Witching You Were Here (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 3) (6 page)

“I’ll tell you who it is when I get home tonight,” I said, dismissing Thistle’s concerns outright. “How bad can it be to meet with an advertiser, right?”

Clove looked me up and down dubiously. “You probably should have straightened your hair this morning. You look like you’ve spent time in a wind tunnel.”

“The air is really dry,” I reminded her.

“That doesn’t explain your hair.”

“Oh, good grief,” I huffed. “Go back to talking about me behind my back while I’m gone.”

“Don’t worry,” Thistle winked. “We will. I might even call my mom and get her in on the action.”

“Don’t you dare! If you tell your mom, she’ll tell my mom and Landon will be forced out there for dinner.”

“I told you,” Thistle said blithely. “Winter bores me. I have to get my entertainment where I can.”

“Don’t worry,” Clove said placatingly. “I won’t let her use the phone.”

“If you do,” I threatened. “I’ll tell Aunt Tillie it was your idea for them to use her wine closet for the new furnace.”

“That’s not true,” Clove protested.

“Aunt Tillie doesn’t know that,” I said as I strutted out of the store.

“I think Bay is catching Marnie’s menopause madness,” I heard Thistle say before the door shut behind me.

When I got back to The Whistler, I dropped my coat and hat off in my office before heading to Brian’s office. Edith was waiting for me when I got there. “Who’s in there?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “He looks familiar, but I just can’t place him.”

“He doesn’t look evil, does he?”

“What does evil look like?” Edith asked.

“Kris Jenner.”

“Who?”

“Never mind.”

I raised my hand and knocked on Brian’s door, waiting for an invitation before I entered. Nothing could have prepared me for who I found inside. The man sitting in the chair, wearing a pressed suit and wringing his hands nervously, was someone I hadn’t seen in years. I recognized him, though, from Thistle’s photo book and my own weak memories. “Uncle Teddy,” I said breathlessly. “What . . . why . . . what are you doing here?”

“Bay, this is Ted Proctor,” Brian started to introduce me.

“I know who he is,” I said irritably. “He’s Thistle’s dad.”

“Oh, right,” Brian looked properly chastised. “He was worried you wouldn’t remember him.”

“Thistle has a picture of him up in her bedroom,” I said warily.

“She does?” Ted spoke for the first time since I entered the office.

“What is he doing here?” I pointed the question at Brian.

“He’s a land developer,” Brian said easily. “He’s looking at some property in the area for a group of businessmen that want to invest.”

I glanced back at Ted. He looked different than I remembered – and yet the same. His dark eyes were deep pools of concern, and his brown hair – which had a little more gray at the temples than I remembered – was still slicked back in the manner he had worn it all those years ago.

“So why do you need to see me?” I asked finally.

“I thought it was best,” Ted said. “Brian and I are going to be doing some business together. Instead of hiding from you, I thought it would be best to just announce my presence.”

“To me?”

“Yes,” Ted looked confused.

“What about to your daughter?” My mind traveled to the conversation that Thistle, Clove and I had had this morning. I had been surprised when Thistle mentioned her dad. Maybe I shouldn’t have been. Maybe she knew her dad was in town and she’d been keeping it a secret. Somehow, I doubted that was the case.

“I plan on seeing Thistle,” Ted shot Brian a nervous look. “I’m just not sure how to do it.”

“Well,” I said angrily. “Her store is a couple blocks down the road. She’s there right now. I was just with her.”

“Still joined at the hip, I see,” Ted said, flashing me a bright smile. “The three of you were more like sisters than cousins. Even when you were little.”

“Which is the last time you saw me,” I reminded him.

“Yes,” Ted nodded. “I would recognize you anywhere, though. You look just like your mom.”

“I do not.”

Ted looked confused. “Yes you do. You always did. I would imagine Clove still looks like Marnie, too.”

Well, that was true. “I wouldn’t open with that,” I said. None of us wanted to admit we looked like our moms. If that was true, I couldn’t help but picture us all still living together and fighting over the same guy in thirty years. I shuddered at the unwanted thought.

Ted laughed, despite himself. “Yeah, I remember how mad Marnie used to get when people told her she looked like Tillie.”

That still infuriated her.

“How is your Aunt Tillie?” Ted asked. I think he was just trying to fill the awkward silence.

“She’s fine,” I said. I didn’t miss the fact that Brian had coughed the word “evil” into his hand, though. “She’s as ornery as ever.”

“I would expect nothing less.” I think Ted was trying to charm me. It wasn’t going to work, though.

“So, what property are you interested in?” I changed the subject.

“I’m still looking,” Ted said, shifting his gaze laterally to Brian, clasping his hands behind his back. I knew he was lying, his body language confirmed it, but I couldn’t figure out why. “I just didn’t want to keep hiding while I was in town.”

“I’m not the one you have to hide from,” I reminded him.

“I’m not hiding from Thistle either,” he said hurriedly. “I’m just not sure how I should approach her.”

“I wasn’t actually talking about Thistle either,” I said. “I was talking about Aunt Tillie. She’s the one you should be afraid of. It’s not like you’re one of her favorite people. She tortures the people she loves, so what do you think she’s going to do to you?”

Ted visibly blanched. I could tell that thought hadn’t occurred to him during his meticulous planning. “She can’t still possibly be mad?”

“You’ve met her, when isn’t she mad? Your timing is great, by the way. She was in a right snit this morning because she’s losing her wine closet. Your arrival will just be icing on her  . . . witchy cake.”

Ted swallowed hard, the meaning of my words wasn’t lost on him. “What do you suggest?”

“Why should I suggest anything?”

“Because you love Thistle,” he said pointedly. “You want to make this as easy on her as possible.”

