Chapter Four

  NOAH

  Did she just greet me with hey good-looking? Noah stammered something unintelligible in response and waited for her follow-up, while he berated himself for missing an opportunity. Wait, did that mean he wanted to flirt?

  Her expression fell, and a frisson of guilt surfaced. She surely was joking around, and he took it too seriously, and maybe hurt her feelings.

  “How did it go with my dad?” he asked, choosing the path of ignoring the discomfort.

  Patty accepted the side-stepping. “It went well. I offered my ideas for a job and he said it was intriguing.”

  He wondered about specifics, but figured she’d share when she was ready. “You staying in town is definitely intriguing,” he said, echoing his father’s response. Again, a flash of pleasure surged through him at the idea of her staying in Wildcrest after graduation. That needed to stop. They were just friends.

  “Thank you.” Patty frowned and bit her lower lip. “I’m still concerned about Esther.”

  At Patty’s expression of concern, Noah’s worry about his mother heightened. “Did you see something new today?”

  She hesitated. “Not new, exactly, but there appeared to be an increase in the intensity of the chaos in your mother’s magical aura.”

  “An aura that she shouldn’t even have.”

  “That we wouldn’t expect her to have,” Patty gently corrected. “Shouldn’t is a strong word.”

  “Touché,” he said, inclining his head.

  “Certainly, since as far as we knew, she never had any magic, the presence of a magical aura is unexpected.” She placed her hands on her hips.

  He smothered a smile. She’d adopted that superhero stance as a kid and used it whenever she was thinking. Noah wondered if she was aware of that.

  “The intensity increase within her new aura concerns me, though. Especially since we don’t understand what any of this means.”

  “It might be a good thing?”

  “An increase in chaos is rarely a good thing, but, honestly, I just don’t know.” Patty nibbled on her lower lip again, and heat suffused his face. He hoped she missed it.

  Noah closed his eyes for a moment. Patty’s comment from earlier was accurate. They needed to call a family meeting to discuss his mother’s… condition? He didn’t know what to call it.

  “Noah?”

  His eyes popped back open. “Apologies. I was considering our options.”

  “And?”

  “You’re right—”

  “Of course,” she interrupted with a wink.

  He chuckled, then sobered. “We need to meet as a family to discuss what this might mean.”

  Patty reached up to place one hand on his arm where he leaned out his open window. “I think you should include your parents.”

  The feel of her fingers against his skin distracted him.

  “It’s about Esther, so she should be there,” she added in a stronger tone.

  Patty’s tone broke the spell of her distraction. “I’m not disagreeing with you.”

  “Oh, when you stayed quiet…”

  “I was distracted.” Both their gazes landed on his arm, where her hand still lingered.

  She snatched it back. “Ah, I see.”

  He wished she’d put her hand back on his arm.

  “You know,” Patty said, her voice taking on an unfamiliar slinky sound. “We could go out sometime.”

  “Like on a date?” he stammered. “I don’t know.”

  “I’m only here until the end of the month,” she backtracked.

  “So not a date?”

  She shook her head, appearing confused. “I’m not a big label person. But we could call it a summer fling.” She hooked a come-hither finger at him. “I hear those are popular.”

  He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, unable to find his voice.

  “It’s not a trick question,” she teased, leaning against the truck.

  A scent of vanilla wafted around him. That had been her signature scent since high school. Right then, it made him hungry. “I’m not interested in you,” he said instead.

  “Your aura would suggest otherwise.”

  “That’s unfair,” he grumbled, though her observing his aura uninvited surprised him. A smidge of irritation bubbled. That wasn’t like her to read auras without permission.

  “Life isn’t fair,” she responded cheerfully, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “And just so you know, I’m not trying to see your aura. Your family is very… visible today.”

  “Thanks for explaining.” He broke eye contact, now feeling bad about his unwarranted irritation. Of course, she wouldn’t purposefully read his aura without permission. “I’m still not having a fling with you.”

  “You’re so caught up in labels,” she joked, though he thought he heard the disappointment underneath.

  Or was he confusing her tone with his own disappointment that all she wanted was a fling?

  Chapter Five

  PATTY

  With Noah’s reaction, Patty wanted to eat her words. She was so convinced he’d say yes – his aura told her that he found her attractive – it hadn’t occurred to her that he wouldn’t. She tamped down the surge of disappointment and backpedaled.

  “No worries,” she sang out with false bravado. “It was just an impulsive question.”

  “I hope you know it isn’t—”

  “Personal? Of course, I know that,” she interrupted and waved off his explanation. Her hurt feelings could be dealt with later. This would only get more and more awkward if she didn’t cut it off. Now. She made a show of glancing at his watch, as if they both had more important places to be. “It was great seeing you, as always.” She turned to walk away, then stopped. “Though if you’d like me to come to the family meeting about Esther.” She bit her lower lip. “I’m not family—”

  This time, he cut her off. “You’re family,” he disagreed.

  Her pressured thoughts to flee the uncomfortable conversation settled at the finality with which he made the statement. “Thanks,” she whispered. “My job suggestion to your father was to assist him with his high priest duties, so that I can be the high priestess one day.”

