by J E McDonald
He’d done more than startle her, but he’d let her cling to the euphemism if it made her feel better. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he said, “I’m sorry,” and meant it. Having Aubrey scared of him made his stomach churn. He didn’t want to see that look on her face again. He never wanted her to fear him, even though she had every reason to—whether she knew it or not.
A quick nod and she accepted his apology.
The clocks continued their tap dance as he stood stranded halfway between the exit and her front counter, unsure if he should stay or if he should go. They may have cleared some of the tension between them, but not all of it.
“Tell me about the ghosts who haunt this place.”
“Oh, him.” She let out another one of her nervous laughs. “He just hangs around.”
He stared at her, knowing she hid something. He could tell by the way she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “He doesn’t only stick to the store, does he?”
Wrapping her sweater tighter around herself, she shrugged. “He follows me to different places.”
“Is he protective of you?” If the incident at the pet store was any indication, then it was even more than that.
“You could say that,” she said after a moment, meeting his gaze straight on.
“And I’m starting to think he doesn’t like me much.” Smart ghost.
She gave him another noncommittal shrug, making it clear she wasn’t comfortable talking about it. But he needed to know what he was dealing with. “So, the store isn’t haunted, it’s you.”
Breaking his gaze, she looked down at her hands.
He closed the distance between himself and the front counter, the glass cabinet the only thing separating them. “How long has this been going on?”
“A while,” she said quietly.
The hitch in her voice intrigued him. He’d assumed she’d acquired the ghost when she bought the shop, but from her reaction, how she downplayed her answers, now he believed it was much longer.
“Why don’t you have the Lillers and Stella help him pass to other side?”
“It hasn’t been an issue,” she finally said, meeting his eyes once more. “Finn’s a gentle soul. I’m not sure what’s set him off recently.”
There was truth to her words, but from the way she said it, he understood she had her suspicions. “You know his name?”
Nodding once, she said, “He was my only friend for a long time.”
“And you converse.”
She shook her head once. “Not the way you mean, but we communicate.”
It was concerning, this attachment to a ghost. He’d heard of air demons binding themselves to humans in the early stages of possession, masquerading as ghosts and helping the humans out with small tasks to make possession easier later on. But if Aubrey’s ghost was an air demon, his scar would burn.
“Do you have family?” The question was pulled from him out of a sense of duty, of getting to the bottom of the truth in the prophecy, but also out of concern for her wellbeing.
“Stella is my family,” she said, her eyes sad for a moment before she recovered. “How about we stop talking about weird shit for a while and get to work?”
The question caught him off guard. “Do you really want me here?”
“I don’t really understand why you’d want to work at an antique store with the job you do, but I do understand needing a change of pace. The store isn’t exciting at all. A lot of restoration, and cleaning, and office tasks. But if knowing there’s a moody ghost about doesn’t scare you off, then the job is yours.”
He shouldn’t accept. He should turn around and walk out and not look back—leave Aubrey to her store, and her ghost, and her friends who cared about her.
But the prophecy still weighed on him. He needed to figure out how she was connected to it or if he had the wrong person altogether. And he’d be lying if he didn’t admit there was something else keeping him here too, a pull that had his feet glued to the spot.
“I’ll stay,” he said, knowing he made a mistake.
Aubrey’s posture relaxed, and she gave him a smile that made his heart rate speed up. “Great,” she said, maybe a little too brightly. “I had some orders from yesterday I wasn’t able to mail. Did you want to start with taking those to the post office for me? I have an account there for them to charge the store.” She tipped her head to the four wrapped parcels at the end of the counter.
He nodded and stacked them in his arms. It was a short trip to the post office, and no line made the task quick and painless. When he returned to Relics, receipt in hand, Aubrey already had a list of things she needed accomplished. There was no way he could complete everything in one morning and said as much.
A smile lit up her face. “I guess you’ll need to return tomorrow.”
The fact that she wanted him here made his heart beat at an uncomfortable pace in his chest. Trying to ignore the sensation, he helped her move three wardrobes lined up on the one wall. They swept and mopped the hidden grime away together. After returning the furniture to their proper locations, he did the same for the chairs and side tables in the front window while Aubrey watered the plants throughout the store.
Next, they went over the cash register again, making sure he knew how to use it. After that, Aubrey said she had some paperwork to do and set him off with a rag and a bottle of wood polish to make the antiques shine.
About halfway through the task, a police officer entered the store. Roman tensed at the way the man’s eyes zeroed in on him, like Roman was the exact person he hunted for.
Aubrey had come out from the stock room when she’d heard the bell tinkle and sent the officer a smile. “Oh, hey. Stella hasn’t come in today.”
“She’s the one who sent me,” he said, coming farther inside.
“Oh, of course,” she said, her eyes jumping between the two of them. This time her smile seemed forced. “As you can see, I’m completely fine. Nothing to worry about here.”
The officer wouldn’t stop staring at him. Roman straightened from where he polished a dark oak vanity and matching stool. The other man’s expression let him know he knew things about him, adding to the tension in Roman’s spine.
