Page 49 of Never Been Witched (Starfall Point #3)

Collin

Collin Bancroft was not a fool.

He could be a bit of an ass on occasion, but he was no fool.

He knew it wasn’t a good sign that Alice hadn’t returned any of his texts that day—not even the dancing furniture GIFs, and she loved those.

He knew it was a worse sign that Paige was nowhere to be seen all day.

Not calling him. Not texting him. Not lurking in his office demanding room service and a massage from a spa staff that wasn’t currently employed.

Where the hell had she been all day?

What could Paige possibly find to occupy herself on Starfall Point?

The most exciting thing to happen in the last month was one of the Perkins ferry line’s oldest boats sinking after a hundredth-anniversary celebration for the company.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, so the sunken ruin, just a few yards from the shoreline, was more of a sad irony than a tragedy.

He was certain Paige hadn’t had anything to do with it.

For the most part.

Also, he wasn’t particularly proud of using the dancing furniture GIFs.

Collin had buried himself in work all day—legitimate and time-sensitive work—not because he was hiding from her but because he was trying to prevent himself from texting Alice on repeat.

He’d only spent a little time with Mina and Josh, but he distinctly remembered them saying something about more than five texts in a day as coming across as “desperate” and “creepy.”

Twenty would probably get him some sort of restraining order.

A knock at the door sounded just before Julie poked her head inside.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked. “It’s late, like the-paint-crew-have-already-gone-to-bed late.”

“Eh, just going over the website redesign the marketing people put together for us.” Collin sighed.

“I still don’t know about centering the rebrand around brick red.

It’s a little too close to the previous orange incarnation.

But it goes with the roof, which is sort of a signature feature of the hotel, so what are you going to do? ”

“You’re worried about color schemes? It’s not that you’re avoiding that fancy-coated, four-hundred-dollar haircut in the Cowslip Suite, is it?” Julie asked. “Because she hasn’t been around all day.”

“It’s not strictly because I’m avoiding her,” Collin began, holding up one finger in a “wait a minute” gesture. “She’s in the what, now?”

“She’s in the Cowslip Suite,” Julie said.

“We moved her there this morning. The suite floors aren’t ready for anyone to stay in them, much less someone high-maintenance.

The paint is barely dry. We don’t have bedding or towels in there.

We had to assemble a bed specifically for her, and one of the plain reproductions, not an antique. Haircut was not pleased.”

Collin blew out a long breath. He’d fast-tracked the Cowslip Suite because he wanted Alice to see it all together. He wanted her to be the first one to see it. And Paige was sleeping there?

Julie winced. “Yeah, from your expression, I’m assuming that Haircut has something to do with why Alice sent me an email that says”—she stopped to check her phone screen—“‘Thank you for your proposal of employment, but I will not be accepting any offer made to me by Collin Bancroft, personally or professionally. He is aware of my reasons.’”

“Wait? What?” Collin stood. “When did Alice send that? And what about Paige? Julie, what in the hell happened?”

Julie held her own hands up, speaking very calmly when she said, “I will remind you that when you hired me, it was under the condition that you would not yell at me or make me feel disrespected. I had enough of that from Robert. In fact, there’s a clause in my new contract that states that making me feel disrespected results in a generous severance, and I get to take the fancy coffeemaker with me. ”

She pointed at his coffee bar.

With intent.

“I’m sorry,” Collin told her. “Go back. Explain.”

“The Haircut—” Julie began.

“Please stop calling her that,” Collin asked.

“No,” Julie replied. “When I tried to call you, it was because Haircut came storming into my office, demanding VIP treatment. She said it was shameful that she was ‘sloughed off to some damp, smelly guest room’ when we had ‘perfectly good suites available’ and demanded an immediate upgrade.”

“But she’s not even a paying guest. There are no paying guests, so there’s nothing to upgrade,” he insisted. “I’m the one who sloughed her off to the ‘damp, smelly guest room,’ which I find a little offensive, by the way.”

“I tried explaining that to her, but she was insistent that you wouldn’t want her staying there.

I tried explaining that the paint was barely dry in the Cowslip Suite, that we hadn’t even moved in furniture.

She just snapped those long, bony fingers at me and told me to make it happen.

