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Damon took it as encouragement, and he leaned in close and took her hand to kiss the back of it. He noticed how soft her skin was. “It was an honor to work with you today, Kay Knight. Thank you for the pleasure.”
She chuckled and pulled her hand away, but Damon didn’t miss the way her cheeks flushed pink. “Thanks for your help, and good luck with your show at the fair. Although—” She glanced down at her hand and Damon noticed her small smile. “I doubt you need it.”
He hoped she was right.
7
Kay
When Kay wokeand noticed sunlight peeking through the blinds, she remembered what day it was. It was Monday, her day off from baking and deliveries and the day she was going to the fair with Tucker. It had been almost a week since the two had gone ghost hunting, and she’d spent a lot of time thinking about him and how their date might go. She frowned because she’d also spent a fair amount of time thinking about Damon as well, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Kay stretched her arms up over her head and yawned as she took time to wake up fully. She told herself she kept thinking about the attractive Brannigan wizard because he’d suddenly come into her life with the intention of repairing the relationship between their families. It was something she knew her mother had wanted to happen for years, and it appealed to Kay’s desire for peace as well.
She climbed out of bed and padded her way over the cool hardwood floor to the bathroom. Something else Damon had mentioned had been rolling around in her mind. She couldn’t help but wonder if bringing back the island tradition of an annual Halloween haunting might be good for the community. She’d often heard townspeople reminisce with longing about the lighthearted pranks the Knight women had pulled over the years. And she knew it was an event her family had spent an entire year planning.
Knight witches loved a good plan, and if they brought back the annual hauntings it would certainly give them a worthwhile event to coordinate. Lately, most of their clever attentions had involved fixing each other’s love lives, and Kay wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Not that she was complaining, because she had a date with Tucker, even if it hadn’t happened the way she’d thought it would.
That wasn’t all her encounter with Damon made her think about though. Her heart had tripped more than once when she recalled certain details about the guy. The sound of his laugh ringing with joy, the way his eyes twinkled with playfulness, and even how his teasing made her face heat up had flashed through her mind a few times the past week. But she pushed the thoughts away because Damon was exactly the kind of guy she didn’t want or need in her life, and she wasn’t going to listen to her witch’s desire for adventure. The part of her that wanted excitement and danger was better kept in check, especially where her heart was concerned. Kay needed a relationship that was stable and drama free, and Tucker Eagan was both of those things in spades.
The aroma of coffee interrupted her thoughts, and she made her way down to the kitchen where she heard the click of a keyboard before she found Eileen typing on her laptop. Her mother looked up at Kay while her fingers kept moving. “I could use a refill.”
Kay smiled and grabbed her mother’s coffee mug, knowing she was on a roll with the article she was writing and didn’t want to stop yet. Hot steam curled up from the two mugs she filled, and she walked over to the table to deposit Eileen’s cup before she moved over to the sink to gaze out the window at the backyard. She noticed the chickens were out sunning themselves on their favorite rock and guessed her mother had let them out to roam today. Her sister Corinne, who had been the one who’d wanted the chickens in the first place and had been their keeper until recently, was currently spending a lot of time at Noah’s, so Kay decided to go gather the eggs.
She grabbed the pottery bowl they used for the task, and the back door creaked open as she let herself out. She approached the coop to check the nesting boxes. When she lifted the lid, she saw Christina, a fluffy white Silkie chicken that looked as if she were wrapped in a feather boa. She tended to be broody and sit on her eggs while the other hens were out foraging for bugs. “Hey, girl, time to give up the goods.” The hen chortled when Kay moved her out of the way to gather the day’s haul.
She thought about how her life was changing now that her twin was with the man she’d eventually marry. While Kay had been thrilled that Corinne had finally seen she belonged with Noah, she missed her sister. And that was part of why she’d decided it was time to seek out love for herself.
It wasn’t that Kay had never been in love. She had been a couple of times. She’d been heartbroken, too, and after her last breakup she’d decided to focus on her bakery business and life with her family. For a while that had been enough, and while Kay would never believe she had to have a man in her life to be complete, she did want children of her own someday. Her sisters, Corinne and Amelia, had made that fact even more apparent by heading down the path to families of their own with their respective partners.
Kay placed the last warm egg in her bowl with a soft thud and returned to the house. Eileen stood up from the table to greet her. “Today’s your date with Tucker.”
Kay smiled. “It is. He’s coming to get me around ten.”
“That should be fun. I hear Damon’s performing at the fair.”
Her mother had been pleased to hear Damon was trying to make amends for his family. She hadn’t seemed surprised by the news either. “Yes,” Kay said.
Eileen walked over to the coffee maker and pulled out the carafe to pour the last bit of liquid into her cup. Without looking at Kay, she said, “You should take Tucker by to see a show.”
Kay frowned, seeing through her mother’s attempt to be casual, and she cut to the chase. “Why do you think I should do that?”
Her mother turned to lean against the counter and lifted her mug to take a sip of coffee before answering. “Seems to me if Tucker is uncomfortable with witchcraft it’s probably because he doesn’t understand it. Now, I know Damon’s show will be on the flashy side, but he also does a good job of explaining how magic works to the layperson.”
“How do you know that?” Kay set the bowl of eggs down on the counter.
“I’ve seen his videos.”
“What?”
“You should watch some. Damon is doing a lot of good for the magical community with them.”
Kay took a moment to consider her mother’s words. Eileen Knight was an educator in the magical world. She made a living writing books and articles about witchcraft. If she thought Damon was doing good things, Kay could believe he was. And it wasn’t a bad idea to work on making Tucker more comfortable with magic. She said, “I suppose I could take Tucker to see the show. If he’s up for it, that is.”
Her mother gave her a sly smile. “It’s all in how you sell it.”
Kay chuckled. “Okay, I’ll make it sound like something he shouldn’t miss.” She meant it because now she was thinking Damon’s show was something she should see, too.
She opened a cupboard to get supplies for a new pot of coffee and thought about his idea for a documentary type show on ghost hunting. There was so much misinformation out there about haunted houses and how evil they could be, but the truth was the majority of spirits stuck in a home and causing trouble were misguided souls desperately seeking a way to get into the afterworld. Perhaps Damon and she could help people be more compassionate and act out of kindness instead of fear when it came to the spirits causing problems in their homes.
