Witches Just Want to Have Fun

by Amanda M. Lee

  I sobered at mention of the cemetery. It wasn’t exactly a sore spot between Galen and me – he hadn’t erected the walls or enacted the curse that made those laid to rest inside get up and walk once darkness hit, after all – but it was something I had trouble accepting, so we didn’t talk much about it.

  “Galen wanted me to be aware of what was in the cemetery.” My tone turned decidedly chilly even though I knew Aurora wasn’t at fault for being curious. After all, I was the curious sort, too. I, Hadley Hunter, was known to stick my nose into other people’s business whenever the chance arose. The cemetery was something I was having trouble wrapping my head around, though. “My mother is in there.”

  Aurora sobered at the simple statement. “I know she is. I didn’t think about that when I brought it up. I’m sorry.” She seemed legitimately contrite. “Galen was showing you the cemetery because he didn’t want you to accidentally stumble across the zombies and see your mother without someone warning you that it was a possibility.”

  That was basically it in a nutshell. “He thought, for once, I should be ahead of the curve,” I supplied. “He wanted to make sure I had a chance to see her because … well, because I never got to meet her before all this. He also wanted to make me aware that the creatures in the cemetery are dangerous and I shouldn’t risk running around there after dark.”

  “They’re not creatures. They’re zombies.” Aurora was practical. “You can say the word.”

  I didn’t want to say the word. It made me feel like an idiot. I decided to change the subject, again. “So, there’s a festival this week, right?”

  Aurora blinked several times in rapid succession as she absorbed the shift in my demeanor. “Right,” she said finally. “For several days, the festival will mainly cater to residents and the few stragglers hanging around between jaunts off the island. After that, it will be a huge free-for-all when all the new visitors get involved. At that point you’ll wish you’d never moved to the island.”

  Hmm. That was interesting. “And why do you say that?”

  “Because festivals are loud, annoying and we have them all the time. I mean … all the time. I don’t think a month goes by without some sort of festival. They seem fun and entertaining at first, but they get old really fast, especially when you’re forced to constantly deal with drunken tourists.”

  I wasn’t an expert on Moonstone Bay – I’d lived here only a few weeks, after all – but something about that statement caught my interest. “Aren’t the tourists here always drunk? I mean, you guys have, like, two stoplights and eight tiki bars.”

  “You’re exaggerating. We have six tiki bars.”

  That was actually more than I’d counted my first day of touring the island. I’d seen a few more since then, but opted not to count because it gave me a headache. “Fine. You have six tiki bars. That only proves my point. The tourists here are always drunk. This is an island getaway and people go to islands so they can drink out of coconuts and imbibe before noon without getting the hairy eyeball from a boss. I don’t see why the festivals would make things worse.”

  “Oh, you’re so cute and shiny,” Aurora cooed, catching me off guard. “I forget that you’re not part of the regular gang and don’t know how things work. No matter. You’ll figure things out on your own soon enough. Everyone always does.”

  That sounded rather ominous. “So, you’re not going to tell me why festivals are so terrible?”

  Aurora merely shrugged as she stood and handed me her empty coffee mug. “Here’s the thing, I don’t want to taint your opinion about the island or what it has to offer because I’ve been warned repeatedly to keep my mouth shut.”

  That was news to me. “Who told you to shut your trap?”

  “Galen, and he didn’t use those exact words.” Aurora offered me a pretty smile. She really was quite striking, which made me wonder if she and Galen had had a thing before I landed on the island. She seemed his type. Wait … that was so not the point of the conversation right now. I had more important things to worry about.

  “What words did he use?” I was honestly curious. If Galen was telling people how to act around me, there had to be a reason. I didn’t know him all that well, but I recognized that fact fairly easily. “I mean … what exactly did he say?”

  If Aurora sensed danger lurking behind my reaction, she didn’t show it. She was incredibly nonchalant as she shrugged. “He said that he didn’t want anyone foisting his or her preconceived notions onto you. He wants you to discover what you like and don’t like about Moonstone Bay on your own.

