The carpeted stairs muffled my steps as I walked back down to ask where the keys were for the bedrooms, knowing that my mom must not have heard me coming. I could hear the hushed whispers all the way from the stairs, Gran’s hearing wasn’t what it used to be. Unfortunately mine wasn’t very good either. But I knew the conversation that was happening behind the closed doors. It was the same one I had heard over and over again since Nick’s disappearance. Same rules as always, don’t mention him, surround her with happy activities, but don’t be pushy. To me it all felt the same, smothered. I couldn’t wait for my mom to let me go, allow me to try to make it again on my own. At some point I had to accept that he was gone.
Instead of going in the kitchen I decided to avoid them and let my mom give Gran her speech. I knew it would make her feel better even though it made me feel like a child. Sometimes parents just need to feel needed. I took my purse and started walking. I didn’t know where I would end up but I needed to investigate my new town. See if there truly was anything for me here.
The day grew muggy around me and I watched as a taller guy in dark jeans and a short sleeve dark green top walked across the street in front of me. His shoulders were hunched and he continued to walk about ten feet in front of me. I followed him, no idea why, but I had nowhere else to go. We walked in silence for about ten minutes, turning corners and dodging cars while crossing the street. I had to find out where he was going, there was something so unique and mysterious about him. When he turned a corner at a fabric shop I lost sight of him. I turned around to go back to Gran’s, but when I turned I walked right into a guy matching the description of the guy I was just following.
“Ooo sorry!” How embarrassing. When I looked up I unintentionally sucked in a deep breath. His handsome features were overwhelming. I had never seen someone so beautiful in such a raw way. I watched his beautiful gray eyes hidden in the shadows of dark brown hair. He had a little stubble on his cheeks and chin, but he didn’t look grungy. It worked for him.
He looked at me closely taking in my jeans and long tank. “Why were ya following me?”
Oh my God, he had an Irish accent. I was in trouble. It took me an incredibly long time to realize he asked me a question. Shit. “Ummm, I wasn’t really meaning to, it’s just I don’t know the town very well and you seemed to know where you were going.”
He studied me closely and I watched his eyes as they fell upon my necklace, a pentagram Gran had given me as a child. “Nice necklace,” he commented.
“Thanks,” I said, touching it.
“What’s yer name lass?” He had a half smile on his face.
“Paige, and you are?”
“Ultan. Yer new around here? Ya said ya didn’t know where ya were goin’.”
“Yeah well I’m staying with my grandmother. Taking care of her and helping around the house.”
“Ahh I see. Well do ya know how to get back home then?”
“Actually, no,” I said, turning around on the sidewalk.
“Well, good luck with that Paige. I guess I’ll see ya around.”
“Sure, see ya. Hey, wait! How about some directions?”
I heard him laugh as he walked away. “Sometimes just being where ya are is enough lass.”
I felt a flutter in my chest. It wasn’t something I had felt in a long time. Watching as he swaggered away, I found myself mesmerized by his smile and almost cocky attitude.
Ultan
I walked away from her. My bear pacing and clawing attempting to break free. I had never felt so out of control.
What the hell was going on with me? With him? I wanted to follow that sweet ass wherever it was going, but I knew if I had stayed and talked to her just a moment longer, I would lose focus. And shifting into a bear in the middle of Salem was not something I could do. The witch trials here, certainly weren’t over. Bears had only been here for a few decades, but people talked. Things were noticed here more than other places. Sometimes it made me miss home.
But there were hardly any shifters in Europe, America was the place to be. The place to find a mate. As I thought more about the dark beauty the worse I felt in the pit of my stomach. I could never have her, there was too much at stake.
I only had one job. And it wasn’t to get into her pants, no matter how much my bear and I wanted to. I looked over my shoulder to find her in the crowd, but I lost sight of her. My bear growled in disgust that I couldn’t keep track of her. He was right, I would have to keep a closer eye on her. For more than one reason.
