Page 10 of Herbs & Hex-breaking

“Sure,” I said, reaching for my cell phone.

“Hey, Dex!” Circe called out loudly enough for it to carry over to the bookstore. “You and Lorna wanna join us for pizza? Kate’s buying.”

Dex moved into the doorway between my store and Lorna’s and answered my cousin. “Lorna’s already gone for the evening. But I could go for pizza.” He shifted his head to look directly at me. “Can you do one with only vegetables, Kate?”

For a moment I lost my words. It wasn’t fair that Dex was that gorgeous. So, it took me a few extra seconds to get my brain to respond. “A veggie pizza.” I nodded. “Any specific toppings?”

“Can you make it mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and cheese?”

“Sure.”

Dex smiled slowly and directly at me. “That sounds perfect.”

That lazy smile was devastating. I was starting to wonder if he was aware of the effect it had on me...yet still, I managed to reply with a simple nod of the head.

Let’s hear it for my amazing self control.

“Head on up to Kate’s apartment after you close up the bookstore,” Circe told him.

Damn you, Circe, I thought. My apartment wasn’t overly large, and the last thing I wanted was to be in close confines with the stunning younger man—and talented psychic—that I was very attracted to.

CHAPTER THREE

Pizzas and breadsticks ordered, Taylor and I completed the closing routine. As I bundled up the trash, I could hear Toni running the sweeper next door. Taylor took the trash out back for me, and I tucked Hattie’s garment bag in the back room where it would be safe. I closed the adjoining doors to the other shops, secured them, and shut off my lights. After we went out, I locked the back door and quickly set the store’s alarm.

“I’ve never been up here before,” Taylor said as she followed me up the rear metal stairs that led to my apartment. “It’s not like Circe’s shop where she has interior steps up to her place.”

“Yeah,” I said, closing the door behind us. “The only entrance to my apartment is from the outside rear of the building. But I like it that way. It helps me keep work and home separate.”

“It’s pretty. All open like a studio apartment.” Taylor walked over to my drop-leaf kitchen table and set her purse down. “It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be.”

I nodded. “To be honest, the upstairs living space was one of the main reasons I bought this middle section of the building.”

My apartment—like my retail space below—was long but narrow with brick interior walls, hardwood floors, and two long windows at the far end. There was a small window at the kitchen end, and the windows out front were large and overlooked the street, letting in a lot of natural light.

The kitchen was on the small side, and the cabinets were situated right inside the door and left wall, making an L shape. The bathroom created a bump out along the right side of the living space. I’d tucked my bed in between that and the right window. It worked out well as the bathroom bump-out created a bit of privacy and blocked most of the view of my bed.

My living area was set up along the left side of the apartment, with a simple deep green sofa, a coffee table and a vintage leather club chair. I’d picked up the table and chair for a song at an estate sale.

“Oh!” Taylor made a beeline for the shelves below my windows. “Look at all the different houseplants! They seem really happy here.”

Her enthusiasm made me smile. “Since I don’t have space for a garden in the city, I decided to create one indoors with the plants.”

“You named your plants?” She pointed at a wooden plant tag in a potted philodendron.

“That’s Phil.” I waited a second before I added straight-faced, “Last name, O’Dendron.”

Taylor started to laugh. “You kill me, Kate.”

“They all have names,” I said, toeing off my shoes. Bending over, I scooped the shoes up and took them to the narrow closet in my bedroom area. By the time I had tucked them away, I found she was looking at all of the plants and reading their name tags.

“Porthos?” She asked, looking at another plant label. “Is he a pothos variety of houseplant?”

“He is.”

“If I don’t find an Athos and an Aramis, I’m gonna be very disappointed.”

While Taylor amused herself checking the names of my plants, I went to the kitchen and got out plates and a few glasses. A short time later Circe and Toni joined us. And my cousin was carrying a bottle of red wine.