Annette was a self-proclaimed expert in all things supernatural and supposedly psychic. The only thing she’d predicted accurately was Superbowl of 2013. I never pointed out the fact that she’d had a 50/50 chance.
“Good to know.”
Last week I was supposed to die from a tragic fall while trying to stand in a hammock. Who would even do that?
“Dephne,” she said as she picked up the carry-on and dragged her massive suitcase past me, her voice filled with awe. “You have to keep this place. Two words. B and B.”
I picked up the box and followed. “Those are letters, and it would take a crap-ton of money to turn this into a B and B. Money that I don’t have.”
“Better yet, a boutique hotel. Witch themed. We can hold séances!” She tried to jump up and down in excitement, but her load proved a hindrance. She dropped it inside the foyer then turned a full circle in awe.
I set down the box. “Séances? I guess now’s the time I should remind you that you aren’t actually psychic.”
She stopped and glared at me. “My powers are emerging. It takes time.”
“You’ve been trying to contact the dead since we were in high school.”
“And what makes you think I haven’t succeeded?”
“The fact that you haven’t?”
“Mark my words, I will become one of the most powerful witches—”
“Now you’re a witch?”
She beamed at me then whirled to examine more of what Percy had to offer. “I am if we’re staying in Salem.”
“We?” Excitement prickled along my skin. “Nette, are you saying you’d come with me? You’d move here?”
She turned to me, her expression full of warmth. “In a heartbeat. It’s the only way I can get back that fifty bucks you owe me.”
My expression flatlined. “Of course it is.”
“Now, where’s kilt guy and what in the blistering hell is that?”
I followed her gaze to Ink. He was sneaking down the stairs, dragging yet another slice of pizza beside him. “That is a cat. His name is Ink and he likes me, so be nice.”
“It doesn’t look like a cat.”
“It is.”
“It looks like a mangled ferret.”
“It isn’t.”
“Can it be a cat somewhere else?”
“No.”
“And the guy?”
“He’s upstairs.”
She put her purse on a wing-back, and asked, “Verdict?”
“Okay, you know those scruffy men on calendars with messy shoulder-length hair and insane tat-covered muscles?”
“Like the back of my hand.”
“He’s that.”
“Dayum.”
“And he knows a lot more than most about my vagina.”
“Way to go, you!”
I shrugged. My phone beeped and I saw the thirty messages from Annette wondering where I was and why I wasn’t at the airport and did I understand how much a taxi was going to cost, so, my bad.
She began gathering up her things again.
“What is all of this?”
“What? I told you I didn’t travel light.”
“Sorry about the taxi.”
“Please. You clearly needed the sleep.”
My phone beeped again with a notification from Etsy, and the clouds parted to let the sun shine down on me in particular.
“Oh, my God. I sold three journals last night! I can afford a sandwich! Let’s go to lunch!”
“It’s 7:30 in the morning.”
“Let’s go to breakfast!”
Roane had disappeared again, so we took turns showering while Ink looked on in mild fascination. Or utter annoyance. It was hard to tell.
“This one-bathroom thing is fun and all,” she said, “but don’t you have, like, thirty?”
“I have seven. I need to stock the others. Roane is checking out all the plumbing.”
She snickered. “I bet he is.”
We took the bug to a hotel pub by the water called The Regatta. Beautifully decorated with dark woods and blue accents, the pub was clearly a favorite with the locals.
“Welcome to Witch City,” our adorable server said when she found out we weren’t from the area. She put down our drinks and left to put in our order.
“Witch City,” Annette said. “How cool is that?”
I felt the history of the town to the marrow of my bones. Salem was rich and eclectic and full of darkness and light. Of good and evil. Of pain and sorrow. And a joy born of survival after a time when hysteria reigned.
The people had sojourned past the tragic events that made them famous and built a life for themselves. Now, almost 300 years later, their descendants reaped the benefits.
Annette looked up from her travel guide, which could have been how our server knew we weren’t locals. “Did you know there’s an alley here in Salem that you walk down and if you know the secret password, you get free bacon?”
“Where’d you get that book?” I asked, a little jealous.
“A bookstore in the airport. It’s over there somewhere.” She pointed in the general direction of Massachusetts.
“I can’t keep the house,” I blurted, because blurting bad news was kind of my specialty. Otherwise, I lived in a constant state of denial. A sadness washed over me with the confession. “I just don’t have the money.”
“What about the restaurant? It’s doing well, right?”
I’d owned a restaurant in Phoenix called The Papidad, after my dads. Like everything else I’d owned, I lost it in the divorce.
“It’s doing great as far as I know.”
Annette stilled. “Wait, you’re kidding me. He got it?”
“More like his mother got it, with his help.”
“Deph, how is that even possible?”
“It was in her name, remember? We needed her to co-sign to get us started. What I didn’t know is that Kyle put everything in her name. The restaurant. The house. The cars. Even the bank accounts. When it came time to split everything, I basically had nothing to split. Now he has it all.”
“A good lawyer—”
“Would have cost me a fortune.”
Her face started to blotch, which meant her insides were way angrier than her outsides were letting on. It was also why she sucked at poker. “How could you keep this from me?”
“I didn’t want you to know how incredibly naïve I am.”
“Not naïve. Just far too trusting.”
“Isn’t that the definition of naïve?”
“If I were a hugger, I’d be on you like green on guacamole right now.”
That was staying a lot. “Thanks, Nette. It’s the thought that counts.”
“That’s exactly what I told my credit card company when my payment was late. What do your dads think? And have either of them decided to go straight? Because damn.”
I laughed. “No. Sorry. The minute they do, you’ll be the first to know.”
“What do they think about all of this.”
“It’s my mess, Nette. I didn’t want to bring them into it.”