Emma
Mystic Hollow was the perfect little town, and as I drove down the coast, windows rolled down, I felt another wave of anger at my ex. I should’ve never left this town. The salty water, the white beaches, even the woods, they were all a part of me. I had all of my best memories in this place.
It’d never stopped feeling like home.
But he hadn’t wanted to move here. So, we didn’t. I resented him for that, but I resented myself even more. Because with each day that had passed since the Day of Strangeness, I’d started to realize how many times I’d given into Rick.
I’d given in and given in until I was living a life I wasn’t happy in. And that was just as much on me as it was on him.
I shifted my shoulder in the brace, and took the next one-handed curve in the road slowly. The urgent care doctors had said I’d probably bruised my bones, but they’d fixed the dislocated shoulder, so it wasn’t nearly as painful as before. Not that you’d know it from the gnarly bruise that had spread over my painfully white skin. Still, I was hurting as I came to this last stretch of the drive. A couple days in a car was already hard on my bum, back, and neck. The shoulder just added a whole other fun element to being crammed into a car all night.
Slowing down even more, I reached the road with all of the beautiful beach houses spread out, facing the ocean. If I stayed on this path, I’d come to the town of Mystic Hollow, and if I kept going, I’d find woods in every direction. This place was isolated.
Which was exactly what I needed.
I turned another curve and saw the spot where the road broke off. One way led to the quiet street with beach houses, and the other went into town. I took the quiet road, watching the ocean waves between the houses and tilting my face up to feel the sunlight on it. My gaze pulled from the ocean, and I looked ahead, waiting to catch sight of our house. But when it came into view, I was a little surprised. It was in rougher shape than I remembered.
Pulling into the driveway, I killed the engine and climbed out. Outside, the scent of the ocean was even stronger, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore was like the sweetest music. Muscles I didn’t know were clenched relaxed, and I walked slowly to the porch.
My brother rose from one of the two rocking chairs, and I froze. Was he taller than I remembered? Henry was always so tall and so thin. His dark hair, the same almost-black brown shade as my own, was still left long, like when he was a boy. And yet, he’d filled out a little. He even had some softness around his stomach.
I smiled. “Henry!”
He grinned and walked out to meet me. When we reached each other, he awkwardly leaned in and gave me a loose hug before he pulled back. “Welcome home.”
“It looks the same,” I said.
He shrugged.
“Want to help me bring my bags in?”
He nodded, and we went to the car and started unloading it. “What happened to your arm?”
“Just a car accident.”
He stood to his full height, loaded with my bags, and I closed the door. We went back up the path, climbed the patio stairs, and headed inside. The big living room, filled with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, made me catch my breath. I wandered to the windows and pressed a hand to the glass, staring out at the wild waters. How many times had I laid by these windows and read as a child? How many times did I sit out on that beach and let the waves wash over me?
“Do you want to go in your old room or mom’s and dad’s?”
I stiffened and looked back at him. “You’re not in the master?”
He shook his head.
“I guess—I guess their room.”
He nodded and took off down the hall.
I followed after him, through the big open kitchen, and passed my old bedroom, the bathroom we shared, and his room, before coming to the last room. The door was open, but I entered hesitantly. After my parents had died, we’d stayed in this house. After a time, I’d redone this room, erasing most of the memories that hurt to remember, but still it felt weird to be in here. He set the bags down on the bed and turned back to me.
“My girlfriend and I have plans to play War Guild online.”
I grinned. “So things are still going well with you and Alice?”
He nodded. “She’s my girlfriend.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m fine. You go have fun.”
He left, not looking back, and I couldn’t help but smile. He and Alice had been dating for ten years. She still lived with her parents. He still lived here. They both just liked their space, according to him, and they were both happy with things exactly the way they were. It was kind of strange to me. Everything about their relationship was unconventional. They just did what made them happy, and yet, I was the one getting a divorce.
Maybe this time around I should just try to be happy too.
I slipped my phone from my pocket and sent Travis a quick text letting him know I’d made it to Mystic Hollow without any issues. He might have only just started college, but he had an old soul, and ever since Rick’s cheating had been outed, he’d worried about me like he was the mom instead of me.
After a few minutes, I got a thumbs up back.
So articulate.
