Book, Bludgeoning, & Beyond

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Book, Bludgeoning, & Beyond Page 4

by H L Bur


  “Awesome, we can’t wait! We’ll probably see you there,” Jet-black said before they walked out of the store.

  “Whew, I’m pooped already,” I said. “What’s for lunch?”

  Quinn silently shook her head. “You’re ridiculous.” She glanced up at the clock. “You do realize it’s ten in the morning?”

  “Shoot,” I sighed. I wandered over to the Recluse Café and poured myself my second cup of coffee for the morning and grabbed a Bronte’s Blueberry Bagel to tide me over.

  Chapter Four

  Ξ

  The morning wore on with a few more customers trickling in. After getting lunch delivered from the local deli (turkey with pesto and provolone grilled on sourdough for me, hot Italian sub for Quinn), the afternoon picked up. Weekend travelers must have been heading up north early for Autumn Fest.

  The front door chimed and an older couple entered the store, followed by my mother.

  “Welcome to Gigi’s,” I greeted the cute elderly couple. It warmed my heart as the man took his wife’s hand in his and they started browsing the aisles.

  “Hey, Aunt Marah!” Quinn greeted.

  “Hey, Mom! What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised to see her. My mom had recently moved to Wolfpine, a town about thirty minutes south of Riverton. The town of Wolfpine was rich in history and did a great job of honoring its Native American roots. Recently, my mother had become very in tune with Mother Earth and her inner chakras, energy, and vibrations. Okay, maybe it sounds a little weird, but honestly, she’d become much more relaxed and mellow, so hey, whatever worked.

  “Hi, Sweetpea! I had lunch with Aunt Liddy and we did some window-shopping. But, when we got close to the bookstore, she suddenly said she had an errand to run and took off.” She sounded confused.

  “Yep, sounds about right. She roped Quinn and me into helping her with some ‘yard work’ this weekend,” I replied, throwing some air quotes around yard work. “She probably didn’t want to risk seeing us and having us back out on her. Not like we have that luxury.”

  “Ah, I see.” She nodded her head in understanding as she leaned against the counter, resting her arms on the cool stone surface. “Well, I was wondering if you two were free for dinner one night next week?” she asked. “I was thinking about doing the slow-cooked pork chops with the mushroom sauce that you like.”

  “Yes! Count me in,” I replied quickly, already feeling my mouth start to water. My mom was one of the best cooks around and thankfully, just because she was into her chakras and being healthy, that hadn’t translated over into her cooking. So, needless to say, when my mother announced she would be making her famous pork chops, that was an opportunity that I wasn’t about to pass up.

  “Mmm, that sounds amazing,” Quinn agreed. “Count me in, too!”

  “How about Tuesday night?” I asked. “That way, the hubbub over Autumn Fest will be over.”

  “That works for me.” My mother smiled.

  “Well, I can pencil it in, but with my busy schedule and all, I can’t make any promises…just kidding! I wouldn’t miss it,” Quinn teased. “Thanks for the invite!”

  “Okay, sounds perfect. I’ll plan on it then,” she confirmed. “Oh Cady, I was also wondering if you could pre-order the next Fever series book for me? I heard it comes out in January.”

  “Mom, what do you take me for? It’s already been handled. I can’t wait to see what happens with Dani and Ryodan!” I replied excitedly.

  “Oh, you’re such a good daughter. Thanks so much, sweetie. Well, I’m going to make a quick stop at the spa at the end of town on my way home. I heard they have some new healing crystals in that I want to check out. Buh-bye, love you, see you on Tuesday,” and with that my mother swept her way back out onto the sidewalk.

  I stared for a moment. “You know, I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t inherit her grace. She’s always so put together and prim and proper.”

  “Well, maybe you didn’t inherit that kind of grace from her, but we did somehow inherit a different kind of Grace, if you know what I mean,” Quinn replied sarcastically, referring to our dear grandmother. Grace was Gigi’s real name, but when we were little Gigi just sort of stuck.

