“Wait.” I slowed my pace. “You’re not going to feed me to the zombies, are you?”
Galen’s expression was a picture of patience even as his lips curved. “Why would I want to do that?”
“You said I’m a pain in the butt.”
“You are.”
“So maybe you don’t want to deal with me,” I suggested. “Maybe you think it will be easier if I’m a zombie and you can lock me in the cemetery.”
“It might be easier, but I doubt very much it will be as entertaining.” Galen tugged on my hand. “Come on. There’s something I want to show you.”
He didn’t sound angry or even frustrated. Still, I scuffed my flip-flops against the concrete as I followed. “I really don’t want to be zombie food.”
“You’re not going to be zombie food,” Galen promised. “In fact, once we’re done here, I have every intention of taking you to a nice dinner on the beach.”
That was news to me. “You do? I’m not really dressed for the occasion.”
“This is an island. You don’t need to dress for an occasion.”
“Okay, but … what if I want seafood or something?” I challenged. “Can we go to a restaurant that serves good seafood if I’m dressed like a bum?”
Galen took a moment to look over my outfit. I wore simple cut-offs and a T-shirt – although both were clean – and I was clearly underdressed for a night out. “You look cute.”
Instead of taking me to the cemetery’s front gate, he led me along the long wall and toward the back of the plot. I followed, understandably curious, and when we rounded the final corner I found he’d set up a blanket and picnic basket on the ground.
“What’s this?” I was absurdly touched and a bit suspicious. “Are you going to feed me before they eat me?”
“Ha, ha.” Galen released my hand and flicked my ear. “You’re definitely a lot of work.”
I leaned over and picked through the picnic basket. “Sandwiches and potato salad. I was hoping for seafood … and you said we were having dinner on the beach.”
“We live on an island. There’s always seafood available. Also, this entire island is a beach, but I get what you’re saying. We’ll do that tomorrow, make a big deal out of it and everything.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “What makes you think I’m going out with you again tomorrow?”
Galen smirked. “Call it a hunch.”
I considered arguing with him, putting up a token fight for form’s sake, but I didn’t have the energy, and we both knew he was going to get his way. Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t curious. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Because you keep stumbling across information in a manner that hurts you and I want to fix that,” Galen replied. “The thing is, I can’t protect you from all of that. It’s going to happen, and I can’t possibly keep up with what you know.”
“But?”
“But there’s something here I know you don’t know about and I need you to see it before someone else accidentally tells you or you stumble across the truth yourself.” Galen wrapped his hands around my wrist and directed me toward a slot in the wall. “Come on.”
For some reason, the shift in his demeanor made me a bit nervous. He still seemed happy and full of life, but there was a darkness flitting around his eyes. I was almost afraid to see what he wanted to show me.
“Look through here.” Galen pulled back a sliding cover and revealed a window in the wall.
I balked. “What am I going to see?”
“Something you probably don’t want to see, but you need to know, so I’m making sure it happens under the right circumstances.” Galen leaned over and plucked a flower from the vase next to the wall. It was the same sort of flower he’d given me twenty minutes before. “Here.”
I took the flower, confused. “So these are stolen flowers, huh?”
Galen smirked. “They’re pretty, and they remind me of you.” He slipped his arm around my waist and positioned me so I was in front of him. “Look.”
I gave up fighting the effort and looked through the glass, taking a moment to let my eyes adjust and grimacing when I saw the lumbering zombies moving on the other side of the wall. “I’ve seen them before.”
“Yes, but you haven’t really looked.” Galen leaned down so his chin rested on my shoulder, his eyes busily scanning faces. Finally he found what he was looking for and pointed to the left. “There.”
I followed his finger, unsure what I was supposed to be looking at. My heart skipped a beat when a familiar face popped into view. At first I was sure I was mistaken. I shook my head to clear my vision and stared harder.
After a long time – what felt like forever – I remembered to breathe and let loose a horrified gasp. “That’s my mother!”
“I know.” Galen stroked the back of my head. “I’m so sorry.”
“But … .” I searched my memory. “She was cremated. My father spread her ashes in the Grand Canyon when we visited. I was ten. I remember.”
“I don’t know about that,” Galen said. “You’ll have to ask your father. I do know that your mother’s body was transported here. It was about seven years ago, not right after she died. That’s one of the reasons I always assumed she raised you. I thought she died at that time.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either.” Galen’s arms were strong as they came around me. “I knew she was in here, and I also knew it was only a matter of time before you found out. I wanted to be the one to tell you, because … well, because it felt as if it should be my job.”
I didn’t know what to say. My tongue was tied and there was a very good possibility my mind was about to seize.
Galen pressed a kiss to my cheek, drawing me out of my stupor. “I’m really sorry.”
I let loose a shaky breath, my eyes never leaving my mother’s face. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do it.”
“No, but I can’t help but wonder if I should’ve told you sooner.”
“You told me now.” I patted the hand that rested on my midriff. “It’s okay.” I said the words, but I wasn’t sure I meant them. How could any of this be okay?
“You can ask Wesley about it,” Galen prodded. “He’s bound to know.”
