Witching You Were Here (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 3) (20 page)

“Son, I’ve been driving longer than you’ve been alive.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Is he going to be like this all night?” Aunt Tillie turned to me. “If he is, that’s going to put me in a bad mood.”

“He’s just grumpy because we told him he would get stuck if he tried to pull us out and he didn’t believe us,” I said. “I think it’s a man thing.”

“Oh, you mean he’s being a stubborn fool,” Aunt Tillie said knowingly.

I saw Landon’s jaw clench angrily, but he remained silent.

Things probably would have been all right if Aunt Tillie hadn’t kept chattering on. “When you think about it, it’s kind of like I’m your hero,” she said to Landon pointedly. “I’m a super hero.”

“Here she comes to save the day,” Thistle and Clove sang out from the backseat happily.

Landon dropped his forehead into his hands tiredly.

“Mighty Aunt Tillie is on the way,” I joined in with my cousins to finish the song. Aunt Tillie was a pain, but I was enjoying watching her make Landon squirm.

It was going to be a long two days – for Landon especially.

The ride back to the inn was harrowing – for Landon, at least. His knuckles were white from gripping the door handle and his face
was weary from the effort it took for him to remain quiet during the drive. When we finally got up to the inn, he jumped out of the truck and raced around to the other side of the truck to help Aunt Tillie climb down from the cab.

“You’re a vehicular menace,” he announced when she was safely on the ground and looking up at him defiantly.

“You got here in one piece,” she argued, smacking him on the arm. “Stop whining like a baby. You’re worse than the three of them combined. It’s kind of embarrassing for a law enforcement officer, isn’t it?”

Landon turned to me, frustration etched on his handsome face. “How do you live with her?”

I shrugged. “You get used to it.”

When we all got inside the inn, we found
Twila fretting by the front door. “I thought you were all dead.”

Thistle rolled her eyes. “How does us getting stuck in a snow drift equate to us all being dead?”

“Your Aunt Tillie was driving,” Landon supplied.

“The roads are terrible,”
Twila ignored Landon, although she did flash him a warm smile. “You could have been buried in a drift for days and had to resort to cannibalism before someone found you.”

Thistle glanced at Clove. “Sometimes I think she should have been your mother. She’s an alarmist, just like you.”

“I’m not an alarmist,” Clove countered.

“It’s a coffin,” Thistle mimicked Clove.

I stepped on Thistle’s foot to silence her. Luckily, Landon wasn’t looking in our direction and didn’t see the gesture. “What’s a coffin?” He asked distractedly.

“It’s just a joke from when we were kids,” I lied.

Thistle looked appropriately chastised. She hadn’t realized what she was saying until it was out of her mouth. Thankfully for all of us, that was a family affliction that popped up at regular intervals so we didn’t hold it against each other.

“Dinner will be ready in a few minutes,” Marnie said from behind the counter. “I’m figuring you guys should probably stay up here with us tonight.”

That didn’t sound like any fun at all.

“Aunt Tillie can just give us a ride down to the gatehouse,” I argued.

“I’m done driving for the day,” Aunt Tillie announced. “You’ll be fine here.”

“How many rooms do you even have open?”

“There’s one open room that you girls can share,” Marnie said. “And Landon can bunk with Brian.”

“Over my dead body,” Landon countered.

“That might be a fun game to play,” Aunt Tillie glared at him over her shoulder as she flounced out of the foyer.

Landon slid a mutinous look in my direction. “I’m not sleeping with Brian.”

“We don’t have a lot of choice,” I said. “Maybe you can bunk with Trevor.”

“The handyman?”

I nodded.

“I’d rather bunk with the three of you.”

Twila rounded on him. “You will not. That’s not proper etiquette. What would people say?”

“How would people know?” Landon countered.

“I’d know,” Twila said.

“We could have another orgy,” Thistle offered helpfully.

“You shut your mouth,” Twila warned her.

“I’m starving,” Clove wandered out of the foyer and into the dining room. “What’s for dinner?”

“Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, corn, fresh vegetable soup and bread,” Twila said, her face lighting up. My family is very food oriented, what can I say?

“What’s for dessert?”

Landon glared at me. “This room situation is not settled yet,” he said. “We can talk about food in a minute.”

“You can sleep on one of the couches instead, if you want,” I offered.

“Red velvet cake, Bay,” Twila ignored Landon. “Your favorite.”

Yum. It was my favorite.

Once everyone was settled around the dinner table and filling their plates with warm goodness, the conversation started.

“It’s good to see that you girls made it here safely,” Lenore Baker said. “I know your mothers were worried something awful.”

“We weren’t in any real danger,” Thistle said. “We would have been fine if Landon didn’t try to tow us out, even though we told him it wouldn’t work.”

Landon pursed his lips angrily. “Yes, I’m to blame for trying to help.”

“We’re all glad you tried to help,” my mom interjected.

Landon smiled at her thankfully.

“It’s just that sometimes it’s better to just do what women tell you,” my mom continued. “Especially the women in this family. We’re all extremely intuitive.”

Landon looked like he was about ready to shove his fork into his own eye socket to end the pain. Sludge, who was sitting on the other side of him, leaned over and patted him on the back. “These women are amazing, bro. They know things.”

“And what do they know?” Landon eyed Sludge suspiciously.

“They can see the future,” he said.

“Really? Then you would think they would have foreseen getting plowed in at the store. What were you guys even doing there?” Landon rounded on me. “I saw you leave an hour before that and I thought you were going home then.”

“We forgot we needed something at the pharmacy,” I said evasively.

“What? What could be so important that you would need to be out in that storm?” Landon was using his irritation as a weapon now.