  Noah’s jaw dropped open at the blurted statement.

  But, she found this time she didn’t regret the impromptu detail. The comfort she’d felt in the conversation led her to believe he would support the idea. Support her, if she was honest with herself.

  “That’s a wonderful idea,” he said. “You’d make a great high priestess when my father steps down.”

  A shy smile played at her lips. She’d hoped for his support, but actually receiving it – and immediately, no less – flooded her with warmth. “Thank you, Noah.”

  “Of course,” he said, and they shared a heated glance. “As for Mom, I’ll let you know what we schedule.” This time, he glanced at his watch. “I really do have to go, though.”

  “Have a good day,” she said with a half-wave, glad the awkwardness had abated somewhat. Albeit not fully.

  She walked to her vehicle, the sound of his truck starting and pulling away a mixed soundtrack to her walk of shame.

  Patty mentally smacked herself. It wasn’t a walk of shame. No need to exaggerate. She asked him out and he said no. They were both adults. It could disappoint her without embarrassing her.

  Driving back to her parents’ house in her bright red hatchback, she kept the windows lowered to enjoy the late summer breezes and sang along to the radio. She gave her brain time to process what she’d said, done, and learned that morning at the Wright house.

  An idea percolated to the top as she pulled into her parents’ driveway.

  A deep bark greeted her when she opened the door to the sprawling ranch-style home. She entered the foyer and kneeled down to love on the Great Dane before her.

  “Hey Max,” she said, running her fingers along his black face and down his tan body. He wiggled his butt in appreciation, before heading back the way he’d probably come. Maximillian, better known as Max, was her father’s familiar. Max was reticent about where in the family tree he resided, and Patty assumed it would remain one of life’s great mysteries.

  Sort of like her own familiar, she thought, as she headed toward her childhood bedroom. Like all the women in her family, she too had a less common familiar. No cats or dogs for any of them. “Hi Aveline,” she greeted the sandy brown desert owl whose ancestor spirit was so ancient the source seemed lost to time.

  “Welcome back,” Aveline hooted. The shy owl rarely left Patty’s room during the day, though enjoyed touring the desert surrounding Wildcrest at night.

  “Let me run something by you,” Patty said to the owl before laying back on the yellow bedspread of the unmade bed.

  “Proceed,” Aveline hooted.

  Patty caught her familiar up on the proposal to Elijah Wright and the continued chaotic magic in Esther’s aura. She swallowed, reminded herself that there was no reason to be embarrassed, and then shared how Noah shot down her invitation.

  “A summer fling?”

  “Is that disdain in your voice, Ave?”

  “That’s not really like you, and it’s definitely not like Noah.”

  A flush crept up Patty’s neck. “What was I thinking?”

  “You weren’t.”

  Patty chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth?”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” Patty admitted, staring at the ceiling, waiting for inspiration. Her prior idea continued percolating. She considered the connections between the personal and professional issues with her and the members of the Wright family. Perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone.

  Ugh, that’s a horrible saying. Patty shot a glance at her owl, glad the familiar couldn’t read her mind.

  She bolted up. “I think I have a plan.”

  “This isn’t anything harebrained like your sister’s plan was?”

  Patty’s older sister, Shelly, had played with magic to convince an ex-boyfriend to reunite with her, with the expected disastrous results. Although, in the end, Shelly figured out where her heart was, and she’d gotten her happily ever after.

  Noah’s face flashed in her mind, and Patty startled. She was interested in Noah, sure, but he wasn’t her happily ever after.

  Was he? They both prioritized family, valued professionalism, and enjoyed what life offered. Plus, they had a healthy dose of attraction between them.

  Why couldn’t he be her happily ever after?

  Oh, yeah, because that’s not what he wanted.

  “Patty? Your plan?” The owl interrupted Patty’s rapid thoughts.

  “Yes. My plan!” She inhaled. “There are several overlapping areas in my life right now,” she said both to Aveline and herself as she worked this out in her mind. “I want Noah to look at me like more than a little sister – and act on it,” she clarified. Relief surged that she could acknowledge to herself that she did, in fact, want him.

  She frowned. “I want to help Esther in whatever way I can, to help her understand and develop whatever type of magic she now has.”

  “Finally, I want Elijah to agree to my proposal to expand the online footprint of Wildcrest Witches International, with a long-term goal of me becoming the high priestess.”

  “Excellent summary,” Aveline hooted and Patty swore she saw laughter in the owl’s yellow eyes.

  “Thank you,” Patty said, accepting the praise at face value. She leapt from the bed and spun to face the owl, who perched on a large tree in the room’s corner.

  “So, this is my plan. I’ll offer to help Esther, which will hopefully actually help her. That help will show Elijah what I’d bring to the coven in an official capacity. Last but not least,” she said with a grin, “I’ll use the proximity to Noah to convince him we should at least go out on a date.”

  Aveline’s hooting response was unmistakably laughter this time, though the owl offered her support. “If anyone can do it, you can.”

