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I didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t wrong, and my only advice was for her to stop letting the matchmaking company set her up on dates. To stop trying to find love. But I was afraid it would leach out the rest of her goodness and leave nothing but a cold space for the dark magic to fill.
“I hope you whacked him with your broom.”
Maggie was silent for a moment, then I heard a little giggle. “No, but I offered him a ride home on it. Then I spilled water on myself just to see him squirm when he thought I was about to melt.”
Laughter rumbled in my chest, and I smiled. “Did you make a little steam?”
“Yup.” The P popped, and she chuckled. “You should have seen him. His skin turned almost as green as mine.”
“Maybe next time I should come along,” I suggested in a cheeky tone. “Give the next guy another shock.”
Maggie snickered. “Seriously, bro, you need to find some new material.”
“Hey, I’m fucking hilarious.”
“I’m glad you think so. Since no one else does.”
I gasped dramatically and pushed away from the counter to wander into the front room. “I’m hurt, Margaret Hamilton Adler. Hurt, I tell you.”
“You’ll get over it. Well, I’m going to revel in the disaster that is my love life while I finish inventory at the shop. Love you, Silas.”
“Love you, too, Mags,” I replied as I stretched out on the couch.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Do you remember Phineas Crane?”
“My best friend’s dad?” Growing up, Eli Crane and I had been inseparable until they moved to Sleepy Hollow. We’d kept in touch for a while, but I’d shut myself off from most everyone except my sister after the incident in town.
“Yeah. It was the weirdest thing. He came into Something Wicked earlier today.” Maggie’s shop was an eclectic mix of books, antiques, and occult items.
“Was he still a jackass?” Phineas had been a lousy husband and an even worse father.
“Considering how he looked at me when I asked about Eli, I’m going to say yes. And he refused to talk about his son. It was really strange. He seemed almost…scared. Before he left, though, he told me I should forget about Eli unless I wanted to lose my head.”
“What?”
“Weird, right?”
We speculated on what he could have possibly meant for a few minutes more, then she sighed and mumbled something about inventory again, so we said goodbye and hung up.
It was still relatively early, but fall had swooped in fast, so the sun was nearly below the horizon. I sat out on my deck for a spell and watched it sink until the moonless night was pitch black.
When I wandered back inside, I shut off the lights in the house before grabbing my laptop from my office. Then I settled on the couch to do some work and watch a football game.
My motion detection alarm pinged, and I muted the television before picking up my phone to check the cameras. I lived deep in the woods, so I was sure it was an animal wandering onto my property. Probably a bear. It had to be something big since the sensor didn’t pick up small movements. If it did, the damn thing would never stop pinging with all the birds, squirrels, and other woodland creatures roaming about, not to mention the swaying of trees.
I shut off the alert and listened carefully, studying the small screen, looking for hints of a visitor. The only light was coming from my television and fireplace, and it barely leaked out onto the deck, so it was hard to see anything out back, even with the night vision on the cameras. When I didn’t hear or see anything after a minute, I figured the animal had wandered off into the forest again.
Setting my cell down, I turned the television back on with my other hand, then returned my attention to the game and my work. Still…a gut feeling nagged at me. Something felt off, but I didn’t have a clue what it was, so I ignored my sense of foreboding.
A few minutes later, the alarm sounded again. Sighing, I checked the cameras on my phone as I set my computer aside. There wasn’t much wind, so it had to be an animal triggering the system. There was also the possibility that Jace—one of my childhood friends, who was now as much a wolf as he was a man—was roaming the woods. Though he generally steered clear of my sensors.
I was about to dismiss it once again when I spotted a small figure coming out of the thicket and moving cautiously across the yard.
My temper flared, and I muttered a curse as I started for the back door. People around here knew better than to break my solitude. I tried not to wallow in my misfortune, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t a grouchy son of a bitch when someone invaded my safe space.
I flipped a light on in the kitchen before stomping outside just as the figure reached the deck. I prepared to rip the intruder a new asshole but shut my mouth when the light coming through the glass doors illuminated the stranger—a woman. She froze, staring up at me with big green eyes, and I found myself momentarily stunned.
For the first time in over twenty years, my body sprang to life.