Touching my mother’s locket, I tried not to think about the toads in my garden, the clothes tossed behind a fast food restaurant not far from my house, or the car that I’d parked in his spot in his new apartment complex; or at least in the spot I thought was his. It wasn’t like I murdered them. It wasn’t like I did anything.
But then again, I thought I turned them into toads, so who knew what I’d really done?
I tossed the dusty sheets and blankets in the wash, unpacked, and went to get a snack. Every piece of food in the fridge was labeled with Henry’s name, all still on his half of the fridge, just like it had been when it was the two of us living together. I grinned and decided that it’d be better just to head to the store.
Well, it would have been if I wasn’t exhausted from driving most of the day with a braced shoulder.
Take-out it was. The store could wait until tomorrow. It wasn’t like I needed breakfast to survive, and the take-out would get me through lunch if I managed to sleep in.
Now the big question. Pizza or burgers?
That may have been the big question, but the real question was whether or not I’d be able to stay awake long enough to actually eat it. I hadn’t realized how late it was or how tired I was.
Outside once more, I took a deep breath of the late morning air, letting the salty scent fill my lungs before I drove the relaxing path to the closest store in town. There were only a few spots out front, but I managed to catch someone backing out. I turned on my blinker and waited, but when they pulled out, another car swooped in and took the spot.
My mouth dropped open. I unrolled my other window and shouted, “I was waiting for that spot!”
A lady with a bad perm turned around and grinned. “You don’t own a parking spot.”
When she whirled away from me, I glared and narrowed my eyes.
Suddenly, a loud sound, followed by three more big pops, made me jump. The woman turned back around, and we both stared at her four flat tires. Her jaw dropped. My jaw dropped. I stepped on the gas and decided to head for the other store in town.
I was shaking a little when I reached the store a few minutes later and parked. Tires pop all the time. Right? It wasn’t because I was glaring at her. It wasn’t anything I did. No one could possibly blame me for it.
Grabbing my purse, I awkwardly put it over one shoulder and headed inside. Pushing the darn cart ended up being harder than I thought as I tried to shop and do it one-handed. As I tried to push it unevenly through the people leaving, I ran into one person, who cast me a dirty look, and then another. When I turned to apologize to the second person, the front of my cart hit a pile of cans, and suddenly they were raining down on the ground like gunfire going off.
When the last can rolled and stopped in front of my cart, I felt every eye in the place on me. Wincing, cheeks burning hot, I started trying to pick up the cans. Which was another thing that was surprisingly hard to do one-handed.
“You need some help?”
The man’s voice was deep and filled with amusement. Even before I looked up I was preparing myself for someone hot, but when my eyes met his deep green eyes, I wasn’t ready for what I saw. Since becoming single, I’d found that most of the men I saw out and about were either way too young for me, happily married, or looked like they were my ex. But this man? He was handsome, especially with his auburn hair that had grey peppered at his temples, and a slight scruff of beard with the same grey peppered in it. He was probably my age, but he didn’t have the same signs of flab that I had at my arms and belly, the flab I couldn’t seem to get rid of. Instead, he had big arms and the kind of hard chest and trim waist that made my mouth water.
“You must be married.”
The second the words left my lips, I winced and looked down at the cans, continuing to put them flat on their bottom, in a sad pile.
I heard him laugh, and he had the sexiest laugh I’d ever heard. “Actually, no.”
And then he knelt down beside me and started to add to my stack. Our hands brushed once, and I knew I had to be imagining the electricity that seemed to course between us.
“I’m a widower,” he said. “Nearly ten years now.”
Oh, damn. But I couldn’t help but wish Rick had died. Was that too mean of me?
Meh, I didn’t care even if it was. He was a dick.
“I’m Daniel,” he said. “Daniel Arthur. I’d shake your hand but you only seem to have one to use at the moment.”
I laughed and looked at him again. “Oh, I know you. You went to Mystic Hollow High, right?”
He grinned and picked up four cans in one hand with ease.
Big hands, big heart. Yeah. Heart. That was the expression.
“I did. Graduated in, ah.” He grinned guiltily. “I’d rather not say.”
I snorted. “I know how that feels. I’m Emma. Emma Pierce. I used to be Emma Foxx, before I got married.”
