Page 44 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)

Collin

How was finding out that his kind-of girlfriend’s ex was ghost-murdered the least awkward part of his night?

Collin had been so relieved after running to Shaddow House to find Alice healthy and whole. He’d slung her over his shoulder and carried her home to Forsythia Manor because it felt like the only secure way for her to get there. He no longer trusted the ground to carry her. That was normal, right?

He was so caught up in the moment, carrying her to his home, admiring how the moonlight caressed the curves of her face, when he heard a light knocking sound.

The sound drew his attention to his front door, where, to his surprise and horror, Paige was standing in the doorway, and he felt his smile melt right off.

“Paige?” He carefully placed Alice on her feet. “W-what are you doing here?”

She was as polished and presentable as always, wearing a long, dark, tailored silk coat over a designer dress and pumps more suitable for a cocktail party than walking around lakeside.

Wait, how the hell did she even get here?

The ferries had stopped running hours before.

Collin registered that she had several sleek black suitcases on the porch behind her.

How long had Paige been out here? And how long was she planning to stay?

“Collin,” she crooned, drawing his name out into something just short of insulting.

She kissed both of his cheeks, surrounding him in a cloud of her signature amber-heavy perfume, but he managed to collect enough brain cells to step out of range when she tried to kiss his mouth.

She frowned at him, and then her eyes zeroed in on Alice, as if she’d just realized that there was another person standing there.

“I’m going to need those bags delivered to my room,” Paige said, flicking her fingers toward the door of Forsythia Manor. Alice snorted in response, looking more bemused than offended.

“Alice doesn’t work here,” Collin told her. “What are you doing here, Paige?”

She reached up to run her fingers along his shirt collar, smoothing it out. “I told you I would see you soon.”

Collin frowned. Paige did say that. He should have listened. He should have known that she wouldn’t be content to be ignored when she knew where he was. But somehow, he’d let himself get distracted by his contentment, and now Paige was right on his doorstep, paralyzing him from the brain down.

Collin wanted to brush her fingers away.

He didn’t want her touching him, not in front of Alice, not ever.

But he couldn’t be aggressive with Paige, couldn’t reject her outright.

Not because he was afraid for himself, but for Alice.

Paige had gone after other women before—waitresses, salespeople, hotel clerks—getting them fired for giving Collin “too much attention.” And that was for gestures a lot less friendly than having Alice thrown over his shoulder.

Hell, Paige had managed to get an airline attendant fired mid-flight for offering Collin extra pretzels.

(Paige’s dad was part-owner of the airline.)

Plus, Paige couldn’t have Alice fired, so what would she do to hurt her?

Would it involve Alice’s grandparents? Collin couldn’t let that happen.

And Alice seemed to be noticing his lack of reaction, which was draining all the contentment out of her face.

He felt pinned. He wasn’t ready to see Paige.

The shame of what she’d seen from him over the years—the partying, the stupid adolescent stunts, the ways he’d disappointed her over the years with the failed engagements—felt like a stone weight on his chest, drowning him in regret.

And to have Alice see him going through this, how he wasn’t able to tell Paige to just leave …

He wasn’t fighting. He wasn’t flying. He was frozen, and it was humiliating.

“Did your assistant twist her ankle?” Paige asked, frowning at Alice. “That would be the only reasonable explanation I could fathom for you carrying her around.”

Alice’s chin retreated back at the insult, and Collin couldn’t blame her. This wasn’t a good start to an introduction. He knew there was a good heart under all of Paige’s posturing, but she wasn’t really helping him in terms of convincing Alice she was a benevolent nonentity from his past.

“This isn’t my assistant,” he told Paige. “This is Alice Seastairs. She runs an antique shop here on the island.”

Like her mother before her, Paige had mastered the art of bending her facial features into a facsimile of a smile without expressing any actual warmth or approval. “How quaint. Did you injure your ankle moving furniture?”

Alice stared at Paige as if she didn’t understand the language she was speaking. So, of course, Paige repeated herself, louder and more slowly. “Did. You. Hurt. Your. Ankle?”

“Why are you talking to her like that?” Collin asked, letting his annoyance show in his tone. He cleared his throat.

“Well, I can’t imagine what other reason you might have for carrying your assistant up the front walk of your family home,” Paige said, still smiling, but not.

“She’s not my assistant. Her name is Alice. I wish you would have called,” Collin said, stepping away from Paige.

