Page 29 of A Spark of Something (A Librarian’s Guide to Witchery #1)

A fter swallowing his bite of steak, Ollie asked with a smile, “So, you know about my family. What about yours?”

“Like yours, mine is also…” Noble trailed off with a grimace.

“Ah.” Ollie winced. “Sorry.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“Why does it always feel like there is more meaning when you say that?”

Noble shrugged with a chuckle. “My parents have been gone for a while, and well, I suppose I should confess this now… I was married.”

His brow rose at that, though it wasn’t necessarily shocking, since the man was forty. Plenty of time to fit a marriage and a divorce into those years. “Were you?”

“Yes, to a woman.”

Ollie was slightly relieved by that. Negative feelings towards those who were bi or pan were still pretty prevalent in the community, along with the whole bi-erasure thing. “Oh, are you bi, or pan? As am I!”

“Ah, no. I’m gay.” Noble sighed. “I’m afraid I was hiding at that point in time.”

Yeah, he had jumped the wrong way conclusion-wise. If the man had married in his early twenties…well, it wasn’t exactly uncommon back then, and it hadn’t even been ten years since marriage equality passed in the States.

“So, you got divorced when she found out, or when you finally told her?”

Noble’s eyes got this far off look to them, and this hint of sadness. “I never got the chance. She died before ever knowing. Before I hurt her.”

“I’m sorry,” Ollie said softly. “You loved her, didn’t you? In your own way.”

The man blinked, his gaze meeting his, with a small smile on his face. “I did. She was my best friend, which I suppose made what I had been doing all the more cruel, but I did love her in the only way I could. It was enough for me at the time to be happy.”

“She must have been really young when she passed.”

“She…” Noble trailed off, his expression dimming. His eyes filled with clear anger as his mouth pulled into a tight line. “She?—”

“I’m sorry,” Ollie blurted out. “We should change the subject.”

“She was—” The man shook his head, cutting off. “You’re right, we should change the subject. This is far darker than is good on a first date.”

It’s not that it was dark, it’s that the man clearly had no interest in sharing it. “I want to know all about you, Noble, even the dark things. But just because I want to know, doesn’t mean you should share anything you aren’t comfortable with.”

How nice would it be if that were true? Ollie wouldn’t want to know what Noble was really hiding. Hell, he didn’t even want to know at this point, but the memories would sure as hell not be going anywhere. Then again, maybe Ollie would want to know, just so he knew to get away from him.

“Well, if you think about it, my past is rather macabre as well,” Ollie said slowly with a frown. “I was just too young to really remember it. My godfather, he…” The man trailed off, his frown deepening.

Ah, Noble supposed, with the reveal of the whole witch thing, Ollie was now probably realizing that some things weren’t adding up about the person who raised him. Which…who exactly was the person who raised him?

The man had to know something. His parents wouldn’t have left him with a non-witch. But thinking on that, it would be odd if the organization didn’t know who and what this godfather of Ollie’s was. And now Noble had a shit ton of questions.

Ollie, who had zoned out a bit, shook his head. “Enough about the past. How about we talk about…hmmmn, oh! What was your favorite bodyguarding job?!”

He chuckled. “My favorite bodyguarding job?”

“Yeah! I mean, I’m sure you’ve met a lot of cool, or maybe even scary, people! Though I’m guessing you aren’t on assignment right now, considering I’ve been sort of taking up your time.”

“I’m not.” Noble’s brow pulled as he thought about the times he’d guarded people. “My favorite. Well, it’s less my favorite and more just the most interesting, and possibly suicidal one, considering I was willingly working for a mob boss.”

Instead of being shocked by that, Ollie let out a giggle. “Ohh, yeah, they can be scary, can’t they?! Though the few mob-ish type men I’ve met have always been rather sweet towards me, so there is that. The people they were buying from, not so much.” The little witch’s nose wrinkled.

Noble blinked in shock, his brow raising when the man didn’t elaborate. “Uh, Ollie, planning to explain about the mob-ish type men?”

“Oh, right. Uh, well, you see, my appraisal and authentication hobby sometimes takes me to interesting places,” the man said with a bright smile, as if that explained everything.

“I see. Is that…safe?”

Ollie’s lips pursed into a little pout as he pushed his glasses up. “It has been so far! I mean, none of the bullets ever hit me. And the charges didn’t stick, so there is that. To be honest, I think the police now just shake their heads when they find me where they think I shouldn’t be. But have come to understand that nothing I’m doing is illegal, regardless of the legalities of the people selling and buying the items. Well, also I have really good lawyers, so trumped up charges have no chance of sticking.”

Noble let out a hesitant laugh. “You have honestly surprised me.”

Ollie giggled. “Is that a good thing?”

He smiled, despite now worrying about the dangers the little witch would willingly walk into. “Yes, it’s a good thing.”

Though now he had another thing to worry about in the equation of Ollie’s safety. Three things now actually. The man forgetting to eat, the other witch hunters, and he guessed…mob bosses.