I was surprised it wasn't Marble, the tortoiseshell cat, that was giving Beth a hard time, but she was off sleeping in the corner. Buster and Beth had an odd love-hate relationship, as I imagined many owners did with their cats.
“Hey,” I interrupted their argument. We’d been hanging out at Beth’s office for three days and all they’d done is go back and forth. It was their dynamic. And it was getting old. “Can we focus?”
“Right,” Carol said before turning to look at Deva. “You’re going to fall back into old patterns if you get back with him.”
“He’s trying really hard, but I don’t think I could ever love him again.” Deva delicately stroked one of the flower’s petals before dropping to the fuzzy leaf that lay underneath. “But I’m going to enjoy these flowers, though. They are my favorite, after all.” Her tone made me wonder if she would actually hold out against Jason's attempts at romancing his way back into her heart. When she arched an eyebrow and stared off into space, a memory probably replaying itself in her mind, I saw the resolve settle on her like a cloak. “I will not, however, make another damn sandwich for any man!”
“Yeah!” I yelled. “Except, you know. At your restaurant.”
“Or if it’s your turn to cook. Cause that’s fair,” Carol said with a shrug.
“But we get the sentiment and totally agree!” Beth chimed in with her fist in the air. “Girl power!”
“So, how about a different guy? You might want to make the right guy a sandwich, or maybe he'll want to make all the sandwiches. You'll be showered in sandwiches and love,” I said, my mind wandering off to what I was starting to think the rest of my life might be like without Rick hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles, although that implied I had power over the situation, which hadn't been true, at least not until recently. It was more like he was the axe the executioner was getting ready to swing. I was just waiting for the blow to land. Sure, the initial blow had been finding out about the cheating, but until the divorce was settled and I knew where I stood, it felt like there was the possibility of another blow that could be even worse than the first just around the corner.
Buster lifted his head blinking his jade green eyes slowly. “You can make me a sandwich. Tuna, hold the mayo.”
“Shut up!” We all yelled in unison. He sniffed and rolled over, giving us his back.
Deva blushed. “I can’t even consider a different guy, or any guy really, until I’ve healed myself.”
Daniel’s face flashed through my mind, followed quickly by Rick’s. Ugh. “I need the same thing. Time. The heart will heal, though. At least that's what I keep telling myself.”
Everyone nodded, but I couldn’t help but hope that Daniel would still be single once I was ready. I also hoped that the sirens would be reasonable, that we wouldn't have to fight them for Henry, and that I'd get him back unharmed, or at the very least alive.
That was a whole lot of hope floating around.
18
Emma
Sighing, I let my head fall back against the headrest. Beth and I were waiting for Deva and Carol to come out of Carol’s house. Deva had some stuff she’d baked that she hoped would help us on our mission. I was agitated though, antsy to get to the place the sirens were going to be arriving for their ceremony and get Henry out of trouble. A good chunk of me wanted to yell at them to hurry up, but that was just me being impatient, so I took another breath and slowly released it.
“Mystic Hollow moves a little slower than the rest of the world,” Beth mused beside me. She was putting on a bright shade of pink lipstick in the rearview mirror and fluffing her mass of wavy blonde hair. She was wearing a pink low-cut top and jeans.
“I forgot.” And I had. So much had changed, but certainly the slow pace of the place hadn’t.
“But that should be fun with your next relationship.”
I stiffened. Huh?
She winked. “You know, the men around here like to take their time.”
I felt my cheeks turn beat red. “I am in no way thinking about relationships, men, dating, or anything of that sort!”
She laughed, crinkles forming at the corners of her blue eyes. “Really? Because I saw the way you two were dancing. And it looked more than a little friendly.”
Was I so obvious? My heart raced. “Not even a little.”
“Really?” She arched a brow.
“Really.”
“Because he has the most stunning blue eyes I’ve ever seen.”
“He has green eyes.” I stopped myself too late.
Her grin widened.
“Shut up,” I mumbled and looked away from her.
Daniel was cute, but I wasn’t twenty and running after a hot guy with my mouth hanging open. I had my brother to find, my life to get in order, and my powers to figure out. Plus, I swore this was already the longest darn day of my life. There was definitely no energy left for thinking about the handsome shifter.
A shifter I had learned a lot about the last few days. Apparently, shifters weren’t like werewolves. They could control when they changed, and most of them changed into wolves rather than anything crazy mythical. Daniel was unique, they’d explained, because he was a bear shifter. A bear?
I still hadn’t quite wrapped my mind around it all.
My gaze moved back to the house, and I tried not to tap