“I will.” My voice was unnaturally squeaky.
“I’m so sorry.” Galen kissed my cheek a second time. “This was a bad idea, wasn’t it?”
I opened my mouth to agree, but found myself shaking my head instead. When I turned, the smile I graced him with was small but heartfelt. “No. It was a good idea.”
“How can you say that? I saw the look on your face when you saw your mother. That wasn’t a happy look.”
“You told me the truth.” I gripped his hand. “I’m not going to pretend this island doesn’t freak me out … that this witch thing isn’t going to give me nightmares … and that these zombies aren’t unbelievably weird. But this is my home now, and you told me the truth.”
Galen relaxed a bit, but his eyes remained guarded. “So now what?”
“Now?” I flicked my eyes to the incredibly odd and yet romantic picnic. “Now we eat the dinner you put together and get to know one another outside of a catastrophe. After that … it’s anyone’s guess.”
Galen’s lips curved. “Seriously?”
I nodded.
“That sounds like a great plan.” Galen led me toward the blanket. “I brought pie, too.”
“Oh, who doesn’t love pie?”
“No one I would ever trust with my life … or my heart.”
At least we had that in common.
Witch Out of Water
A Moonstone Bay Cozy Mystery Book Two
1
One
A naked woman stood in my backyard when I took my coffee to the patio to enjoy the sunrise.
Don’t worry; this story won’t veer into porn territory or anything. I simply thought it merited noting because it wasn’t as if I could look away from the ridiculously-toned
silhouette … and I’m big on sharing the suffering when the opportunity arises.
I ran my tongue over my teeth and regarded Aurora King – she of the gleaming fins and tail when hitting the water off Moonstone Bay – with an uncertain look. I hadn’t seen her in almost a week, not since she’d saved me from a madman who wanted to steal the lighthouse I found myself living in.
That’s when I discovered she was a mermaid, for the record. I was in the water and trying to swim toward shore even though I was terrified of sharks (or worse yet, shark shifters) coming after me. Aurora showed up out of nowhere – naked, as is her way – and towed me to shore where the cavalry was waiting.
The man who wanted me dead so he could steal the property my grandmother had left me in her will was now gone – shot by a grandfather I never knew I’d had – and I returned to a life I couldn’t quite wrap my head around. I was still struggling with the aftermath, although my panic and uncertainty lessened every day.
“Hey, Hadley.” Aurora offered me a wave as she tugged on a pair of knit shorts, her bare breasts still fully on display. “Do you have a cup of that for me?”
I flicked my eyes to the coffee mug in my hand and found myself nodding before I gave the question much thought. “Sure. I’ll be right back.”
I returned to the lighthouse kitchen long enough to pour another mug of coffee from the percolating machine – something that felt somehow antique in this day and age – and found Aurora sitting in a lounge chair when I returned. Her hair wet, her T-shirt clinging to her in ways that made me realize she hadn’t put on a bra before getting dressed, and her smile somehow mischievous rather than warm and welcoming.
“Here.” I handed her the mug and sat on the lounger across the way, my heart rate picking up a notch as I debated what to say to her. It somehow seemed disingenuous to thank her for saving my life a week after the fact, but I couldn’t remember thanking her that day on the beach. I had other things on my mind … like a crazed lawyer with a gun and finding out Aurora was actually a mermaid.
Yeah, I was still floundering over that one.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind, Hadley,” Aurora noted after sipping her coffee. “Would you like to talk about it?”
The woman was prim and proper – as if she was a therapist trying to delve into my busy brain – and the realization did little to ease my discomfort. “I don’t have a lot on my mind.” I averted my gaze. “What makes you think I have a lot on my mind?”
“Because I’ve met you and I’ve yet to see you when you didn’t have a lot on your mind,” Aurora replied, pursing her lips as she looked me up and down. Thankfully I was smart enough to dress in simple shorts and a T-shirt for bed, so there was nothing about my pajamas she could find objectionable. “How is May?”
Oh, well, that was a loaded question. May Belladonna Potter was my grandmother. She was the reason I found myself living in Moonstone Bay. She died, left me a lighthouse on an island I’d never heard of, and sent me on the adventure of a lifetime.
I still wasn’t sure if I should be grateful or annoyed about any of it.
“She’s still around, although she pops in and out a lot,” I answered. “She doesn’t seem keen to answer questions, instead showing up in weird spots – like the kitchen or library – and spending five minutes prattling on about me and how I should drink more water before leaving the second I ask her a question about anything else.”
“That sounds just like May.” Aurora adopted a fond smile. “Did I tell you that she used to have coffee waiting for me on this patio at least twice a week? She always liked hearing about what was going on in the sea.”
I nodded. “You told me.”
“As for her not answering questions, I’m going to guess that’s a multifaceted problem she’s still trying to figure out. She probably thought she would have more time before explanations were necessary but then you turned into a target and figured out you had magic. That meant she had to work faster than she would’ve liked. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
I couldn’t stop myself from making an exaggerated face. “You wouldn’t worry about it?”
