To Love a Witch

by Amanda M. Lee

  He pressed a finger to my lips. “This is our land,” he repeated. “We needed to know the body was out here. You didn’t do anything wrong and I don’t like it when you take stuff like this on yourself. You didn’t cause this.”

  “I guess.” I forced a smile for his benefit even though my stomach roiled at the thought of what the medical examiner might find. “If you come across anything you think I should know about ... .”

  “I’ll call you,” he promised, swooping in to give me a kiss. “I’ll see you in a few hours. Try to get across the lake fast. It’ll probably take the medical examiner about twenty minutes to get out here.”

  I scowled at the back of Aunt Tillie’s head. “I’d be faster if I had some help.”

  “Oh, you’re such a whiner,” Aunt Tillie muttered, though she lifted her fingers and let loose a definitive snap, causing the canoe to jerk forward as she used magic to propel it in the direction of the other camp.

  “Hey!” I cast a desperate look over my shoulder at Landon and found him grinning as the canoe sped across the lake. He looked amused ... and maybe a little intrigued. “If you could do this from the start why didn’t you whip out this particular spell when we were coming over?”

  “What fun would that have been?” Aunt Tillie asked.

  I SPENT THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON AT The Whistler, the newspaper I owned and operated. Technically it was a two-person show — with a few freelancers thrown in for good measure — but it was my little kingdom in the middle of mayhem. I loved owning my own business, even if it was a lot of work.

  I read over copy and okayed the layout before heading home. Landon and I lived in the guesthouse on the property my mother and aunts owned. I parked there and changed my clothes — I needed dry shoes above all else — and then walked to the inn. I figured Landon would either do the same or drive, so having two vehicles at the inn was a waste.

  It was only a seven-minute walk, and the early summer weather was pleasant. I loved this time of year, and I briefly shut my eyes as I inhaled the scents. I never thought of myself as a nature lover until I left Hemlock Cove for the city. I believed at the time that I wanted a bigger life. I learned that life was only as big as you make it. While there were more stories to cover there, I felt rootless and incomplete. Hemlock Cove was my home and, for better or worse, I had no intention of leaving again.

  That was a concern when Landon and I first got together. He was stationed in the Traverse City office, which meant he had to live in the city due to residency requirements. The forty-five-minute drive grew tiresome relatively quickly, though he never complained. He kept an apartment in the city, but he started taking longer weekends whenever possible and showing up at the guesthouse in the middle of the week because he missed me. Then he took a promotion that essentially was a lateral move, but part of his agreement with his boss was that he be able to live in Hemlock Cove. He seemed to love the town as much as me.

  Still, in the back of my mind, I was convinced he would eventually want to transfer out of Michigan. There was only so much advancement to be had in our location. When I questioned him about it, though, he said that he was home. He even admitted that he might want to leave the FBI at some point, but the idea seemed alien. Part of me was convinced he’d made the decision for me alone, but he seemed perfectly fine with it ... which made me a happy witch.

  I couldn’t imagine leaving this place again. I was happy here, even if Dani’s future weighed heavily on me. Aunt Tillie was right. At some point a decision would have to be made. We had plenty of options until we had to tackle that, though.

  “Hey, Peg.” Aunt Tillie’s teacup pig greeted me at the back door when I let myself in through the family living quarters. The pig was a recent addition. Aunt Tillie had brought her into the fold without asking anyone whether it was okay. Although my mother put up a fight at the start, she’d told me only days before that she preferred the pig to Aunt Tillie.

  Snort, snort.

  Peg greeted me with a wiggling butt. Someone had dressed her in a camouflage tutu. Only one person would bother with that.

  “Where is she?” I asked, glancing around. Aunt Tillie’s normal spot on the couch was empty. “Is she off getting in trouble?”

  Snort, snort.

