She had wanted it to be Lex. The more time that passed with Gus not answering her calls, and she’d wanted to love Lex. She’d wanted to get past the hurt in her heart from her marriage and curl into something with Lex who’d seemed like someone who fit with her soul.
“Ok,” Scarlett said because she didn’t have anything else to say.
“I was,” Lex snapped, “as good as I knew how to be, and I tried."
“I…I’d like to say, I don’t doubt it, but I’m more in the wait and see mode. Lex…I know we’re circling being together. I…” She wanted to admit her attraction, but…she wasn’t ready to do that so openly. “I wasn’t ready—not fully—before I found out about Amelie. That hasn’t changed either way because of her arrival, but it has put up a big, big red flag. I can see Amelie adores you and that warms my heart. I can see that you adore her and…that helps a lot. But I was scared before this.”
Lex squeezed her hand and when he stopped for a red light he reached over and turned her face up to his. She knew he was going to lay his lips on hers before he did. But she didn’t pull away. It was the feel of their hands tangled that softened her. The way their breath mingled so naturally. The way it felt more right to have him closer than farther. But it was also that he simply laid his lips on hers, the way he used his nose and cheek to caress her, never pressing her for more than for their skin to touch.
It was there…on his lips…that he loved her. She could sense it so strongly she felt like she could reach out and touch the feeling, but he didn’t say the words, and she didn’t reply. The feel of his love pulled something out in her.
It was love. But it was more than love. It was hurt. It was this quaking need for him to be someone she could trust. Maybe she loved him. She thought she might, but she didn’t trust him. Not really. Not now. She wasn’t sure what to do with those two conflicting emotions.
He didn’t press her though. He just lifted her hand to his mouth, kissed her knuckles, and turned into the campground behind the old drive-in theater.
No one was camping there. Not this close to Thanksgiving. It was cold and there was the scattering of snow among the trees. As they drove through they came across trees that had too many birds. There were three owls in the tree about 500 feet up the road. Their heads turned as one and when Scarlett rolled the window down they hooted once. She couldn’t talk to animals like Luna, but any druid would have understood this.
She cleared her throat and nodded towards a dark track that must lead to more remote campsites. Lex turned that way without a word. He turned off the lights on the SUV and used his warlock abilities to get them through the campground safely. Once the lights were out on the SUV, it only took one turn to see the flickering of firelight.
By the time, Lex parked, Scarlett’s dad had stood up next to the fire. He hadn’t been able to slip away before they’d seen him. He had been sitting in a camp chair, drinking a beer, and roasting a hotdog on a stick all the while wearing a big winter coat.
Scarlett crossed to the fire with Lex. He blocked her as if her dad were dangerous. He wasn’t. When Scarlett was a girl, Gram had explained that her dad was a second-rate half-witch, half-druid who’d never developed either of his possibilities. Whatever witchcraft he’d inherited—if any—hadn’t passed to Scarlett. The reason she’d even asked was because Harper could use the abilities from both sides of her lineage. It was far rarer to be capable of two magics than one and Scarlett had let it go.
Now that she saw him again—this time prepared—she noticed that he had less hair and a belly to go with that beer can. She realized that it might be a good thing that he’d never had the discipline to learn his magic. He’d certainly have used it whenever it would make him a buck regardless of morals.
“Hey,” she said, stepping out of Lex’s shadow.
“Scarlett,” her Dad said heartily, opening those arms again as if she’d step into them.
She shook her head and his hands fell to his side. “I might not have been around, Scarlett. But I loved you.”
“Mmm,” she said. “Lex this is my dad, Davis.”
“I did,” Davis said to her, ignoring Lex, “I do love you, princess.”
“Why are you here?”
“How can you ask that? I want to make up for lost time. I want to be part of your life and get to know my grandchildren.”
“So you hunted Mom up on her vacation, got her drunk, thinking if you weaseled your way into her bed, you could weasel your way back into her life.”
