“You’re gonna do great.Just take it one day at a time.And look what you did today.”He gestures to the sparkling store.
I sniff, and he looks profoundly disturbed at the sudden emotion welling in my eyes.
“Thank you.”I pull up the invoice and pay the poor man, who’s clearly had enough of me, and his phone dings as the money goes through.“I’ll see you next Friday.”
“Yep.Just send me pictures if there’s anything special you want for the mirror.”
I purse my lips, thinking it over.“Can you get like, that antique-looking gold?Something that will look good with the rest of the store?”
He gives me a real grin of appreciation.“That would look real nice.Good choice.”
“And just a mirror that matches is fine.I’m not going to be picky about the public bathroom.I’m sure it will be better than what’s there.”
“You got it.”He gives me a wave, and then picks up his bag of tools and odds and ends and heads for the door.
The bell, freshly polished, of course, jingles as the heavy wood door shuts behind him.
“I like him,” a voice says.
I nearly jump all the fucking way out of my skin.My hand slaps against my chest, and I gasp in a breath.“Cheese and crackers, Prudence, you scared the shit out of me.”
She makes a hissing huff noise, and for a second, I squint at her, wondering if she’s working on a hairball, before I realize she’s laughing.
“I like him too,” I tell her.
Her body turns into a glossy black blur as she jumps to the counter, then rubs her face on my arm.“Pet me,” she says.
I oblige, naturally, because she might be rude, but she’s still a very cute cat, and the simple creature comfort of stroking her soft kitty fur melts some of the tension out of my neck.
“So which spell from the books Tara gave you did you use?”she asks, her purring staccato between words.
I freeze, my eyes going wide.
Her purr abruptly stops.“You’re kidding me.”
“I meant to do it, I had one all picked out, and then Colton showed up?—”
The lights go out, and somewhere above us, a door slams.
My heart tries to jump out of my chest, and for all intents and purposes, I’m frozen to the spot.
A cold wind kicks up, lifting my hair, and my stomach sinks.
My nose wrinkles.“I’m in deep shit, huh?”
It wasn’t an overactive air conditioner yesterday.Evil spirits are chilling this place, free of charge.
I tilt my head, considering how I might be able to channel that evil into savings on my energy bill.Shitty Texas power grid versus evil spirits.Vaguely, I wonder if that’s not a metaphor for the state’s current political nightmare.
“You are incompetent, and frankly, I’m furious with myself that I didn’t force you to focus.”Prudence punctuates that remark with a low, throaty growl.The hair all along her spine stands on end.
“You think we could like, trap them and use them in the summer?”I ask.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m just smart enough to be scared, but there has to be a practical application for all that delicious cold air.
Prudence bites me and I sigh, annoyed, as her raspy tongue licks over the same spot she just clamped onto.“While I have to say that is an incredibly devious idea that makes me think there is hope for you yet, we need to tackle this problem now.”
Oh.“Thanks?”I venture, glancing around.Despite the terrible foreboding feeling soaking into my new-to-me bookstore and the cold air—that I’m not going to complain about—the ghosts aren’t doing anything.“Can they hurt us?”
