Witch Degrees of Separation: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #3

by M. Z. Andrews

  Jax squealed. “You guys just have no idea how excited I am to have two cousins! I’ve wanted cousins my whole entire life!”

  I allowed a smile to cover my face. “I’ve always wanted cousins too, Jax.”

  “You have?!”

  “Yeah, of course. I grew up like you did. No cousins and no siblings. My friends always went to their grandparents’ house for holidays and they used to tell me stories about the crazy things they did with their cousins and brothers and sisters.”

  Jax let that sink in for a moment. “Wow. I never thought of it that way. Reign grew up the same way that we did too. With no cousins and no siblings. We’re all just discovering each other now! Isn’t that amazing?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. In a weird way, Jax was completely spot on in a way that I’d never considered before. “That is actually pretty cool if you think about it.”

  “Very cool,” Reign agreed.

  The three of us lay back quietly relaxing, taking in the sweet scent of autumn that was quietly blowing in from our open window.

  Finally, Reign spoke. “It’s almost time for the grand opening.”

  “I know,” Jax said excitedly. “I have my costume all ready, too.”

  “Is everything ready at the restaurant?” I asked him.

  He let out a heavy sigh. “Honestly, I’m a little behind schedule. I’ve been remodeling and with all of this weird stuff happening with Mom and my father, I’m not getting as much done as I need to be.”

  “I didn’t realize you were remodeling,” Jax said. “I just thought you were changing the name.”

  Reign rolled onto his side so he could look at us. “Yeah, Mom, Mercy and I decided we don’t want to run a bar. We didn’t want to work such late hours. But we liked the idea of the bed and breakfast, so we decided to keep that part and we’re going to do a little coffee shop and diner in the main area. We have a full kitchen and enough rooms. I didn’t want to just do a bed and breakfast because that’s a lot of work to keep a cook on staff for just the few rooms we have. I thought if we’re going to cook, we might as well cook for others too. And Sergeant Bradshaw’s one request when giving us this place was to allow him and his buddies to have a place to have their morning coffee club.”

  Jax squealed excitedly. “This is so exciting!”

  Reign rolled back over onto his back. “Yeah, exciting,” he sighed. “And quite stressful. I only have two more days.”

  “The girls and I can come and help you tomorrow, Reign,” I offered. “You’d be surprised what a little elbow grease and a lot of magic can do to a place.”

  He nodded. “I like your style, Mercy Habernackle, I like your style.”

  “Yay! I can’t wait to help!” Jax cheered. “Wait! Do we get to bring dates to the grand opening?”

  Reign threw his hands into the air. “I don’t see why not.”

  “Omigosh, this is getting even better. I get to hang out with family, I get to go to a party, I get to bring a date, and I get to wear a fancy witch outfit! This day just went from the worst to THE BEST!”

  Reign and I laughed at Jax’s youthful exuberance. Any other time in my life, the sticky sweet sound of her voice would have annoyed me to tears. I couldn’t help but feel like I was growing somehow by not feeling nauseous.

  “Ok, guys, I suppose we should get some sleep,” I said as the first wave of yawns overtook me.

  Reign sat up. “I was just thinking that too. I have a lot to do in the morning. I should go.”

  Jax reached a hand out towards Reign. “Stop! You don’t have to go. You can stay here tonight.”

  Reign chuckled. “I appreciate the offer, Cuz, but I think I’d rather sleep in my bed. Good night, Jax. Good night Mercy.”

  “G’night, Cuz,” Jax responded with a giggle.

  “G’night, Reign. See you tomorrow,” I said, waving at him as he pulled the door shut, locking it behind him. The click of the door solidified my sudden exhaustion.

  “G’night, Jax.”

  “G’night, Sis, I love you,” she said sweetly.

  “I love you too,” I muttered back, but only half grudgingly.

  ***

  Jax couldn’t wait to tell the girls the next morning at breakfast all about the upcoming remodel project and subsequent party. She’d literally taken a three-minute shower, which for Jax was completely unusual. She was prone to 45 minute long showers, mostly because she liked to sing power ballads under the hot water. Which is precisely why I made sure to shower before bed and not in the morning when she did.