  “That’s what I figured.” I patted Peg on the head and then moved into the kitchen, pulling up short when I realized Mom and Landon were the only ones in the room. They appeared to be whispering. They were near the sink, their heads bent together as Landon showed her something on his phone, oblivious to my presence.

  Suspicion is the name of the game in the Winchester household. Everyone is always doing something to mess with another member of the family. That’s what I figured they were doing — plotting something to drive me crazy — so I edged closer to try to see the phone without tipping them off.

  “Good evening, Bay,” Aunt Tillie called from her recliner in the corner of the kitchen. She had a voice that carried, one that might belong to a horrible monster bent on destroying the world. I cringed when Landon swiveled to meet my gaze.

  “Hey,” I offered lamely, glaring at Aunt Tillie. I hadn’t seen her sitting there, which explained why Peg was running around on her own. She wasn’t allowed in the kitchen. That was the only rule that seemed to stick where Peg was concerned.

  “I was just looking for you.” Landon plastered a wide smile on his face as he swooped in to kiss me, sliding his phone into his pocket. I couldn’t see what was on the screen before he tried to distract me.

  “Well, you found me.” I tipped up my chin and accepted his kiss and hug, pinning Aunt Tillie with a dirty look over his shoulder. She just had to open her big mouth. That meant they were looking at something really bad ... like maybe Mom was helping him plot a way to remove Dani from the area without my knowledge. “What were you and Mom doing?” I blurted out, fear suddenly gripping me by the throat. What if Landon tried taking Dani from the camp to protect me and she hurt him in the process? She was capable. And he worried more about me than himself.

  “I was showing her a photo of a pig in a combat helmet,” Landon replied quickly. “I’m thinking Peg should have one so nobody will be able to tell her and Aunt Tillie apart.”

  “Oh, please.” Aunt Tillie rolled her eyes. “Like I would wear a tutu. Nobody has trouble telling us apart.”

  Landon smirked. “If you say so.”

  He hadn’t hesitated before responding to my question, but it still felt like a lie. “I want to see the photo.”

  “What?” Landon’s eyebrows hopped. “Oh, well, I closed the window. I’ll look for it again later when we get home.” He turned away from me and focused on the stove. “What’s for dinner tonight?”

  “Nothing with bacon,” Mom replied. “We’re doing tacos because we don’t have any guests yet. Clove and Sam are due at any moment. Clove requested tacos. Apparently she’s been craving them for days, and now that she’s home she thinks she can get us to cook whatever her cravings demand.”

  I studied my mom’s profile for a moment. Clove had returned from her honeymoon only a day earlier. I’d yet to see her — which was difficult, because we’d spent the better part of our lives seeing each other daily — and I was looking forward to a true family dinner. The fact that Clove was pregnant, a condition advanced enough that she was showing, had been a bone of contention during the lead-up to the wedding. My mother and aunts had pretended they were fine with the fact that Clove was pregnant before marriage, but I’d been waiting for the real blowup. So far, I’d been disappointed by the lack of fireworks.

  “You’re not going to give her grief?” I asked.

  Mom’s forehead wrinkled. “Why would I give her grief?”

  “Because she got pregnant before she got married. When we were kids, you threatened us with death, bloody and terrible, if that ever happened.”

  “That’s because we were trying to keep you girls from throwing your lives away,” Mom replied primly. “You’re adults now. Clove was go
ing to marry Sam regardless. This was always the path she was destined to take.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You’re saying all the right things. It would be nice if you meant them.”

  Mom shook her head. “You have a suspicious mind, Bay. It’s one of the things I dislike most about you.”

  “Really?” Aunt Tillie didn’t bother looking up, flipping through a catalog as she kept one ear on the conversation. “I think that whiny thing she does is much worse than having a suspicious mind.”

  “She gets the suspicious mind from you,” Mom shot back. “You can’t dislike the trait because you’d have to take a good, long look at yourself.”

  “No, that’s not it.” Aunt Tillie finally raised her eyes and met my gaze. “The whining is definitely more annoying.”

