“These things happen sometimes,” Ember said matter-of-factly and held his jacket out for him. “Now, put this on, it’s a little chilly outside.”
Seth stood up slowly and took his jacket from Ember. He looked at her, and then turned his attention to me. The confusion in his eyes dissipated.
“That was no accident, was it?” His eyes narrowed as he spoke. “You did something, didn’t you? I know what you are. I know what all of you are.”
“What we are, Mr. Bateman, is appalled.” Ember placed her hand on his elbow and led him toward the door. “A man should never treat a lady like that, and frankly, I’m shocked at your behavior.” She reached the door and, with her hand still on his elbow, opened it and guided him out onto the sidewalk. “I advise you to take some time and reflect on your actions before coming back. And when you do, we’ll expect an apology.” She let go of him, stepped back into the café, and closed the door.
We watched him as he stood on the sidewalk, staring at us through the window. After a long moment, he finally got on his bike. The trailer was weighed down with what looked like bags of groceries, and he struggled for a moment to get it moving. But he finally did, and rode away.
“Okay then, let’s get this mess cleaned up,” Ember said and clapped her hands together. “Bree, you and Raine start picking up the broken glass. I’ll get a new lightbulb, and Jason, shouldn’t you be getting back to the bakery? I’m sure Lacey is wondering where you are.” As bossy and annoying as Ember can be, I could have hugged her at that moment for getting the situation under control.
I looked over at Jason. Raine still had a hold on him.
“Raine, why don’t you let Jason go,” Ember said.
“Oh, right.” She let go of him.
“I’m really sorry about all that,” Jason said, “but that guy is a jerk.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “You only did what you thought was the right thing.” I wanted to get him out of the café. I needed to talk to Raine.
“But it was weird, right? I felt like I was in a trance, I could hear a voice, but it sounded far away.” Jason rubbed his forehead. “And then the lightbulb exploded. And I felt something too, like I put my finger in an electrical outlet.”
“Not weird at all,” I said and took him by the arm. “You just felt the ions and electrons showering down. You must have studied that in science class.” I had no idea what I was talking about, but I felt confident that Jason didn’t either. “We have lightbulbs burning out all the time. It’s an old building and the wiring is kind of sketchy.” I steered him through the kitchen and out the side door.
“We’ll see you tonight,” I said, and gave him a little shove toward the van.
“Yeah, right, okay,” he said slowly. He opened the van door and then turned around. “What did he mean when he said ‘I know what you are’?”
“Who knows with him,” I answered. “He’s an artist, and you know what they’re like.” I made a circular motion at my temple.
I stood in the doorway and watched as he climbed into the van and started it up.
“Don’t forget to wear your tie,” I called. “Raine’s looking forward to seeing you dressed up.” Another lie, but I wanted to get his mind off what had just happened.
He blushed.
Mission accomplished.
I watched as he drove off, and hoped he could manage to drive the few blocks to the bakery without crashing into anything.
Back inside the café I found Ember talking to the Potter sisters. I had forgotten they were there.
“Yes, I know that was unpleasant,” Ember said. “But you know how men can be around a pretty girl.”
“Absolutely dreadful,” Eleanor said, shaking her head and holding Bennie tightly against her chest.
“It was like one of our soaps, wasn’t it, Sister?” Esther said excitedly. “Remember when Jack Corday fought Trent Lancaster over Cecilia Marlowe? It was just like that.”
“Yes, but Trent had it coming to him,” Eleanor said. “He broke Cecilia’s heart when he refused to acknowledge the baby.”
I looked at Ember and raised my eyebrows. She shrugged and put her arm around Eleanor’s shoulders and guided her toward the door. Esther followed close behind, and as she passed Raine, she put a wrinkled hand on Raine’s shoulder. “I do hope you’re all right, my dear.”
Raine nodded but didn’t say anything.
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” Esther gave her a pat and caught up to Eleanor. “Now, Sister, Trent never knew about the baby until Cecilia demanded money from him.” She kept talking as Ember led them out the door, and was still talking when Ember closed the door behind them.
“You know they’ll be telling everyone what they saw,” Ember said, as she watched the two old ladies shuffle their way down the street.
“Of course they will,” I said. The Potter sisters loved to gossip. “But all they saw was a fight between two jealous men and a broken lightbulb. I think we’re safe.”
“By the way, what you did there? That was pretty impressive,” Ember said.
I looked to see if she was being sarcastic, but she wasn’t. “Thanks.”
“The lightbulb was a nice touch. Very dramatic.”
I shrugged. “I had to direct the energy somewhere.”
“Well, at least you didn’t blow the windows out.” And then she gave me an evil little smile. “Or turn on the sprinkler system.”
“Don’t go there,” I warned. I knew Ember couldn’t give a compliment and leave it at that. It went against her nature.
“Go where?” she said with an innocent look on her face. “Oh, you mean prom night. The girls’ bathroom and all those wet prom dresses.”
“Enough,” I said, holding up my hand. “You don’t need to remind me, even though I know you’re enjoying it.”
“More than those poor girls did.” Ember laughed.
I left her laughing and walked over to where Raine was on her knees picking up the pieces of the broken coffee cup and lightbulb.
