“I have seen some things, but there was always a way to explain it away. Even when I saw things that defied explanation, I could always talk myself out of believing it by the time I got home. Then I would just move on to something else.”
“That’s what happens with all of the humans in Coventry. It’s how the witches and the humans can live together without the regular folks finding out. But you seem different. It was like you were closer than the others.”
“Maybe because I spend so much more time out in the community. I’ve just seen more?” he offered.
“That could be,” I said. “But what do you think of all of this. Are you okay?”
“I could use a beer,” he said.
“Let me go see if I have any,” I said.
“Brighton.” Thorn stopped me. “You said that the last time I was here. How do you not know if you have any beer? Are you just blackout drinking every night?”
“No,” I said with a laugh. “I don’t buy any beer, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any. The house… I don’t know how to explain it. I take care of it, so it takes care of me.”
“You mean beer just appears in your fridge?”
“That amongst other things. Coffee, snacks, money.”
“Money?”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve found a couple of stashes. Not just the money in the books either. I’ve found jars or tins of money. But I think those were hidden by Maude. I can only see them when I really need them.”
“Wait, that means she wasn’t really crazy.”
“Yep,” I said. “Now let me see about those beers.”
We drank the beers I found in the fridge in front of the fire in silence. It seemed like Thorn was letting it all sink in, so I left him alone to marinate in what I’d just told him.
“It’s getting late,” he said.
“It is.”
“I don’t want to leave, though. I’m not sure why. It’s like I’m afraid if I walk out the door, the world will change. Or maybe I’ll forget everything. You wouldn’t do that, would you? Let me in on all of this and then erase my memory.”
Suddenly, I was back at the night Remy was here. When he’d told me that I’d choose Thorn, but that he’d break my heart. Had Remy tried to erase my memory and failed? That idea freaked me out a little bit.
“I have two guest rooms, or you can ride the couch. If you want to stay, you can.”
“It wouldn’t look right,” Thorn said.
“Thorn, sweetie, no one is looking. And if they are, so be it. You’re going to crash on the sofa or in one my guest rooms. If I didn’t know you’d already told people we were together, I’d think you were trying to keep it a secret.”
“How do you know I told anyone?” he asked and pulled me into his arms again.
“Because people knew, and I hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone.”
“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t keep it to myself.” He kissed my forehead. “The most beautiful, exotic woman in town is my girlfriend.”
“So we’re still?”
“Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to break it off with you after finding out you live in a magic house full of free beer and money.”
I slapped him playfully on the arm. “Hey.”
“I’m kidding,” Thorn said, but then his face went completely serious.
“What? What is it?”
“Outside. Your front curtain is open a bit. I thought I saw someone out there.”
“Might have been a ghost,” I offered.
“Oh, great,” he said. “So those are real too.”
“Yep, and they do drop by here from time to time.”
“Maybe I will go home,” he said with a smile.
“Don’t be a scaredy-cat,” Meri said and brushed against Thorn’s legs.
“I’m not going to get used to him talking.”
“I thought the same thing, but you will. He grows on you.”
“Whatever,” Meri said.
“Whatever, cat.”
“Hang on,” Thorn said and gently pushed me away.
“What?” I asked.
“I think I saw it again. I think there is someone outside. Stay here, ghost or not, I’m going to check the perimeter.”
“My hero.”
A few minutes after Thorn went outside, he returned. “I didn’t find anyone, but there was definitely someone out there. The ground is soft outside that window, and there are footprints. Someone was looking in. I’m definitely staying.”
“What about the ghosts?” I teased.
“You said you’re a witch. I have every faith that you can protect me.”
Chapter Sixteen
When I got up the next morning, Thorn was already gone. The blankets he’d used to sleep on the sofa were folded neatly. There was a note on top.
I didn’t run off. I promise. I just had to be to work early. I won’t disappear on you. Whatever you are, Brighton, you are perfect to me. Oh, and thank the fridge for the iced coffee and bagel with cream cheese I found in there this morning. I much appreciate the breakfast.
He had a way of making me feel safe and cared for, that was for sure. And apparently, the house approved of him too because I hadn’t purchased any iced coffee or bagels. One thing was for certain, he had handled the whole witch thing well. That made me feel better.
I wasn’t quite ready to go back to the cemetery yet, so I spent the morning doing chores around the house. I used the riding lawn mower to cut my grass too.
When that was done, I showered and got dressed for lunch with Annika. She was waiting for me outside Dumbledore’s when I arrived.
We got a booth and ordered turkey club sandwiches and broccoli cheddar soup. While Annika was telling me about some new stock she was waiting on, my mind wandered a bit. I had kind of a vision or epiphany thing. Something was telling me to look at the pictures of the cemetery I’d taken.
“I think there might be something in one of the pictures I took before I started working on the cemetery. I took them before I found Langoria’s body.”
“Where did that come from?” she asked.
