“I agree,” Grant said. “Life is too short to stay angry and bitter.”
Grant and I stayed a while longer before bowing out. Tamara had promised to have stew and homemade bread ready by the time we came home, and I still needed to run by the store and get a bottle of red wine.
As we journeyed back to the Blazer, Grant slipped his hand into mine as we walked along silently. We’d just reached the vehicle when a swift breeze blew around us.
Grant lifted his head and sniffed. “You smell that?”
My hand stilled on the door handle, and a bad feeling washed over me. I’d almost forgotten we only had a few days until the next full moon. “No. What is it?”
Chuckling, Grant shook his head. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I smelled citrus and popcorn in the air. But that’s silly.”
Note to self…talk with Grant’s grandparents immediately!
A Deadly Homecoming
Chapter 1
“I’m thrilled you decided to go with us tonight,” Mom said. “I just hope you aren’t too tired after working all day at your bakery.”
I laughed, linked arms with my mom and Aunt Serenity, and the three of us barreled down the snowy sidewalk of Enchanted Island. “When have I ever been too tired to shop? Especially Christmas shop?”
Not that I had much choice. Even though there were still four more days until Christmas, my family did most of their celebrating on Christmas Eve with a huge dinner party and presents for family and friends. So I only had three days to find all my last-minute items.
“Besides, you know we close the bakery at three every day,” I added. “We just stayed open tonight until four o’clock so everyone could pick up last-minute dessert items for their Yule dinner.”
Aunt Serenity snorted. “And, little sister, I don’t really consider Grover’s Odds & Ends the high point of Christmas shopping.”
Mom laughed. “Agreed, big sister.”
“But I do need to buy some of that weird candy Shayla likes,” Aunt Serenity conceded.
I clasped my hands together in excitement. “So is Cousin Shayla coming home for Christmas then?”
Aunt Serenity frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think so. She’s still on assignment last I knew.” She sighed. “I’m so proud of her, and I know she loves her job, but I just wish I could see her more often.”
“I understand,” I said. “A couple weeks ago when she made that quick stop here to Enchanted Island to pick up Liza and haul her away, she pretty much said the same thing to me. To be honest, Aunt Serenity, Shayla looked exhausted.”
My cousin, Shayla, worked for this secret governmental agency called the Paranormal Apprehension and Detention Agency. It was all very vague and hush-hush. What I knew was that when she arrested a bad guy or girl, that was pretty much it. There was no trial, no appeals, nothing. If you were a supernatural caught in the commission of a felonious crime using your powers for wrongdoing, you were immediately stripped of those powers and locked away. No second chance. My cousin, Shayla, made sure of it.
“She’s not the only one exhausted these days,” Aunt Serenity said. “For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling my age.”
“Oh, poo!” Mom said. “You aren’t that much older than me.”
Aunt Serenity sighed. “I am too, Starla. It’s about time you recognized that. There are the exact same years between me and you as there is between Shayla and Serena.”
My aunt was right. Twelve years separated Mom from her older sister…and twelve years separated me from my cousin Shayla.
“I’ll be sixty in a couple months,” Aunt Serenity continued. “And I feel it.”
“I just turned twenty-seven,” I said. “So that means…” I counted in my head. “Shayla is thirty-nine right now, but will turn forty in April. Only four months away.”
“You can’t stop the wheel of time,” Aunt Serenity said. “No matter how much you may want to.”
“Stop this melancholy nonsense,” Mom said. “You sound like GiGi.”
GiGi was my cantankerous grandma—GiGi for short. She pretty much kept to herself out at the cottage near the cliffs on the northeast side of Enchanted Island. My whole life GiGi had been stubborn and ornery. But still, a real hoot to be around. She always says exactly what she feels.
“It’s Christmastime,” my mom continued. “A time to revel in joy and happiness.”
Aunt Serenity snorted. “Don’t tell that to Treena Oakley. She might just rip your hair out, dear sister.”
“Treena Oakley?” I mused. “What about her?”