  “I think he’s hoping that he’s the thing you like best,” she continued. “He didn’t come out and say it, but it’s written all over his face. He’s got a huge case of crush-itis.”

  It took me a moment to comprehend what she was saying. “You think he has a crush on me? That seems … ridiculous … since we’re dating.”

  “I agree.” Aurora beamed, clearly not caring if the expression irritated me. “I don’t see why he’s so up in arms about protecting you. He is, though, and I agreed not to complain and force you to my way of thinking when it comes to the island. He wants you to like what you legitimately like and hate what you legitimately hate … as long as the hate doesn’t extend to him.”

  “I don’t think he has to worry about that,” I said absently.

  Aurora barked out a laugh so loud and raucous it caused me to jolt. “I don’t think he does either. It really doesn’t matter, though. You’ll make up your own mind about the festival. Don’t let the rest of us steer your opinion.”

  “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

  “You do that.” Aurora pointed herself toward the beach. “I’m heading home. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  “It seems to turn out that way.” Mostly because she insisted on swimming naked in front of my lighthouse.

  “It certainly does,” Aurora agreed, offering up a half-wave. “I’ll see you soon. Toodles.”

  And just like that she was gone and I was left to ponder the upcoming festival. What odd new thing – or event – was Moonstone Bay about to introduce me to? It wasn’t really a matter of if it would happen, but rather when things would take a turn for the weird. I was resigned because it was inevitable.

  Seriously … now what?

  2

  Two

  I was bored at home after Aurora’s departure, so after showering and changing into simple cargo shorts and a tank top, I locked the lighthouse and headed to town. Moonstone Bay is an island, so the town representatives limit the number of vehicles allowed on the relatively small landmass. Only a few people are allowed to own motor vehicles – mostly farmers, construction workers, emergency personnel and shuttle drivers – and even though I found it strange at the start I was almost getting used to walking everywhere I needed to go.

  The busy downtown area wasn’t far from the lighthouse. I could easily make the trek in less than five minutes. My only problem with the constant walking was dealing with the heat and humidity, which was boiling hot and dripping wet before the noon hour set in.

  “I’m bored,” I announced as I took a seat at the counter of my friend Lilac Meadows’ rustic and cute bar.

  Lilac, who was twenty-three going on sixty if you believed the way she communicated with people, arched an eyebrow as she automatically filled a glass with iced tea and shoved it across the lacquered countertop. “Well, hello to you too.”

  I was instantly contrite. “Sorry. That wasn’t much of a greeting. How are you, Lilac? How is your day going?”

  Lilac, her frizzy flaxen hair reminding me of a bad eighties perm, merely shrugged in amusement. “I’m fine, Hadley. How are you?”

  “I’m bored.”

  “And we’re right back to where we started.” Lilac grinned as she plopped a lemon wedge in my iced tea and watched me slurp down a third of the glass. “You really need to start carrying a bottle of water with you when you walk around. We’ve been over this. If you carried wat
er, you wouldn’t be so thirsty when you get here.”

  “This place is five minutes from the lighthouse,” I reminded her. “I shouldn’t get dehydrated simply from walking for five minutes.”

  “Welcome to Moonstone Bay.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll try to remember to carry water with me. I forgot to put fresh bottles in the refrigerator last night. There’s nothing worse than warm water.”

  “I can think of a few things that are worse … like running into an electric eel shifter underwater and having to deal with the catastrophic hair ordeal that always accompanies that for the next month.”

  I pointedly shifted my eyes to Lilac’s hair. Her curls did seem to have a mind of their own of late. That might explain a few things. “Uh-huh.”

  “Stop staring at me like that.” Lilac snapped her fingers in my face to get my attention. “That is not what happened to me. It’s just the island humidity. When it’s at seventy percent I can deal. When it’s at ninety percent it’s as if the world is going to end. The last two weeks have been in the ninety-percent range.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Lilac was the first person on the island to offer her friendship, and I would be forever grateful to her for that fact alone. Learning the ropes on an island like Moonstone Bay – a place where zombies roam free in the cemetery and nobody cares but everyone is afraid of the Downtown Development Authority and the citations it might issue on a whim – was a tangled minefield of trouble. Lilac willingly helped me navigate that field. That made me like her and the mop resting on top of her head.