Aurora was blasé. “Nope. I wouldn’t worry about it at all. I’m sure May will come around when she feels it’s time.”
That was another thing that bothered me. “Yeah, um, that’s weird, too. I mean … May is dead. I never got to meet her in life and yet she’s running around as a ghost in the lighthouse where I live. Don’t you think that’s weird?”
Aurora shrugged as she sipped her coffee. “Not on this island. I’m sure you find it weird, though. Have you ever asked yourself why you think that way?”
And she was back to being a therapist … and not a very good one. “I think it’s weird because ghosts aren’t supposed to be real.”
“Says who?”
“Says … um … anyone who has ever lived in a place other than Moonstone Bay.” I was uncomfortable with the conversation so I decided to change it. “What about you? Do you have any good gossip from town?”
“Oh, the town is always thick with gossip.” If Aurora was annoyed at my rather clumsy transition she didn’t show it. “Sunny Lee, who owns the nail salon, and Babs Houghton, who owns the laundromat, are going to war over a small park they share in the downtown area. That promises to be all kinds of fun.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of the tidbit. “Oh, well … why are they fighting over a park?”
“It’s not really a park. It’s more like a small patio area between the laundromat and nail salon and it’s used most often by people having lunch on the main drag. Other than that, it’s largely ignored.”
“Huh.” Really, what more was I supposed to say? “So why are they fighting?” Aurora showed no signs of leaving, so I had to keep the conversation going somehow. I didn’t want to talk about May, so that meant we had to talk about something else. If warring business owners intrigued Aurora, I was happy to stay on that subject. “I mean … what’s their beef with one another?”
“Oh, it’s a very long feud,” Aurora replied. “Those two have been going at each other for twenty years.”
“And why is that?”
“Sunny used to work for Babs but decided to branch out on her own and just happened to lease the space next door to Babs,” Aurora explained, her eyes lighting as she warmed to the story. “Babs was grooming Sunny to take over the laundromat without realizing that Sunny didn’t want to take over that business – she told me she found it boring and hated answering questions about stain removal – and much preferred a colorful avenue … like painting nails.”
“Ah, well … .” I really didn’t care about the laundromat and nail salon going to war. “I’m sure they’ll work things out.”
“I’m sure they will, too,” Aurora agreed. “If they don’t, we’re going to have a real human centipede problem on our hand, and nobody wants that.”
“I … what?”
Aurora didn’t slow to respond to my obvious confusion. “And how are things between you and Galen?”
I instantly forgot about the human centipede reference and straightened in my chair. The last thing I wanted to talk about was Galen Blackwood, Moonstone Bay’s sheriff and prime hunk of burning love. Okay, I added that last part. I was the only one who’d lost myself to thoughts of his burning love … but I couldn’t help myself. The man was smoking hot and caused something chemical to ignite in my brain. I couldn’t explain it.
Wait … what were we talking about again? How did we go from human centipede talk to conversing about Galen Blackwood?
When I didn’t answer, Aurora arched an eyebrow and grinned. “That good, huh? Has he rendered you speechless? I seem to remember him having that effect on a lot of women over the years. Now he seems to be keeping to himself – and you – more than spreading the wealth.”
Hmm. Just how much “spreading” were we talking about here? “I think you should ask Galen how he is if you want to know,” I said. “I’m not his keeper.”
“No, but you are dating.” Aurora’s eyes sparkled as she drank in my amusement and … well, basked seemed to be the right word. She was clearly enjoying herself and basking in my discomfort. “Last time I checked, you guys have been together every night this past week.”
That was a horrible lie – or at least a blatant exaggeration. “We haven’t spent a night together since the kidnapping,” I countered. “Once Ned was gone I wasn’t in danger. There was no reason for Galen to stand guard, so he’s been spending nights at his house … or apartment.” Huh. I had no idea whether Galen lived in a house or apartment. That was probably something I should know.
Instead of being surprised by my outburst, Aurora was amused. “Uh-huh. I wasn’t talking about your sleeping arrangements – but thanks for the update on those all the same. I was talking about your dating arrangements. You guys have been seen at different establishments across the island every night this week.”
“Oh, that.” Hmm. There was every chance Aurora thought I was spastic. Normally I wouldn’t care, but Moonstone Bay was nothing if not a hotbed of gossip and innuendo. I didn’t want to be at the center of those circles. “We’ve been out a few times.”
Aurora snorted. “You’ve been out every night this week. In fact, Jadis Lacosta says that you guys were walking on the beach five nights ago. She said you were holding hands and everything.”
“I don’t know Jadis Lacosta.” That was true, and completely trivial given the conversation.
“Alana Jeffords said that four nights ago you were seen at the tiki bar on the pier and you were sharing mussels and beer.”
“We didn’t share beer,” I said hurriedly. “We each had our own beer.”
Aurora barreled forward as if she hadn’t heard a word I said. “Alaric Reynolds says that he saw you guys by the cemetery one night and that Galen had spread out a picnic blanket, as if you guys wanted to be alone while watching the ghouls dance on the other side of the wall.”
Witches Just Want to Have Fun Page 28
