I hung up the phone as Emma walked through the door. Part of me was glad that she was heading straight for the coffee instead of toward my desk. I wasn’t prepared to tell her all the garbage that had hit the fan all morning. Before Emma came to town, my PI business had been busy, but it hadn't been very profitable. It'd still been tight. Most of my success came after my marriage failed and my ex ended up with my sister. All I had were my friends and my business.
From the day Emma appeared back in Mystic Hollow, I’d been busier than ever. So busy that I’d offered Emma a partnership in my business when she started working with me. There was no way I could keep up with the demands of all the residents of our small town. There was one complication with having Karma as my partner. Trouble followed everywhere she went.
It was good for business but bad for my heartburn.
I grabbed some antacids from my desk drawer and munched on them, swallowing them down with a mouthful of coffee that was more creamer and sugar than coffee itself. I waited for Emma to cross the room and flop down in the chair in front of me before taking a deep breath. The best thing I could do here was tell her about the calls I’d received, and not mention how worried I was that this old Karma had returned to screw with her life.
“How was the rest of your night?” I asked.
She smiled the smile of someone in love. I remembered that smile. I’d had it for a long time. I had it when I'd made Roger breakfast every morning. I had it when I'd made him dinner every night. That smile had painted my face until he'd started pulling away. Toward the end, my nights had frequently been spent sitting at the dining room table, worrying about why he’d been out so late. When he got home, there was never a good answer.
I'd let that guy turn me into some wife from the fifties and a woman who hated herself. No matter how charming a man was now, he didn’t have a chance with me. I was my own person. Never again would I trust anyone not to shatter my heart.
My thoughts turned toward my sister, and ugh. Now my chest ached. If I thought being betrayed by my husband was bad, I’d raised Tiffany like a daughter. She was so much younger than me, and our parents’ kind of sucked. When she got together with Roger, I didn’t hear from her for years. If I ran into her on the street, she'd made it a point to make me feel old and ugly.
Whether I'd wanted it to or not, my love for my sister had died a long time ago too.
“Beth?”
I jerked and looked at Emma in confusion.
“I was telling you about Daniel moving in.”
Shaking my head, I swore at myself. Over the years I’d gotten good about not thinking about Roger, my sister, or my broken heart. For some reason, I'd been off these past couple of days. I didn’t know what had changed. There wasn’t a hurricane, a tornado, or some terrible event. What was going on with me?
“Sorry,” I said, flashing her a smile. The last thing Emma deserved was me thinking about my complicated feelings about love when she was getting the second chance she so rightfully deserved. “You guys are moving in together?”
“Yes, it’s official. I mean, he was practically already living with me, and he isn’t going to get rid of his lands or cabin or anything, but I’m so excited.”
Every time Emma talked about Daniel, she was amazing to watch. When she’d first come back to Mystic Hollow, it almost felt like she had to force herself to smile. Now, she had a glow that no amount of makeup or lotions could give a person. It illuminated her deep brown eyes and drew attention to the crinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth in the best possible way. I’d thought when she cut her black hair to chin length, it might not be the best look, but it fit her, making her look younger and more carefree all at the same time.
“You guys are such a good match,” I told her honestly.
“Thanks,” she said, and I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t ask about my life, but I was off the hook. She continued, “What do we have on today’s agenda?”
That refocused me on the problem at hand. “A lot, I’m afraid.” I took a deep breath. “The mother who thought her child was a changeling, Mia, called. The older woman who sold her the dreamcatcher stopped by her home. When she found out the dreamcatcher was destroyed, she got very angry and threatened to curse the mother. She had to use warding magic, but even then said the woman didn’t care. She just disappeared.”
Emma paled. Not that I blamed her. This woman was after her, the best we could tell. This wasn't good news.
“I wish that was all,” I continued. “The dwarves called. They saw that older woman around too. Several of them chased her away, but they’re wondering if they should worry. They described her as though she were stalking them. She stayed on the outskirts of their camp but returned several times.
Emma set her coffee down and ran her hand through her hair. “Do you think we should be worried?”
Of course, I did, but I didn’t want to tell her that because it wouldn’t do anyone any good to get her all bent out of shape. “Come on, we have a whole crew of older ladies. We can take down one of them.”
She didn’t look convinced. “I don’t understand what this ex-Karma is doing. What’s her game? How could any one of these evil acts lead to her getting my powers?”
She sat there for a minute, contemplating, but then leaped up, staring out of the window to the backyard. “She’s out there. I see her.” She ran out of the room.
