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leaving today on a trip up to hurricane ridge. i’ll be back sunday afternoon. how are you? what’s going on? text me. i may not be able to get back to you right away, but i want to know that you and your dragonette are okay.
I texted her back.i’ll be able to salt the bones of those two old biddies today thanks to daisy, so one problem taken care of. be careful—i know you will but hurricane ridge can be dangerous, even in summer. have fun!
At that moment, a knock on the kitchen door startled me. I answered to find Bran standing there. “Hey, come on in. What brings you over?”
He was carrying a basket covered with a tea towel. It smelled incredible. “I thought I’d come work some more on your driveway. My mother sent you goodies.” He handed me the basket and, as I took it, he noticed the roses on the counter. “Pretty. From your bushes?”
Bran knew perfectly well that my rose bushes weren’t in bloom yet. “No. Faron gave them to me.”
“That’s right, yourbig date,” Bran said, a touch too casually. “Have fun?”
I peeked under the tea towel. A loaf of bread, four blueberry muffins, and some homemade butter and a jar of preserves. “Yum, this looks wonderful. I’ll text her a thank-you.”
I wasn’t going to take the bait, but I glanced at Bran, and once again, I felt that sudden aura of calmness around him. It hit me in all the feels and I realized that I trusted him. I trusted him more than I’d trusted anybody in a long time, and I couldn’t pinpoint why.
“Faron was a gentleman,” I said, cautiously. “We went to dinner.” I stacked the breakfast dishes in the sink and finished off my latte.
I didn’t want to stir up the obvious rivalry they had—and I guessed that it went far beyond friendship with me. The two must have been at odds for quite a while, which wasn’t all that surprising given Faron was a wolf shifter and Bran a witch.I’dbeen surprised that the date actually happened, let alone turned out well, for the same reason.
“I’m going to spend some time in the workshop this morning, creating some spell kits for the shop. If you need me, that’s where I’ll be.” I turned to Fancypants. “You want to come with me?”
“Maybe. I’ll take a nap first, though.” Fancypants had finished his breakfast and yawned. He burped, then flew over to one of the cat beds I’d bought and settled into it, immediately falling asleep. He snored lightly.
“You’re in for a ride,” Bran said, following me as I headed for the door. “I remember Melda—she was a hoot. When my mother wasn’t around, she used to perch on my head and let me walk around with her. I called her my dragon hat and both of us found that hilarious, for some reason.”
We chatted about the herb garden as we headed outside. The sky was clear, although I could feel clouds on the outskirts, waiting to come in. But it wouldn’t rain, I thought—not for a few days. The plants were reaching for the sun, drinking it in, and I was struck by the energy that buzzed through my land. Everything felt content—happy.
“What made you decide to become a farmer?” I asked.
“I don’t consider myself a farmer. We tend to bees, and yes, I grow a large garden and we sell some of the produce at the market, but like you, my energy is with the earth. I just interact with it a different way I also connect to the air element, but not as strongly. I’m happiest when I’m shepherding things. We do keep pigs and chickens for meat, and a couple cows for milk as well. I like providing for my mother, and putting in an honest day’s sweat.”
Most witches had jobs other than relying on their magic, so it was no surprise to me that Bran worked a trade. But for some reason, he still struck me as an anachronism. Maybe that wasme, though. I hadn’t grown up in a big city, but Port Townsend was a little over three times the size of Starlight Hollow. Maybe I wasn’t used to small-town life yet. It ran at a different pace.
Bran split off, heading to the area that would be my driveway, while I crossed to the workshop and unlocked the door. I had to start thinking of it as mystore, though I wondered how many people would drive out here for magical supplies. I might have to rent a shop downtown if it didn’t work out.
As I assembled spell kits—pulling herbs and candles, incense and crystals together in ways that would complement each other and adding an instruction sheet I’d written up and printed to each box—I paused to text a thank-you to May for the baked goods. Then I walked to the window and peeked outside, glancing at Bran. He’d taken his shirt off and was using stakes and twine to mark off the perimeters that would become the parking lot. The sweat glistened on his chest, and once again I found myself catching my breath.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked myself.
With Rian, I’d been sex-crazy. We’d been between the sheets at least once a day, every day. But since his death, I’d spent the past year ignoring every thought of men, sex, and dating. Now it felt like every man I saw was trying to awaken those old feelings in me. Well, noteveryman. Just two of them. Two men who happened to loathe each other. And two men who had both entered my life in very different ways.
I returned to the counter and sat on the tall stool, staring at the boxes laid out in front of me. My life had suddenly become a ball of yarn, twisted in knots that I’d never expected.
“What an apt metaphor,” I whispered.
Finding Fancypants…meeting Bran…and then there was Faron, whom I had literally ran into, and who now was inexplicably tangled up in my life…
Unsure what to do, I continued to fashion the spell kits, trying to focus on the immediate task in front of me. But I finally had to move over to the computer I had installed in the workshop and turn on a streaming show to keep myself from falling deep into the whirlwind of my thoughts.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
At ten forty-five,Bran tapped on the door of the workshop. I had managed to box up thirty spell kits for everything from protection to prosperity, and I was starting in on bagging an assortment of dried herbs into one-ounce packages when he interrupted.
I opened the door and there he stood, shirt in hand, skin glistening, hair loose and streaming around his shoulders. He’d draped a towel around his neck.
“Hey, I’m about to head home for the day. I thought I’d peek in and see how you’re doing. Do you need anything else before I leave?” He glanced at the towering stack of spell kits. “It looks like you had a productive morning,” he added with a smile.
“I did.” Once I’d taken a few minutes to focus, I had slid into a rhythm and I was almost done with the work I wanted to get done for the day. Anything beyond this was gravy. I set the plastic bag down next to the pouch of rosemary.
