Sachi left the office but Mandaline sat there stewing. She knew Sachi wouldn’t tell anyone what she’d revealed.
She was about to head out to help Sachi and Kim finish closing, but her phone chirruped at her with a text message. Expecting a reply from Brad to her “I’m home” text, she was surprised to find it was from Ellis.
We need to talk. Call me.
“Shit,” she mumbled.
* * * *
Ellis paced outside behind his car as he waited for a reply to his text or a call from Mandaline. He didn’t know what had happened between those two before he got home, but he wanted to find out. Brad had stopped him from asking any questions by declaring he had to go upstairs to work and closing the attic door behind him.
As good as a Keep Out sign.
He glanced up to the attic, where light shone from the eastern window. He could see shadows on the ceiling as Brad moved around in there.
He suspected he’d interrupted something between them from the way her face had brightly blazed and the way Brad avoided him.
He didn’t want Brad to get hurt.
He also didn’t want to acknowledge the tendril of jealousy trying to take hold inside him. Brad deserved happiness.
But dammit, he would have liked a chance to get to know her before Brad moved in. He was tired of dating his right hand every night. Lots of women threw themselves at Brad, not that Brad paid them any attention. Why did he finally have to start paying attention to the one woman he’d felt moved by?
Stop being an ass. He deserves happiness.
And so did Mandaline. At work, he’d looked up the news stories on what had happened to Julie. How she was raped and murdered by Steven Corey before he drowned in the lake at the park.
Mandaline certainly needed some happiness in her life after losing her best friend in such a horrific way.
He almost dropped his phone when it rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Mandaline.”
“Hi. Um, thanks for calling me.”
“What’s up?”
“Yeah. Uh, listen, I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”
“Okay.” She sounded guarded.
Now he really felt like an ass.
He opted for an about-face. “Did you really mean it when you said maybe there are concrete causes for what Brad’s experiencing? I mean, it did start happening after we moved here, not before.”
Did she sound relieved? Her voice took on a lighter tone and sped up just a little. If she was a witness, he would suspect she felt she’d just dodged a bullet. “Absolutely. There is plenty of scientific evidence to support high EMF levels causing physical symptoms that would dovetail with what he’s reporting.”
“That’s good.” He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t follow through with what he’d wanted to ask. “That’s real good. I didn’t know if you were just saying that to make him feel better or not. That’s why I wanted to call and talk to you in private.”
Her tone brightened even more. “No, I really believe we’ll find something to explain what’s happening. It might take some time to rule things out, but from talking with him tonight, I think we’ll find an answer that will satisfy everyone.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Did he tell you I invited you both to dinner tomorrow night? My place. I’m cooking.”
“No, we didn’t get that far. He went upstairs to work and closed the door to his studio. I don’t bother him when he does that.”
“Oh. Well, eight o’clock, here. Just park behind the building and knock on the back door if it’s locked.”
Maybe there’s still hope for me if she’s inviting us both. “Okay. Can we bring anything?”
“Just yourselves.”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
He hung up and stared at his phone. Chickenshit.
He started toward the side door when he thought he heard a woman’s bright, giggling laugh.
“Hello?” He turned, peering into the darkness beyond the security light over the kitchen door that illuminated the parking area.
No one.
Shaking it off as his imagination, or maybe sound carrying oddly from a neighbor’s house, he returned inside.
* * * *
Mandaline felt relief so strong it started her trembling again and she had to lean against the kitchen counter for support. She’d gone upstairs to make the call, expecting an interrogation from Ellis about what had happened between her and Brad, not that.
She stared down at Pers, who sat at her feet. “What do you think?”
His tail wagged a few times.
“You’re no help.”
Kim had left and Sachi was gathering her things when Mandaline went downstairs again. Sachi paused and studied her. “You all right?”
“I’m having Brad and Ellis over for dinner tomorrow night.”
Sachi burst out laughing. “Wow. You work fast. From swearing off love to a ménage in the space of a few days.”
“I’m not in a ménage. I’m not even in a relationship. I don’t want or need a relationship. Especially right now!”
Sachi snorted. “Suuure. Keep telling yourself that. How long’s it been since you’ve been laid?”
She fumed. “Irrelevant.”
“No, it’s not.” She put her hands on Mandaline’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’ve got a huge, honking void in your life. A vacuum. Basic physics. What’s the one thing the Universe abhors?”
“A vacuum,” Mandaline mumbled.