“What happened?” I asked. There was something bothering me about the incident, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“You saw,” she said, not looking at me. “Seth was getting handsy and Jason tried to stop him. I should be asking you what happened. Didn’t you just tell me we aren’t supposed to use our powers in public?”
“I said there was a time and place for it. I didn’t have much of a choice. Someone was going to get hurt. And don’t change the subject. Why did you tip over that coffee cup?”
“I didn’t.” Raine kept her head down.
“Yes, you did,” I said. “How else did the coffee end up in his lap?”
Raine mumbled something I couldn’t hear.
“Raine,” Ember said, “stand up.”
Raine stood up slowly but kept her head down.
“Look up,” I said. “What did you say?”
She lifted her head. Her face was pale. “I don’t know what happened. But I know I didn’t do it.”
“How is that possible?” Ember said. “We all saw the cup move on its own.”
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Raine said. “I didn’t do it. It just happened.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Ember said. “I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care if you don’t believe me, I didn’t do it and I’m done talking about it.” She turned and ran into the kitchen.
Ember started to go after her, but I grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Let her go,” I said. “It’s bad enough she had to deal with Seth attacking her like that, she doesn’t need us doing it too.”
“But she’s lying. She made that cup move.”
“Maybe she did, and maybe she didn’t. Let’s just give her some space,” I said. I knew Raine wasn’t telling the truth, but I didn’t know why. We would find out soon enough. Raine was never good at keeping secrets.
Chapter 6
&
nbsp; “There you are,” Gigi said as she opened the front door to let us in. “I thought you’d have been here ages ago.”
“We should have been, but we got held up,” I said and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t ask.” I slipped my jacket off and hung it on the hook.
“Fine. I wasn’t going to.”
“Raine, you look tired.” Gigi turned to me. “Bree, I hope you weren’t too hard on your sister.”
I stopped in my tracks. How did Gigi know what happened?
“She wasn’t,” Raine said. “Bree said the party guests probably wouldn’t like kale and eggplant hors d’oeuvres.”
Oh, that’s what Gigi was talking about. I didn’t need to worry about Raine telling her what happened with Seth. Gigi would be upset if she knew people had witnessed me using my power, but she would be even angrier if she found out how Seth had treated Raine. Gigi was super protective of us, especially Raine, and there was no telling what she would do if she knew what had happened at the café. Probably head straight to Seth’s and hit him over the head. And then throw a curse on him for good measure.
“Kale and eggplant?” Gigi looked over at me and frowned. I nodded and grimaced.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” Raine said, and trudged up the stairs.
“Don’t be too long,” I called up to her. “We’ve got to get back to the café in an hour.”
“I know,” she said wearily. We heard the bathroom door slam.
“Are you sure she’s okay?” Gigi asked. She sounded skeptical.
“She’s fine, just disappointed we’re not serving her… stuff.” There was just no name for it.
“Where’s Ember?” Gigi asked.
“Right here,” Ember closed the door behind her. “Sorry, Gigi. I know you wanted me to look at the website, but we got behind at the café.”
“That’s fine, dear. I had Ray take a look and he was able to fix it.”
“Ray? Seriously? I had no idea he knew anything about computers.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Gigi said and walked into the kitchen. “Ray’s quite handy with a lot of things.” When she reached the doorway she gave her hips a little shake.
“Gigi!” Ember pretended to be shocked and followed her into the kitchen.
I laughed and went upstairs to my bedroom. I pulled out the clothes I was going to wear for tonight’s event. We had decided to keep it simple—black pants and a white blouse.
I stripped off down to my underwear and sat on the bed. The waterfall sound of the shower, combined with the murmur of Gigi and Ember’s voices from downstairs, drifted over me like a cozy blanket. I lay back on the bed and closed my eyes. Just for a few minutes, I told myself.
“Breeze!” I heard Gigi shout my name and sat up. I looked at the digital clock on my nightstand. I had been asleep for almost twenty minutes.
The door opened and Gigi walked in, followed closely by Raine, who had a towel wrapped around her, and Ember, who was still dressed in the clothes she had on earlier. The red splotches on Gigi’s face and the clenched hands at her side told me something was up.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded.
“Tell you what?” I jumped up and grabbed the black pants that were still lying on the bed. If I was going to have a face-off with Gigi, I didn’t want to do it half-naked.
“I expect this kind of behavior from Raine, but not from you.”
“Hey,” Raine said. “What did I do?”
“You be quiet, young lady,” Gigi ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Raine clasped her hands and looked down.
I zipped up my pants and quickly pulled on the white blouse and started doing up the buttons. I felt like I was fourteen years old again and catching hell for sneaking out late at night.
“I don’t like secrets, especially when they involve your sister’s safety.”
“It’s not a secret,” I said. I stopped buttoning my blouse and looked at Ember. How much had she told Gigi, and why couldn’t she have kept her mouth shut? “We didn’t want to upset you, and it wasn’t a big deal, really.”
“Your sister is attacked, and you say it’s not a big deal?”
“Gigi, I wasn’t attacked,” Raine said. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“A man put his hands on you and verbally abused you.” She pointed her finger at Raine.