“You were talking about vintage retro floral prints. It made me think of the flowers I found with her body. I don’t know. Something just niggled in my head.”
“Ah, the old intuition. You should listen to it.”
I took the phone out and tried to scroll through the pictures again. “I need to make these bigger.”
“So upload them to your computer.”
“My computer is a garbage old laptop held together with duct tape and broken dreams,” I said.
“So get a new one,” Annika responded. “Order one or something.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to wait for it to be delivered. Maybe I could drive into town to an electronics store.”
“Nailed It has computers.”
“What?”
“Yeah, since there’s no electronics store in town, he’s got some stuff there.”
Annika had said that the electronics section of Nailed It was in the back corner past the carpet and door displays. When I walked in, Karen was busy checking out a customer. I hurried past and began my search for the computers.
Part of me hoped she hadn’t seen me because I didn’t want to tell her I wasn’t going to see her at church on Sunday. It was silly because I was going to have to talk to her. There wasn’t anyone else to check me out.
It was a small price to pay for getting a computer that day. Though, I did kind of want to retreat and order one instead.
I found the electronics section and began looking over the laptops. I’d expected them to be a lot more expensive, but even the priciest one was well within the budget I’d had in my head. It said it was a gaming laptop too. Not that I played any video games, but I thought I might start if I had a computer that could actually run them.
The computers were in boxes under the displays. In stores I’d been in before, you had to get someone to unlock the cabinet, but not at Nailed It. There was more
trust in a small town.
I was just about to reach for the box I wanted when Karen approached. “Can I help you find something?”
“Oh, I think I’m going to buy this computer. I’m just going to grab it, and then you can check me out.”
“A computer is a pretty big investment. You just walked in. Are you sure that’s the one you want?”
“Pretty sure. I wanted to use it to look at some photos I took with my phone. This one is more than I need, but maybe I’ll take up video games.”
“You should try it out first. You can send one of the photos you want to look at to the display computer over the store’s Wi-Fi.”
“That’s a good idea. The little card says the laptop has a good graphics card, but it doesn’t hurt to find out for myself. How do I send it to the computer?” I asked as I connected to the store Wi-Fi.
“Here,” she said and took my phone, “let me show you.”
She didn’t really show me, though, and I felt myself prickle a little at her just snatching my phone.
“Thanks,” I said and took my phone back as she started to look through my phone’s photo album.
She typed some things into the display computer next. “Okay, just click on the photo you want to send.”
I randomly scrolled to a photo and clicked on it. Seconds later, the photo appeared on the laptop screen.
“Oh, it’s the old cemetery,” she said. “I’d heard you were doing some work in there. That’s the Lord’s work for sure.”
“Yeah,” I said, but I wasn’t really listening. “Do you see that?” I asked and pointed at the picture.
“See what?”
“It looks like I got a picture of someone in the tree line. I didn’t know anyone was there when I was. I can’t see who they are, though. They might be walking away.”
“Looks like a bush to me,” Karen said.
“Maybe. I need to get this computer home so I can go over these photos.”
“You sure you want this one? You could get a cheaper one just to look at photos. Especially since you said you don’t play games.”
“No, I want this one. I’m sure. I need a good computer to blow up the pictures. There could be clues in here.”
“Oh, in that case, perhaps you should wait. When the truck comes in, we’re going to have an even better model.”
“No, I don’t want to wait. I’m sure I’ll take this one. Thank you so much for your help, Karen.”
“You are so welcome, Brighton. Let’s get you checked out so you can go look at those photos.”
Chapter Seventeen
I took the laptop home and got it set up at my kitchen table. It came with a cord I could use to transfer photos, which was good because it was faster, and I didn’t have Wi-Fi at the house.
“You could have just used magic to transfer the photos. Best Wi-Fi in the world” Meri said as I unplugged the cord.
“Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“Because it was too fun watching you try to figure it out,” he said with what had to be the cat version of a snort.
“Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Once that little exchange was over, I set to work going through every photo. I didn’t realize how many pictures I’d taken until I tried to go through all of them.
So far, the only one that might have had a clue was the one that I’d looked at before in the store. I hadn’t wanted Karen to be right, but even when I blew the picture up, it still looked like the thing I’d seen could be a person or a bush.
I was about to go over to the cemetery and see if there was a bush there when my doorbell rang. It was Ralph standing on my porch looking sour.
“I thought I’d find you over in the cemetery doing the work we paid you for,” he said as I stepped out onto the front porch.
It probably would have been more polite to invite him in, but I still wasn’t sure that I trusted him. Some people in Coventry seemed to think it was okay to just break into Hangman’s House and take what they wanted, and I didn’t know if Ralph was one of those people.
“What can I do for you, Ralph?”
“I wanted an update on the work at the cemetery. Thought that perhaps since you’re now on my payroll, you could give me a timeframe for completion. I’d like to use photographs of the completed work in an article that I could submit to news organizations.”