The stare-down went on and on, neither of them looking away.
Ahem. The sound of Aubrey clearing her throat made them break their staring contest. “Thanks for stopping by,” she said to the other man. “You can tell Stella I’m fine. So, you know, you can go back to your regularly scheduled police duties, with your regular police-type things you do on a normal police-like work day.”
After a moment, the man said, “You have my number if you need me.” Then the officer shot him a warning glance before he left. Roman got the message loud and clear. He wasn’t to touch a hair on his new boss’s head.
Did this man have a relationship with Aubrey? Some guys might think striding in here and waving their dick around like they owned the place might be an acceptable move.
“A friend of yours?” he asked when the door shut. The officer sent him one last look through the window before sauntering down the sidewalk.
“He’s Stella’s boyfriend.” She wrinkled her nose, her expression irked.
A cop and a witch. Interesting. Letting that sink in, he went back to polishing the vanity, Aubrey’s eyes on him.
So, his new boss had an FBI agent in one pocket, a police officer in the other, and a ghost with homicidal tendencies floating around. It almost made him laugh. Aubrey Karle had it all.
12
An autumn bite in the air accompanied the Friday morning sunrise as Aubrey drove to Relics in her Civic. She kept telling herself it was another normal day at the store, but anticipation bubbled in her stomach since she woke up.
Part of her thought Roman probably wouldn’t show up today, that he’d had a taste of boring and would move on. The other part of her couldn’t wait to see him.
The stuff Stella had told her, it should have scared her off him. It should have made her tell him not
to come back. Instead, there hadn’t been an hour that had gone by without her thinking about him, about what his life must be like finding demons for a living.
No matter what job she’d given Roman yesterday, he’d tackled it without complaint and finished it without comment. Luckily, Finn had remained quiet, none of the usual texting acronyms showing up in shiny surfaces. And he hadn’t tried to murder Roman by clobbering him with one of the many objects that could be used as weapons in her store.
She knew Roman was her first official employee, but she was pretty sure even without employer experience, he was a model one. Maybe it was his military background that had him so focused. She’d wanted to ask him about it, but kept her questions to herself. Since he’d walked in her store on Monday, he hadn’t seemed like the “opening up and sharing” kind of guy.
Instead of being tempted to pry into his past, she’d watched him lift dressers and armoires to mop under. He kept his jacket and gloves on the entire time he worked, even though it had to be warm. She’d appreciated his strength with each physical task. The man effortlessly accomplished things that usually took two people to do. She tried not to stare too often, tried not to gape.
After trying not to ogle him the whole morning yesterday, so what if she had some boss/employee scenarios playing out in her head last night? Her fantasies weren’t hurting anyone. Imagining Roman slowly taking off his jacket, then his shirt, and stroking her with those gloves of his…just thinking about it now accelerated her heart rate. Last night, she’d taken refuge with her favorite vibrator—making sure to change the batteries first.
Fanning herself to cool the heat in her cheeks, she let herself in through the back door of Relics and prepared for the work day. She told herself not to watch the clock as nine thirty drew near. It was kind of hard when there were so many clocks clicking on the back wall, even if most of them weren’t set to the correct time.
Roman arrived five minutes ahead of the store opening.
Heart pounding an excited rhythm at the sight of him, she hurried to the door. “Good morning,” she said, letting him in and leaving it unlocked behind him. He smelled of outdoors and freshness, his hair damp like he’d just gotten out of the shower. The same brown jacket hugged his frame, black jeans and a gray shirt underneath.
“Morning,” he said with a quick nod, then moved to the supply closet to get the ladder. When his shift had ended yesterday, he’d been dusting the framed pictures and artwork she had hanging everywhere. He returned to where he’d left off on the far side of the store. Aubrey watched for a moment, but he was so focused on his task, eventually she headed to the front counter, opening the orders on her computer that had come in last night. They worked in companionable silence, the clicking of the clocks the only sound until she played some music.
Halfway through the morning, she had Roman washing the windows outside when she noticed Lucas walking down the street. He stopped to survey Roman’s handiwork, said something that made Roman pause, then kept walking, whistling as he went.
Through the window, Roman briefly met her eyes. The look said a lot, that he wasn’t impressed or deterred. It only took a second for him to return to washing the windows, his movements as sure and fluid as they’d been before Lucas had interrupted.
Aubrey let out a sigh. She was grateful for her friends’ concern. She knew Stella had only sent Lucas along to check on her because she cared, but her boyfriend seemed to be enjoying the task a bit more than necessary.
When Lucas came into the store again Saturday morning, he wasn’t fooling anyone.
Up the ladder again, Roman rearranged the artwork hanging on the wall across from the cash register, the ones he’d so diligently dusted the day before. It had always bothered her that some of the paintings and prints weren’t hanging as straight as they could be. With Roman’s help, they’d decided on a new layout, and he installed the new hooks while she commented on the positioning.