That was true. If I could go back in time and not answer my phone when Brian called, I would gladly do it.

“I suggest you go down to Hypnotic and see her now,” I said harshly.

Ted didn’t look like that was the scenario he had in mind. “I’m going to ask you to do something, Bay, something you’re probably not going to like.”

“Well, that sounds great,” I said sarcastically.

“I need you to let me approach Thistle,” he continued. “I don’t want you to tell her before I have a chance to.”

I opened my mouth to argue and then snapped it shut, mulling the thought over in my mind. I shook my head as I considered it. “I can’t lie to her.”

“Not lie, just avoid her until I have a chance to talk to her.”

“I live with her.”

“Well, just don’t bring it up,” Ted begged.

Crap.

“I can’t promise anything,” I said bitingly. “You had better handle this – and you’d better handle this today.”

Ted pursed his lips, clearly resigned to the situation. “I’ll think about it.”

“You do that,” I said angrily. I swung around on Brian. “How could you keep this from me?”

He held up his hands to ward off my anger. “To be fair, I had no idea you would be this upset about it.”

“I’m not upset,” I snapped. “I’m . . . confused.”

“That’s understandable,” Ted said in his most placating voice.

“I don’t understand,” Brian said blankly.

“I would expect nothing less,” I seethed. Then, for lack of something better to do, I stormed back out of the office. The last thing I wanted to do was continue this conversation. I slammed the door behind me for good effort.

Well, this day had gone to crap pretty quickly.

When I left Brian’s office, I felt myself inundated with a nervous energy that I couldn’t quite contain. Normally, when I was this keyed up, I would go to Hypnotic to vent. That wasn’t really an option in this particular case.

“What’s wrong?” Edith was curiously watching me pace my small office.

“You know that guy you didn’t recognize in Brian’s office?”

Edith nodded, concern etched on her ethereal face.

“It’s Thistle’s father.”

Something clicked in Edith’s mind. “Twila’s ex-husband. Of course, now I remember.”

“How do you know him?”

“I saw them together when they came into the paper to place their wedding announcement,” Edith said thoughtfully. “And Thistle’s birth announcement. I remember that they seemed so happy. I was a ghost, so they didn’t see me. I just remember thinking how grand it was for them to be so young and in love. I wondered what it would be like to be that happy.”

“Yeah? Well he happily disappeared from her life, for all intents and purposes, when she was a kid. Now he’s slunk back into town and he’s asked me not to tell her until he gets a chance to.”

“And you don’t think you can do that?”

“I can’t lie to her.”

“Don’t lie to her,” Edith suggested. “Just don’t tell her the truth.”

“No, you don’t understand,” I said angrily. “I really can’t lie to her. She always knows. She’s going to make me eat a pound of yellow snow if she finds out.”

“What are you going to do?” Edith asked, ignoring my yellow snow comment.

“I’m going to go for a walk and clear my mind,” I said. “I need you to keep an eye on them and see what they’re doing.”

I expected Edith to remind me that she wasn’t my slave. Instead, she nodded perfunctorily and winked out of my office. I was hoping she had gone to Brian’s office to eavesdrop on him and Ted – or maybe haunt them into leaving town. I could live with either option.

“Crap!” I slammed my fist down on my desk.

Once I was out on the street, the frustration that had been welling inside of me didn’t dissipate. As an earth witch, the outdoors is supposed to clear my channels and open my mind. Instead, I felt the prospect of lying to Thistle closing in on me like a shrinking coffin.

I had no clear direction as I walked. Before I realized what was happening, I noticed I was in front of the Wellington stables. I stood outside the fence to watch the horses play in the snow for a few minutes, hoping that would calm me. I didn’t notice the two figures walking out of the barn, though, until it was too late.

“What are you doing?”

I recognized Thistle’s voice before my eyes took in her slight frame. She was still a decent ways away, though, her fingers entwined with Marcus’ as she watched me curiously. I couldn’t let her get too close to me, I realized. The minute she did, she would know I was hiding something.

I took a step away from the fence uncertainly. “I’m just going to see Chief Terry about the boat,” I yelled across the paddock. “The horses distracted me.”

“Come help us feed them before you go,” Thistle offered. She knew I loved feeding the horses even more than I loved riding them.

“Maybe on my way back,” I said, turning to walk down the street and away from the stables. I didn’t look back. I didn’t have to. I could feel Thistle’s suspicious brown eyes boring a hole in my back as I trudged down the street.

I didn’t really have anything to talk to Chief Terry about, but the police station was only a block down the road. I knew Thistle was still watching me, so I had no choice but to go inside the building.

Once I entered, I greeted Chief Terry’s secretary at the front desk and wandered down the hallway without waiting for her to announce me. I had been doing this long enough to know that Chief Terry would always welcome me.

When I got to his office, I found the door wide open and voices emanating from inside. He wasn’t alone. Unfortunately, I recognized the other voice. Landon was there, too.

“There’s no need to eavesdrop,” Landon said with a small laugh. “We’re not talking about anything that you can’t hear.”

I wandered into the office, offering Chief Terry a wan smile as I slid into the open chair next to Landon. I could feel his eyes on me as I studied my shoes intently.

“What’s going on,” Landon asked worriedly.

“Nothing,” I said blandly. “Why do you think something is wrong?”

“Because you look like someone killed your favorite cousin,” Chief Terry answered for him. He looked as concerned as Landon.

“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just wanted to see if you found out anything about the boat.”

Chief Terry didn’t look like he believed me. “We’ve ran the registration,” he said quietly. “It belongs to a Canadian couple out of Vancouver named Byron and Lillian Hobbes.”

“What were they doing down here?”