“Ah, that’s why you agreed to me doing the job. You want to use it as publicity for your store. Now that Langoria is out of the way, you’re free to use the Coventry Paranormal Society’s funds as a way to enrich your business, eh?”
“I do not appreciate such implications given that I was kind enough to give you a job,” he said with a haughty sniff.
“It was Remy’s idea to give me the job. You just went along with it because you thought you could get some advertising out of it. Well, Ralph, no, I’m not done. You probably saw that when you went over there looking for me. I’ve made progress, though. And no, I’m not going to sell you any of the Tuttlesmith book collection either. I bet that’s on your mind too, but you can forget about it.”
“You witches are all the same. I get one out of my way, and another one of you pops up like a weed. Good day,” he said and stomped off to his car.
I went back into the house and made sure to lock the door. The thing he said about getting a witch out of his way troubled me. I was almost certain he’d just said it because he was frustrated and angry, but the words couldn’t be dismissed entirely.
My next visitor was Remy. He rang the doorbell a few minutes after Ralph left. I was in the process of making tea when he arrived, but I did not hesitate to invite Remy in.
“Hello,” I said when I opened the door and found him standing on my porch.
I was happy to see him but also a bit concerned because he’d just shown up. Ralph had done the same thing. I figured it must have been a Coventry thing because back in the city, people rarely turned up at your door unannounced.
“I thought I’d come by and see how the cemetery was coming along, but you weren’t there,” he said stiffly.
“Huh, that’s the second time I’ve heard that today.” I tried to keep my tone light, but it did strike me as odd. “In fact, that’s the second time I’ve heard that in an hour.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Ralph was just here. He was upset because I’m not done and he can’t use the cemetery project as advertising fodder for his book shop just yet. Would you like tea, Remy? I’m making tea.”
“Sure,” he said and followed me into the kitchen. “So about the cemetery.”
“I think it’s coming along well considering all of the struggles I’m having with paranormal activity.”
“If you and Meri need some magical assistance, I could help.” His offer sounded flat.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but something about Remy wasn’t sitting right with me. He was normally so sweet and kind, but lately he’d taken on a different demeanor. Things that I’d found endearing about him before suddenly seemed… I didn’t want to think sinister, but that’s where my head went.
Before, I knew that he had feelings for me. At first, they’d been more intense than any feelings I’d had for him, but that had been all right with me. I kinda liked that he’d had a hard crush on me, and it was one of the things that had made me like him back. He’d been so dedicated and adoring.
Now, even having him in my kitchen felt overbearing. I felt a wash of relief when Meri walked into the kitchen and stood between us. It was as if my familiar could sense it too, and that made me feel a little less crazy.
“I was going to ask you about that,” I said as I poured the tea.
“You were going to ask for my help with the ghosts? Good. I’m more than happy to oblige.”
“No, not that magic specifically. I mean, I do appreciate the offer, but it was something else.”
“I’m more than happy to help you with anything, Brighton,” he said with a smile that d
idn’t quite meet his eyes.
I stifled a shiver. “No, I mean I wanted to ask you about your magic. Specifically, what you did to me the night you told me that Thorn would break my heart. The whole night seems fuzzy, and after you left, I don’t remember anything. I just woke up the next morning. I’d almost convinced myself it was a dream, but the pizza and wine bottle were here.”
“I was just trying to ease the anxiety of what I was saying,” he said.
“I don’t understand why you would think that you needed to do that, though. I’m more than capable of handling my own emotions without interference from the outside.”
“Is that what you see it as?” he said and set the cup of tea I’d handed him down. “I guess that’s probably how you see me too. I’m just interference. I told you that he’d hurt you, and yet you still let him in. You still have him spending the night at your house and making a spectacle of yourself.”
“There was someone here watching us.” It came out barely above a whisper. “Was that you?”
“I don’t need to stand here and be accused like this. I’ll talk to you later, Brighton. Maybe call me when you’ve finally got your head on straight.”
Remy stormed past me and out the front door. He slammed it hard, and I hurried behind him to lock the deadbolt, but the darn doorbell rang again.
I thought that perhaps he’d come back to give me more of a piece of his mind. Or perhaps he wanted to apologize for being a jerk.
But what I wasn’t expecting was Karen. With a pallet of flowers from Nailed It.
“Let me guess. You were expecting to find me in the cemetery,” I said a little more rudely than I meant.
“How did you know, dear?” she asked with a smile.
“It’s a common theme today.” I took a deep breath to collect myself. “Let me help you with those.”
“We should take them across the street,” she said. “They’re for you to plant.”
“Oh, well, thank you,” I said and picked up one case of the flowers.
“Will you be able to plant them soon?” Karen asked as we set the last boxes down in the old section of the cemetery.
Wicked Witches of Coventry- The Collection Page 20