My mom gasped. “You mean you haven’t heard? It’s almost old news now.”
I shook my head. “Guess not. We’ve been so busy at the bakery, I hardly have time to talk with customers.”
My best friend and roommate, Tamara Gardener, and I owned the local bakery and coffee shop in town, Enchanted Bakery & Brew. We’d both grown up on Enchanted Island, left to attend culinary school on the mainland, and after earning dual baking and pastry degrees, decided to come back and open our own shop. We’d been going strong for over three years now.
“No one can say exactly who called it off,” Mom said, “but after four years together, Treena and Grover split up last week!”
We crossed the street to the shops on the other side. Since nearly all of the island was made up of supernaturals of some type, you could pretty much find any store you needed—mainly because no one really ever wanted to leave and shop on the mainland in human stores. We felt safe here. And by “we,” I mean the nearly ten thousand supernaturals that called Enchanted Island home.
“Weren’t they engaged?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mom said. “This would have been Grover’s second marriage and Treena’s first. From what I hear, the poor girl is devastated.”
We stopped in front of Grover’s Odds & Ends. It was a sort of throw-back to the old five and dime stores. You could pretty much find anything from vintage clothing, to games, to knickknacks, to candy. The drawing point was the fact that nearly all the merchandise was enchanted in some way by Grover.
As a fellow witch, I didn’t really need my items enchanted. I could do it myself. But for those non-witches on the island, it was a cool concept.
“I don’t want to be insensitive,” I said, “but I never understood that match. What could they have in common? I mean, he’s known as Grouchy Grover for a reason.”
Aunt Serenity giggled. “I agree with you. Treena could do so much better. I’ve never been a Grover Burns fan myself.”
“Not many people are,” Mom said as she opened the door to the store.
“You can say that again,” an angry, yet familiar, female voice said.
I turned and stared into the furious face of the normally sweet and kind Mrs. Mystic. “Is everything okay?”
“It most certainly is not!” She held up an Elf on the Shelf doll. “I bought this thing a couple days ago, thinking it would keep my six kids entertained and well-behaved. Ha! Instead, it’s made my life a nightmare!”
Chapter 2
Not wanting to miss out on the sparks that were sure to fly, I motioned for Mrs. Mystic to go ahead of me then stuck close to her side…or as close as I could without being thought of as a creeper.
The store was busy with parents frantically shopping for last-minute toys. But even still, it wasn’t hard to find the owner, Grover Burns, standing toward the rear of the store gesturing to another man whose back was to me. Grover wasn’t the sort of witch you could easily overlook. He stood well over six feet tall. His dark hair hung limply to his scrawny shoulders, and if he weighed over one hundred sixty pounds, I’d eat my first training wand. Right now, his piercing dark eyes stared daggers at the man in front of him.
I darted around Mrs. Featherington, turned at the end of the aisle, and positioned myself so I could overhear the conversation.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Grover Burns said. “I’m not sure now if I want to sell. I’m thinking maybe
Treena and I—well, I just don’t want to sell right now.”
“You assured me we had a deal,” the other man insisted.
Grover narrowed his eyes. “I’m not going to repeat myself, Mr. Swift. We’re done here.”
Recognition dawned on me who the other man was—real estate mogul Maxwell Swift. He was a wealthy man with many business holdings on Enchanted Island.
“Now you listen to me, Burns. I’m not—”
The front door flew open with a bang, making me jump in the air, and cutting off Maxwell Swift’s tirade. Clyde Moonstone stood in the doorway, his hulking body heaving, clutching a wooden sidewalk sign with a chalkboard center advertising ten percent off Christmas merchandise at Grover’s Odds & Ends.
“I’ve had enough!” Moonstone’s voice rang out, causing the whole store to go quiet. “I’m done with you putting your sign on my sidewalk in front of my store. You hear me, Burns?”
My head swiveled back to Grover Burns.
“I think we all hear you, wolf,” Grover said with an obvious sneer in his voice. “I don’t know who keeps moving the sign to the front of your store, but it’s not me.”