“Thistle has a cold sore,” Clove said helpfully.

Thistle shot her a dirty look. “Not for long,” she grunted out, shifting her angry eyes to Aunt Tillie.

For her part, Aunt Tillie looked appropriately innocent. Anyone that didn’t know her would think she was a sweet old lady enjoying her mashed potatoes. Until she opened her mouth, that is. “At least your pants fit again.”

“There is that,” Clove said hurriedly. She was desperate to avoid another family fight. Her need to play peacemaker, though, backfired on her.

“You should be taking Thistle’s side,” Aunt Tillie said.

“What?” Clove looked confused.

“You should remain loyal to your cousin,” Aunt Tillie said. “You shouldn’t be siding with me, no matter how scared you are that I’ll retaliate. That’s what family does.”

You never know what’s going to set Aunt Tillie off. This was just further proof.

I turned to Landon. “Aren’t you glad you decided to stay in town for the blizzard?”

“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“You and me, a warm fire,” Landon shrugged. “Trust me, your mom and aunt didn’t play into the fantasy.”

I glanced up and saw that my mom was watching us with a disapproving look on her face. “Well,” she said stiffly. “It looks like things have worked out for the best then, doesn’t it?”

Landon looked taken aback. “I guess so,” he swallowed hard. “I thought she liked me,” he whispered.

“She does,” I laughed. “When you’re not making dirty comments, that is.”

“How was that dirty?”

“I think the visions of naked sugar fairies dancing in your head tipped her off.” I was only teasing, but Landon looked frightened.

“She can read my mind?”

“No,” I shook my head. “It was written all over your face.”

Landon had gone white. When he glanced back up at my mom, she was still giving him a dirty look.

“I guess I’m sleeping on the couch tonight,” he said finally.

“I think that would be a good idea,” my mom agreed.

Thistle and Clove were exchanging conspiratorial looks across the table. I knew what they were thinking: Just because he went to bed on the couch, that didn’t mean he would stay there.

After dinner, everyone had warm hot chocolate in front of the fire and listened to
Twila tell ghost stories. Unfortunately, Twila’s ghost stories were essentially episodes of
General Hospital
wrapped around ghosts. When she got to the part about the evil Greek ghosts trying to freeze the world, I was done.

My mom had brought out three warm blankets and two fluffy pillows for Landon. He had opted for the big couch in the library, since it was off the main drag of the house and secluded.

After that, everyone retired to their individual rooms. I thought about sticking around with Landon for a while, but my mom was watching me like a hawk. Instead, I waved a half-hearted goodnight to him and followed Thistle and Clove upstairs.

Once we were safely on the other side of the door, Thistle sighed heavily. “This day has really sucked.”

I picked up the flannel sleeping pants and T-shirts lying on the bed – all belonging to our mothers – and nodded in agreement. “It couldn’t have gone much worse.”

Clove pulled one of the T-shirts over her head – the one that said “Witches do it the wicked way” and shook her head. “This sucks.”

I threw myself on one of the double beds lazily.

“What are you thinking?” Thistle asked. “Other than wondering what Landon looks like naked, I mean.”

“I wasn’t think about that,” I said irritably.

“Right.” Thistle didn’t look convinced.

“I was thinking about the Bakers,” I said finally.

“The Bakers?” Thistle looked grossed out. “That’s a weird fantasy.”

“Not like that,” I lobbed a pillow at her. “I was just thinking that it was weird that they decided to stay, even though they knew a blizzard was coming.”

“The snowboarding hipsters stayed, too,” Clove said.

“Yeah, but they want the snow,” I said. “They want to go out to the resort and play in it. The Bakers are an old retired couple.”

Thistle regarded me curiously. “So, wait, what are you thinking?”

“We still don’t have a picture of the couple from the boat,” I said. “And the Bakers showed up right before the boat showed up.”

“So, you think the Bakers are really the Canadian couple from the boat?” Thistle didn’t look convinced.

“I think it’s a possibility,” I said finally.

“I think you’re suspicious by nature,” Clove interjected. “I think you see a conspiracy around every corner.”

“Says the woman that sees coffins around every corner,” Thistle scoffed.

“I’m just saying that the Bakers seem like a nice and normal couple,” Clove said.

“I’m not saying they’re not,” I said finally. “I’m just saying I want to make sure.”

“We could just go and check the ledger book,” Thistle suggested. “They should have a copy of their credit card down there.”

“Wouldn’t they have noticed if the credit card didn’t match the names when they checked in?” Clove argued.

“Not if
Twila checked them in,” I said. “Or Aunt Tillie.”

“Aunt Tillie doesn’t check in guests,” Clove said.

“She does sometimes, when she’s bored,” Thistle said. “Come on,” she moved towards the door. “It will just take a minute. Besides, Bay isn’t going to be able to sleep unless we look.”

Clove sighed and got to her feet. “Fine, but if we get in trouble, I’m blaming you.”

“You always do.”

“That’s a mean thing to say,” Clove sniffed.

“I’m not the one that said it,” Thistle replied. “Aunt Tillie did.”

“I’m starting to see what you mean when you say that she’s an evil old lady,” Clove said.

“Oh, now when she yells at you, she’s evil,” Thistle said sarcastically. “When she’s cursing me left and right, though? She’s just misunderstood.”

I shushed them both as we opened the door. “Can we finish this argument later?”

Clove and Thistle wordlessly filed in behind me. I saw Thistle reach out and pinch Clove, though, when she thought I wasn’t looking. Clove smacked her hand and then yanked her hair. I stepped in between them. “When we’re back in the room,” I reminded them.