Chapter 23
“Would you excuse us, Larry? I need to talk to Prudence, alone.”
Larry covered his mouth. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry. Very sorry,” he mumbled, as he hurried out the door.
I continued to stare at Alum. I could feel my mouth hanging open in shock, so I shut it. I didn’t like to ask what he meant by that, so I was hoping that Alum would tell me.
“This isn’t quite how I planned it, Prudence,” Alum said ruefully. “Larry and his big mouth! I suppose you want me to explain.”
I couldn’t find my voice, so I nodded.
“I’ll do this properly, bended knee and all, once I get the ring,” Alum said.
My heart leaped out of my chest. He said some more words, but I could hardly take it in. Was this going where I thought it was going?
I finally found my voice. “But I thought you had friend-zoned me,” I said.
Alum looked shocked. “Why would you think that?”
I couldn’t think straight, so I simply shrugged.
Alum gently took my shoulders and pulled me into a long, lingering kiss. He pulled me closer. As his hands softly enveloped my waist, my knees went weak. I slid my arms around his neck, noticing the firmness of his upper body muscles.
Finally, we broke apart. “I take it your answer is yes?” Alum said hopefully.
“You haven’t asked the question yet,” I teased him.
He pulled me closer. “I’ll ask the question when I have the ring.”
“And when you do that, the answer will be yes,” I said with a laugh.
My lips had just touched his once more when the door flew open for one more time that night. My three friends, Constance, Barbara, and Iris all stood there, all looking shocked at our embrace.
“It’s a wonder you got a man at your age. I thought you never would, you poor thing,” Iris said. “Good work, though.”
“Do you have a brother who’s single?” Barbara asked Alum. “I haven’t dated for ages.”
Constance pushed past everyone. “Mind if we have some wine? It’s all over town that several police vehicles rushed to your house, and we want to hear all about it. Oh no, what have I stepped in, again?”
My phone, now back in my pocket, buzzed. I pulled it out to read the text. My estranged daughter had chosen that moment to make contact again. Mom, can you put five hundred dollars in my account? It’s urgent.
Mary ran into the room and threw herself in front of Alum, requesting a belly rub. Possum and Lily hissed and ran out of the room.
I had weird friends and even weirder pets. My daughter was back in touch with me. I hoped the request for money was her way of reestablishing contact while saving face. Who would know? Real life wasn’t like The Brady Bunch. Time would tell. I once more had a successful career and could enjoy financial stability. And I had Alum. Yes, my life was crazy, but it was getting better.
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Miss Spelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 1)
Amelia Spelled has had a bad week. Her boyfriend dumps her when she inadvertently gives him food poisoning; her workplace, a telecommunications center, fires all their staff as they are outsourcing offshore, and she is evicted due to smoke damage resulting from her failed attempts at baking. Amelia thinks her luck has changed when she inherits her aunt’s store and beautiful Victorian house.
Yet has Amelia jumped out of the frying pan into the fire? The store is a cake store, and her aunt was a witch. To add to the mix, the house has secrets all of its own.
When a man is murdered in the cake store, will Amelia be able to cook up a way to solve the crime? Or will her spells prove as bad as her baking?
A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)
Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.
There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.
When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?
Or will this be the death of her business?
Note: This book is humorously irreverent in places, so please read only if you won’t be offended.
Series by Morgana Best.
The Kitchen Witch
1) Miss Spelled (on audio any day!)
2) Dizzy Spells
3) Sit for a Spell
4) Spelling Mistake
5) Ex-Spelled
6) The Halloween Spell
The Australian Witch
Set in 1930’s Australia.
These can be read in any order, and are about Amelia Spelled’s grandparents, Thelma and Wolff Spelled.
1) No Time to Witch (Short) (Currently available in anthology, Midnight Mysteries: 9 Cozy Tales)
2) Witch Christmas (Novella)
The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer
1) Christmas Spirit (Now on Audio.)
2) Ghost Hunter
3) There Must be a Happy Medium
Witch Woods Funeral Home
1) A Ghost of a Chance (Now on Audio.)
2) Nothing to Ghost About
3) Make the Ghost of It
And Morgana’s non-Witch Cozy mysteries:
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries
1) Sweet Revenge
2) The Sugar Hit
The Australian Amateur Sleuth
1) Live and Let Diet
2) Natural-Born Grillers
3) Dye Hard
4) The Prawn Identity
5) Any Given Sundae
Note: All Morgana’s books will soon be available as audio books.
#1 Best-selling Cozy Mystery author, Morgana Best, lives in a sunny beachside town in Australia. She is owned by one highly demanding, rescued cat, and two less demanding dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a rescued Dingo, as well as two rescued Dorper sheep, the ram, Herbert, and his wether friend, Bertie.
Morgana is a former college professor who now writes full time.
In her spare time, Morgana loves to read cozy mysteries and walk her dogs along the beach.