maye, lace Luna’s skates. Once Luna was ready to go, Ella took her sister by the hand and helped her up.

  Gus handed over a secondary bag with three helmets and knee pads. Scarlett didn’t bother with them while the girls scooted from hand to hand in the bakery while everyone who loved them looked on. They were jabbering together so fast that you almost couldn’t understand them.

  “Time for cake, ladies,” Maye said, but the girls didn’t stop skating, even when their cake was on the table. They just rolled by, took a bite and kept going.

  * * * * *

  “It was good of you to remember her birthday,” Scarlett said into her phone. She’d accepted it back from Ella who hadn’t stopped skating to talk to her father very long. Of course, she didn’t have much to say to him since he'd moved out from their family home and in with his girlfriend.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Scarlett closed her eyes and said, “Look…”

  “You look, she’s my kid too. I love her.”

  “Ok,” Scarlett said, attempting a pleasant tone, “Did you want to talk to Luna?”

  “I want to know about this Gus.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. Is this the pansy guy who followed you around when you were a kid? Wasn’t he an albino?”

  Scarlett looked over at six and a half foot tall Gus. She took in his wide shoulders, his broad muscles, his angled predator’s jaw and said, “Gus definitely isn’t a pansy.”

  “I don’t care what he is. You need to be careful who you let around the girls.”

  This time Scarlett’s, “Excuse me?” was dangerous.

  “You heard me,” Grant snapped.

  “Hey baby, I’m going to step outside for a second.” The comment was directed to Luna but intended for Scarlett’s mother. Maye nodded and scooped up Luna with promises of extra cake.

  The moment the door closed behind Scarlett, she said, “I suggest you change both your tone and the assumption that you can give me orders.”

  Her voice was quiet and venomous and Grant sputtered. There was a chuckle behind her and Scarlett turned to face Lex. He shrugged but didn't pretend to not be listening.

  “Don’t think I won’t fight you for them,” Grant swore.

  “Oh really? I was under the impression that your baby mama didn’t want our perfect, fantastic daughters around the baby. Isn’t she due soon?”

  “She’d understand it was for their safety.”

  “What are you doing out here?” Gus asked Lex opening the back screen door to follow Scarlett into the garden.

  “Shhhh,” Lex said to Gus, elbowing him.

  Scarlett shook her head at both of them as she asked Grant, “And what will you do when Luna learns to fly?”

  Grant sputtered in reply as Gus chuckled and Lex snorted. Grant, her stupid ex, had nothing to say to that.

  “Let’s be straightforward here, Grant,” Scarlett said silkily, flicking her finger at Gus and Lex and letting the east wind shove them back. “You don’t have a chance in any hell of taking my daughters from me. I’d have shared them with you forever until your unfortunate choice of having a girlfriend. You want to see them? Sure. You know where we live. Anything beyond that? Keep on dreaming.”

  “You think that I can’t win? You have some half—”

  “I live in a town of creatures who could do terrible things,” Scarlett said, looking at Gus and Lex shoving at each other like 8-year-olds, and hung up. She knew Grant would worry and stress over what her neighbors could do. He had no idea what these two fools in front of her were capable of. And he’d never stop to note that she’d used the word ‘could’ and that there was a very large difference between could and would.

  “Is he always like that?” Lex asked as Scarlett finally hung up on her ex.

  She looked Lex over. He stood before her so confidently unconcerned that he’d disappeared for months without saying goodbye and yet thinking it was all right to just come back and act as if he had a right to details about her previous relationship. And yet…if Lex was just a friend, what did the details matter? She’d have shared them in a second with a female friend.

  “He’s spoiled and entitled,” Scarlett said. The back door to the bakery opened and Harper let out the pets. Scarlett’s sister, Harper, was a pus
hover when it came to the little girls. Who said yes to 3 kittens? Especially without talking to the adult in the house? And yet, here they were. Part of the family and going nowhere. The real surprise was that Harper hadn’t been talked into more pets since the kittens. Especially with Luna’s ability to communicate with animals.

  Max, their massive leonburger came tromping out. The kittens were weaving among his feet, totally unconcerned with tripping him up or being stepped on. The worst of them was aptly named, Beelzebub, a little orange fluff ball with the attitude of a mischievous devil. Flower and Dixie were far sweeter, but the combination of little Luna with 4 animals only added up to a circus.

  Scarlett looked the men over and then said, “The potty bags are over there.”

  She left them to take care of the animals and went back inside to her daughters and the party.

  Chapter 2

  “Mommy,” Ella said with just the right dash of sweetness and disdain to let Scarlett know Ella was big and old now. “I need to go skating down to the pier.”

  Scarlett’s head tilted as she considered her eldest daughter. It did sound fun. There was a trail along the bluff over the rocks where you could skate or bike or walk and at the end of the path, there was a series of steps down to a pier and the sand below.

  None of which mattered as there was so much aching in that little green gaze of her daughter. Like Scarlett, Ella had long bark-brown hair. Like Scarlett, Ella had mossy green eyes. And like Scarlett, you could read all the depths of Ella’s heart in them if you knew her well. She was wonderful, sassy, and kind. She might be rocking the disdainful boat lately but underneath all of that edge was a little girl who was missing her daddy, lost in her new world, and struggling to grow up while still being so very little.

  “May I go with you?”

  Ella’s head darted up and down frantically. Scarlett looked at Harper who paused and then said, “Luna…did you know that Henna has baby parakeets? They’re just big enough to peek out of the nest if we’re very lucky. Probably with you around, they’ll peek out.”