Paige
I continued to search the street for something familiar, maybe something I could remember from my childhood. I didn’t want to call Gran for directions. She and my mom didn’t even know I had left. I looked across the street and struck gold. There on the corner was a small gallery, maybe what I had been looking for the whole time. It was like fate. I’d always been lucky, weird things had happened to me my entire life and yet I’d always come out on top. Some people would say I had a guardian angel, but I just thought good things come to those who wait.
Time to take a step in the right direction, I thought. I crossed the cobblestone street and entered a small gallery with a modern silver door, pausing just for a moment to look to at the paintings in the window. There was a fabulous self-portrait with a picture of the artist sitting next to it. She was a stunning blonde and it said her name was Joy. Just Joy, very Madonna style. I liked it.
A tiny silver bell chimed on the door as I opened it. I attempted to shut it quietly behind me as I saw the artist describing her work near the back of the gallery. My heels clicked on the hardwood floor, but no one seemed to notice my presence as they were so involved in her storytelling. She described the landscape, it was abstract and I could only make out a few trees. Not really my type of art, I could tell she was inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. I, unfortunately, wasn’t really inspired by anyone. It was always things that I saw that I painted. Nothing came directly out of my head. They were all real world objects, or people. People I loved, people like Nick. I sighed, pushing his beautiful blue eyes from my thoughts. I needed to focus right now. I crept quietly towards the crowd listening to Joy reminisce. She was describing a creek in the picture. I could tell the strong blue squares were supposed to represent the moving water.
“We were sitting on the edge of this creek,” she said, “and there was this little turtle on the log. I thought about how he had a story that deserved to be told. The smallest black circle in the middle of the blue rectangles represents the turtle. This painting is for him and all the other small creatures that no one thinks about.” Whoa, this girl was one of those hippie artists. They look at the small things in life and see the biggest pictures. I was impressed with her dedication to her craft. By looking closer at the image I could tell she had some real natural talent. I had taken enough classes to know what could be taught and what couldn’t. “Lines could be taught,” my professors would say, “but the passion must come from you.”
People clapped as Joy smiled and nodded at them. “Thank you, thank you,” she said, looking tranquil and beautiful, as she met with a few of her admirers. Shaking their hands and making connections, she looked very professional and I realized she really knew what she was doing. I noticed a few of her admirers making their way to the counter, obviously to buy her work. Either she had a really good group here, or she was a really good salesperson, but either way, Joy wasn’t going home empty-handed today. I approached her with my hand outstretched, wondering if a little of her good fortune would rub off on me.
“That was an excellent story,” I said. “It’s always interesting to me to hear other artists’ points of view.”
“Ahh, you’re an artist?” She smiled widely as she shook my hand. It wasn’t a fake smile like “oh, this is my competition” it was more of a “hey, maybe we can be friends” look.
“Yeah I paint a little, nothing spectacular. I went to school for it, but then…,” I stopped myself. I still wasn’t quite sure how to e
xplain to people that my boyfriend disappeared and I kind of lost myself.
“But then you’re an artist,” she continued. “And as artists we do whatever our hearts desire. Did you finish your schooling?” She sounded generally interested. I wasn’t used to this. In New York everyone was an artist or musician. So no one really cared about what you did or who you wanted to become, even if they asked. But Joy really seemed to wonder, maybe I would be the focus for her next piece.
“I’m still working on it. Life sort of got in the way. I haven’t done much in a while and I’m certainly not on display in any galleries.” I looked at my shoes. Acknowledging my own defeat was hard to do, even though I knew it was true.
“Why don’t you show your stuff here?” She asked it like it was the simplest thing in the world. That anyone could just throw themselves into a gallery.
“Well I was kind of thinking about it. Do you know who the owner is?” I was hoping it wasn’t some old hippie who wouldn’t get my modern take on realism.
“Well, you’re looking at her.”
