CHAPTER ELEVEN

Tuesday

 

“Are you going to the meeting tonight?” Sydney asked.

We were in my shop the next day eating a quick lunch in the back room while Josie manned the floor. It had been busy—we hadn’t stopped since we unlocked the door at nine. I’d finally noticed around two that we hadn’t eaten anything and called over to the sushi place to save us.

Sydney had been working here for nearly a month now. I liked having her around. She brought a different energy to the shop—enthusiastic newbie. If anyone had told me she would ever be working at my store, I would’ve laughed. Syd was not very woo-woo. She hadn’t even been inside my store until recently, and we’d been friends ever since she’d moved to town two years ago. It wasn’t that she wasn’t supportive. More like she had trouble believing in anything she couldn’t see. But she’d recently started to come around after encountering some challenges in her own life.

And she was having trouble with her shop, Yesterday. Not the business itself—people loved the wide selection of vintage clothing and other wares she sold—but there were certain members of the town government who didn’t like that she had parked the tiny house that housed her business in Charlie Klein’s parking lot. Mostly they didn’t like that she wasn’t paying taxes thanks to this setup. So Charlie had gotten notice that he’d be paying the taxes if she didn’t move the house. While he’d vowed to help her fight it, Syd had focused most of her operations online and moved the shop to Grandma Abby’s driveway until she figured things out.

Which also gave me heartburn, because Goddess only knew what she might see hanging out over there.

Josie and I also needed more help because The Full Moon was busy. Which made me happy, but was also causing me some stress lately given all my new responsibilities. With Syd here it took some of the pressure off so I could deal with Fiona, and Blake, and everything else I seemed to have gotten myself into. Plus since she ran her own business she already knew that whole side of it, so all I really had to teach her about were the crystals.

I selected another piece of sushi and popped it in my mouth as I considered her question, trying to figure out what she was talking about. “Which meeting?” For a second I thought she meant my meeting later with Blake, but she couldn’t possibly have known about it. That was just my guilt at hiding my newfound powers from one of my best friends.

“The town meeting. Remember, it’s the special meeting to talk about next steps for the railroad bridge?” Syd ate the last veggie spring roll dripping with soy sauce, eyeing me while she chewed.

“Oh crap, that’s tonight.” I’d completely forgotten about it, and I did want to go. Partly because I cared about my town and partly because I was hoping to see Nicole St. James there, given her involvement in the project. Although I wasn’t sure if she was still involved since she had changed jobs, but it was worth a shot. I wanted to see if the crystals were working for her. She hadn’t been back to tell me and Ginny hadn’t spoken to her, so if there was a chance I could bump into her, all the better. “What time?”

“Starts at six thirty. I have a sitter for Presley. Josie is going too. It’s important, Vi.”

I knew it was important. We all knew it wasn’t over after the proposal had been shot down at referendum last month, but no one thought it would be back on the docket so fast. The people pushing for it were raising the alarm bells that the old tracks were getting more dangerous by the moment, and we needed to come together on a solution. It was especially important to Sydney and mirrored a contentious time in her own life. Her daughter Presley’s father had been involved in the fight against the bridge, and although he’d left town, I think part of her wanted to carry on with it.

My meeting with Blake wasn’t until eight, so I could probably make it work. “Yes, I’m coming,” I said.

“Thanks,” Syd said, her face crinkling into a relieved smile.

“Have you heard from Presley’s dad?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Aside from the checks, no.” She pasted on a smile, but I could see the disappointment behind it. “It’s okay. He told me not to expect much from him. The money is helping.”

“But it doesn’t take the place of a dad for Presley. I get it.”

Syd jerked her shoulder in a shrug. “Whatever. He’s probably not the best dad I could’ve picked for her.”

I didn’t know how to make her feel better, so I reached over and squeezed her hand. It made me think of my dad, who had fought so fiercely for what he believed to be right for me that it had changed the whole trajectory of my life. But still, I’d ended up exactly where he hadn’t wanted me—a practicing witch living two lives. Was it better or worse that he had simply delayed the whole thing? I wasn’t sure. I just had to believe that everything had worked out exactly as it was supposed to.

I still missed him terribly. My mother wouldn’t discuss him, and since Grandma Abby was gone, I had no one to talk to about him. I certainly had no one to help me unpack his decisions about renouncing his powers and trying to make sure mine stayed dormant. I knew he’d done it only to protect me, but it was still hard to understand given what I knew now.

Ask Blake. The thought came so unbidden into my mind, as if someone had whispered it in my ear, that it startled me. What would Blake know about my dad? He’d seemed to have known my grandma, but that didn’t surprise me—Grandma Abby had been active on the council until the day she died. My dad hadn’t been part of this world since my mother had left us twenty-seven years ago. Unlike my grandma Abby, who had also seemingly been living two lives, my dad wanted nothing to do with this side of his family and she had respected his wishes.

“What?” Syd asked.

“Hmm? Nothing. Just thinking.” I picked at the last couple pieces of sushi in my tray, then pushed them away. “I’ve gotta get back out front. I have a one-on-one consult in a few minutes.”

“Okay. I’ll finish this for you if you’re done.” Syd winked at me. Eating was her favorite thing.

“Help yourself.” I headed out into the shop, grabbing a selenite palm stone out of my little basket behind my counter for my pocket. I hoped it would clear out some of these thoughts so I could focus on the job at hand.