  “You don’t need to remind me,” I remarked, shaking my head. “Seriously, what are we going to do about her? Do you think we should flat out ask her why she hasn’t moved on?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure that will go over well. I can see it now, ‘Gigi, could you let us in on your unfinished business so maybe we can help speed things along here?’” Quinn mocked.

  “Good point. I hate it when you’re right.”

  “I’m always right.”

  “Well that makes two of us, then.”

  “You’re such a snob,” Quinn accused.

  “Whatever, I so am not!” I scoffed. “Well, if I am, you are.”

  “Hmm, maybe just a little? I think we are both just still a little jaded from our previous careers,” Quinn offered.

  “Yeah, you mean the ones where people walked all over us and gave us no credit for how hard we worked?”

  “Yup, those ones.”

  I shuddered. “I still hear the call lights in my dreams.”

  “Yeah, I still have those dreams, too. Only mine involve misbehaving little children whose parents think they are angels and could never believe their precious little Johnny would act out in class,” she went on. “Yup, much more believable to think the teacher is making up their bad behavior in some crazy scheme to hold them back.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t get me wrong, most of my patients were amazing, but it’s those few who ruin it along with hospital politics and out of control regulations.”

  “Yup, I totally get it and it’s the same with teaching,” she agreed.

  “I will never complain about Gigi again. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have the bookstore and would have never had the opportunity to branch out on our own like this,” I reflected.

  “Tell me about it. Okay, let’s both try not to be so hard on her from now on,” Quinn suggested.

  “Deal.” I nodded as I drained the last of my coffee mug.

  Just then the cute couple from earlier walked their way to the checkout counter and handed me the item they were purchasing. I glanced quickly at the title and had to force my facial expression to remain neutral. I could feel the burning heat rising into my cheeks as the man handed me his payment for Kama Sutra for the Golden Years.

  I tucked the receipt into the front cover and handed the man his purchase. They smiled and said thank you and slowly shuffled out the front door. I didn’t fail to notice the little pat he gave his bride on her bottom as they made their exit.

  When the door was closed, I turned to Quinn. “I didn’t even know we carried that book. Why do we carry that book? I’m confused and slightly scarred for life.”

  “Oh stop it. Look, it was obviously a good one to order. We may have just help put some spice back into their relationship.”

  “Yeah, something tells me they have enough spice. Let’s just hope the poor guy doesn’t have a coronary.” I arched my eyebrows in mock concern.

  The first time we saw Gigi’s ghost was about a week after her funeral. Quinn and I had bought our siblings out of our grandparents’ house and we were still moving all of our stuff into the house and getting everything settled. We had everyone over for pizza, Gigi’s favorite. I was dishing out slices onto paper plates because for one: all of our dishes were still in boxes, and two: it was an unwritten rule at Gigi’s house that when you ate pizza, you ate it on a paper plate. We still to this day did not fully understand why, but hey, tradition is tradition.

  My sister, Sloane, was up from downstate with her wife, Alena, their two kids, Wren and Lyle, and their Labradoodle, Puck. I was dishing up pizza in the kitchen when Puck started barking like crazy in the living room. Puck never barked at anything. A murderer could literally be stabbing one of us to death and Puck would just sit there wagging his tail. S
loane and I had glanced at each other and both frowned. We walked to the living room to see Puck standing in the corner barking at the breakfast nook. For a brief second, I thought I caught a glimpse of Gigi standing on the window seat, but when I blinked, no one was there. I thought for sure I had imagined it, but Sloane and Alena had seen her, too. Sloane had always been into the supernatural and was kind of obsessed with ghosts and zombies and the like, so she wasn’t too surprised.

  She called Puck off and put him outside. Our parents were eating their pizza in the kitchen obliviously, while we called Alena, Aiden and Quinn over to discuss the incident. Aiden, ever the calm collected one, just kind of nodded all nonchalantly like it was no big deal and then said, ‘Yeah, I can see her right now.’ We all snapped our heads in the direction he was looking and there was Gigi sitting in her beloved rocking recliner that we had moved towards the side door because we had planned on throwing it out later. Thankfully, the chair wasn’t rocking because it was in direct line of sight of the kitchen table where our parents remained happily munching away on their pizza. I gave Gigi a weird half wave and then we all huddled back together to figure out what we were going to do.

