by Lucy March
Then I went back inside, took Desmond by the hand without a word, and led him upstairs to Liv’s guest bedroom.
Chapter 7
“Psst! Psst! Stacy!”
I started awake as my mother jostled my shoulder. She was still wearing her black dress from last night, the one Desmond had put her to bed in, and somehow, it didn’t have a single wrinkle. Her hair was pulled back tight in a bun, and her makeup was perfect.
The woman was a freak.
It took me a moment to realize I was still naked—all the good parts covered by the sheet, thank God—and then it took me another moment to process that Desmond was gone. I pulled the covers up to my neck and sat up.
“What do you want?” My pink satin polka-dotted maid of honor dress was lying in a lump on the floor. My eyes darted around instinctively for Desmond’s clothes; there was no sign of him at all. I relaxed. I didn’t care much what my mother thought of me, but old habits of hiding everything I did of which she might disapprove—which was pretty much everything—were hardwired into my DNA.
“I need more of that stuff,” she said, kneeling by the bed, desperation in her eyes. “I need another dose. Now. Give it.”
Great. I turned my mother into a magic junkie. “Is Liv awake?”
“Yes, everyone’s up, except for you. It’s past nine o’clock.”
“For fuck’s sake!” I fell back on the bed. “I’m self-employed, Widow. I don’t get up before noon unless there’s a national emergency or free pancakes.”
“Where’s your purse? Is it in your purse?” She scrambled across the room to the chair where my singed clutch had landed. She picked it up, taking a moment to visibly disapprove of the charred finger marks on the side. She rolled her eyes, flipped it open, and dumped the contents onto the dresser, giving no apparent heed to the clunk my very expensive phone made as she did. I took that time to grab my dress and slide it back on. By the time she turned around, eyes wide, I was decent again. I couldn’t find my underwear, but I’d deal with that later.
“Get your bony mitts off my stuff.” I went to the dresser, picked up my phone, which was still working no thanks to my mother, and swiped it on. No messages from Deidre Troudt, which I took as a good sign. I would drop by and see her later, try to sort this stuff out, but first, I was going to need coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
“Where’s the purple vial?” the Widow said from behind me.
I stuffed my things back in the purse and turned to look at her. “I threw it out.”
Her eyes lit, and her fingers went to her throat in horror. “You what?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was empty. I had one dose and I gave it to you.”
“Well, go home and make me more,” she demanded.
“My god,” I said. “It’s like it would literally kill you to say please.” I glanced down to see if my underwear was on the floor, and took its disappearance as some kind of judgment on my sleeping with Desmond last night.
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “Fine. Please.”
“No.” I flipped the sheets back and muttered to myself. “Huh. Oh, well.”
The Widow crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look imposing. “Stacy Imogen Easter.”
“What?” I rubbed my eyes.
She was staring daggers at me. “You will make me some more of that potion. Now. Please.”
I laughed, amused by her interpretation of manners. That always killed me. “Oh, right. No.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes narrowed in a way that would have frightened me to death when I was a kid. Every now and again, when she really wanted me to do something for her, she’d pull out that look hoping it would work again. It didn’t. I stepped past her and slipped my feet into my shoes.
“Look, Widow, I’m not giving you anything, ever again. Get over it.”
“But I need it! I was beautiful last night. Everyone said so. I glowed.”
“I know,” I said, and the memory of last night’s series of weirdnesses—glowing, bluebirds, fire—made my shoulders tense.
She tapped her fingers impatiently on the dresser. “I need more of that stuff. How fast can you make it for me?”
“Second verse, same as the first. I’m not making you anything. I’ve got bigger fish to fry today, Widow.”
I started toward the door, but her bony fingers grabbed my arm. She wasn’t strong enough to hold me against my will, but the shock of her cold touch stopped me anyway.
“Get your hands off me before you lose them,” I said darkly, meaning it. “No one touches me without an invitation, even you.”
She let me go, but closed the space between us. “What do you want? Money? I will give you money. But making your mother beg like this is a shameful, ugly thing, which makes you an ugly person. I just want you to know that.”
Like you’d ever let me forget. I shook my head and let out a bitter laugh. “You are the most unfathomable piece of work I’d ever met. And, lady, I used to work in a county library.”
I moved out the door past her, and she was tight on my heels. I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, where Tobias was cooking up pancakes and bacon. Liv and Desmond were laughing at the table, and when I entered, she raised an eyebrow at me. I gave a casual shrug and sat down.
“Good morning,” Liv said, eyes glinting with amusement. “Sleep well?”
“Yes, I did. Thanks.” I served myself a pancake while Desmond attended to my mother.
“It’s good to see you, Lillith. You look well this morning. How are you feeling?”
The Widow smoothed her hand over her hair and giggled like a little girl. “Just wonderful, thank you.”
Desmond smiled, but didn’t try to share an intimate look with me or anything, which was very much to his credit considering how intimate we’d been the night before. Although, now that I thought about it … intimate maybe wasn’t the right word for what we’d been. The lights had been off, all relevant parts functioned, and we both made it home and God bless his soul he didn’t try to cuddle afterward, but there was nothing intimate about it. At the moment, he was being great: casual, discreet, polite. Despite that, I found myself wishing Liv had the power to make people disappear. The last thing in the world I wanted to deal with now was what had happened with Desmond last night.
