“Yep.”
Hope sat back down and watched as Joy hugged Grace goodbye.
When it was just the two of them, Joy looked over at Hope. “I’m sorry. I know that was over the line.”
“Don’t worry about it. I guess it won’t kill me to have dinner with a silver fox.” Hope waved a hand, dismissing Joy’s apology. Even if she was fairly certain all Matt wanted to do was rip her clothes off. It wasn’t lost on her that, before Lucas had returned, she would’ve been perfectly fine with that. Now she didn’t know what she thought. She just knew she wasn’t likely to fall into bed with a stranger. It didn’t feel right.
Joy gave her a grateful smile. “I know I was out of line. Thanks for letting me off the hook.”
Hope was about to once again absolve her from her sin, but before she could get any words out, someone shouted, “Hey! Watch out!”
Jackson flew out from behind the counter and lunged for a tall, lean young man in ripped jeans and a tight black T-shirt. But before he got to the customer, the man stumbled backward right into a fancy display of ceramic mugs.
Hope and Joy both stood and raised their hands, each of them shouting, “Levitate!”
There was nothing they could do for the customer. He was already in motion and took the display down with him, along with a handful of mugs, but the majority were saved by the spell and floated in the air.
“Back up,” Hope ordered all the customers surrounding the man splayed out on the floor. “Give him some air!”
Jackson waved the customers back. “Give Hope and Joy space to put the mugs down.”
The customers retreated, and Joy was able to guide all the mugs to the ground without breaking any more.
Hope ran over to where Jackson was standing over the customer, shaking his head. “What happened?” she asked.
“He ordered a coffee cake, and then before he could get his drink order out, he started shaking violently and stumbled backward right into the display,” Jackson said.
Kneeling, Hope placed a hand on the man’s chest. His heart was racing, and his eyes were shifting back and forth in a rapid motion. “I think he’s having a seizure. Someone call an ambulance.”
“I’m on it,” Joy said, already tapping on her phone.
Hope turned her attention back to the man and pressed two fingers to his wrist. Yes, his heart rate was definitely too elevated. And his skin was clammy to the touch. She didn’t have any idea what to do in this situation. All she knew was that the man wasn’t in good shape, and she was going to stay by his side until the paramedics arrived.
She didn’t have to wait long. The sirens sounded in the distance, and even though it seemed like hours went by, Hope was certain the two women who rushed into the café in uniform had come as fast as they could.
“I’ve got it from here,” the woman with bronze skin said, gently nudging Hope aside. Her partner, a tall dark-haired woman with her jaw set, took her place on the other side of the man and immediately went to work administering an IV.
“Looks like a drug overdose.” The bronze-skinned woman looked up. “Anyone know what he took?”
Everyone, including Jackson, was silent.
“Anyone know this man?” she asked.
“His name is Spencer,” Jackson said. “He comes in here a couple times a week. I think he works over at Cryptic.”
Cryptic was the local bookstore down on Main that also had a huge section of board games and puzzles.
“All right.” She sighed and told her partner they needed to get him to emergency ASAP for a tox screen. The two paramedics were fast and efficient, getting the man on the gurney and expertly wheeling him out to their vehicle.
Jackson stared at them through the front window and ran a hand through his dark curly hair.
“Are you all right?” Hope asked him, lightly squeezing his arm.
He shook his head. “That’s the third OD this town has had in two weeks. The second one I’ve personally witnessed.” He glanced down at her, his eyes full of worry, and she noticed his hands were shaking slightly. “Before I left for college four years ago, I knew there were some people in town who did drugs, but they were a small population that usually just kept to themselves out on their land where no one would know what they were up to. But wow, have things changed. First there was Lex’s Mom’s boyfriend and that crowd he was hanging out with, and now this guy, a nineteen-year-old girl, and a woman in her thirties. I don’t know what’s happening or why our town is suddenly a hotbed for drug use, but it’s really got me shaken.”
Hope placed a hand on his arm for reassurance, but then pulled him into a hug. “You did great handling this.”
He let out a scoff. “No. You did. You’re the one who kept him from falling into a pile of broken cups, and you sat with him until the paramedics got here.”
“You kept the customers calm and didn’t freak out. You did good. Trust me. Now come sit down with me and Joy for a minute.” She started to tug him toward their table.
“I can’t. I have to clean up this mess and get back behind the counter.”
Hope glanced over to see one of the staffers had already righted the display and was busy sweeping up the broken shards, while a young woman had stepped behind the counter to take care of the few customers who’d stuck around. “I think your coworkers have it under control.”
Jackson followed her gaze and then slowly nodded. “Yeah. Okay. But just a minute. I want to make sure they are okay, too.”
Once Hope got him seated, Joy passed him a bottle of water she’d retrieved while they’d been talking.
“Drink this,” she said.
He grabbed the bottle but didn’t lift it to his lips. “Do you think he’ll be all right?”
“I hope so,” Hope said, remembering what she’d heard the night before at Lucas’s opening about someone wanting to use his shop to move drugs. She wondered if that person was already distributing drugs and if he or she was the one responsible for the overdoses. A chill ran up her spine. Premonition Pointe had always been a relatively safe beach town. If drugs were taking over, she didn’t see how she had a choice other than to try to find out who was at the center of it. “How well do you know him?”
“Not well at all.” Jackson finally took a drink of the water. “He’s a customer who’s flirted with me a few times. I’d actually been trying to work up the nerve to ask him out, but the last few times he came in, it was clear he was on something, so I abandoned that idea. I don’t need that shit in my life, you know?”
Hope nodded.
“Then this happened today, and I don’t know how I feel. Shocked, I guess. Worried. Pissed that drugs have found their way here. You know I was hoping to build my graphic arts business here and just settle down with a cute guy and a couple of dogs and enjoy life. But now I’m wondering if I made a mistake.”
“You didn’t,” Joy said, shaking her head. “This town is too resilient to let drugs take over, right, Hope?” her friend asked, sounding as if she needed Hope to reassure her.
What if that had been one of my kids? Joy’s thoughts were as clear as day. Hope gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course it is. And I have some ideas on what we can do to help.”