“No! What? Of course not,” he said, shaking his head, “Your mother and I are none of your concern, Scarlett Killian-Oaken.”
“It’s just Oaken,” she told him. She took his chair, sat down, and crossed her legs. “So, if you aren’t here to take advantage of Mom, you’re here to knock off your friends?”
“What?”
“Why are all your old friends dying?”
He gaped, but the shock didn’t go to his eyes. He didn’t realize, of course, that she’d embraced the nature magic the moment she’d seen the owls calling her to his hiding place. She could practically see his aura shift with his attempt to skitter away.
“I…I…who died?”
She didn’t believe for one second that he didn’t know.
“Your buddies,” Scarlett said, glancing at Lex.
“My name is Lex Warder,” Lex told Scarlett’s Dad. “I’m…”
“You aren’t any part of this,” her dad cut-in. “This is a family matter, and Scarlett I am not a killer.”
Scarlett’s face was impassive as Lex said, “I’m afraid that just isn’t true. I am very much a part of this.”
“Look, if Scarlett’s sleeping with you that doesn’t make you family.”
“You aren’t family,” Scarlett told her dad. He turned on her, unable to hide the flash of fury in his eyes. There was violence behind that anger, and she had the sudden memory of him slapping her mother. She had to have been smaller than Ella, maybe Luna’s age. She’d hidden in the area behind the bedroom door and witnessed them yelling at each other. She had been playing when she’d hidden, but then she’d been caught witnessing their fight. By the stars, she had forgotten. She tried to channel fluffy cloud thoughts but the stark, vicious memory of his hand against her mother’s face was echoing in Scarlett’s mind.
She had forgotten. Maybe willfully, but the memory was back now. It wasn’t going to leave again.
“You can’t keep me out of Maye’s life,” Davis said, clenching his fists.
Scarlett simply raised a brow at him. He stepped closer, intending to tower over her, to use his size and his strength to intimidate her, but Lex cleared his throat. When her dad looked at Lex, he said softly and very simply. “I suggest you be very careful.”
The sheer, unequivocal threat in Lex’s voice had her dad moving back before he’d even registered the danger fully or the weakness reflected by backing away.
“I am a part of her life,” Dad said. “Scarlett may not like it, but I have every right to be part of things here.”
“You are a part of Mom’s past,” Scarlett told him, honestly shocked that he thought he could just slide back in after decades. Yeah, her mom had made some poor choices when she’d been drunk, but even her mom wasn’t looking to open her arms wide. She was more shell-shocked by being pregnant again.
“She’s a grown woman.”
“She’s not stupid,” Scarlett told him. “She was…what roofied by you? Or did you just prey on her shock and get her drunk before she’d recovered fully from seeing you again.”
“You are out of line young lady,” Dad growled. He didn’t step closer again though. If anything, he shuffled back a bit. “I won’t have you poisoning your mother against me.”
“I think you mean fully grown woman. The days of your being able to tell me what to do are long since passed.”
“You can’t manipulate your mother into what you want. She deserves a life of her own. Happiness.” Dad brushed back his hair.
“And you think that’s you?” Scarlett’s laugh was mean. “Mom’s a practicing and powerful druid with decades more experience than the last time you knew her. You might have bypassed her abilities in Boston away from her circle and her grove, but try it now. And guess what her knowing will whisper to her about you.”
“Scarlett, let’s not be like this. I know I wasn’t there for you…”
The dramatic switch to placating was not going to work. She refused to let him weasel out of not being the dad she’d needed.
“You weren’t,” Scarlett agreed.
“But I loved you.”
“Sure,” Scarlett said. The sarcasm in her voice must have been too clear because he flushed.
“I’m not going to apologize for having a life beyond you,” he said.
“I didn’t ask you to,” she told him.
“Then keep away from me and Maye,” he growled.
“Yeah,” Scarlett countered, “I don’t think so.”