She’d be lying if she didn’t admit she’d been staring at his athletic ass while he was up there.
I’m a horrible employer.
The bell tinkled, and Lucas came in with a package and a bundle of mail under his armpit. “Saw the mail carrier outside and thought I’d save him a trip,” he said when she raised her eyebrows at him.
“I knew you were thinking of a career change,” she said, moving toward him, “but I didn’t know one of your options was the postal service.” She took the mail from him, scanning the label on the package from an office supply store.
His eyes sparked merriment at her for a moment before he turned his attention to Roman up the ladder, all levity gone from his expression. “That’s crooked,” he called up to Roman.
Roman hesitated, then went on with what he was doing, ignoring Lucas and his unsolicited opinion.
Aubrey clucked her tongue at him, and Lucas smiled at her. But it wasn’t a full smile, and she wondered what was going on inside his head.
She’d had a normal evening with Stella last night after work. But there was tension between them. On a usual Friday night, Stella would be off doing something with Lucas, but she’d stayed home instead. Neither of them had mentioned the strain, going about their evening routines, pretending like everything was fine.
The rift between them unsettled Aubrey. Since she’d met Stella their first day in college, when Stella sat beside her in Introduction to Business 101, they’d been as tight as friends could be. It might have been because of the offhand way Stella asked if Aubrey knew a ghost followed her, or in the way she quickly mentioned she was a good witch. Whatever the reason, they’d been practically inseparable since. Aubrey knew Stella would always have her back and she’d always have Stella’s.
Nothing had ever driven a wedge between them until now.
After Lucas stared up at Roman for a couple more minutes, arms crossed in front of his chest, he straightened and met her gaze. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Sure,” she replied, positive she wouldn’t.
The bell tinkled as he left, the door closing softly behind him. Roman’s feet hit the floor a moment later.
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning to him.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “They care about you.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to cause you problems with your friends.”
Aubrey swallowed. Having her best friend not wanting to be around him because of his energy was an issue she wasn’t sure how to get around. Yet. But she did want to spend more time with Roman, and not just as an employee. The longer they were together, the more sadness bloomed in her chest. She kept thinking about how depressing his life must be as a demon hunter, that he always felt so unsafe he needed to wear weapons at all times. Did he work here in the mornings, then fill his afternoons skulking after demons?
“It’s fine,” she said when she realized he expected a response. But it wasn’t really fine. Because Stella worked from home, she usually spent part of her day at Relics. She either brought her laptop with her to work on her websites, or stopped by to visit on a break. And she often brought Aubrey lunch or coffee.
Stella hadn’t been in the store since Roman had started working.
Aubrey’s heart clenched. With her best friend so sensitive to others’ energy, Aubrey knew she avoided some situations, like large groups or being around someone new for too long. They’d always found ways to work around stuff like that. It wasn’t a big deal for Aubrey to buy concert tickets for seats at the back, never in the mosh pit.
And in turn, Stella had made allowances for Aubrey. Their friendship had always been about a mutual give and take. When they’d first moved into an apartment together, Aubrey had begun to have frequent panic attacks, worried her friend might not return home at night. With the help of Aubrey’s therapist, they’d worked out a solution. A text from Stella once in the afternoon kept Aubrey’s anxiety at bay.
When Aubrey started to care about a person, she needed to know they were oka
y, that they hadn’t had a car accident somewhere or were dead in a ditch. Deep down she knew those things weren’t likely to happen, but her brain didn’t listen. Stella had kept up with the check-ins for the past six years without ever making a complaint about them.
But now her best friend avoided the store altogether.
How long would it go on? Would Stella never feel comfortable here again? The thought made her chest tighten and her heart pound uncomfortably. How was she supposed to invite Roman over to watch a movie or dinner if her best friend couldn’t stand to be around him?
The thought made her straighten. Was she thinking about asking him out? With everything she’d learned about him, it seemed an idiotic idea. But there was something about him that made her relax her guard and want to get to know him better. Who asked a demon hunter on a date? He probably had things to do in the evenings that didn’t involve movies or dinners.
Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, she forced a smile. “I’ve been avoiding cleaning out my paperwork for a while. I’ll make a load of recycling for you to take.”
His brow furrowed, he stared at her as she pulled out the banker’s box of recycling from behind the front counter, then the two trays of loose papers, one marked “important,” the other marked “to do.” She should have filed most of this stuff ages ago, receipts, invoices, and packing slips for taxes.
On top of the stack in the “important” tray lay the flyer for the self-defense class at Method Martial Arts. She’d kept it on top of the stack so she wouldn’t forget about it. The open house was tonight.
Roman picked it up and gave it a scan. “What’s this?”
She thought of the reasons for going, about how having her memory tampered with had made her feel violated. “I considered attending, since it’s free.” She shrugged. “Thought it might be time for me to learn how to take care of myself.”
Roman nodded. “It’s a good idea.”
“Really?” she asked, a little surprised by his quick agreement.