“You’re married?” he asked, and I might’ve imagined the shock and disappointment in his voice.
Why was I so stupid? Man, I sucked at being single.
“Sort of?”
Daniel grabbed the last few cans and I tried to rise as gracefully as possible. Not one foot at a time, grasping the side of the buggy like I wanted to. When I was a teenager, I could stand up from sitting cross-legged on the floor without uncrossing my legs. I could just stand. Just like that.
But oh, no. Not now. “Sort of, as in I’m in the middle of a divorce. To a toad.”
I swallowed a panicked laugh cause I was literally married to a toad. I thought.
This time, I glanced at him through my lashes but couldn't read anything from his expression. I’d definitely imagined him being disappointed that I was married. This wasn’t one of those perfect moments in movies where I meet the stud I was always supposed to be with. This was real life, and he was just being nice to a woman with an arm in a sling. That was it.
“Let me push that for you,” Daniel offered.
I nodded, and we started through the store together. It took a surprising amount of effort not to look at him, so I focused on everything I knew about him from long ago. Old memories from high school came pouring back like no time at all had passed. And there was Daniel in the heart of so many memories. Cute Daniel, who had no idea I even existed.
Now that I recognized him, it made sense that I thought he was hot. I’d had a massive unrequited crush on him in high school. “Thank you. That’s so kind.” He picked an aisle and I grabbed all sorts of things, knowing my brother’s tics. I wouldn’t be able to use any of the food he had in the house. “So, what else have you been up to since high school?” I asked as I grabbed a package of flour.
“Well, I was the sheriff of Mystic Hollow until my wife died, then I retired. I help with the youth programs in town now.”
“That’s so nice. I mean, not the part about your wife dying, but the other stuff,” I said, wanting to smack myself upside the head for putting my foot in my mouth again, even though I genuinely meant it. Early retirement, though. We were hardly at a retiring age, and if his wife had died a decade before, he would’ve been in his thirties.
“I still work part time.” He looked at the cereal, then selected a sugary brand and put it in the child-basket at the front of the cart. “Help out where I can.”
There was a story there, but he was helping me push my buggy so I didn’t pry. “How about you?” he asked.
“Um, I’m getting a divorce, so I came back home for the moment to escape the stress of it. That’s about all, at the moment. I helped run my husband’s company and turn it into a success, so I may look for something in management? I’m not sure.”
His eyes almost seemed to twinkle under the fluorescent lights. “Well, I have no doubt you’ll figure it out. You always had a good head on your shoulders.”
I stiffened. Did he remember me? There was no way. He was captain of the football team, and I was learning to knit with my friends on the weekends, watching only romance movies.
His phone beeped, and he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at it.
“Problem?” I asked.
His gaze met mine. “Just something I need to take care of.”
“Well, I can manage my cart now, as long as I stay away from all the giant piles of cans.”
He laughed. “You sure?”
I nodded.
He grinned and grabbed his cereal, then hesitated. “You don’t need me to grab anything heavy for you before I go?”
I couldn’t take my gaze off of his teeth. They were perfectly white, and the front one had the tiniest chip in it. “No,” I said dreamily. “I’m good, but thank you so much.”
He nodded at me again. “It was good running into you. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He walked toward the registers since we’d reached the front of the aisle. Since I wasn’t finished, I went on around to the next aisle. As I moved down it, I looked back to find him standing at the register but staring at me.
I quickened my steps to get out of sight.
Holy hot flash. I wasn’t in menopause yet, but I was having a hot flash right now.
Geez. Daniel Arthur was everything Rick wasn’t. Maybe I was crazy, but having an almost random guy help me without needing to be asked felt like a treat. Rick had always been like a child I had to care for. Constantly needing attention. Whining that he couldn’t eat if I didn’t cook. Whining when he didn’t like what I did cook.
Man, why had I put up with it?
I thought of Daniel again. I bet he was never like that with his wife. He seemed like the kind of man who genuinely loved other people more than himself.
Or maybe I was just romanticizing the first man I’d felt anything for in years. That was probably it.
I grabbed some snacks off the shelf and willed myself not to think of Daniel again. Right now my job was to pull myself and my life together again, not lust after guys I didn’t even know. My twenties and thirties were long gone. Forty-year-old me would not make the same mistakes as before.