He stepped towards her again and that fury was back. With it, the memories were brighter than before, and they made her stomach hurt.
She rose and as she did, so did the east wind. “Let me be clear, I won’t have to interfere with you and Mom. She won’t fall for your…” Scarlett didn’t finish the curse that wanted to come out of her mouth, but she added, “But I will tell you right now to stay away from my bakery, my home, and my daughters.”
“I’m not here for them,” he said.
“Yes,” Scarlett countered, “I know.”
He flushed again, his ears turning red, and she could see how unhealthy he was. How his eyes were yellow, his body struggled harder than it should have for one of their kind. He had lived too hard, and it was starting to catch up with him. She bet that he remembered the loving young, probably naive girl Maye had been and decided to take her up again, like a pair of shoes he’d gotten tired of once but appeared again.
“Your mom and I are soul mates,” he said.
Scarlett snorted.
“It is true whether you like it or not.”
“Mom is a woman who raised not one but two daughters alone, and she’s doing it again with our Maeve. Mom is pure steel wrapped up in curves, hair, and magic. Try your crap with her again. See how it goes for you. She isn’t actually why we’re here.”
“Well, I’m afraid,” Dad began, but Lex cleared his throat catching Dad’s attention.
Lex’s badge tilted in the firelight. Her dad paled as he noticed the badge for the first time and he said, “I didn’t have anything to do with what’s been happening around here.”
Lex ignored that and started the series of basic questions, “Where were you when Leroy died? Peter? When did you see them last?”
Scarlett listened without another word and saw her dad sidestep more questions than she’d have thought. He was slimier than she’d have guessed even after the move he pulled on her mom. All of it left her sick.
She crossed from the fire and towards the tree, putting her hand on the trunk of a nearby beauty. As she did, she channeled the nature magic and her knowing flared to life. She could see in them such different things. Lex…he was a warrior. He was hard, he was lonely, but he was bright and her dad was all darkness. She had been comparing them, she knew. She’d seen in Lex her dad. They’d both seemed to have abandoned their daughters. They’d both seemed to have some obscure background you couldn’t pin down, but someone didn’t shine like Lex was at that moment and be evil.
She wished the realization didn’t fill her with fear.
Chapter 13
“You think he did it?” Scarlett asked as she joined Lex in his SUV.
“I have no idea.” He sounded tired, and she was sure he was.
She should have let it go, but she didn’t. “Tell me how things got this way with Amelie.”
“Scarlett…” He stopped, met her gaze and started again. “Her mom and I were never serious. When she came up pregnant—you know what caused it? Birth control and hobgoblin magic. I guess it happens all too often.”
Scarlett winced.
“The last thing I wanted was to be hooked to Ashley forever. She didn’t want it either. So when she told me…she’d convinced me to come over to her house for dinner, and then set me up with all of her family of hobgoblins. She said she was keeping the baby, and she wanted me to be mostly hands off. That I wouldn’t be able to handle the kid because of her magic running wild. I had no idea about the things you can do to help hobgoblins until they’re more mature.”
Scarlett pressed her lips together to keep back the curses.
“The combo…of not being ready to be a dad and having everyone tell me I was doing right by her to let it go…I agreed.” He cursed and then said, “I didn’t even meet her until she was one. I was driving through where Ashely lived, working, and I thought…I better just say hello. Make sure she was ok.”
Scarlett waited, her heart in her throat to hear more.
“Amelie…she stole my heart in one second. But I’d already signed things. I hadn’t quite given up my rights completely, but it was close. I was wrapped up pretty tight. I fought and got visits, but I had to go there.” Lex slammed the steering wheel, his anger—with himself—was like a fire that heated the whole car.
“Were you going to tell me about her?”
