Page 29 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)

“Good, you deserve that,” Norma said, patting her hand again.

“Clark Graves is a decent employer, but I don’t think I would want him dating any daughter of mine.

There’s a warmth that’s missing in him. When I realized that you two seemed to have ended your…

arrangement, I was relieved for you. You should have someone who’s going to give you the affection you deserve. ”

“Oh, Clark and I never—” Alice began.

Norma arched a graying eyebrow at her. “Sweetheart, I run his office. I know things.”

“Thank you, Norma.” Alice pressed her lips together.

Norma stood.

“Could you do me a favor?” Alice asked. “Don’t mention to Clark that I was here? Or anything that we talked about?”

Norma waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t see why he would ask, but I won’t say anything. Historical Society business is different than law-firm business.”

“Thank you,” Alice said.

“Now, put everything back where I found it,” Norma told her, walking back to the welcome desk.

Alice’s lips twitched. “Yes, ma’am.”

After Alice put her research materials back exactly where they belonged, she packed up her bag, walked toward the door, and called, “Thank you for all your help!” before opening the door and nearly running into Margaret Flanders.

“Oh!” Alice cried. “I’m so sorry, Margaret!”

“That’s all right, dear, no harm done,” Margaret told her.

Small and spry with thick gray hair piled on top of her head, Margaret hopped back before any damage could be done to either of them.

But… Margaret seemed fine. She looked a little tired around her periwinkle-blue eyes, but not ill.

Oh, no, Alice hoped it wasn’t some unseen ailment requiring surgery or something.

Margaret was a fixture on Starfall Point.

She’d been unfailingly sweet to Alice since she was a child, always inviting her to the Saturday Storytime with Mother Goose she hosted as one of the chief volunteers at the public library.

Alice had always found Margaret’s grandmotherly energy a little cloying, but she was aware that she had her issues with grandparent figures.

Alice cleared her throat. “I was just doing a little research.”

“Strange way for a young person to spend their weekend,” Margaret said. “A pretty girl like you should have someone to spend Sunday mornings with, Alice.”

Alice chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know. I find Norma’s company highly entertaining.”

“I’m a laugh riot,” Norma commented dryly from her desk without looking up. “Why don’t you close that door and start your volunteer shift, Margaret? The utility bill doesn’t pay itself.”

Margaret rolled her eyes and grinned conspiratorially at Alice, closing the door behind her and enclosing Alice in the Historical Society building. She lowered her voice so Norma couldn’t hear. “Alice, dear, are you trying to find a way to avoid going home?”

Alice blinked at her. “Why do you ask?”

Margaret looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Well, I know that Franklin and Marilyn aren’t exactly…easy to live with. I don’t like to speak ill of people, but I could see why you wouldn’t want to spend your free time at the apartment with them being home for the season.”

For a second, the warmth of a blanket seemed to slide around Alice’s shoulders.

Someone else saw it—or, at least, someone who was her grandparents’ peer saw that they were unreasonable and difficult to live with.

Her eyes didn’t exactly well up with gratitude, but it helped.

“I’m not staying at the apartment anymore, Margaret. Thanks, but don’t worry about me.”

Margaret frowned. “Well, where are you staying, then?”

Alice’s lips clamped together. She was not about to tell one of the most active members of the Nana Grapevine that she was staying in Collin’s guesthouse. “I’ve gotta go. Thank you, Norma!”

“Alice, wait!” Margaret called as Alice scurried out the front door.

“I will not be featured news on the Nana Grapevine. No, ma’am,” Alice muttered, hurrying down the street toward the hotel. Then, when she realized that Margaret could be watching her through the window, she turned toward Shaddow House.

***

The next day, Alice was walking through the rain, grateful for the lack of traffic on Starfall Point streets because she was texting and walking as she returned from an “errand” at Clark’s law office.

As a thank-you for Norma’s help, Alice had dropped off a framed postcard from the early 1900s, showing one of the first Perkins ferries to operate on the island.