Still, I smiled when I thought of Daniel.
Emma
An employee pushed the cart out to my car and loaded the bags. If only I could’ve taken him home with me to do the same, but Mystic Hollow was way too small to have grocery delivery. We were lucky to have two grocery stores.
As I pulled out of the parking lot, my car beeped at me. I looked down and the needle for the gas gauge was perilously close to the edge of the red line. Dang it. Of course I needed gas, but for some reason, it was the last thing I wanted to do in life. Getting out of the car. Pumping. Making awkward conversation with the person who inevitably pulled up on the other side of the pump. Smelling like gas for hours afterward. I wanted nothing to do with it. At least not right now.
Adulting was irritating sometimes. Scratch that. All the time.
I pulled into the gas station in town near my old high school, which was also on the way home. It hadn’t changed a bit since I was last here. There were even teenagers still hanging out on the wall to one side of the building with big sodas and skateboards. But now, instead of there being open lots on both sides, there was a little shopping center to the right that I instantly liked. It consisted of a collection of little stores with dark faux-thatched roofs, with robin’s egg blue painted walls, which only looked even brighter when combined with the white shutters and white doors. It had the same cozy feel as most of the places here. The only difference was that these stores had been built in the last ten years. I was glad whoever designed them had kept the small town feel to them. None of them were even over a single story in height. Nothing to obscure the skyline.
One of the stores was a coffee shop with a big sign that said Cafe Mama. Just the sight of the place had my mouth watering. If I needed anything in this world, it was coffee. I jittered up and down on my toes so much as I pumped the gas that I probably looked like some kind of weirdo, then I quickly moved the car and parked in front of the coffee shop.
As soon as I walked in the door, the scent of roasted coffee and sweet treats hit me, along with the fact that I saw someone I knew. Not too surprising for a town this small, but what was surprising was that she was one of the only people I was unbelievably happy to be running into, even if it meant delaying my coffee addiction.
I froze, not wanting to interrupt as she helped a woman with a walker get her coffee and situate it in a special carrying case that hooked onto the front bar of her walker before helping her sit in one of the plush, overstuffed armchairs. I stood there like I’d been cemented to the spot and let my gaze run over her. Beth was as easily recognizable now as she had been then. She was just under five feet tall, which meant pretty much everyone in town towered over her. Her blonde hair had been left long, and it was just as thick and luxurious as it had been in high school, something I had always envied and did all over again the moment I saw her. She had the same curvy body, and the same style. She wore light wash jeans and a white flowy top with embroidered flowers on it. The only thing that was really different about her were the lines on her face and the bold shade of pink lipstick.
Staring at her was like stepping back into time. Did she have the same sweet personality she used to, or had time warped that as well?
“Beth?”
She had just straightened from helping the older woman sit when her gaze fell on me and her eyes widened. I could tell she was looking at me the same way I’d looked at her as she stared from my feet slowly up to my face. It was hard not to squirm. Not to wonder if she was thinking how much thinner I had been back then, or how I hadn’t needed a special bra to keep my boobs looking decently perky. And could she tell my hair was dyed instead of natural now.
When her face lit up, some of the tension eased inside of me. “Emma! I didn’t know you were visiting.”
I was ashamed of how long it had been since I came home to visit. My brother had driven out to see me a few times, but it had been too many years since I came home. Still, it was no excuse for not keeping in touch with the people who had mattered to me the most.
I forced a smile. How do you tell people that you have nowhere else to go? That you’ve moved back into your parents place because your husband was a cheating asshole and might now be a toad? “Yeah, I decided spur of the moment to come for an extended stay.”
She walked away from the door and pulled me in for a hug. “Well, come have a cup of coffee.”
Even in high school, I’d loved my coffee. So, we walked through the cafe together, even though she already had a cup. I ordered their biggest size and tried not to to tap my fingers while I watched her pour the sweet liquid of life. Then I paid the cashier, gave her a tip, and we headed outside.
“Do you still own the detective agency?” I asked, hoping I was remembering correctly.
She nodded. “Just two shops down. Have time for a sit down?”
I only had a few cold things in my groceries and it was a fairly cool day. They could wait. The worst I’d get was some melted ice cream, and even that was iffy. “Sure. Let’s catch up.”