“Of course,” Lex said. “At first, I didn’t intend to come back. But…I like it here. I like you and your family. I like Mabel and her sneaky, gossipy ways. I like how Harper deals out karmic justice and no one blinks. I like how you druids band together and fix things. Warlocks aren’t like that. And I wasn’t raised in a place like this. But…I kept seeing Amelie here. I want to see her running through the woods with druid girls. I want her to be accepted for being a hobgoblin just like Harper is accepted.”
Scarlett was the one who took Lex’s hand this time and instead of putting her head against the back of her seat, she snuggled into his side, laying her head on his shoulder.
“Luna is right,” Scarlett told Lex, “Amelie needs to be confident you love her. She has to be hurting if her mom took off.”
“I don’t know how to do that other than to tell her,” Lex said.
“I might be able to help, but it would be druidic magic, and you couldn’t hide how you really feel. Don’t ask me to help unless you’re sure the only thing you’ll be conveying is adoration.”
Lex rubbed his thumb over her wrist and said, “That won’t be a problem. Gus messaged and gave me a timeline for Leroy’s death. Your dad says he has an alibi.”
She’d…well…she’d assumed her dad was the killer.
“If he really has an alibi…it doesn’t mean his being here isn’t triggering this.”
“Your Gram said some interesting things about what your dad was up to. But one of them…Scarlett…”
He was worried for her. “Just tell me.”
“He had lots of girlfriends,” Lex said, he squeezed her hand for a second and then went back to rubbing his thumb over her wrist. “Sometimes he…stole from them.”
“Of course he did,” Scarlett said. “My poor mom.”
“I guess she didn’t know a lot of it. Your Gram is a scary woman. She protected your mom and waited until Maye kicked him out and then Gram made sure he actually left. If it were your dad who was dead…your Gram would be my first suspect.”
“You’d never catch her,” Scarlett told him.
It didn’t take long for him to reach the little alley beside her building and park his SUV. Before he walked her inside, he took her hand, tilted her chin up and said, “I would do anything to go back and tell you about Amelie from the beginning.”
She could hear the truth of it in his voice and she felt the echo of it in her heart. He rubbed his jaw along her forehead and then kissed her again. This time he wasn’t quite so gentle and he wasn’t quite so careful, but she could feel a flood of emotion behind the weight of his hands and the warmth of his mouth and those feelings were helpin
g things seem hopeful.
Someone cleared their throat and Scarlett and Lex turned to see Gus and Celia.
“We’re leaving,” Gus said. His tone was even.
Celia stepped forward and said, “Thanks for letting me come. Your peach pie was amazing.” She hugged Scarlett and whispered, “I think you are fighting the inevitable.”
Scarlett smiled and said, “Of course you’re welcome.”
She met Gus’s gaze who nodded once. The awkwardness was an elephant between them. A pink-polka dotted elephant that was dancing and singing.
She asked him, “Did you figure out when Peter died too?”
She asked only to change the subject and distract them all from the obvious.
He nodded.
“Did my dad have an alibi for that too?”
Lex shook his head and Celia said, “But you can’t really believe your dad had anything to do with those deaths.”
“My dad…yeah, I wouldn’t be that surprised.”
“Oh my,” Celia said, winding her arm through Gus’s. “I’m so sorry.”
Scarlett shrugged and then asked, “How mad was Gram about the dog?”
“On a scale from 1 to 10?” Gus’s voice was filled with humor now.
Scarlett nodded.
“Set your car on fire mad.”
She laughed, it boiled up and feeling the humor was a relief.
“She named him Killer,” Celia said. “He is an ugly little thing isn’t he?”
“What did I miss?” Lex asked, running his hand over his head.
“Luna’s errand was picking up a chihuahua puppy for Gram. Luna said it was mean like Gram, and they were meant for each other.”
Lex froze for a moment and then the side of his mouth twitched.
“I don’t know why either of you are laughing,” Scarlett told both Lex and Gus. “Luna is looking out for both of you.”
“You,” she told Lex, “Are a dog man. But Gus is a cat man.”
Hobgoblins and Homework Page 10