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Chapter 13
Tanith’s phone chirped just as she swept the pile of multi-colored feathers, glitter, and bits of unused construction paper off the table and into the trash. She paused in her clean-up effort to check, her heart fluttering and her smile blooming as Blake’s name appeared across the screen. They had been texting since she woke up that morning.
Lately, he had spent most nights at her place, with Hayley coming to terms that they were more than friends and seeming totally fine with it. In fact, she had never seen her daughter take to a man as fast as she had taken to Blake, and while Tanith wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that, most of all she felt relief.
At eight, her daughter was on the precipice of not understanding that her mom needed some romance—and understanding a little too much. As it stood, Hayley brightened up considerably whenever Blake was over, and that suited Tanith just fine.
Last night, however, he had an impromptu class to cover for another professor, and it was so late by the time he finished that Tanith had already gone to bed. She had woken up to a message letting her know that since he didn’t have a key, he didn’t have the heart to wake her and went home for the night.
Hopelessly smitten with the man, Tanith had started up a conversation that had lasted for hours at that point, though there was a brief pause when she had a group of kindergarteners in for arts and crafts that morning.
She had moved all the front room displays aside to give the kids ample access to the gorgeous natural light filtering in through her storefront windows. After they’d arrived, it had been two hours of screaming, laughing, and chattering from thirty little munchkins who reminded Tanith how grateful she was that Hayley was well past that stage.
They had made masquerade masks based on the cut-out Tanith provided them, then left to have lunch in the park. To their credit, the teacher and her assistants hadn’t seemed stressed with all the chaos, which Tanith applauded them for. If she had to teach kindergarten-aged students every day, she’d probably be a heavy drinker just to get through it.
And here she was, begging for a job to teach students part time just to fund Hayley’s medical bills—bills that wouldn’t ever go away, not until she had her marrow transplant.
But then again, the kids she wanted to teach were all over the age of eighteen. Hopefully they’d give her less of a headache than those under six did.
How were the little terrors?
She grinned down at Blake’s text, then hastily replied with: I could ask you the same. Did you have a good class?
Less than a minute after sending it, her phone pinged again while she was in the midst of sweeping sparkly stars out from under chairs.
Everyone looked half asleep. Thank God the term is up soon. Pretty sure I have a summer class that I’m woefully underprepared for though. You didn’t answer my question, cheeky woman.
She rolled her eyes, grinning, and sent a quick text back. How do you think two hours with thirty terrors went?
Another ping. Loud?
Tanith laughed.
Loud, but fun. I just don’t want to see them again for at least a month.
She was about to ask him if he had time for a lunch date. He’d promised her a cozy lunch in at the gallery one of these days, with sandwiches and coffees from A Cup of Beans. Since she’d be closed for the next hour or so, today seemed like as good a day as any. However, just as she started typing the question, a hovering presence, the kind you don’t see but you know is there, forced her to look up.
Tanith let out a shriek when she found Ursalina staring back at her from the other side of the table.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the woman said as Tanith stumbled back, a hand over her pounding heart. She’d been on edge ever since the break-in, and considering someone had decided it’d be fun to spray-paint the side of her house the other week with bright red nonsense, her nerves hadn’t quite recovered yet. Thank goodness Blake had been there to scare the kids away, and he had hosed off most of the offending paint before it set into the concrete.
Still. Never had her personal space been so invaded before. Twice in one year. It was a record, especially for such a quiet town like Angel Fire.
“It’s… I didn’t hear you come in,” Tanith admitted as the mystic woman took a seat at the table, brushing the sparkly bits and glitter away with a dramatic sweep of her hand, her baggy sleeve catching some of it too. Tanith then looked up at the front doors—which were still locked. Her lips pursed. “How exactly did you get in here? The door was locked.”
Ursalina lifted those witchy purple eyes up to Tanith’s, then offered a half smile. “Was it?”
“Yes.”
“Not for me.”
“Oh, well then…” A bit creepy, but having met Ursalina a few times already, and assuming she must be part of the bear clan somehow, Tanith had started to expect creepy from her. She planted her hands on her hips, watching as the woman rooted through her large hemp bag. All six necklaces clacked together noisily, and Tanith couldn’t decide which crystal stood out more. “So, is there something I can help you with? Did you want to take a look at any of our displays? We have a New Age artist who—”
“While your artwork is beautiful, I am not here for it.” Ursalina straightened up, bag of tricks forgotten, and set a large deck of cards on the table. The back design was rather lovely: blue, purple, and green abstract work that, if you looked at it from the right angle, made up the shape of a bear’s skull. Ursalina patted the deck affectionately. “The cards are here for you, and I am their conduit.”
“Tarot cards?” she asked, to which the woman nodded. While others might scoff, Tanith actually put some stock into divination. She didn’t necessarily believe in a higher power pulling the puppet strings of all mankind, but there was nothing wrong with using the wisdom of the ancients to help shape one’s life. “You’d like to do a reading?”
“I must do a reading,” Ursalina countered. Her gaze then darted from Tanith to the chair across the table from her, then back again. “Sit. The cards have been requesting an audience with you for days. I apologize for not honoring them sooner.”