“That’s an attack in my book. Give me one good reason not to go visit this Mr. Bateman and give him a piece of my mind. One good reason,” she demanded.
“Because you’ll make a fool of yourself, that’s why.” Violet jumped up onto my bed and pointed a paw in Gigi’s direction. “You don’t need to go running off half-cocked. Need I remind you, you did just that when you caught Ember and Bree skinny dipping at Treefell Pond?”
“Skinny dipping?” Raine looked at me. “I don’t remember that.”
“You wouldn’t. You were at home. You were only six or seven at the time. And we weren’t skinny dipping,” I said, grasping at the chance to change the subject. “We were swimming and Gigi showed up at the same time Ember lost her top.”
“And she scared the crap out of those guys,” Ember added.
“There’s no need to bring this up,” Gigi said, but it was too late.
Violet snickered. “Your grandmother left all those poor boys standing there with their dangly bits hanging out for all to see.”
“Not that there was much to see,” Ember added. “The water was cold, the boys were scared, and, well, you know—shrinkage.”
“Ember, really!” The redness on Gigi’s face had traveled down to her neck.
“I’m confused,” Raine said. “Why were the boys naked?”
“Because when Ember lost her top the boys started whistling and clapping, which I guess made Gigi angrier than she already was, so she spelled the shorts right off them.” Violet let out a cackle and continued. “She had that water bubbling and churning, and the next thing we knew the boys were standing there naked and their shorts were floating at the other end of the pond.”
Raine gasped and started laughing. “Gigi, you didn’t!”
“She most certainly did,” Violet said gleefully.
“I may have overreacted a little,” Gigi conceded.
“And that’s what you’re doing now,” Violet said.
I was surprised to hear Violet defending us. Usually she took great pleasure in provoking us. The pond incident was a typical example of that. Gigi would never have known we were down at the pond that day if Violet hadn’t followed us and reported back to her.
“Violet’s right,” I said, reluctantly. Saying Violet was right about anything made me want to gag. “You’re assuming the worst. Raine spilled coffee on Seth Bateman and he freaked out. Jason misread the situation. It wasn’t a big deal, really.” I tried to sound nonchalant about it, and went back to buttoning my shirt.
“It’s true,” Raine added. “It wasn’t a big deal. And Bree was able to stop them before it could get out of hand.” She walked over to Gigi and gave her a hug. “Everything is fine. You don’t need to worry.”
Gigi returned the hug, but looked doubtful. “Well, all right, but I want you girls to look out for each other. That’s what sisters do.” She let go of Raine. “And you can stop doing that, Ember. You’re going to sprain an eyeball.”
I looked over at Ember. She was in mid-eye roll out of Gigi’s line of sight. I laughed. Gigi saw everything, even when she wasn’t looking.
“And you,” Gigi said, pointing at me, “shouldn’t laugh.”
I clapped my mouth shut. I should have known better: She wasn’t done yet. She knew I had done something.
“You aren’t supposed to use your powers in public.”
My mouth dropped open. I looked at Ember. Had she told Gigi what I’d done? She shook her head ever so slightly.
“You think I believe you stopped a fight between two men with just your bare hands?” Gigi asked.
“Well, um,” I stuttered, but could
n’t think of anything to say.
“You know that some people in this town are narrow-minded and would love to expose us.”
“And you wouldn’t want your dangly bits hanging out all exposed,” Violet said, chuckling.
Gigi gave her a death stare. “Must you?”
“For heaven’s sake, Georgina, relax,” Violet said. “You’re overreacting, as usual.”
Ember jumped in before Gigi and Violet really got going. “Bree didn’t have a choice; those guys were ready to kill each other. If she hadn’t done something then I would have, and we all know that wouldn’t have been pretty.”
“Ember’s right,” Raine said. “It could have been a lot worse if Bree hadn’t stepped up.”
I looked at Gigi and realized that she didn’t see three grown women—she still saw three parentless little girls who needed to be protected. A wave of sympathy came over me.
I walked over to her and hugged her tight. “You don’t need to worry,” I whispered in her ear. I let her go and stepped back. I looked over at Raine and Ember. “Gigi’s right, we need to be more careful.”
Gigi looked at me, and I could see that she understood. “That’s all I ask of you girls.”
“Now, why don’t you scoot,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve got a million things to do, and we need to get ready for the party.”
“I do,” she said. “I left Ray out at the campground digging up fire pits and if I don’t get out there, he’ll end up digging halfway to China.” She walked over to the door and opened it. “Good luck with the party tonight.”
“Thanks,” I said, then turned to Raine. “Go get dressed. We’re going to be late.”
She walked past me into the hallway and stopped.
“What is it?” I asked her.
She opened her mouth. “There’s something…”
“There’s what?”
“Nothing. Never mind.”
“Go on then, hurry up,” I said.
I closed the door behind her and looked back at my bed to see if Violet was still there. She wasn’t. I looked under the bed and then in the closet just to be sure she was gone.
“What are you doing?” Ember asked.
Stuck in the Middle Witch You (A Middle Witch Mystery Book 1) Page 4