“Although I am a little embarrassed about last night,” the Widow continued. “I still honestly don’t know what happened.”
“You’re ninety-five pounds, you eat like a bird, and you drank two glasses of champagne,” I said around a bite of bacon. “You blacked out.”
“Stacy,” she hissed. “I know I raised you better than to talk with your mouth full.”
I took another bite. “Actually, no, you didn’t.”
“Well, this is certainly turning out to be a lively morning,” Desmond said, and Liv laughed.
“This is nothing,” Liv said. “You should have been there when we went shopping for prom dresses. Stacy almost strangled Lillith with a sash.”
The Widow huffed and rolled her eyes. “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.”
Liv and I both shook our heads, and Desmond smiled. Then Tobias appeared with a fresh plateful of pancakes for us.
“Tobias, you’re a god among men,” I said and forked one off the plate before it hit the table.
He looked at my mother. “Lillith? Do you want something to eat? Kitchen’s open. I can make whatever you like.”
“Oh, no, thank you,” she said. “I had a half a grapefruit earlier this morning.” And she put her hand on her stomach as if it were going to explode.
I reached for a third pancake. I didn’t really want another one, but I knew it would drive her crazy, and I wasn’t above pettiness at the moment. I was on edge. I needed to jettison my mother, get back to my car parked by the town square, send Desmond back where he came from, and then figure out what the hell was happening.
All while trying not to think about the fact that Leo was gone. Again.
“You
know, I have a pair of sweatpants that might not fall off you,” Liv said to me. “You’re welcome to them if you’d like. I’m sorry I forgot to get you anything for pajamas last night. By the time we came out from making the third bedroom, you were already in bed.” She blushed a bit and was putting obvious effort into pretending she didn’t know that I’d slept with Desmond. “Do you need fresh clothes?”
“No, thanks,” I said. “I’ve done the walk of shame in worse than this before.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Desmond said, “It was a lovely wedding,” and we all hopped on how lovely it was, clutching the life raft in a sea full of conversational sharks.
“Okay,” Tobias said, when he put the last pan in the sink. “Lillith, how about I give you a ride home?”
“Well…” Her posture got inexplicably stiffer, and she looked at me. “I was thinking that Stacy might…”
She eyed me; she was nowhere near giving up on this beauty potion thing. I took a deep breath and thought, It’s not worth the fight. It’s green tea. Just give it to her.
“I’d take the ride from Tobias,” I said, “because the walk from here to your house is gonna be hell on a hot day.”
She gave me a good, solid glare with a clear message—ugly, Stacy, just ugly—and then pushed up and slid her bony arm through Tobias’s elbow. He held the swinging kitchen door open for her and gave Liv a playful look before leaving. She watched him as he disappeared, a loving light in her eyes that usually made me feel sorry for her.
This morning, however, I wasn’t feeling sorry for her. I remembered the touch of Leo’s lips on my forehead from last night, and thought, Gone, and a rush of emotions hit me. Jealousy. Anger. Resentment. For ten years, I’d been perfectly happy without love, seeing it clearly for the field of disfiguring land mines that it was, and in three days, he’d come in and ruined everything. Now there I was, holding back tears because I was standing on the edge of a field full of guaranteed pain and devastation, heartbroken because I was never, ever going to step foot in it again.
Get it together, Easter.
“Are you okay?”
I felt Liv’s hand on my arm, and with a whoosh I left my field of land mines and returned to the kitchen with her and Desmond.
“Yeah,” I said, and rubbed my eyes. “This is just really early in the morning for me.”
“Oh, right,” she said, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she didn’t quite buy that excuse. Still, she let it go, because she’s Liv, and Liv is Awesome.
“So … do we have any theories on what happened last night?” She had an intake of breath and looked from me to Desmond, then back again, her eyes panicked. “I mean, not with you two, I know what happened … I mean, I didn’t mind…” She hid her face behind her hands and spoke through them. “I mean … the weird magic.”
I patted her on the arm. “It’s okay, baby. No. I don’t have any theories, yet. I need some time to think about it. I’ll figure it out.”
“I think I might go upstairs and locate a missing sock,” Desmond said, standing. “Leave you two girls to talk.”
He smiled at us both, making no special effort to snap up any kind of meaningful eye contact with me, which I appreciated, and then he disappeared, which I appreciated more.
“Okay, now seriously, how are you doing?” Liv said once the last of Desmond’s footsteps faded out up the stairs.
“I’m fine.”
“You slept with Desmond. You okay with that?”
I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the table. “No big deal.”
“What about Leo?”
I felt a stab in my chest, and released a thin breath. “He’s gone.”
“He left?” Liv sounded disappointed, which was weird, because she was the one who most wanted to duct-tape him naked to the belly of the first plane out of town.
I nodded. “Last night.”