We passed a shop full of what looked like a tea store, lots of jars of leaves on the shelves and some fancy-schmancy tea pots in the window, then came to stop in front of a building with the words, “Private Psych,” on the front door. There were big picture windows that looked out on the parking lot, the sidewalk lined by trees, and the main city road. She unlocked the door and we stepped into the strangest building I’d ever been in. The front had a sitting area with comfortable, worn-looking couches that were a cream color, a coffee table that was all dark wood and glass, matching end tables, and lamps with stained glass enclosures that were made up of different animals. After the neat sitting area, there were shelves covering the walls. Most were filled with books, especially toward the top and bottom, but there was also a mouse cage on one of the middle shelves, and a lamp sitting over a cage with a lizard or gecko or something that reminded me of those car insurance commercials. The back wall had more books, but also cat climbing trees that went from floor to ceiling with cat-sized walkways between them, where several cats snoozed. There was a big desk covered in papers, and near it an open bird platform with something that looked like a crow sleeping.
And yet, as crazy as the room was, it kind of fit Beth’s personality perfectly.
Trailing my hands over the dark velvet-like fur of a tabby cat snoozing in a ray of sunshine, I settled into one of Beth’s oversized chairs in front of her desk and sipped my coffee.
We didn’t have a chance to really start talking when the soft chime over her door started tinkling. A woman barged in carrying a bright pink smoothie, and slammed the door behind her. The cat that had just been sleeping so peacefully jumped up and hissed before streaking out of the room to somewhere past beaded curtains in the back.
“You were supposed to prove he’s a cheating bastard!” she yelled.
Beth took a deep breath and stood before walking toward the woman. “April, what is this? I did. I got the information you requested.”
“I talked to my husband and he denied everything. You made it all up.”
Beth looked at the woman like she was totally nuts. “April, I gave you pictures. There was no doubt that your husband was a cheater.”
“You’re a fraud, Beth Ari! A fraud and a shyster!”
Beth shrugged. “It’s not my fault if you don’t want to believe the truth.”
The woman froze and her chin rose. “You’re just angry because Roger left you. Trying to ruin everyone else’s relationships because yours didn’t work. Oh, he had so many promises. Didn’t he? But we all knew he was with her the whole time. It seems you can figure out any secret, except the secrets in your own house, huh?”
Beth’s normally warm toned skin went absolutely pale as all the blood seemed to drain from her face. The worst part was that she didn’t say a word, which was completely unlike her.
The woman grinned in a way that said she knew her words had hit their mark before she spun on her heel and headed for the door.
Rage filled me. Even if none of what the woman said was true, which I seriously doubted, it was a cruel thing to say. Beth was one of the kindest people I’d ever met. She didn’t deserve to be hurt like that.
I eyed the woman’s back, and said loudly enough for just Beth and I to hear, “Sounds like she deserves a big dose of Karma.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the woman tripped on thin air. The top of her smoothie popped open and the pink sludge crashed against her chest and poured all over her front.
A snort erupted from my mouth before I could control myself. She turned, like she was covered in blood instead of smoothie, her mouth hanging open like a fish. She made a little sound like a dog’s squeaky toy.
“Well! Aren’t you two going to do anything?” Her face turned pinker than her spilled smoothie.
Unable to help myself, I shrugged. “Must have been those invisible ninjas.”
I couldn’t have stopped the grin that covered my face even if I wanted to, so I embraced it and rose, then snagged one single tissue out of the box on Beth’s desk. I walked toward her, but instead of stopping and offering her the tissue, insult though it would be, I pulled the door open and held it for her.
Her mouth finally snapped closed. “I hope you both go to hell!” She stormed toward the door I was holding open, chunks of smoothie dripping off her chest and landing on her legs as she went, as though it was some weird, perfectly choreographed disaster.
I gave her a little wave with the tissue. “And make sure you watch out for those invisible ninjas!”
Her eyes flashed with rage, and she rushed out the door. Once she was outside, I watched her finally grimace at the state of her clothes as she moved along, and couldn’t help but laugh. That pink color was never going to come out of her white running top and matching yoga pants.
Beth walked over and peered down at the floor. “I don’t know how this is possible, but she didn’t spill a single drop of that smoothie.”
My breathing suddenly froze. Oh no, not again.