“I did call,” Paige reminded him. “And I’d like to have this conversation away from…whoever this is.”

“Alice Seastairs. I’ve told you three times now,” Collin told her again. “Alice, would you please go inside so I can talk to Paige for a moment?”

“Why don’t you just send her away and we can talk inside?” Paige demanded, slipping her hands around his arm.

“No,” Collin told her, shrugging her off.

Paige’s lip curled back as her eyes narrowed at Alice. “Why not?”

Shit. Shit. Shitshitshitshit.

“Renovations,” Collin blurted out. “We’re having the manor house and the hotel renovated. Everything’s a mess. Where are you planning to stay?”

Alice’s eyebrow rose and she got a decidedly Mina-ish expression on her face. He deserved that.

“With you, of course,” Paige cried. “Why would I stay anywhere else?”

“Because I didn’t invite you,” Collin reminded her.

Paige’s nostrils flared just the tiniest bit, making Collin’s stomach drop. That was what had happened right before the flight attendant was fired. Mid-flight.

“Be careful, Collin,” she warned him, glancing at Alice. “You wouldn’t want to make me feel unwelcome.”

“How did you even get here?” Collin asked.

“I chartered a boat,” Paige told him. “And then I sent it back, because I assumed that you would have accommodations waiting for me.”

“That doesn’t mean you just—” He sighed. “Look, I can put you up in the hotel’s guesthouse for a night or two.”

“Guesthouse!” Paige exclaimed just as Alice asked, “A night or two ?”

Apparently, she’d been pushed to her limit and found her voice.

“Don’t be silly,” Paige insisted. “I’ll just stay with you. If you’re comfortable in the manor house, I’ll be comfortable here too.”

“No,” Collin said. “That won’t work for me. Give me a minute, and I’ll show you where you can stay.”

Collin reached out to Alice and opened the door for her.

Paige frowned after him, but she seemed so shocked by the fact that he’d told her no, she stayed rooted to the spot.

He hurried Alice through the door. She opened her mouth to speak and stopped, and opened her mouth again, only to close it again.

Then she nodded toward his ex. “That’s Paige? She is…exactly what I expected.”

“Alice, I know this is not a good time,” Collin started.

“Is there a good time for your ex-fiancée—who seems to think she might still be your fiancée—to show up unannounced?” she asked. “And you’re going to let her stay in the guesthouse? Please tell me you’ll at least put her in a different room than the one I was in.”

“Well, I don’t want her staying in the manor house with us,” he said. “Trust me when I say this is the best option.”

“You could put her on a boat and send her back across the lake,” Alice noted.

“At night?” Collin threw his hands at the darkened window. “I may not want her in my house, but I don’t want her dead in a boating accident.”

Alice winced at that. “OK, that’s a good point, I suppose. I think I’m going to just go upstairs and grab my stuff. I can stay with Caroline or Riley or…something. I’ll figure it out. I have options. It was just that before, you offered, and I wanted to be close to you.”

“And I want you close,” he insisted. “I don’t want you to leave. Look, I know this is awkward—”

“No, no, having you witness my grandparents melting down and talking to me like they only do in private? That was awkward. This is… I don’t know what this is, but I’m not staying anywhere near that woman.

She gives me the creeps. I don’t like how she talks to you.

I don’t like how she looks at you. I really don’t like how she looks at me.

And I’ve stared down howling dead people,” Alice said.

“She’s just known me forever,” Collin assured her. “It gives her a certain air of forceful intimacy.”

It sounded so pathetic, even as the words came out of his mouth.

He didn’t know how to feel about Paige being there.

He felt a loyalty to her. He couldn’t just send her out into the waters of Lake Huron in the dark without another thought.

But he didn’t want her around. How did he explain it to Alice, the complex emotional knots he’d tied himself into with this woman?

Alice frowned. “From what you’ve told me, I’m assuming she acts like she’s carrying around a little notebook with all your mistakes in it, so she can wave them in front of your face, just in case you forget. Trust me, I know the type.”

“It’s not that bad,” he insisted.

She arched her coppery brows.

“OK, it’s not great. It takes some negotiating. You have to give her a little bit of what she wants so she feels like she’s won, and then she doesn’t get an attendant fired in the middle of a flight to Japan!” Collin said.

“That’s not how negotiating works!” Alice cried.