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Audrey

Townhallmeetingswereboring affairs. I only showed up to them because they were a good networking opportunity for the small business community on the island. This one was an exception to the rule, though. The summer solstice was just over a week away, which meant this was the final meeting before the festival. Our last chance to make suggestions or share our grievances, and everyone had opinions.

Admittedly, things had been running much more smoothly this year, which almost made this meeting unnecessary, but it was still a tradition for everyone involved to attend. All the businesses on the island contributed in some way. We made a killing during the one week of the year when two square miles of flatland at the end of Stardust Parkway transformed into a carnival of witchy and zodiac delights.

There were a handful of rides and games, but most people came for the booths and the shows. This was where we went from a typical resort town to an island of mystery and magic. The hotel booked rooms a year in advance, all campground spaces were reserved by December, and every cottage rented out at twice the normal rate. Hank Wilder ran the ferry non-stop to the mainland, eight runs in twelve hours, and the city hired two additional ferries to handle the extra traffic flowing through the island on a daily basis.

My shop had a booth, and after years of trial and error, I learned that my new age stuff sold the best. It wasn’t worth using any of my limited space on secondhand or consignment items. I didn’t work that week, the only days I had off in the summer because, my grandma and Ella insisted on running it every year. They loved nothing more than dressing up and enchanting tourists with legends and island history. It was a bigger deal to them than Halloween.

Since most of the traffic diverted to the festival the week of the solstice, any business that had a booth down there typically closed. With the exception of Capricorn’s Coffeeshop, which Kylie ran while Gretchen handled things at the festival. A situation that pleased me greatly, since I didn’t want to walk three miles to get a latte whenever I had a craving.

The hall was noisy and crowded. Half the town came out for the last meeting before the summer solstice. Most of them just wanted something to do and considered listening to people complain a form of entertainment. I closed my shop an hour early to be here. I’d invited my grandma and Ella to come along, but they refused to set foot in the hall unless it was bingo night. My grandma claimed it smelled like cheese in here. She wasn’t wrong.

The wood-paneled walls bounced sound around the room rather than absorbing it, and the threadbare multicolored carpet had more coffee stains than clean spots. Rows upon rows of gray metal fold-out chairs lined the wide-open room from front to back. The building had a recommended capacity of five hundred, and we were pushing it tonight, with standing room only near the double doors.

As a town leader, Wes was expected to sit up front with Cole and Donovan, while I sat near the back with Gretchen and Janessa Watson, who owned the jewelry store Gemini’s Gems. She tried to talk Violet into making a few pieces for her shop almost as frequently as I tried to get Kylie’s mugs from Gretchen for mine. Since our businesses shared space on the opposite end of Stardust Parkway from the festival, we tended to stick together at these things.

Wes turned, his gaze snagging on mine, and he shot me an absolutely filthy look filled with the promise of everything he planned to do with me after this meeting. My toes curled in my ballet flats. Maybe we could skip out early without anyone noticing.

“The two of you aren’t fooling anyone,” Gretchen whispered beside me.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” It took every ounce of will I possessed to keep the smile off my face.

Despite the heavy making out we’d done a few nights ago in front of my shop windows before he fucked me against the wall in my stockroom, we’d been keeping a low profile. A few people had seen us. The gossip spread, but people had been claiming to see Wes and me making out all over town for years, so no one knew what to believe. The whole town had cried wolf on itself, which ended up being our best cover. I hadn’t brought up going public with him yet. I had a feeling he was waiting for me to decide how we’d go about it.

He spent every night in my bed, leaving in the morning before the early joggers were out. I worried about him walking home alone after what happened the first time with the black smoke. He said he had a handle on it, though, and the curse wouldn’t get in his head again. I had my doubts, but there was no use in arguing with a stubborn Taurus.

We were still missing something in relation to the curse and the legend. I’d been running over what it could be for days, but it remained out of reach.

“I was closing up my shop a few nights ago and saw something very interesting through the windows across the street.” Gretchen leaned back in her seat, a smug expression on her face. “Looked a lot like you and Wes were kissing in front of your door.”

“He tripped and fell on my mouth,” I said.

Janessa snorted on the other side of me. “Did he also trip up the stairs to your condo? Because that’s what I saw last night when I locked up after doing inventory.”

“There was a spider. I asked him to come upstairs and kill it.” I didn’t really care if Gretchen and Janessa knew about me and Wes. The three of us were friendly, and they wouldn’t spread rumors. Being secretive was just a habit of mine at this point.

“You must get a lot of spiders in your building,” Gretchen said.

“You have no idea.” I caught Wes’s hungry gaze again, and my pulse sped up. Maybe it would be better if we went public sooner rather than later. It’s not like keeping secrets had done me a whole lot of favors in the past.

Feeling antsy with how long it was taking to get this meeting started, I jiggled my foot and craned my neck to get a better look at everyone. Ten descendants were present and accounted for. All except for Thora and the unknown Leo, who we were no closer to finding.

Wes seemed to think there had to be a family connection between the elemental signs. Not necessarily by blood. The Wilder guys were all adopted, and Violet, Brooke, and I made a family by choice. I didn’t know how Jocelyn and Thora were connected though, or who the third link between them could be. They weren’t related and hadn’t been friends in high school. Neither seemed to be associated with anyone else who could draw that line between them. Jocelyn had plenty of distant family, Everett was a common surname on the island, but no one who had a connection to Thora. And whoever the Leo was either had slept through the earthquake, like Violet, or hadn’t come forward about it for personal reasons.

Finn glanced at me and winked. He owned the construction company that put together most of the concession booths. The only work he was willing to do for the mayor because the pay was good, and it helped people he actually liked. He sat with his brothers. Rafe looked bored out of his mind, but as manager of the Zodiac Cove Credit Union, he had to suffer through this for appearances. On his other side, Galen scribbled furiously on a pad of paper. His wild curls fell over his forehead, and his wire-frame glasses slipped down his nose. He did paranormal research and didn’t get involved in festival activities, so I had no idea what he was doing here. Unless he was trying to find the Leo, the opposite to his Aquarius.

Violet sat with her parents. She did a live mermaid performance every year to promote their scuba shop. If only she could get Donovan to touch her before getting onstage this year. Those gills would be a show stopper. Brooke sat next to Galen. The two of them were neighbors and close friends. Brooke provided most of the flowers that decorated the sidewalks, and the town typically doubled their order for the festival. This year they had tripled it. She also had a booth for tarot and tea leaf readings.

Jocelyn sat by herself, and her eyes kept darting to the nearest exit. She’d been a social pariah in town for going on three years now. She had no friends that I knew of and kept mostly to herself outside of the hiking trips she ran for tourists, but as assistant manager of the hotel, she had to be here. A job that she’d only been able to keep because Aurora Latham stepped in on her behalf. I didn’t know why Jocelyn stayed. Most people in her position would’ve bailed for the mainland a long time ago, but I had a feeling she stayed out of spite, which I respected.

A hush fell over the room as the mayor, Warren Chase, who was absolutely as pompous as his name suggested, entered the hall from the back room and stepped up to the podium on stage. Finally. He had a genuine handlebar mustache and always wore linen suits, but never had any wrinkles. I didn’t trust that level of perfection. It felt phony.

He tapped on the microphone, sending a screech of feedback through the speakers. The room collectively cringed. He cleared his throat, then glared at us like we had screwed with the microphone on purpose. I really didn’t like that guy.

“Thank you for joining us today for the last summer solstice planning session,” he said. “As business leaders of Zodiac Cove, all of you are responsible for making sure the festival reflects the standards people have come to expect from our island.”

Gretchen mimed gagging beside me, and I laughed.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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