Leggings. They’re called leggings. But I was shaking my head, trying to look thoughtful, and he grinned widely.
“No? You’re sure?”
I looked at him and shrugged.
His grin changed to an evil glare. “Well I know I’ve seen the striped stockings, because I’m looking at them right now.” Reaching out he pulled up the cloth hanging from the counter and looked at me with triumph in his eyes. “How you can stand there and lie to my face like that, Missy, is beyond me. Her leg was sticking out the whole time.”
“Oh Rennie,” I moaned as she began to crawl out from under.
“I couldn’t help it,” she said pitifully, blowing her red hair out of her eyes. “There I was, cramped up like a snail in a shell. I had to move a little.”
“And now I’ve got you, my girl,” the man said pompously. That was when I noticed he had a clipboard holding papers covered with boxes and circles and lines of text, along with a big black pen he was obviously planning to use on it. “I have questions, mostly about the Mayor, who’s been hiding from me again. I won’t stand for that, you know. Everyone has to comply with the rule of law, including your husband.” He stabbed at his papers with his forefinger. “Yes, I have questions. And you’re going to answer them. Or suffer the consequences.”
I looked from him to Rennie and back again. I still didn’t know what this was all about and whether she was really in danger or just trying to avoid something uncomfortable. It was beginning to look like the latter.
“Do you want me to get a sheriff over here?” I asked her, thinking I’d go find Shane.
She looked at me hopefully, then hope faded. “No, never mind,” she said sadly “I guess I’d better get this over with.”
He glanced at his watch. “I’m considering taking points off for avoidance, you know,” he warned her. “The Council won’t be pleased.”
A look of horror came over Rennie’s face for just a moment. “No, no, we don’t want that,” she said hurriedly. “Let’s go over to the picnic table where we can sit down.”
“Yes,” he said, turning back to me. “And we can let this young lady get back to selling her free seeds.” Another snort of laughter, and he frowned, staring at me hard. “Wait a minute. Who is this?” He pulled out a list from the back of his pack of papers. “Name?”
I was about to say it was none of his business, but Rennie had turned on me.
“Her name is Haley Greco. She grew up here and she just came back to town. Haley, this is Inspector Cranston. From the Council.”
I gave her a look and she shrugged helplessly, then came closer and whispered, “He comes every month or so to spy on us. He’s mainly checking on our compliance with The Plan. And since I’m in charge of managing that, I get the full treatment every time.”
The Plan. Of course she was talking about the master plan the whole town was trying to live by, the one developed in reaction to big trouble in this little town. It seemed to be working quite well so far, but I had my own plan, and it had nothing to do with theirs.
“We’re going to have to make some changes in The Plan,” he was telling Rennie now. “The Council is not pleased with the way things are going. It’s all too flamboyant. Your methods draw too much attention. Some of the minor players are gaining too much leeway. Havens are meant to be places of safety, not of carnivals and play-acting. It’s absurd.”
“What?” Rennie looked pale. She was aghast. “Changes to The Plan?” she repeated, looking stricken. “You can’t change The Plan!”
But the Inspector was perusing his papers, seemingly looking for my name.
“Hmm. I don’t find her on The List.”
“What list?” I asked, thoroughly miffed by this time.
“The List.” They both looked at me like I should know instinctively what “The List” was.
“Never mind,” the bald man said. “I’ll deal with you as soon as I finish with this one.”
They both turned toward the picnic table and I hung back, melting into the crowd as soon as I could. There was no way I wanted to be added to “The List”. It was probably a way to check up on my compliance, and I didn’t want to be involved. I wasn’t fond of lists and plans, so I thought I might as well avoid it all if I could.
I hurried through the park and headed down Forsaken Street toward Joe’s Garage. Joe Pelligrini was stomping around, grumbling about something, and once I’d listened to his complaints, I realized he’d had a run in with that same inspector.