And if Alice happened to use the opportunity to drop some disinformation for Clark, confusing him into wasting his time and staying away from the coven?

Well, that was simply icing on the revenge cake.

Meanwhile, she needed this time to catch up on non-work-related phone use.

She had a huge backlog of emails from contacts in her search for art nouveau treasures.

Her grandparents had instituted a “no cell phones on the sales floor” policy since her return, but honestly, it was better this way.

To the cameras, it might have looked like she was diligently wiping down the baseboards of the showroom, but she was actually searching for Victoria’s ring.

It had to have rolled somewhere on the wooden floor, but physics was really playing her for a fool here.

She’d searched every square inch of the room’s perimeter, and nothing.

Then again, for all she knew, her grandparents had found the ring on the floor and hid it in the shop somewhere.

She thought returning Collin’s relative’s ring to him was the least she could do before she told him that it was possible that her relative murdered that ring’s owner.

Life on Starfall Point was complicated.

Now, as she picked her way along the cold, wet sidewalks of Main Square under her umbrella printed to look like a Van Gogh painting, she smiled down at her phone screen. Collin had been texting her all day, and her lack of responses were making for some interesting escalations from him.

Tile guy tried to convince me to use a terra-cotta color in the bathroom of the Apple Blossom Suite, Collin wrote. But I told him no colors remotely close to the orange family. I told him I have orange trauma.

Later, he added, Tile guy is no longer speaking to me. Julie says she’ll handle all tile-related communications from here on out.

Then, I’m going to have to give Julie another raise, aren’t I?

Alice laughed. Progress on the suites was running a little faster than the sweeping changes to the “mass-market rooms.” The antiques Alice had procured for the suites were waiting in a storage room in the hotel basement.

Now Collin just had to fight with the decorator and the work crews to make sure the rooms matched what they found.

Alice typed back, And probably another job title.

Front Desk Manager, Coffee Czar, Tile Comptroller, Person Who Keeps Collin from Losing Valuable Construction Employees, Collin wrote back almost immediately. Also, hey! You finally answered!

That’s going to mean at least two more raises, she told him. And yes, some of us are employed by other people. Cranky, unreasonable old people who limit cell phone use during work hours.

Want anything when you get home? he asked. I can ask the kitchen staff to send up a Collin for you. Extra sprinkles.

Alice snorted. The last thing she wanted to eat was a Collin sandwich with sprinkles, and he knew it. Now, covering Collin the person with sprinkles just to see what happened? That was a tempting option.

They hadn’t kissed since that night in her room.

He was just as warm and kind and eager to spend time together, but he was keeping a respectful distance.

And it was the sweetest torture. They spent most nights together in the living room at the guesthouse, and he’d had her over for dinner at Forsythia Manor a few times.

They talked about their opposing experiences growing up on the island, and books, movies, art.

And she wanted to climb the man like a tree.

He was just so…climb-able, but she didn’t want to do anything to upset the delicate balance they were striking.

They were friends . He never made her feel obligated, even as he provided her wages and a roof over her head. But the fact that he was calling the space they shared “home”? (Even if he was technically next door in the manor house.)

Yeah, it was putting her commitment to avoid climbing that tree in danger.

She’d never shared a home with anyone, and felt like it was truly that.

And yes, her room was technically in a hotel, but that warm, secure feeling she had when she walked through the door and found Collin waiting for her?

That was dangerous. She was going to lose it soon, no matter what happened. She couldn’t get too accustomed to it.

But still…the man covered in sprinkles. It was a tempting image.

She wasn’t prepared for the voice that intruded in her thoughts. “I seem to remember a time when I put that smile on your face.”

Alice’s head snapped up and she nearly let her umbrella fly out of her hand. Clark was standing in front of her, glaring down at her through the rain.

“Clark, I don’t want to talk to you,” she said, attempting to step around him. He grabbed her arm and dragged her into the alley between two T-shirt shops.