By the time I got the room sort-of-furnished and Lori from housekeeping was putting sheets on the bed, Haircut was stripped down in the tub, taking bubble bath selfies and treating us like we were the intrusive assholes for being there. ”

“ That’s the question Lori from housekeeping had?” Collin cried.

Julie threw her hands up and yelled, “Yes!”

Collin gaped at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I called you,” Julie reminded him very slowly. “And I told you I thought it was something you should weigh in on. You sloughed me off and told me to do whatever I thought was appropriate.”

“You thought putting her in a suite we’ve barely finished renovating appropriate?”

“More appropriate than an entitled city-idiot having a tantrum in the lobby, distracting the crews with her shrill promises to have me fired?” Julie nodded. “Yes.”

Collin groaned and scraped his hand over his face. “She can’t have you fired.”

“I know,” Julie scoffed. “Only I can get me fired. And during the years I worked with Robert, I came up with far more interesting plans to get fired than responding appropriately to your girlfriend having a tantrum.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s barely even a friend,” he shot back.

And in that moment, he realized he meant it.

What did Paige bring to his life? Shame, old wounds, her inability to let him move on to new patterns.

They’d built a relationship on old connections that just weren’t relevant anymore.

He’d made his mistakes right with her over the years.

He’d apologized and meant it. He’d tried to break free of this cycle of commitment and breakup.

It was not his fault that she was unwilling to let go.

He’d spent years trying to remind himself that she was a good person only because he couldn’t believe that he would spend so much time and effort to keep a bad person in his life.

“Well, good, because she’s not as nice or as smart as Alice,” Julie said. “And her haircut is terrible and overpriced.”

“Let the haircut go,” he told her.

“No,” Julie told him. “And you’re probably going to need to tell her that she’s not your girlfriend because she seems to think you’re engaged. Or engaged to be engaged. Some form of engaged. She was flashing around a big ol’ rock.”

“Oh, no,” he sighed. “Not again.”

“Again?” Julie cried. “She’s done this before?”

“Yes.” Collin squinched his eyes shut. “Sort of. Some variation of it.”

“I know you’re my boss and all, but…buddy.” Julie huffed out a laugh, shaking her head and flopping into his club chair.

“I know,” he sighed. “There’s a lot of history there.”

“I don’t care if there’s a Magna Carta there,” Julie told him. “You want to talk about Alice’s email now?”

“Yes…?”

The door burst open and while Collin was relieved to see it was Alice charging into the office, the thunderous look on her face was enough to send an ominous chill down Collin’s spine.

“Hi, Julie,” she said with sincere friendliness. Because Alice was too good a person to be rude to innocent bystanders. “Would you mind if I talked to Collin for a minute?”

“No problem,” Julie replied, standing quickly. “I think you two need to talk. And I need to go…that way.”

Julie made for the door. Collin couldn’t have envied her more. Alice was remarkably still for someone who appeared to be seething.

It occurred to Collin that this was the first time she’d been in his office.

Normally, they’d held their meetings somewhere else in the building so she could get a feel for what sort of pieces he would need in each space.

It made him a little sad that she was so angry at him that she wasn’t going to enjoy this space, so full of his family history and weird little artifacts they’d collected over the years.

But clearly, that wasn’t something he could point out now.

Collin began, “Alice…”

“No, no,” she said, holding up her hands. “I get to talk now. Have you seen Josh?”

“Josh?” Collin stared at her. “No. Why would I see Josh?”

Alice’s hands began to shake. “Because apparently, he went outside the Rose to drop some garbage in the dumpster, and, according to Caroline’s brother, some ‘hot brunette in expensive clothes’ came up and asked Josh to help her get her suitcase unstuck from a sewer grate behind one of the T-shirt shops.

Josh was frustratingly easy to lure, despite his whole treatise on internet safety.

Wally was ‘super jealous of the kid,’ because Wally is an idiot.

And then, according to Gerda over at the snow-globe emporium, Josh was seen walking toward the hotel with the same attractive brunette, lugging a huge suitcase.

So how about I stop talking and you help me find my friend?

Because I’m assuming the brunette is Paige.

And if she’s done something to intentionally put Josh into Margaret’s hands, I’m going to do something very, very bad.

I don’t care how she’s connected to you. ”

“Wait, none of this makes sense,” Collin said. “Why would Paige be luring Josh anywhere?”