  “Well, I think the curls are nice,” I lied. “They give you a certain … .” I pinched my fingers together as I searched for the right word.

  “They make me look like Little Orphan Annie, except I have real eyes,” Lilac shot back. “I know I resemble a poodle. There’s no reason to pretend otherwise.”

  I balked. “You don’t look like a poodle.” Labradoodle was more like it. “I swear.”

  “I’m going to take you at your word and move on from this conversation,” Lilac noted. “You said you were bored when you came in. What do you plan to do about that?”

  That was a very good question and I wasn’t sure I had an answer. “I don’t know.” I held my palms out. “I’ve never been without a job for more than a week. I mean … never. Sure, they weren’t all great jobs, but I’m at a loss about what to do with my time.”

  “Do you want a job?”

  I’d been asking myself that for seven days straight. Once I was over my kidnapping and near murder, I’d had no choice but to think of the practical. “I don’t know. Technically May Potter left me enough money that I didn’t have to worry about working for the foreseeable future.

  “The lighthouse is paid for and I can cover the taxes for years,” I continued. “I have enough for groceries and I don’t need to spend a lot of money on clothes. I don’t have to work if I don’t want to work.”

  “So don’t work.” Lilac was blasé as she set about making piña coladas. “If I didn’t have to work, trust me, I wouldn’t work. I would turn myself into a lady of leisure and spend all my time reading trashy magazines on the beach.”

  “But don’t you think that would get old after a little bit?”

  “Not really. You obviously do, though.”

  I did. That was only one of my problems. “I’ve always had something to do. My father was a big proponent of me having a job so I valued the things I could buy. He didn’t want me to become jaded about money.”

  “I think money is the best thing to be jaded about.”

  “And I get that,” I said. “I just can’t shake the feeling that I should have a job. Aren’t I lazy if I don’t have a job?”

  Lilac widened her eyes when I finally admitted the source of my discomfort. “Wow. Lazy, huh? I wasn’t sure you’d get there. You’ve been beating around the bush for days regarding that subject.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m antsy.” I found it wasn’t that hard to tell Lilac the truth, and once I opened up I wanted to keep talking. “I think it would be easier for me to settle into a routine if I had a schedule to follow. Right now, I basically get up and drink coffee before coming here to drink iced tea. That can’t be healthy.”

  “You’re leaving out the part where you let Galen take you to a restaurant or bar and drink rum runners at night,” Lilac teased.

  I scorched her with a dark look. “You promised not to pry when it comes to Galen.”

  “I don’t believe I uttered a promise. I believe I said I’d try to do better.”

  “Is this you trying to do better?”

  “Trying but not succeeding.” Lilac’s smile was so wide it stretched across her entire face. “I think getting a job is probably a good thing even though I’d absolutely love it if I didn’t have to work. I could offer you a job here, but I don’t think our friendship would survive that.”

  I had no doubt she was right, and our friendship could not survive her being my boss. In fact, I wasn’t sure if our friendship could survive more than a handful of hours a day together. I decided to keep that to myself, though. “I’m not even sure what kind of jobs are available on Moonstone Bay.”

  “Oh, well, I think the job selections are kind of normal.” Lilac strolled to the end of the bar and handed the two women sitting there – who happened to be lost in their own little world as they bent their heads together and gossiped – glasses of iced tea before strolling back to me. “Basically there are always open waitress, cleaning and hospitality gigs. Can you do any of those things?”

  That had to be a trick question. “Can I be a maid or hostess? I think I can handle it.”

  Lilac wagged a finger close to my nose. “Being a waitress is harder than it looks.”