  Sloane commented that she probably had unfinished business and stated matter-of-factly that that is the most common reason for a spirit to hang around. Aiden suggested that we keep it amongst ourselves because our parents were all having such a hard time with her death. We all agreed that this was for the best. Our parents - well, namely our mothers - could be pretty high strung, and we didn’t want to add to their distress.

  My mom had chilled out since then, but Aunt Liddy had always been high strung and likely always would be. My Uncle Bernard, Liddy’s husband, was calm, collected, and even-keeled, but he was also hopelessly devoted to Aunt Liddy and couldn’t be trusted to keep a secret from her. My mom’s husband, Kurt, probably wouldn’t have believed us anyway, as he wasn’t really into the whole ghost thing, so we didn’t have to worry about him. Also, we didn’t want to give our parents any more reasons to think we were crazy. We all quickly agreed to the plan and tried to go about our luncheon with attempts of acting normal.

  Luckily for us, our parents were used to our weird behavior, so they didn’t really notice that we all kept glancing toward the living room to see if Gigi was still there. And much to Quinn and my dismay, she’d been there ever since.

  So that’s how Quinn and I came to be roommates with our dead grandmother. Needless to say, the brownish-orange rocking recliner went back into position and there was no hope of getting rid of it any time soon.

  The store had cleared out by six o’clock, so we closed up on time and decided to go down the street for a drink at The Wishing Well, a bar/restaurant that overlooked the river. They made the best margaritas around!

  It was a beautiful evening with a warm breeze, so we decided to walk. We locked the front door and headed down the sidewalk. I noticed a black SUV parked across the street. “Hey, I think I saw that car this morning,” I said to Quinn. “They almost hit me when I was leaving the driveway. I remember I thought it was weird that I’d never seen that car around before.”

  “Hmm, I don’t recognize it either,” Quinn replied. “I’m sure it’s fine. I mean it’s not that out of the ordinary. It’s a common make and model and there are a lot of people in town already for this weekend.”

  “You’re right. I don’t know, something just felt off about it.”

  “I think you’re being paranoid. You’ve always had an overactive imagination,” Quinn reminded me.

  “True, remember when I thought I almost got kidnapped and…”

  “And it was really just that old Mr. Parker had pulled over on the side of the road behind you because he dropped his driving gloves and was bending over to pick them up,” Quinn finished the story for me. “Yes, I remember. You need to relax. Maybe you should take up healing crystals and vibrations with Aunt Marah?”

  “Please don’t talk about my mom and vibrations in the same sentence ever again,” I groaned. “Or I might just have to bring up the time when we walked in on your…”

  “Okay, okay,” she quickly interrupted. “I won’t say anything else about your mom and vibrations. Just please, do not finish that sentence.”

  We both chuckled as we opened the door to The Wishing Well.

  We picked a table out on the patio overlooking the river. They had white lights strung up all over the patio. There was something about white Christmas lights that mesmerized me every time. They also had those outside heaters, although it was nice enough tonight that I was comfortable in my light duster cardigan.

  Quinn ordered the house margarita, while I went with the mango-rita, and we each ordered a large salad with fries on the side.

  As the waitress went off to place our order, I glanced at the very end table on the patio and knocked my water glass over.

  “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. No, no, no.” I slouched low in my chair.

  “Um, can I ask what in God’s name are you doing?” Quinn eyed me suspiciously as she helped me mop up the spilled water.

  “Uh, I think I have to go. Do you think you could stand up and block me while I make a run for it?”

  “Yeah, not gonna happen,” she refused. “I desperately need this margarita after my epic failure last night. Would you like to share with the class why you are suddenly acting like a crazy person?”