Beth looked at me in wonder, and I tried not to look too guilty. I had an idea of how it was possible, but I hoped it wasn’t written all over my face. I mean, I didn’t even want to believe it myself, but I was beginning to think I had something to do with these karmic things happening.
Beth looked at me, then back at the spot on the floor where smoothie should’ve been splattered. “Did you do that?”
“M-me?” I stuttered. “I wasn’t even near her.”
Beth made a humming sound as she turned and walked back to her desk, shooing another cat out of the way as she sat back down, and I returned to the big chair in front of her, feeling nervous. “I know damn well you were human when you left Mystic Hollow, so you can’t be a shifter or a vampire. Are you some sort of witch that can hide your powers?”
What in the world was she talking about?
“No, I didn’t do that. I mean, I’ve had some freaky things happen over the past few days, but are you really talking about vampires and shifters?”
Beth leaned in closer and stared directly into my eyes as though she could find the truth within them, which made me want to look away, but I couldn’t. Then she held her hands in front of me, her palms facing me like she wanted me to give her a high five, before moving them up and down and around in circles, bracelets jangling as she went. I looked at them with my eyebrows furrowed and my back pressed into the back of the chair.
“What are you doing?” I squinted at her. Beth had always been quirky, but this was new.
“I’m reading your aura,” she said. “But it’s not easy.”
“Beth.”
She ignored me.
“Beth!” I yelled.
She jerked her hands back and gave me a startled look. “Why are you yelling?”
“Because you’re talking about reading my aura, whatever that even means, and vampires and shifters. What the hell is going on?”
She laughed, her eyes crinkling at the edges as she looked around. “Hey, Marble!”
A cat, which appeared to be aptly named, as she was a calico with marbled white, brown, and orange fur, trotted over. “Yeah?”
I nearly fell off the chair. My head spun.
“Say hi to Emma,” Beth said to the cat. She said that to the cat.
“Hi, Emma.” Marble looked me over in that haughty way only cats can manage. “She might pass out.”
Then Marble picked up one of her front paws and licked it before walking back across the front of the office and settling into the beam of sunshine that the dark tabby had been in earlier.
“She just talked to me,” I whispered. “That cat.”
Beth leaned forward. “Are you telling me you really don’t know?”
“That cats can talk?”
“Well, yeah.”
I shook my head. “Can they talk to everyone? Is that cat a special talking cat?”
Beth shook her head. “Sorry, no, it’s my powers. I can talk to cats, well animals in general, and they can talk to humans when I’m in the immediate vicinity. It’s my special witch Zoolingualism.”
It was like something in my brain burnt out, leaving nothing but smoke behind.
“I turned my ex-husband and his little bitch into toads,” I whispered.
Beth’s jaw dropped. “How in the world did you do that?”
I had no idea. “I think, if I’m not totally nuts and all this stuff really happened, I did it because I saved a little old lady from being hit by a car.”
Recognition dawned over her face. “Oh. Okay. Has stuff like what just happened been happening?”
My brain was still blinking like an empty word document waiting for someone to fill it, but that didn’t stop my mouth from working without my consent. “Someone cut me off and all their tires simultaneously and suddenly popped.”
Beth nodded sagely. “Yep. Hang on.”
She jumped up and hurried through the office into a back room, but returned quickly with a book in hand. She began scanning the text, occasionally licking her finger so she could move through the book faster, until she found the page she was looking for. “Here. I thought so. Wow. This is amazing. It’s so rare.”
She turned the book toward me and there was a picture of the old woman drawn on the page. Not just any old woman. The exact old woman I’d seen. A chill rippled down my spine. “That’s her,” I whispered. “The woman I saved from the car.”
Beth looked at me, her blue eyes wide and sparking with amazement. “You’ve become karma.”
“Karma?” I repeated, frowning.
She nodded and picked up her phone and started texting. “I think we’re going to need some help.”
“I think I might be losing my mind,” I whispered.
She grinned over her phone. “Oh, just pretend you’re Alice, I’m friends with the Cheshire cat, and you can come join us at our tea party. I swear life won’t be boring again.”
I didn’t know what the heck to say. If I was Alice, I’d definitely fallen into a world that was both crazy and exciting.
Or maybe I was just crazy.