  “I happen to like both the whining and the suspicion,” Landon offered, slinging his arm around my neck and tugging me toward the door. “She’s perfect.”

  “That’s laying it on a bit too thick,” I said dryly. “You’re just trying to escape before Mom makes us help with dinner preparations.”

  “Shh.” He grinned and planted a kiss on my lips. “You’ll ruin my master plan.”

  I cast one last look at my mother, debating if I could crack her if I managed to lose Landon in the front of the inn before doubling back, and then opted to let it go — at least for tonight.

  “Let’s find Clove,” Landon insisted as we crossed into the dining room.

  “Since when are you so excited to see Clove?”

  “Since I like watching you squeal.”

  That felt like an insult. “I don’t squeal.”

  “Oh, you squeal. In fact ... .” He broke off as two figures moved into the dining room from the opposite door.

  “Bay!” Clove broke away from Sam and threw herself at me hard enough that I had to brace myself so I wouldn’t fall over.

  “Clove!” My voice was shriller than I intended, and when I darted a look in Landon’s direction I found him smiling. “That wasn’t a squeal,” I argued.

  “You keep telling yourself that.” He squeezed Clove’s shoulder before moving behind her to greet Sam. “Congratulations.” The two men shook hands — they weren’t exactly the best of friends, but they’d grown closer in recent months — and watched us with merry grins. “How was the honeymoon?”

  “It was great,” Sam enthused. He was sporting a tan that helped him give off a healthy vibe, and he couldn’t stop smiling. “It was nice to have two weeks completely to ourselves. The only drama we had to contend with was Clove’s rampaging hormones and constant cravings.”

  Clove’s expression darkened as she pulled away from me and focused on her husband. “I don’t have rampaging hormones.”

  Sam was clearly dubious. “Do you want to tell them about crying on the beach when you saw the puppy, or should I?”

  Clove’s mouth dropped open in mock outrage. “I wasn’t crying. I had something in my eye.”

  “Yeah. Tears.”

  “No ... it was the sun.” Clove’s expression was pleading when she turned to me. “I don’t have hormone issues.”

  “Of course not,” I reassured her, grinning. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her until she was directly in front of me. Dani had taken most of my time in Clove’s absence. Without her, though, there’d been an empty spot in the family. Now it was filled again, and it caused some of the tension I’d been carrying to ease. “You would never have hormone issues.”

  “That’s right.” Clove bobbed her head and glanced around. “Do I smell guacamole?”

  Apparently her olfactory senses had kicked into overdrive. “It’s taco night. I thought that’s what you requested.”

  “Yay!” Clove clapped her hands and did a little dance. “I texted Mom that’s what I wanted, but I wasn’t sure she would make it happen. I’m going to eat my weight in tacos.”

  “That should be impressive,” Thistle deadpanned, sliding into the room. She didn’t look nearly as happy to see Clove.

  “Thistle!” Clove started to throw herself on our other cousin, but she was brought up short when Thistle extended a hand. “Don’t you want to hug me?”

  Thistle’s hair was a bright shade of purple. She’d gotten a new package from Overtone and the last thing she’d said to me before separating the previous day was that she planned to wait at least a week before using the contents. Obviously she hadn’t been able to hold out.

  “You don’t want to hug me, do you?” Clove jutted out her lower lip. “And to think that I missed you on my honeymoon.”

  “Oh, geez.” Thistle rolled her eyes until they landed on me. “I told you she was going to be a pain. We still have three months of this. Now that she doesn’t have to hide the fact that she’s pregnant it’ll be nonstop tears and doughnuts.”

  “The doughnuts don’t sound bad,” Landon offered, though he wasn’t fixated on the conversation. Instead, his eyes were on the kitchen door, as if he was looking for an excuse to return to the kitchen.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked.

  “Why would anything be wrong?” He flashed a smile that felt fake. “I was just thinking about something at work. Don’t worry about it.”