“Lies!” Moonstone growled. “You and I both know it! You do it again, and I’ll snap off both your hands so you’ll never be able to move or enchant anything again.”
A collective gasp filled the air. I hadn’t been this entertained in a long time. I was almost sorry I hadn’t brought popcorn.
“Get out! Get out! Get out!” Grover yelled.
I stopped smiling when I saw the magic begin to build at Grover’s fingertips. No way was this going to end peacefully. But before I could figure out how to put a stop to the imminent fight, Mr. Moonstone raised the wooden sign in the air, a bottom peg in each hand, and ripped the board in half. Tossing the broken sign onto the floor, Moonstone stalked back outside.
“He just split that wood with his bare hands,” Mrs. Mystic whispered at my side.
“He sure did,” I said, thankful there hadn’t been any vampire customers standing around when the wood went flying, or they’d have fainted in fear. Nothing said Merry Christmas like being staked in the heart while Christmas shopping.
“I need him to stop by my house,” Mrs. Mystic continued. “I have a whole woodpile that needs to be split.”
I snorted. “I’m pretty sure you can just wiggle your fingers, cast a spell, and have that taken care of.”
“True,” she agreed. “But it would be more entertaining to watch Mr. Moonstone do it. I mean, did you see the muscles in that man’s arms? And that face.” Mrs. Mystic fanned herself with the stuffed elf. “I may have six kids, but I can still appreciate the male form.”
We both giggled.
“As I was saying,” Maxwell Swift continued as though the whole Moonstone thing hadn’t just happened, “we had a deal. But I’ll give you a couple days to think about it. Here’s my card with my number just in case.”
Grover snatched the man’s business card, ripped it up, and sprinkled it on the ground.
“This has been the craziest day,” I murmured.
“Well, it’s about to get crazier,” Mrs. Mystic said. “Because now it’s my turn to have a go at Grover Burns.”
I glanced around, trying to spot Mom and Aunt Serenity. They were over by the candy aisle, half watching the show, half stuffing their shopping bags with goodies. Mom raised her eyebrows at me and mouthed the word “crazy” to me.
I started to walk over to them, but I hadn’t taken more than two steps before Mrs. Mystic’s voice made me pause.
“It’s a dud,” she insisted. “I want my money back.”
“All Christmas sales are final,” Grover said. “Sorry.”
Mrs. Mystic shook the poor little elf, his head flopping back and forth. “It doesn’t work! You promised me it was enchanted. All I had to do was set it out at night and it would move itself! Well, guess what? It’s broken! It didn’t move itself in the middle of the night. Do you know how hard it is to explain to kids why the elf was in the same dang place it was the day before? Do you? Do you know the pressure I’ve had the last three days trying to figure out a place to move this thing every night?” She gave the poor elf another vigorous shake. “Do you?”
Once again everyone in the store had tuned in to the latest show. No one moved as they watched Mrs. Mystic rant and rail. Even an amused Maxwell Swift stood nearby watching the exchange.
“You know,” Mrs. Featherington whispered as she leaned in conspiratorially toward me, “I’ve heard this kind of thing has been happening a lot lately here in the store. I think Grover is losing his touch on enchanting his merchandise.”
Grover raised his hands and his voice. “Now, Mrs. Mystic, let’s just calm down.”
“Calm down?” she mused. “Calm down? You told me the elf was enchanted. It’s not. If I wanted an unenchanted elf, I would have ordered one off the mainland from a human store. I didn’t. I wanted the enchanted one you sold me!”
Grover rolled his eyes. “You’re a witch. You could enchant it yourself.”
Mrs. Mystic whacked Grover repeatedly with the elf. “That’s not the point! The point is I paid you for a product that doesn’t work. I want my money back.”
“All sales are final,” Grover insisted.
“Oh c’mon, Grover,” someone hollered. “Give the woman back her money. Geez!”
“Yeah!” others chorused.
“Where’s your Christmas spirit?” a voice behind me called out.
