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If so, there didn’t seem to be much I could do about it, except fume inwardly. My Gemini sun and Libra moon made me practically allergic to confrontations, so even though having fewer people attend my ritual might be a blow to my ego, I knew I didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to get in Lilith Black’s face about her skullduggery. At any rate, did it really matter whose ritual people attended, as long as they came to town and spent some of those lovely tourist dollars in Globe?
Just as I was about to lock up and head upstairs to my apartment for a much-needed glass of wine, Chuck Langdon entered the shop. The cowboy hat was gone, but otherwise, he still wore the same faded Levi’s, worn-out cowboy boots, and plaid shirt he’d had on earlier in the day.
“Oh, hi,” I said, a little surprised. I suppose I’d assumed that if he wanted to get in touch, he would’ve just called or texted.
“I saw your Instagram post,” he said, and I blinked at him.
“You’re on Instagram?”
A slow, lazy smile spread across his lips. It was the sort of smile that probably made a lot of the women around town weak in the knees, but I found myself curiously immune to its charms.
“I am now.”
As I was wondering how to reply to that comment, he continued.
“Doing anything for dinner tonight?”
Unless eating leftover gazpacho counted as “anything,” I really wasn’t. But I was tired and cranky after that visit from Lilith Black and her lackeys, and I didn’t think I was in the right mood to be the level of charming required for a first date.
If that’s even what this “dinner” was supposed to be.
“Um….” I hedged. After Chuck had been so nice to me, it seemed downright rotten to answer “no” to his question. On the other hand, he probably deserved better than to be inflicted with my bad mood.
Still smiling, he came a bit closer to the counter. “You’re under no obligation to say yes. My offer to use the ranch for your ritual still stands.”
Dammit, did he have to be so nice? It would be a lot easier to blow off someone who was a jerk.
“I’ve had a craptastic day,” I blurted. “I’m not sure I’d be very good company.”
“Sorry to hear that,” he said, his tone easy. “But why don’t you let me buy you dinner? You can tell me all about your crappy day over a steak and a bottle of cabernet.”
That actually sounded heavenly. But….
“Where in Globe can you get a steak dinner and a bottle of wine?”
He chuckled. “Okay, you got me. You can’t…I’d have to take you to the restaurant over at the casino outside town.”
Oh, that really didn’t sound like a good idea. What if Calvin saw me out on a date with Chuck Langdon?
So what if he does?I scolded myself.Are you going to completely nuke any chance at having a personal life because you won’t stop mooning over someone who doesn’t even want you?
When I put it that way….
“That would be great,” I said, making sure my tone was firm enough that I had no chance of backing out. “I’ve never been there.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go. I need to run home and change. Pick you up at seven o’clock?”
“Sure.”
“See you then.”
He nodded at me and went back out. I watched him go, and wondered if I’d just made a colossal mistake.
* * *
Chuck had given me enough time to check in on Lilith’s feed, since I didn’t really have to change my own outfit, only freshen my makeup and run a brush through my hair. And while I was still beyond annoyed with Ms. Instagram Supreme, I figured I needed to see what she was up to, if only so I’d have some sort of countermeasures in place in case she decided to go on the offensive.
She’d posted a couple of videos, one showing off the Airbnb where she was staying — pettily, I hoped the owner of the vacation rental hadn’t bothered to smudge the place or do anything else to cleanse the place of the negative vibes Lucien and his murderer Violet had left behind — and another in which she’d gone with her two lackeys to survey the spot where she planned to hold her ritual.