  “About the body?” I asked. “Do you know who he is?”

  “No. The only thing I know is that someone is dead ... and the body was probably in the water at least a few days.”

  I pictured the body in the water and shuddered. “That’s a horrible way to die.”

  “We don’t have a cause of death yet. He could’ve died beforehand and fell in the water. We’ll have more information — and hopefully an identity — in the morning.”

  Thistle wrinkled her nose. “Wait. What body?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “And we don’t want to hear it,” Clove interjected quickly. “We want to talk about something else.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Thistle shot back. “I want to hear about the body. After that, we’ll talk about the fact that the store had been completely rearranged when I turned up for my shift today. I’m curious how you managed that when you didn’t get back into town until last night.”

  “You left the lighthouse last night?” Sam challenged. “How did you manage that?”

  “I ... .” Clove trailed off, caught. “Um ... the thing is, the doctor says it’s perfectly normal for an expectant mother to nest. It should be encouraged.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to want to talk to this doctor,” Thistle said.

  “I want to talk to the doctor, too,” Sam added. “Now that we’re back, I think we should set up an appointment.”

  “Not until after we tell everybody about our honeymoon,” Clove whined. “I don’t want to hear about another body. That’s normal for this house these days. I want to talk about me.”

  She batted her eyelashes in such a way that Sam immediately gave in. “Fine. Tonight you can talk about whatever you want. Tomorrow, we’re getting serious.” He was firm. “We have a lot of things to plan around and not much time to finish them. We need a room for the baby. That has to be our first priority.”

  Clove blinked several times in rapid succession, her mood shifting quickly. “I changed my mind. The honeymoon was all sex and food. I couldn’t have booze, so we don’t have any funny stories. Let’s talk about the baby’s room.” She maniacally clapped her hands and hopped up and down.

  Landon shook his head. “Nope. No hormone hijinks here. Everything is absolutely normal.”

  That made me laugh even as my mind drifted to Dani. We had serious issues in this house. For one night, though, the happiness would replace the dire.

  Four

  Landon was already awake when I wrenched open my eyes the next morning. I’m a slow starter most days — and today wouldn’t be any different — and he generally matched my pace. He looked ready to go this morning.

  “Morning,” I murmured, stretching my arms over my head.

  “Good morning.” He watched me with
a lazy smile, something I couldn’t quite identify flashing through his eyes.

  “What is it?” I’d felt as if I was walking on slightly uneven ground with him over the past few days. Something was amiss, although I couldn’t quite identify what.

  “What is what?” he asked, his forehead wrinkling.

  “That way you’re looking at me.”

  “Maybe I just love you. Have you considered that?”

  He did love me. I was sure of it. There were times in the past I’d convinced myself he would leave over the witchy stuff, because it was easier to brace myself for the worst than accept the best. Now, though, I had trouble believing he would leave me.

  Moving on Dani was another story. If he thought that was in my best interests, he would simply swoop into the camp when I was distracted one day and try to remove her without my knowledge. If that happened, and she felt trapped, she would hurt him. The notion made me sick to my stomach.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked in a quiet voice.

  I balked at being put on the spot. “What makes you believe I’m thinking anything?”

  “Because you have a busy brain.” He tapped my temple for emphasis. “As long as I’ve known you, that head of yours has been a tangled place to visit.”

  “I thought you said you loved my mind,” I teased.

  “I love everything about you.” He wrapped his arms around me and pressed a kiss to my mouth. “Every single thing,” he repeated.

  “Like what?” I knew the thoughts that were going on inside his head. He was debating if he had time to talk me into a rousing game of under-the-covers monsters before we both had to leave for our respective days.

  “I love the way your hair stands on end in the mornings,” he said, causing my hands to fly up and check my bedhead situation, which made him laugh. “I love how smart you are. You figure things out faster than I do and I’m a trained investigator.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I hedged. “Sometimes I jump to the wrong conclusion. Who has to talk me back from the ledge then?”