  Jax and I were the first two to the table, but when Alba and Holly showed up next, Jax could barely contain herself waiting for Sweets to show up.

  “What is taking Sweets so long?” Jax bounced up and down on her bottom and looked expectantly at her watch.

  “What’s her deal?” Alba asked me grumpily. Her morning dose of caffeine was still sitting in her cup and Alba’s usual unpleasant demeanor was always made worse by a lack of caffeine.

  “She’s got big news she wants to share,” I said before spearing a chunk of scrambled eggs. I’d heaped my plate extra full. The activities from the day before had left me extremely starving and I almost couldn’t shovel the food in fast enough.

  “What’s the big news, Jaxie?” Holly asked curiously.

  “I wanna wait for Sweets,” she whined. “Where is she?”

  “Relax Jax. Sweets never misses a meal. She’ll be here in a minute,” I assured her.

  “Oooh, here she comes now!” Jax clapped her hands and squealed until Sweets was seated next to her.

  “What’s going on?” Sweets asked, looking around the table. “Did I miss something?”

  “She’s been waiting for you to get here. She’s got something she wants to tell everyone.”

  “Oh, ok. Spill.” Sweets’ hand slid around the caramel roll on the corner of her plate. She took a big bite before giving Jax her full attention.

  “Well, first of all, me and my cousins were talking last night,” Jax began, emphasizing the word cousins. “And Reign informed me that the grand re-opening party they are having on Halloween night is something we can bring a date to.”

  Alba glanced up from her food, unimpressed. “That was the big announcement?”

  Jax’s head bobbed up and down. “Isn’t it exciting?”

  “It definitely didn’t ring my bell,” Alba grunted.

  “You girls have to be excited, right?” Jax asked Holly and Sweets.

  “Excited for what?” Libby asked as she and her sister approached the table with a tray of food.

  Jax scooted over to make room for two more girls. “For the grand re-opening of Reign’s restaurant.”

  “It’s a restaurant now?” Cinder asked. “I thought it was a bar.”

  Jax shook her head as she bit off a tiny piece of her toast. “He’s remodeling. It’s going to be b&b and a restaurant now. Reign and Aunt Linda didn’t want to run a bar. They are having a huge party on Halloween to celebrate the re-opening and they need our help. The remodeling isn’t done yet and they are putting on a haunted house for a charity fundraiser and could use some actual witches to be part of the show. Plus, we get to bring dates!”

  “Yippee,” Alba mocked.

  “Fine. You don’t have to be excited about the party, but they could use our help getting the building ready. I was thinking …”

  “See, there’s your problem right there,” Alba said gruffly.

  Jax shot her an evil look. “Alba, stop! I was thinking that since today is Saturday and we don’t have classes. How about we all pitch in and go down and help them get the place ready for the party?”

  ***

  It was barely ten when we pulled up out front of the b&b. Most of us had gotten into work clothes and I’d bundled my hair on top of my head into a messy bun for the occasion. Jax had forgone the witch’s hat and instead stuffed her wild orange hair into a baseball cap. She’d even left her pointy shoes at home and opted for a sensible pair
of sneakers instead. Sweets managed to find a pair of overalls in her wardrobe. Alba just wore what she always wore - sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Holly seemed to be the only not to get the memo about wearing work clothes. She had done up her full hair and makeup and had on a low cut top with leggings and flats.

  Reign answered the door wearing only a pair of jeans and work boots. His body sparkled with sweat and sawdust.

  “Hey bro,” I said as I casually walked past him.

  “What are you girls doing here?” he asked with surprise as the rest of the girls walked past him.

  “We told you we were going to come help!” Jax said as if he should have known. “Remember?”

  “Yeah, well, saying and doing are two totally different things. But I’m glad to see you, though!”