“Stace…”
I looked up at her then. All that sympathy, all that empathy. Liv was a good woman, the best friend a girl could have, and I wanted nothing more than to get out of there, as fast as possible.
“I’m fine,” I said, forcing a smile. “Good riddance.”
Before Liv could challenge me, Desmond stepped back into the kitchen. “I found my sock.” He handed my singed clutch to me. “And I discovered an item or two of yours, which I took the liberty of putting back into what’s left of your handbag.”
My underwear. I smiled and took the clutch from him. “Yeah? Where’d you find ’em?”
“Ceiling fan,” he said delicately, then looked at Liv. “Thank you for your hospitality. I hope it wasn’t too much of an imposition.”
“Oh, no,” Liv said. “We have more space than we’ll ever use. This was my mother’s house. She left it to me and it’s too big, but I can’t bring myself to sell it, so…” She looked around, that wistful expression she got when she talked about her mother taking over her face. I wondered what that was like, having a mother you’d miss if she were gone.
Liv pulled out of it and smiled at Desmond. “Thank you for taking care of Mrs. Easter. It was really nice of you.”
“It was my pleasure.”
I snorted out a laugh and they both looked down at me.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s just like the Stanley Cup of politeness in here.”
Desmond gave me a casual, no-big-meaning smile. “I’m going to be late for an appointment I have this afternoon, and I rode to the wedding with you. Are you about ready to head out? Or, if you’d like, I can call a taxi to bring me to your place to retrieve my car.” He glanced around, then let out a stuttered laugh. “I’m sorry … does Nodaway Falls have a taxi service?”
“That’s cute. I’ll take you,” I said, pushing up from the table almost fast enough to knock it over. “I’ve gotta get going, too.”
Liv walked us to the door, gave me a hug, and made me promise to call her later, and then Desmond and I were out in the sunshine, walking through my town on a beautiful morning: past Peach and Nick’s house next door, with Nick’s stupid green pickup in the driveway; past Ginny Boyle, who waved and offered her good wishes for Nick and Peach from her porch where she sat drinking coffee, and would not wait for us to be out of earshot before making her round of calls about me still wearing my maid of honor dress as I shamelessly marched through town with last night’s date. Every step we took was one more step through my life that I was making with a man I barely knew, and all I could think of was escape.
“About last night…,” he began, and I held up one hand to stop him talking.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” I said, pulling out Speech Number One and keeping my eyes on the sidewalk before us. “I’m not that kind of girl. I don’t need to cuddle afterward, and I don’t need you to pretend you want to see me again, or say you’re gonna call. It was an itch. We scratched. You’re off the hook.”
“Oh.” There was a long silence while we walked, and then he said. “Well, this is awkward.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’m not playing games. I’m really good with just going our separate ways and remembering each other fondly.”
“No, I mean…” He paused for a moment and stopped at the corner just as we were about to hit the town square. I could see the Bug waiting for me, but now I had to stop and look at him and talk to him, because continuing to walk would be too rude, even for me.
“Actually,” he began, “I was hoping I might see you again, and now I’m not quite sure how to broach that subject. Could you perhaps clarify your fishing metaphor? Are you letting me off the hook for my benefit, or are you throwing me back for yours?”
Crap.
“I’m sorry. I’m a jerk. I just…” I closed my eyes and released a breath, trying to sort it all out in my head. I kept them closed and just talked, getting it all out as quickly as possible. “You’ve seen me naked. You’ve seen me cry. You ate breakfast with my mother. I need you for my business.” I opened my eyes. “In
about fifteen seconds, you’ve somehow connected to every area of my life. It’s too close. Nothing personal, but I don’t want anyone that close. Last night, I was…” I stopped, unable to finish the thought, because it led back to Leo, and I didn’t have the strength to think about him yet. “I had a lapse in judgment and you’re footing the bill for that, and I’m sorry.”
He stood there for a moment, just looking at me, and then smiled. “I understand completely.”
“Thank you.”
We started walking again, and I felt better with every step that brought us closer to the Bug. Soon, we’d be at my place and he’d be gone and I could go inside and then I’d be able to think. Figure out what the hell happened last night. Stare at my keychain fish and maybe, just maybe, process what had happened with—
I stopped where I was. Something was ticking in my brain. Something I’d seen. Something that didn’t quite compute.
“Ms. Easter!”
A girl’s voice called my name, and it threw me from my train of thought. I blinked and looked toward the corner of Zipser Lane, the street where Liv and Peach and Nick lived, and something connected in my head.
Nick’s truck was in the driveway.
Which meant that after dropping Nick and Peach at the airport, someone drove it back.
Goddamnit, Leo, I thought with equal parts anger and elation.
And that’s when I noticed a short, awkward red-headed girl heading toward me, crossing at Zipser Lane.
“Who is that?” Desmond asked.
“Um,” I said, trying to place her while my mind was still reeling around that damn truck. Then I focused, and remembered where I knew the kid from. Damnit. She seemed like a sweet kid, but telling her no again was not what I wanted to be doing right now. “It’s the checkout girl from Treacher’s IGA. Cleo. Chloe. Kelly. Something like that. Give me a minute, okay?”