  Whoops. She’d misunderstood me. “Oh, I understand about that. I worked my way through college as a waitress so I could have enough money to party. My father insisted he wasn’t bankrolling my drinking habits.”

  Lilac stilled. “I thought you had an English degree.”

  “I do. It’s essentially the most worthless degree out there. Unless I somehow luck out and get a college teaching position – which I don’t want because I can’t stand dealing with young people of a certain age – then I’m stuck doing jobs that have nothing to do with my degree. I should’ve thought better before majoring in English. I mean … I ended up working in graphic design, for crying out loud.”

  “Huh.” Lilac looked mystified. “I didn’t even consider that. It makes sense, though.”

  “I’ve also worked as a secretary, a pizza delivery woman and a shoe saleswoman,” I added. “I’m what you would call ‘flexible’ when finding work.”

  “That actually might benefit you in Moonstone Bay,” Lilac noted. “I’m not sure who’s hiring, but I’ll keep my ear to the ground. If I were you, I’d give serious thought to what you really want to do with your time. You might be surprised what options are open to you on Moonstone Bay.”

  “Which options are you talking about?” A gravelly voice asked from behind me, causing me to jolt.

  I swiveled on my stool and widened my eyes when I saw Galen Blackwood, he of the ridiculously glossy dark hair and sinfully blue eyes, standing behind me. He had a small smile on his face, which was hard to focus on given his broad shoulders and overall package. “Hey,” I sputtered, choking a bit on my iced tea. “What are you doing here?”

  Galen’s mischievous grin was contagious. “Can’t I simply want to stop for some iced tea?”

  As if on cue, Lilac slapped a glass in his hand. “I had it ready for you and everything, big guy.”

  Galen snorted as I shot him a dubious look. “Or perhaps I noticed you walking downtown when I was driving through a few minutes ago and figured you were on your way here,” he corrected. “I had a break in my schedule, so I thought I’d spend a few minutes with my favorite bartender.” He winked at Lilac for emphasis.

  “Oh, isn’t he sweet as the
dickens?” Lilac drawled, rolling her eyes. “I almost want to believe those flirty words. Of course, only an idiot would think he’s not really here for you, Hadley, and I’m not an idiot.”

  My cheeks burned as I shifted to face forward while Galen took the open stool to my right. “So … you came to see me?”

  Galen chuckled, legitimately amused. “You make me laugh. I love it when you get all flustered. Usually you’re in the mood for fights and frolicking – yeah, I used the word ‘frolicking’ and I don’t even care – but occasionally I catch you off guard and you turn into a blushing mess.”

  Was he right? Did I turn into a blushing mess when he was around? That needed to stop, and soon. “I am not blushing. The lighting is simply off in here.”

  “If that’s your story.” Galen sipped his iced tea before focusing on Lilac. “What were you talking about when I came in? I wasn’t exaggerating about having only a few minutes. I have to run to the surfboard shop before lunch, so I can’t spend too much time gossiping.”

  “We weren’t talking about anything important,” I replied hurriedly.

  “We were talking about the possibility of Hadley getting a job,” Lilac answered, ignoring the dark look I shot in her direction. “She’s at a loss and bored. We were discussing what she’s qualified for, and it turns out she’s qualified to do quite a lot … or very little, depending on how you look at it.”

  I didn’t bother to hide my scowl. “Thank you so much for that.”

  Lilac was oblivious. “You’re welcome.”

  I risked a glance at Galen and found him smiling, his eyes patient and considering rather than full of teasing and mirth. “I just kind of want something to do with my day,” I said.

  “I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Galen supplied. “If you’re bored, a job might be good. Do you have an idea of what you want to do?”

  He was so pragmatic I could do nothing but shrug. “I’m just sort of thinking about it now.”

  “You have time to make a decision.” Galen tilted his head to the side when the women at the end of the bar started talking to one another in raised voices, narrowing his eyes for a beat. When they quieted down again, he focused on me. “We can talk about it on our date tonight. I can ask around and see who is hiring. You don’t have to make a decision right away, but maybe we can put together a list or something.”