I narrowed my eyes and looked around. “I don’t see it.”
The room was clean and fresh, the way I’d left it the other day when I’d used my magic to freshen it. “I’m sure it was the wind or something,” I said, trying to convince them they’d lost their minds. “You both couldn’t have seen something fly across the room that disappeared, could you?”
They laughed nervously and walked shoulder-to-shoulder to the door. Were they leaving? They couldn’t leave. “Where are you going?”
“Leaving. We can’t work anywhere where there's a ghost attacking us.” They moved a little faster toward the door.
“Ghost? Did you see a ghost?”
They didn’t answer and when I followed them, they almost ran outside. They were halfway to the truck by the time I got to the front porch. “Where is Jude?”
The worker who climbed into the driver seat answered as he started the truck. “At the office.” Then they left.
Damn it.
Heading to the kitchen, I put on a fresh pot of coffee, but something didn’t feel right. Again, I stretched out my magic. And again, nothing ghostly or other was anywhere around. There was only one other option.
“You used to pull this shit when I was little,” I whispered. “But I thought all that died with Aunt Winnie.” I looked around the kitchen and tried to quiet the unease.
When I was a kid, if I’d asked the house a question, it would’ve responded in some way. A cabinet would open and shut, or the light would flicker.
Nothing happened this time. More than likely it was nothing more than the workers being superstitious. They’d probably grown up around here and heard the rumors about the house.
It wasn’t like there’d been a real vase.
Just the noise that I’d heard. And their imaginations.
Chapter Five
“And that’s how it’s done.”
I met Clint’s gleeful expression and smiled back at him as I closed the cash register drawer. “Easy Peasy.”
And it was simple enough. After all, I did work as a cashier while in high school. Although the technology was more advanced now, the basics hadn’t changed much.
Clint’s gray eyes sparked with life. The man was easy to like, and I would’ve bet everyone in town loved him. It was a shame that I still didn’t remember him from school.
“See, first days aren’t as scary as they seem.” He winked and moved around the counter, heading to the back of the store. We had a new shipment of books come in the day before. “If you need anything at all, just yell for me.”
I saluted his back. “Will do.”
Satisfied that I could at least operate the cash register and take care of customers, he left me to it. He figured it would be faster for me to man the front and do some dusting than to try to teach me the sorting system right away. That would come over time, when he wasn’t so behind on getting the new books entered in the computer and ready for the shelves. I was happy to do whatever he wanted but unloading and organizing the books sounded like heaven. Especially if I got to touch each precious as I catalogued them. I hoped Clint taught me how to do it soon.
It was a slow morning, so I got everything behind the counter organized and dusted before my first customer came in. When the little bell over the door sounded, excitement filled me, then died almost as fast.
Of course, of course my first customer was Olivia. Great! Just what I needed.
“Ava!” Olivia squealed as soon as she walked through the door and saw it was me behind the counter. Super.
“Hey, Olivia, how are you?” I checked my watch as I stepped up to the counter across from her. The woman was too perky. And way too happy that I was back in town. Had she not had anyone else to torture since I left Shipton? “Where’s Sammie?”
“He’s at kindergarten. Can you believe he’s old enough for school?” Olivia poked out her bottom lip and did a fake sniff.
I didn’t bother to hold in my laugh. We weren’t friends in high school and weren’t nice to each other so why start now? Her sudden interest in me was suspicious. I kept feeling that if I let down my guard and accepted that she might have changed like Sam said, I’d be the one who got crapped on. However, I trusted Sam and loved him like a brother. He’d asked me to give her a chance, and I would try. I just didn’t think that meant talking to her all the time.
Now that she knew I was working at Imaginary Homes Bookstore, there was no stopping her from hanging out when I worked. That was fabulous. Not. Studying her for a long moment, I asked, “Do you work?”
She grinned and shook her head. “Nope. My settlement from my divorce helps me stay at home with Sammie and all the things I couldn’t do with Jess and Devan.” Sadness passed over her face, but it was gone in flash as she smiled at me. “I know Sammie is my third child, but it wasn’t any easier to send him off to school this year. It might’ve been a little harder. I miss that little guy during the day.”
I totally understood about sending a child off to school for the first time. Wallie was in college, and I’d still cried when I had to leave him at his dorms. I’d cried ugly fat tears all the way home.
However, Sammie wasn’t Olivia’s first child. She had two others, Jess—short for Jessica—and Devan, from her first marriage that were in college. I didn’t mention that she was a pro at this mother thing, even though it was on the tip of my tongue. A part of me wanted to tease her in a friendly way. What was that about?
I didn’t understand the urge to be playful with her. We weren’t friends. Plus, I was at work. It was just so hard to be nice considering I didn’t trust Olivia’s bubbly, happy-to-see-me personality at all. I was halfway convinced Olivia had married Sam out of spite. Or to piss me off.
That was how it had been when we were in school.
Olivia leaned against the counter and watched me for a long moment. Her gaze searched my neck and the surrounding area as if she thought she could see my witch mark. The most common area for the mark was on the neck or above the collar bone where it was easy to see or expose to other witches. Only those with magic in their blood could see the mark. Olivia had no magic. She was as human as they came.
It didn’t matter whether or not she had the Sight. My mark was not on my neck. It was on the inside of my right forearm.
“Sooo,” Olivia said, drawing out the small word as she gave up her search for my witch mark. I lifted a brow, waiting for her to continue. “Sammie’s teacher, you remember her. Carrie Treehill, she was a couple of grades behind us?”
I nodded as if I had any recollection of this person. I didn’t because I was terrible with names. And faces, sometimes. “Sure.”
“Well, she just left her husband, and everyone is saying he cheated on her. The jerk.” Olivia pursed her lips, then widened her eyes and leaned in close. “I was thinking,” she whispered. “If it’s true, can we curse him? Because I really like Carrie.”
We? Did she have a mouse in her pocket? I crossed my arms and glared at her. Olivia knew I was a witch. Well, she believed I was a witch like everyone else. No one but Sam and my family knew I was so much more. “First, cursing people brings you all kinds of bad mojo. Two, there is no we.”