  “So, what should we do?” I asked, looking around. “I hate to tell you, but this looks like a failed episode of Restaurant Impossible.” Reign had all of the old booths pulled out from the wall and was working on removing the dated wood paneling and dark, dreary window coverings.

  He nodded at me. “I know. Why do you think I’m stressed?”

  “Where’s Mom?” I asked.

  “She just took Chesney for a walk. She shouldn’t be too long,” he said. “How about you girls work on removing all the window coverings? That would be a great place to start!”

  Alba rolled her eyes and turned towards the windows, held up her finger and pointed at each window in turn. The window coverings each floated up into the air and when she’d collected all six, she dropped them to the ground gently.

  “Now what?”

  Reign’s smile widened. “You girls might just be a life saver!”

  For the next ten minutes, Reign gave us the tour of the dining area. In minute detail, he described his vision for the place and how he wanted to it to feel lighter, warmer and less like a bar and more like a cozy place to sit and have a home cooked meal. He got Jax and Holly started on painting two walls. He assigned me and Alba to bar refinishing and Sweets was going to help my mom in the kitchen when she returned from walking Chesney. They had a lot of food to prepare to get ready for the event, and Sweets was more than willing to lend a hand to prep work.

  Once everyone had their assignment, I tuned the radio at the bar to my favorite rock station and we all got down to work. Alba and I were supposed to remove the fake veneer on the front of the counter and replace it with some reclaimed barn siding that my brother had convinced a property owner on the edge of town to let him have. Reign already had the lengths of wood cut, all Alba and I had to do was attach them to the frame with a nail gun and then we could get started on the counter top.

  “So, you didn’t sound too excited about bringing a date to the party,” I said to her after we’d been working in silence for a few minutes.

  Alba ignored me while she held up the far end of the board we were nailing.

  “I was thinking maybe you should give Tony a call. Maybe he could fly out to go with you to the party?”

  Alba looked at me contemptuously. “Seriously Red? Like Tony has nothing better to do than fly out to go to a dumb party.”

  I shrugged and lifted up my end of the next board. “Or he could drive. How long of a drive is it?”

  “Like five or six hours.”

  “That’s not that bad. How about if he drives out to see you? What harm would it be to just ask him?”

  “I’m not asking Tony to drop everything he’s doing at work and come all the way out here. If he wanted to see me or talk to me, he would have figured out a way to do it by now.”

  “But Alba!”

  “Can we not talk about it? Seriously. I wish I hadn’t even told you about him.”

  “Fine,” I said as my mom and Chesney walked in finally.

  She stopped in her tracks the minutes she saw the five of us working on our various projects. “What in the world are you girls doing here?”

  “What does it look we are doing?” I asked her.

  “It looks like you’re helping your brother!”

  “Bingo,” I sang, before pressing the nail gun against the wood siding and pulling the trigger.

  “Make sure you’re using the level, sis,” Reign hollered from across the room.

  I looked down at the board I’d just nailed down. It looked level. Almost. “Ugh,” I groaned. “Help me take this one off, Alba?”

  “Mercy, can I talk to you for a moment?” my mother asked trepidatiously.

  I looked at Alba who was already wielding a crowbar. She looked up at me with her usual witch face and nodded. “I got this. Go ahead.”

  “Thanks,” I told her before following my mother to the kitchen.

  Once inside, Mom unhooked Chesney’s leash and gave his tush a little push on the slick floor. “Go play, Ches,” she told him. He promptly scampered off, leaving us alone in the kitchen.

  “What’s up?”

  “Mercy, it’s happening again,” she said nervously, fingering her hair.

  “What’s happening again?”

  “The weird things, they are happening again.”

  { Chapter Eighteen}

  My heart sank. I had hoped that unbinding Mom and Merrick would have been the solution necessary to stop the strange things from happening. “What happened now?”

  “I took Chesney for a walk, but it took me twice as long to get back here as it usually does. I would go around a corner and I’d be back on the same block I’d just been on.”

  “Maybe the blocks just look a lot alike,” I suggested half-heartedly.