  I scooted my chair so Quinn was directly in my path, put my elbow up on the table and shaded my face with my hand. “Okay, so don’t look now, but the guy at the end table behind you came into the store last night and long story short I humiliated myself and promised myself I would never ever have to see him again and I’m pretty sure that I will die if he sees me here.”

  Quinn immediately wrenched around in her seat in an attempt to ogle.

  “Pssst. I said don’t look,” I hissed at her.

  Mr. Perfect glanced up due to the disturbance going on at our table. He caught my eye and grinned. I tried to duck down further, but it was too late.

  Quinn whipped back around and said under her breath, “Woops, sorry.”

  The look I gave her was nothing short of a glower.

  “Oh. My. God. He is hot,” she mouthed to me.

  I rolled my eyes and sat up straight as Mr. Perfect made his way over.

  “Ms. Kline, it’s good to see you.”

  “Hi,” I replied shortly, refusing to make eye contact.

  Mr. Perfect stood there waiting for me to continue.

  “Cade, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” Quinn asked innocently.

  I shot her my best eye daggers.

  “This is my cousin and business partner, Quinn Westmore. Quinn, this is Mr. Per—” I caught myself. “Actually, I never got your name,” I said, turning to face him.

  Mr. Perfect pulled up a chair and welcomed himself to our table. I could already feel the flush creeping up my neck.

  “Go ahead, help yourself,” I muttered under my breath.

  Quinn sat there beaming, reveling in my obvious discomfort that was growing by the second.

  “Fletcher. Fletcher Collins.” He stuck his hand out to shake Quinn’s.

  “So, how do you two know each other?” Quinn smirked, shaking his hand in return.

  She was enjoying this way too much. To be honest, she had probably never seen me this uncomfortable around anyone before and boy, was she running with it.

  “Ms. Kline here was kind enough to stay after hours and help me find the perfect books for my grandfather’s birthday,” Fletcher recounted.

  “I bet she was.” Quinn wriggled her eyebrows, just as the waitress arrived with our drinks.

  I was relieved for the momentary lapse in conversation and also for the alcohol. I took a nice long sip, letting the icy slush cool my mouth, while I prayed it would also cool the flush that was steadily rising up my neck. I needed to regain control over this situation before Quinn made it so I could never show my face around this town agai
n.

  “Please, call me Cady. So, what brings you to The Wishing Well this evening?” I was surprised at how even my voice came out, effectively hiding my anxiety-ridden state.

  “I’m just checking out the local area. Being new to town, I’m trying to find my niche, if you will.” He smiled. “I don’t really know my way around too well yet.”

  “Oh, well I’m sure Cady would be happy to show you around,” Quinn chimed in.

  For the second time tonight, I shot her eye daggers.

  Our salads and Fletcher’s burger arrived. I wasn’t sure why the waitress assumed we would now be dining together and thought it was a little presumptuous of her. Maybe I was just looking for anyone to take my frustrations out on at this point.

  “It’s a small town, I’m sure Fletcher can manage on his own and doesn’t need my help,” I managed to say, forcing a smile.

  “Oh, so you’re saying you wouldn’t show me around?” Fletcher asked coyly as he leaned onto the table and rested his chin on his closed fist.

  “No, of course I would,” I said, taken off guard. “It’s just that, really, I wouldn’t want to intrude and Riverton is honestly a place best discovered on its own.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Quinn piped in again.

  I am seriously going to murder her.

  “Actually, I would love the company and it would be nice to have someone who could point out all of the area attractions and show me the best Riverton has to offer,” Fletcher replied, tactfully ignoring Quinn’s last comment.

  “Oh, well Cady should definitely be able to handle that,” Quinn giggled to herself.

  I officially hated her.

  “Great,” said Fletcher, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “Maybe I can swing by the bookstore tomorrow night and you can take me on a little tour?”

  “Well, I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow night. Autumn Fest is this weekend and we have a booth at the Town Center I need to prepare for,” I said coolly, thinking I had the perfect out.

 

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