“The guy is going to ruin me,” Joe said angrily. “He wants no grease to show, ever. Especially on our uniforms. No grease? How does he think most cars work anyway? He says he’s going to make a report to the Council and recommend they pull my permit to operate if I don’t comply.” He growled and made a motion like he was wringing the inspector’s neck for him. “I could kill the guy.”
I knew he didn’t really mean it, but he was truly angry. I made sympathetic noises and finally got him to listen to my problems instead of going over his again. I’m pretty sure Joe is human and I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain having gremlins in my engine, but then I realized after all his years in this town, he must have seen this problem before. And sure enough, he had.
“No, no, sorry, no way,” he said, even backing away from me once I’d tried, very delicately, to tell him my car’s symptoms. “I don’t do gremlins,” he said, shaking his head.
The thing was, I totally believed him. He was a good guy, and handsome too, with his curly black hair and his bright blue eyes. So when he said, “I’m really sorry hon, but that kind of problem is beyond my capabilities,” I knew it wasn’t going to do any good to whine.
Bummer. But I refused to give up. In my mind’s eye, I could see Gran Ana taking a sip of Moroccan tea and smiling happily. “Got her,” she was probably thinking. “She’s caught in the web now. We’ll see how she deals with it.”
All this manipulation really got my goat and she knew it.
“Do you have any idea who in town might be able to help me?” I asked, beginning to feel just a little woe-be-gone.
He hesitated, glanced around at the mechanics working on nearby cars, then moved closer and said softly. “Do you know anyone who can do spells?”
I took a deep breath. So that was it. Even the humans were trying to get me to be a witch. I left the garage, sorely disappointed in Joe, but I hadn’t gotten far before I heard footsteps behind me. Turning, I found one of the mechanics running to catch me. He was a young guy named Billy with floppy blond surfer hair and a wide grin. I’d noticed him eyeing me before.
“Here, Miss,” he said with a quick smile. “You dropped this.”
He handed me a business card, then turned and headed back before I could stop him. I looked at the card.
It had a picture of a slimy creature who looked very much like the one in my engine. The card said, “Got Gremlins?” and then listed the name and phone number for, “Brick Tambe, Gremlin Wrangler-Call for our rates.”
This was all too much. Life in a haven town was beginning to try my patience. I needed ice cream.
Chapter 3
The sad truth was, there was no decent ice cream parlor in Moonhaven. I’d actually researched what it would take to start one up for awhile. On the surface, it seemed so much simpler to scoop ice cream into cones than to learn all the intricacies of baking a decent croissant roll, or anything else for that matter. Baking was an art and a skill all rolled up into one. Also, with ice cream parlors, you didn’t have to get up at 5 am to start warming the ovens and punching the dough.
But I quickly learned there was much more to it than I’d thought and I was pretty happy once I’d settled on the café with simple breakfast rolls and croissant sandwiches. Plus I skated the danger of gaining about fifty pounds a week with all that tempting ice cream at my disposal.
Ah, ice cream. I could live on ice cream.
My only recourse at the moment was to stop in at Grounds for Taste, the local coffee
bar, and order a so-called iced cream cappuccino.
“It’s really a glorified milk shake with espresso flavoring, you know,” my cute little friend and barista, Tammy told me sotto voce as she poured it into a tall glass for me. This week her hair was jet black and styled like Gina Lollobrigida in Trapeze.
“I’m getting a Vespa,” she told me, eyes shining with joy, once I’d brought up the Italian connection. “Just wait! You’re going to see me tooling around town on my own Italian scooter. So cool!”
I laughed and turned to find a place to sit. And that’s when I saw Shane. He was sitting in the back, facing toward the front, leaning across his table and talking with quiet intensity to the man sitting opposite him. The energy crackled between them. I could see it like a comic book drawing. Electric shocks.
Kapow!
I didn’t know the man he was with. He was large, but in a sleek, muscular way, tall but in proportion, handsome in a sneering fashion, like a villain in a Victorian play. His lush swath of dark hair fell over his forehead, complimenting his Van Dyke beard. I disliked him on sight.