I rushed after her as she threw open the back door. She cried out and pointed, so I continued behind her as we circled Deva’s garden and headed for the gate in the side yard. It was open ahead of us, and I might have caught movement on the other side, but I couldn’t be sure.
When we got to the front yard, I slammed into Emma’s back, then looked around in confusion. Shouldn’t we keep going? Wasn’t she right in front of us? I searched in all directions, but the old woman was nowhere to be seen.
“She’s gone,” Emma said, sounding defeated.
“Lucky for her,” I muttered, trying to appear confident. “When we catch her next time, she’ll regret it.”
I felt bad as Emma headed inside, but I stood for a minute longer, looking around and stretching out my senses. When I saw a bird on a branch nearby, I asked if it had seen anyone out here before us, but the bird had been focused on some seeds in our neighbor's yard. Pretty typical of small birds with small brains. Food was all they thought about most of the time.
“You okay?”
I spun around at the sound of the deep voice behind me. How he’d gotten so close without me sensing him was crazy, but there he stood.
Wade. The man who'd been looking at moving in next door to Emma, and easily the last person I wanted to see. Here was my greatest secret. One of the reasons I hadn't had a hard time staying single all this time was because I hadn't found any men attractive. For a long time, I’d thought that part of myself had broken.
Oh-ho, not so. The moment I saw Wade, it was like a horny truck had struck me so hard my knees had shaken. Any man was tall compared to my five-one frame, but this man was a tall drink of water. I had to look up to see his face, and the thoughts of that face over me in—Ahem.
I swallowed hard, desperate to get away from him, to lock up the desire that was burning inside of me and go back to the days before I met him. “I’m fine,” I said, my words curt.
He tilted his head, studying me. “Are you sure? I mean, you do look fine.” He flashed a sexy smile. “Also, like something might be wrong.”
The scent of his cologne drifted over to me, rugged, and yet, like the ocean on a stormy day, which was all kinds of pathetic. “Yes, I was looking for someone, but they were gone.”
To my surprise, he shifted closer. “I’m here. If you wanted to grab a cup of coffee or—?”
“I have coffee inside.” I took a step away from him, trying to calm my racing heart.
“It doesn’t have to be coffee, Beth." This time, his voice was gentle.
I loved and hated the way he said my name because it was so sexy it should’ve come with a warning label. “I didn’t realize you knew my name.”
“Your friend told me,” he answered smoothly.
“I guess I didn’t realize you remembered it,” I answered, trying to be just as smooth. "I don't know yours." Lies.
He shrugged. “Your name felt important, somehow.” He smiled again, this time almost shyly. “How about we have not-coffee together?”
I shook my head, debating running like the wind. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
His expression fell. “You’re married?”
An angry snort left me, and I regretted it, but it was too late. “The furthest thing from married.”
“Divorced?” he lifted a brow. “Who’d be dumb enough to divorce someone like you?”
Something in me snapped. “I don’t know, maybe a man who wanted his wife barefoot at the kitchen stove all day. A man that thought after having twins my figure should have stayed the same.” I actually grabbed at my belly fat as I said that. “A man who thought the sister I raised from the time she was born until she became an adult would be a better partner than me. Maybe someone like that. One thing I know for sure, I love running my business. I love prioritizing my friends. I love my freedom and my free time, and I love that I don’t have some man around to take my heart and shatter it into a million pieces. Maybe have some not-coffee with someone like that.” I shouted the last few words, then raced for our business and slammed the door behind me once I got inside.
Holy freaking crap. My legs shook. I hated myself. I hated that I'd unloaded all of my therapy fodder on a stranger. A handsome stranger. I prayed he didn’t become Emma’s neighbor, because if he did, I’d have to wear a hood every time I came to her house. What in the world had I done? Why, oh why, had I reacted to a handsome man like that? I was broken. Seriously, a mess.
The phone rang, nearly scaring me out of my skin, and I ignored my shaking legs long enough to run for it. Emma came out of the bathroom at the same time, looking like she was shaken to her core. I’d calm her down, I would, right after this call.
“Hello, this is Beth at Private Psych,” I greeted, trying, and failing, to sound chipper.
“Hello, Beth, we need Karma,” it was Nespos Bunnyhop, the leader of the gnomes.
“What’s going on?” I asked, grabbing a pen and paper from my desk.
“Our gnomes have started going missing again, but this time someone took all the children.”
I froze, then released a slow breath. “We’ll be there right away.”
When I set down my phone, I looked at Emma. “All the gnome children are gone.”