My mouth dropped. No way, this girl couldn’t be any older than I was! How could she own her own gallery already?
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack, I bought this place last year.” She threw her hands out as she gestured around her. The honest pride showed on her face. “It was a dump when I got it, but I think we’ve made it into something pretty special since then.”
“I’ll admit I’m impressed. But you’re so young, how’d you do it?”
“That’s a bit of a secret, the whole town is wondering how I’ve done this, so no offense but I can’t really tell you. You’ll just have to believe what everyone else does… it was magic.” She smiled broadly at her own joke, as puns about witchcraft were pretty popular in Salem. “I’m Joy by the way and you are…”
“I’m Paige, I just moved here from outside New York City.”
“Really? Very hip.”
I nodded. “So I guess then I should ask you, are there any openings for artists? Or how about any openings in general? I think I’m going to be here awhile.”
“Actually I’m looking for a new salesperson, are you interested? If you do a good job, and after a couple weeks, when we have an opening on the wall, I’ll show your stuff. Sound like a deal?”
“Definitely and thank you for the job, I really need one. Though I don’t know how you would need another salesperson. You can obviously sell your stuff well.”
“That’s true. I can sell my own stuff, but there are a lot of things in here that don’t belong to me and I guess I just don’t have the charm when it comes to them.” I was surprised with her honesty and how brilliant she was as a businesswoman. To look at her, with the long blonde hair and striking blue eyes, I don’t think you would realize how intelligent she really was.
“Alright, perfect, when can I start?” I hoped she would say soon. I just didn’t think I could hang out with Gran all day every day for too long.
“How about tomorrow, around ten in the morning? We have a new buyer coming in and I could use the extra hand.”
“Sounds great! I’ll see you then. Oh and Joy, can you give me some directions home? It seems I’ve gotten myself a bit turned around.”
“In this town, there are no wrong turns, just different paths,” she said with a sigh. She smiled as she wrote down directions back to the house on Elm.
When I arrived back at the house, I explained to my mom that I had already found a job and I intended on staying for the summer. After I told them all about meeting Joy, Gran chimed in.
“That Joy, she is a lovely girl. She’s doing such wonderful things for the town! That building she bought and renovated was such an eyesore before but now it’s one of the most happening spots in Salem. Some really think she puts a little bit of a spell over her clients.”
I rolled my eyes at her witchy humor. I guess that was something I was going to have to get used to.
My mom looked more relaxed, maybe even happier too, now that I’d found a job. It was the only thing she wanted me to do back home, one of the many things I refused to do in my dark state.
“Oh Paige I’m so proud of you! Already putting your stamp on this place, I think this’ll be a perfect fit for you. Right Mom?” She looked at my grandmother with that strong look in her eyes, both Gran and I knew there was no saying no to her.
“You are precisely right Gwen. I think she’ll fit in fine around here.”
We waved goodbye to my mother from the front porch. I knew I would have to call her later and explain that Gran had not been completely honest with how healthy she was, or was not. There was still the whole upstairs thing to contend with. I decided it would be best to discuss it with Gran first and get her side of the story. Maybe there was a weird superstitious reason that she didn’t want to go up there anymore. She was always doing things like that and I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, before ratting her out to Mom.
I turned to look at her. We were almost the same height so she really couldn’t get away from me as I put my hands on her shoulders. She knew I was about to get serious.
“Are we going to talk about the upstairs now?” As always she knew what was going to happen right before you did it.
“Yes Gran, we are. Why aren’t you going up there anymore? And why did you tell me to go up there and pick a room if all the doors are locked?”
She turned and walked back into the house. I followed her as she answered, “All the doors aren’t locked. I’m sure of it. Which doors did you try?” She looked at me like I was a silly little girl who didn’t follow directions.
“The first few I guess. They’re not open, I just assumed the rest were also locked.”