And then he smiled at Shane, and suddenly I saw the charm in the man. That gave me a start. How could I have been so wrong? He looked like a great guy. Shane was laughing at whatever he’d said, and the two of them looked like old Army buddies or something. No more “Kapow!”
I smiled to myself and took a seat across the room. I didn’t want to interfere with their reunion, if that was what it was.
I took a few sips of my delicious concoction and sighed, feeling goodness and relaxation flowing through me again. And then my gaze fell upon an announcement pinned up to the bulletin board, which mostly served to alert customers to entertainment possibilities in our little town. There before my eyes was an ad for the Wildflower Festival, and a list of the business sponsors of the weekend festivities. “Haley’s Sandwich Shop” was right at the top of the list.
What? I didn’t remember signing up for that. I didn’t remember signing up for anything. I didn’t even remember calling my place “Haley’s Sandwich Shop”. Because I never had. It was Café Greco.
“Rennie!” I muttered warningly through gritted teeth. I took another long sip of cappuccino but it didn’t calm me like I’d hoped. Who knew what tasks Rennie had signed me up for and then forgotten to tell me about?
I looked around the room and caught Shane’s gaze just as he looked around the room as well. We stared at each other for a moment. I wouldn’t say that sparks were flying, but there was a jolt that was pretty exhilarating. Then he made a face and turned back to his friend.
I turned back to my icy drink and savored the sense of Shane’s handsome maleness for a moment. He looked so good in that deputy sheriff’s uniform. Too bad we were so diametrically opposed to each other in so many ways. It would have been nice to be able to enjoy time with him. Instead, we mostly argued. How could we help it? Me, supposed to be supernatural, him, supposed to be hunter. That was never going to work out well.
I was finishing my lovely beverage when I looked out across the street at the crowd in the park and saw a flash of neon green. Rennie! She was running along the edge of the park, running like something was chasing her—again! I took my last sip, being a little too noisy about it but not caring much, and headed for the door. I had a bone or two to pick with that girl.
By the time I got over to the park, she was nowhere in sight. I spent a few minutes searching, then realized I had no idea what direction she’d taken after I saw her, so gave up and wandered through the area, admiring all the colorful booths. Things were humming. There was a dog show going on in one corner of the park. Ordinary people, ordinary dogs, but putting them through their paces in a way that had onlookers cheering. I watched for a few minutes, thinking I should enter Toto the next time they did something like this. I could just imagine how happy he’d be, bouncing from one challenge to another with people watching and clapping. That puppy did like an audience.
I left the dog show and headed down the produce aisle-basically the same farmers and hobby growers who filled the weekly farmer’s market with all manner of fruits and vegetables. Then I came to a lone, empty booth with the sign, “Haley’s Sandwiches” painted in an amateur fashion. It looked sad as all get-out, shelves empty, no one paying any attention. I bit my lip and moaned.
“Rennie!” I said aloud this time, looking around to see if she was nearby. Not happening.
But I did see a familiar face. There was Joe, my mechanic. My gaze met his and I began to raise my hand in greeting, only to have him give me a frightened look and take off between two booths, completely disappearing from sight.
That seemed odd. Why would he feel the need to avoid me like that? All I’d ever done that troubled him was ask about getting a gremlin out of my engine. Would that give the average car mechanic fits? Before I had time to figure it out, a couple of young women stopped in front of my booth and bent over the counter, looking for food.
“Hey, if they are going to serve sandwiches, they should have started by now,” one girl complained to the other. “It’s almost lunch time.”
I slunk away, hoping they didn’t notice me. At the same time, I realized I’d been gone too long from my responsibilities. Just because I’d hired someone to help me didn’t mean I could play hooky all day. Though it was tempting.
I stopped a moment to look at my café as I approached. It certainly looked different from the place I’d driven up to a few weeks before. It was cheerful now. Welcoming. Clean.
And Krissy was taking to the work as though she’d been doing it for years. And she probably had. Walking in, I was overwhelmed by the spicy scents that filled the air. If this was what the average customer encountered, how did they ever tear themselves away? My stomach was growling and I’d just had a milk shake….er, an ice cream cappuccino. I took a look at the product filling my display counter and I sighed happily. Not only cinnamon rolls, but peanut butter cookies and snicker doodles and a couple of frosted cakes.