  She shook her head insistently. “No. I’ve taken him on the same walk since you gave him to me. We take the same path each time and today was incredibly different. I’d get to the end of the street and I’d turn the corner and find myself back at the beginning of the street again. It was horribly frustrating. I never thought I’d get out of the maze I found myself in.”

  “How did you do it then?”

  “I tried different alleys and walkways I’d never tried before and eventually we made it back.”

  I hung my head. “I’m sorry Mom. I thought unbinding you and Merrick would be the answer.”

  “I know. I appreciate all of your efforts. I do. I don’t know what’s going on.”

  I laughed sardonically. “Mom. You do too know what’s going on. Merrick is pranking you! Obviously!”

  “But I don’t understand why he would! We got along just fine when we spoke the other day. Why would he want to prank me?”

  “To chase you out of Aspen Falls!”

  “But why would he want me gone? He said he’s always loved me.”

  I shrugged and plucked a handful of grapes out of a bowl on the kitchen counter. “I don’t know! Probably because he’s evil. But also maybe he wants to get to know Reign on his own. Maybe you’re in the way of his relationship with his son.”

  Mom slammed the refrigerator door shut after pulling out a bottle of orange juice. “That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not infringing on their relationship. If anyone here is infringing on their relationship, it’s more likely to be you than me.”

  “That’s probably another reason he’s doing this to you. After last night’s fiasco, he’s upset and he wants you to pay for what I did.”

  Mom covered her face with her hands. “Ugh! Mercy! I just want to enjoy my children. Why does this have to be happening? Maybe I should just go back to Dubbsburg!”

  My anger reared. “You have got to be kidding me, Mom! You’re just going to let Merrick Stone chase you out of town? I thought you had more self-confidence than that!”

  “Mercy, I just want the craziness to stop. I’m tired and it’s wearing me out. Every day I’m on my toes waiting for the next thing to happen. Today I wasn’t prepared because I thought we’d solved things by ending the spell my mother put on us.”

  “Ok, well, you’re not leaving town because of this. You can go home if you need to get back to the house or whatever, but you’re not getting chased out by
him. I’ll confront him before I let that happen.”

  “Mercy Mae! You are not to confront him. Understand me? I don’t know what’s going on in his mind and I do not want you getting caught up in something you can’t resolve on your own.”

  “Mom, I’m not going to get caught up in anything I can’t handle. Trust me. I’m a big girl now.”

  My mother wrapped her arms around me. “I know Mercy Bear. You’re all grown up now. I get it. I just want you to be careful.”

  “That’s all I want for you too, Mom.”

  ***

  By the time we all piled back into Sweets’ car later that evening, we were exhausted, but the restaurant was already looking a million times better than it had before we got there.

  “My feet hurt,” Jax complained as she pulled off her shoes and began rubbing her stocking feet. “I don’t know how you guys can wear sneakers every day!”

  “Like those pointy things you walk around in all day are comfortable?” Alba asked Jax who was sitting in the middle between her and Holly.

  “Yes, they are actually,” she declared as Sweets took a sharp right and Jax fell over onto Alba.

  Alba shoved Jax back towards Holly’s side of the car.

  “Jax! Your feet stink! Eww,” Holly hollered. Pinching her nose shut she rolled down her window and began gagging.

  Alba caught a whiff a second later. “Ugh, seriously? It smells like you let off a stink bomb in here.”

  By the time the stench of Jax’s feet had reached the front seat, all four windows were down and the cool night air was pouring in from all directions.

  Jax shivered between Alba and Holly. “Can you guys roll up the windows? It’s freezing in here.”

  “Too bad,” Alba clucked.

  “Please, Holly. I’m so cold!”

  “Put some meat on your bones then,” Alba answered for Holly. “I’m not going to smell your sweaty feet the rest of the way.”

  Jax wrapped her arms around her tiny frame and leaned against Holly for warmth. “I wish it was Halloween already,” Jax said grumpily.

  “Are you asking Tristan to be your date for the party?” Holly asked her.