  “All before I leave for my last semester of school at the end of the month. Easy peasy.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “First step. Figure out what the heck is going on with Esther and her unexpected magic.”

  Chapter Six

  NOAH

  Wildcrest Wizardry was one of his favorite places in town. Between the delectable scents from the coffee shop side of the business and the incredible array of herbs on the apothecary side, he loved that it represented the notion of helping. Each aisle of the apothecary focused on a different area of magic. Right now, he needed additional herbs to supplement his magical healing for his next house call.

  “Can I help you find anything, Noah?” Rebekah, the tall, blonde manager of the store, asked him. “Probably not,” she answered herself, “but I figured there’s no harm in asking. I suspect you know even better than I do where everything is.”

  He joined in her easy laughter. “I’m good, thank you.”

  “Tell me if you change your mind,” she said and then hurried to the front station to check out a customer.

  Noah frowned as he considered his options. He needed peppermint, ginger, and stinging nettle to address Bobby’s damaged lungs.

  The scent of vanilla reached him before he heard her voice.

  “Let’s turn that frown upside down,” Patty said in an unusual, lilting cadence.

  He placed the last of his selected herbs in the handheld cart and offered her a smirk. “How do you plan to do that?”

  “Depends on the source of the frown.”

  “It’s for a patient.”

  “Ah, a little natural magic booster.”

  “Precisely.” Although his magical inclination was to heal others, it wasn’t that cut and dried. With some illnesses and injuries, the healing was like a movie. He’d hover his hands over the problematic body part, and they’d get better.

  His younger brother, Ben, had asked him about the process when Ben’s ability to recognize what a sick person needed, whether physical or magical, first developed. Their parents had said that it wasn’t uncommon for siblings to develop similar magical abilities like that.

  Noah had explained that when he healed someone, his fingertips tingled. With practice, he’d learned that when those tingles turned painful, that was the Goddess telling him that his magic alone wasn’t sufficient to heal the person’s illness or injury.

  When his magic wasn’t sufficient, he turned to other magical enhancement, whether crystals, herbs, or intentional spell work. Except in the most advanced cases, between his own magic and the magical enhancements, he succeeded. In only a year, he had built up a thriving house call service. He enjoyed helping individuals who wouldn’t otherwise be able or willing to seek help outside their homes.

  Patty knew all of that, too. They’d had many conversations about his medical intentions during their tutoring sessions. He remembered her, as always, so supportive of his plans.

  “Do you expect it to be enough?” she asked now, and he understood she was curious, not questioning his abilities.

  “I believe so,” he replied. The patient’s illness had progressed further than Noah would have liked. He wished Bobby had contacted him sooner. But Noah had healed similar issues before, so he remained optimistic.

  She placed her hands on her hips.

  “What?” he asked, an unfamiliar emotion fluttering through him, feeling heavy in his chest. He wondered about its origins, before focusing on Patty instead. “Lay it on me.”

  “Can I come with you?”

  His eyebrows rose. “To see my patient?”

  “Yes.”

  He couldn’t imagine a reason she’d want to. “For what reason?”

  “I have an idea to help your mother, and it’ll give us the ride out to the house to discuss it.”

  The explanation, and shift from his patient to his mother, startled him. “How do you know the drive will be long enough?”

  “Educated guess. I don’t believe many of your clients are close to town.”

  “You’re not wrong,” he agreed, a thrill surging that she’d thought about his practice. “Is there a reason you can’t explain the idea to me now?” He asked for curiosity’s sake, since he’d already decided to say yes.

  She scuffed sandals on the floor, not meeting his eyes.

  That confirmed she had an ulterior motive.

  “I don’t want to hold you up,” she explained.

  A perfectly reasonable explanation. And yet. He knew her. There was something more. Could it have something to do with her asking him out before? He’d already told her no, so surely she wouldn’t ask again. He ignored that as a possible explanation.

  She watched him consider her request; he hoped his aura wasn’t flashing again.

  “I’ll text the patient, and if he’s not okay with you coming inside, you’ll have to wait in the car,” he warned her, his already baritone voice deepening.

  “Understood.”

  He pulled his phone from the front pocket of his jeans to text Bobby. Noah emphasized that Patty needed to talk to Noah during the drive, and could wait in the truck at the house. He read the response and then lifted his gaze, his brown eyes finding her hazel ones.

  “It must be your lucky day. He said it’s too hot for you to wait in the car, regardless of the existence of air conditioning.”

  “Aw, that’s sweet.” She touched his arm. “But I don’t want to be an imposition, or to make him feel uncomfortable.”

  He enjoyed the touch of her hand on his elbow for the briefest of moments before responding. “Believe me, if he didn’t want you there, he would have said no. This is not someone who has a hard time speaking his mind.”

  “As long as you’re sure.”

  “I am. Let’s do it.” He’d just try to figure out her ulterior motive while they drove.

  Chapter Seven

  PATTY

  The mapping software informed her she had twenty minutes to lay out her plan before they reached Noah’s patient’s home. That would be plenty of time.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10