“Krissy,” I said when I found her in the kitchen. “I’m speechless.”
She flushed and looked pleased. “I’m glad you approve. I wasn’t sure if I should go ahead and do all this, but it seemed like it needed to be done, and …” She shrugged.
I’m no slouch as a baker, especially after all the lessons the woman Gran Ana had hired was through with me. But this was extraordinary. And delicious, if the cookie I sampled was an example of the rest.
“Ohhh,” I moaned, finishing it and looking for more. “Fresh baked perfection.” I looked at her and narrowed my eyes. “What are your sisters doing today?” I asked her. “Do you suppose they would want to come and help us out? I didn’t realize it but I just found out I’m supposed to be manning a booth in the Festival.”
“A food booth?”
I nodded. “Sandwiches, in fact.”
She gasped. “Oh no. That takes so much prep.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. It was just too much. I was going to have to give up on the whole idea. It seemed a shame. If only Rennie had told me from the beginning, having a booth in the park would have been a great marketing project. Too bad. I shrugged, about to abandon the idea.
But Krissy was taking off her apron.
“Hold on,” she said, suddenly very business-like. “I’ll have them both over here in no time.” She grabbed her cell phone and gave me a questioning look. “But it would be good to have a nice strong man to help carry everything over. How about if I call Lenny Cruz?”
“Lenny Cruz?” I squinted at her. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”
She grinned. “Maybe not. But I have no doubt he remembers you. I’ll call him.”
I sighed happily. This just might happen after all. Wow. I was so glad I’d hired Krissy. So far, she was golden.
Two hours later we were selling bakery goods and croissant sandwiches. They were flying out of the booth like hotcakes. Krissy was back at the café, baking up a storm, while Luanne and Molly were in
charge of sales at the booth, and Lenny was carrying supplies back and forth. I was the manager, and I was feeling pretty smug about how well things were going.
Luanne was an older, more tired-looking version of Krissy, while their little sister Molly was an adorable teenager, blond hair in ringlets, bright blue eyes, wearing a cute pink jump suit that made her look like she belonged in a circus act. Maybe with tigers. Although for now, she would have to make do with Toto, who immediately adored her and was ready to climb tall mountains if she wanted him to.
Best of all, she certainly brightened up the booth with her cheerful chatter.
“This is such a fun job,” she said right from the beginning. “I get to see all my friends walk by and then I get to snack on cookies. Perfect! But Haley, is this like a real job? I mean, when I actually go to apply for one, can I use this as experience? What do you think? Or would that be kind of like cheating? I mean, if I try to get a job at Victoria’s Secret, can I put this down as a reference?”
Luanne and I both whirled on her at the same time.
“You will not get a job at Victoria’s Secret!” we said in unison.
She looked shocked. “Why not? I was talking to Maisy Ricker, you know, she manages that lingerie store on Neimark Street, and she said I should try for one of their model jobs. She said I’d be perfect. She said…”
Luanne and I exchanged a look of horror and Luanne immediately sent her on an errand. “We need some bottled water supplies,” she told her, sending her on her way. “And don’t forget to pick up some cups, just in case.” Molly waved and Luanne looked at me and sighed.
“This is what it’s like trying to raise a teenager in this day and age,” she said, shaking her head and looking about ten years older than the age I knew she had to be. “Especially one as beautiful as that girl. How am I going to keep her protected until she’s old enough to understand consequences?”
I smiled at her sympathetically. I was only glad it wasn’t my problem. I had enough of my own. For instance—Shane. Once Molly got back with the water, I looked up and saw him standing a booth length away, watching me. When he caught my eye, he gestured for me to join him. We were at a quiet interlude in the rush, so I told Luanne I had to talk to him and left the other two alone. I figured they could handle it by now.
That Old Witch Magic (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 2) Page 3