Grover narrowed his eyes at Mrs. Mystic. “No.”
He turned and started to walk away when my Aunt Serenity’s voice rang out in the store. “Your heart is as black as coal, Grover Burns. May you get nothing but coal in your stocking this year.”
I blinked in surprise, and once again it seemed like everyone in the store held their breath. That was about as close to a hex as you could get. Totally out of character for my aunt. Witches understand the power of words, and my aunt had just let loose with some pretty powerful stuff.
“Bah!” Grover said as he marched to his back storeroom, oblivious to the unease around him.
Chapter 3
“I can’t believe I missed all that,” Tamara said the next morning as she tied an apron around her waist.
“It was definitely something to see.” I chuckled. “Especially Mrs. Mystic whacking Grover with the elf.”
Tamara and I always opened the store together. It’s our favorite time of the day. Just the two of us, baking morning treats, and getting our shop ready for customers.
“What do you feel like today?” I asked, walking toward the coffee machine.
“Peppermint mocha.”
I smiled. “Sounds good to me too.”
We spent the next couple hours baking, ordering supplies, and talking about yesterday’s exploits. When it was finally time to open the bakery, I waved my hand toward the door, and the sign flipped over to OPEN. It didn’t take long before we were hopping.
Around eight, Heather Castleman popped in for her weekly standing order of six chocolate-chip muffins and a spiced mocha.
“Have you heard the latest?” she asked.
“You mean what happened yesterday at Grover’s store?” I mused.
She shook her head. “No. I mean, I heard about that, and I wished I could have seen it all go down. But, no, I mean about Officer Hexton?”
I blinked in surprise. Surely if something had happened to Officer Hexton, my new boyfriend and police detective, Grant Wolfe, would have told me…right?
“What about Officer Hexton?” I closed the lid on the box and handed it to her, then turned to make her drink.
“His mom, Gilda, had a stroke last night, and he left to go take care of her.”
“Oh no! Will she be okay?” I asked.
Heather shrugged. “Officer Hexton didn’t know much. Just that she was taken to the hospital where she lives.”
I frowned. “Where was it she moved again?”
“Harbor Cove
in Connecticut.”
If my memory was right, she moved there a few years ago to be with her sister after her sister’s husband passed away. Gilda had enjoyed the little town so much she decided to stay on and moved in with her sister.
“I hope Gilda recovers quickly.” I handed her the spiced mocha. “And Officer Hexton can come back home.”
“Me too. Well, see ya next week, Serena.”
As she headed out the door, Tamara rounded the corner from the back and came to stand next to me. “Everything is finished. Need some help out here?”
At that moment, the door opened and three customers shuffled in, knocking snow off their boots. We’d gotten a light dusting overnight.
“I could always use your help,” I said, bumping my hip against hers. “Let’s get this day started.”
Mom and Aunt Serenity stopped by around nine for a couple of our famous cinnamon rolls and coffee…and stayed to gossip with other customers for a while. Of course the big buzz was what had happened yesterday at Grover Burns’ store and how Aunt Serenity put a hex on him with her coal remark.
“I heard about it from my neighbor.” Lydia Wolfman handed me her money, and I slid her a gingerbread latte. “Nothing but coal. How funny!”
The front door opened, and the bakery quieted as Treena Oakley stepped inside…her hair and clothes slightly disheveled. As she neared the counter, I could see her eyes were red and puffy. However, the smile she gave me seemed genuine.
“Good morning, Serena.”
“Good morning, Treena,” I said. “How are you?”
I mentally kicked myself for that automatic question. What did I expect her to say? That she was doing great after being dumped by Grover Burns? The bakery was painfully quiet, waiting to hear what Treena would say.
“I’m doing okay. All things considered.” She leaned in and smiled even wider. “Especially after I heard what happened yesterday at Grover’s store and how your aunt put a hex on Grover. I’ll take an eggnog latte and a cranberry-orange muffin.”
Enchanted Island Mysteries : Serena & Grant Page 11