“Well darling perhaps I didn’t want you to get into all of the bedrooms. I haven’t used some of those bedrooms in years! It’s too much hassle to clean them and take care of them when you’re not using them.” Valid point, I thought to myself. “Some of the rooms don’t even have furniture in them anymore Paige.”
“But that doesn’t explain all the dust up there. Are you going up there at all?”
“From time to time, yes. But I will admit that I don’t go up the stairs as much as I used to.” She averted her eyes from my gaze, like a child getting caught doing something wrong.
“Gran where are you sleeping? And be honest, I don’t want to have to tell Mom on you.”
“So then don’t!” She looked back at me with fierceness in her eyes. “I sleep on the couch sometimes, it’s better for my back and I fall asleep watching my television shows. Is that really so wrong?”
“No, Gran, it’s fine, I just can’t have you lying to me. I don’t know what it’s like to live with you just as much as you don’t know what it’s like to live with me. If there are things that you’re doing, I need to know about them, so I can worry,” she narrowed her eyes once more, so I quickly added, “or so I know I don’t have to. Does that make sense to you? We need some type of deal here to get Mom off of both our backs.”
“All right I’ll make a deal with you Paige. My terms, you don’t tell your mother what I’m doing, where I’m sleeping, or what I’m eating. Sound fair?”
“Sounds fair to me. Now my terms, I get to do what I want while I’m here, no babysitting. And no mention of Nick or anything that has to do with the past nine months. I need a new start Gran. Please don’t let Mom and Dad’s views of how I’ve been effect how you treat me. Also, you’ve got to take your meds.”
She extended her hand to me with a small smile playing on her lips, “Deal.”
I took her hand and shook it, “Deal.” We were partners in crime.
4
Standing in the foyer, Gran showed me where she kept the keys for the upstairs bedrooms. They were in a small side table located next to the grandfather clock. She said if I ever needed anything to ask her before I took them. I guess old ladies still had secrets too. She also said there was plenty of furniture in the othe
r rooms upstairs in case I wanted to use any of it.
We went upstairs to the fourth bedroom, the only door I hadn’t tried and she opened it with ease. “See Paige? I told you it was open.”
I shrugged and walked in to see a perfectly clean room. There wasn't much in it, just an old stuffed chair and a small twin bed, but it was enough for me. There was a mirror hanging on the closet door. I knew I could keep my things in there, however, I wished I had a desk to put all my painting things on. Gran was once again reading my mind as she turned to me and said, “There's the desk in the bedroom next door. It was just too heavy for me to pick up, but you can put it in here if you’d like. I'm going to go downstairs and make some dinner. You make yourself at home alright?”
I smiled at her, this was the first time I felt like I had my own place in months. After taking some time off from school, I had to give up my apartment, and living with my parents hadn’t been exactly ideal. Always on top of me, telling me what to do, but I knew Gran wouldn't be like that. She would give me my own space, something I desperately needed.
As she turned to leave I stopped her. “Gran? I think this is really going to work out, you know. I'm really excited about living here now, even if it is only for the summer.”
She turned back to me and smiled with a twinkle in her eye, “For now.” She shuffled her way back down the hallway towards the stairs.
I had only started to unpack when I realized that I'd also need the desk for my laptop. I plugged it in and grabbed the keys that Gran had left on the bed and went to the bedroom next door. After the door creaked open it was clear to see that this was the bedroom that had inherited all the extra furniture. There was a desk stacked on two other desks, chairs leaning up against each other and three beds in this room alone. I knew my grandmother had a lot of stuff, but this was kind of ridiculous. She could sell a lot of this at a small furniture store. Instead, they were sitting here gathering dust and not doing anyone any good. I grabbed the desk closest to the door. It was pretty light so it wasn't bad carrying it to my new bedroom. I also found a couple chairs and grabbed those as well, one for my desk and, hopefully, one for guests. I didn't think people my age would want to hang out downstairs in the floral decorated rooms, especially since they smelled like an old lady.
The Salem Shifters: Complete Series Books 1-3 Page 3