Sachi grinned. “So suck it up, buttercup. Most single women would kill to have your problem. Obviously, regardless of your opinion on the matter, you aren’t a person meant to be alone.”
“The last thing I need is a man, or men, telling me how to run my life. Or who want me to change for them.”
“Who’s telling you how to run your life? Besides me, I mean. And who says you have to change?” She grabbed her purse. “No one says you have to change. You never did have to change. With your ex, at that point in your life, that was all you. You just didn’t have the confidence to say ‘no.’ Just because someone says ‘change’ doesn’t mean you have to.”
“Relationships are a hassle.”
Sachi rolled her eyes. “Say what you want, boss. The Universe has painted a bull’s-eye on your back. You can keep running as long as you want from the truth, make all the excuses you want, but shit’s going to keep happening until you finally go with the flow and let the Universe have its way.” She hugged her and headed toward the back door. “Come lock yourself in and set the alarm.”
Mandaline followed her and locked the door, but she didn’t set the alarm. She needed to walk Pers again before calling it a night.
She headed back to the front of the store to check the front door and pull the shades in the windows and door. It didn’t feel empty to her, despite being alone. She’d never had a problem with being alone.
It wasn’t her preferred state, but she wouldn’t admit that to Sachi.
It was bad enough she had one friend trying to fix her up from the beyond. She didn’t need Sachi also setting her sights on getting her a boyfriend—singular or plural—from this realm.
She closed her eyes. “Julie, why didn’t you come to me? Why are you speaking through Brad?” Her voice sounded loud to her ears in the quiet store.
Her eyes flew open at a soft scritching sound coming from behind the counter. When she went in search of the noise, she couldn’t find anything. Then her eyes settled on the little zen garden on the counter. She would have sworn it had been freshly raked a few minutes ago. That was one of their unofficial closing rituals. Someone always raked out the zen garden.
In it, someone had drawn a smiley face with three stones marking the eyes and nose.
Her heart raced as she stared at it. Finally, she reached over, grabbed the rake, and quickly erased it before heading upstairs.
Chapter Eight
Brad awoke to dim, grey light forcing its way through the attic windows
. He groaned as he sat up. He’d fallen asleep on the attic couch with the TV on in an attempt to escape answering Ellis’ inevitable questions about Mandaline and what they’d been doing upstairs when he arrived home.
A dark, dense pall filled his senses as he looked around. Everything hurt. Especially his neck, upon which he’d apparently slept wrong.
Maybe I’m coming down with something. It certainly felt like it.
At some point, even though he didn’t remember doing it, he must have turned out the attic lights. Then his eyes settled on an easel at the far end of the room. A large sketch pad sat on it. In the dim light he couldn’t make out the drawing.
He didn’t even remember the drawing.
With a growing sense of dread he stood and slowly walked over to the easel. Hell, even his feet hurt! He’d fallen asleep with his sneakers on, but it felt like he’d walked miles since last night.
The piece was in pencil and charcoal. When he looked at his fingers, he saw the dark smudges on his hands. He had a utility sink up here so he didn’t have to constantly run up and down the stairs. Apparently he hadn’t washed his hands after his somnambulic art session.
The piece frightened him, quite honestly. It looked like something out of the Dark Ages, with an ugly, three-eyed demon menacingly hovering over a cowering woman on a chaise. Terror filled her features as the demon leveled what looked like a shotgun at the woman.
What have I done?
He started to tear it from the sketch pad to throw it away when he looked more closely at the woman’s face.
Without a doubt it was Mandaline.
Instead he grabbed the sketchbook, slammed it shut, and buried it between some half-finished canvasses along the wall. He hurried over to the sink to scrub at his hands. When he sniffled, he realized he was crying.
What’s happening to me? Why am I doing this?
He headed downstairs to the bathroom. It wasn’t quite seven yet, and Ellis would need to get into the bathroom to take his shower soon. He stripped and stepped under water so hot it quickly turned his skin red. He wanted to wash away the feeling, the thick, dark, dirty feeling coating him.
When he got out, he wrapped a towel around his hips and jammed his clothes into the hamper before heading to his room. He grabbed a pair of shorts.
He lost his balance trying to put them on and fell back onto the bed, his legs hanging over the edge.
The way her eyes looked staring up at him from between his legs, the way her hot, sweet mouth had felt while sucking his cock…
He closed his eyes and fisted the covers as he tried to shove the memory out of his head. Yes, it’d felt good, the best blow job he’d ever gotten in his life. But it wasn’t fair to saddle her with his problems.
Was it?
He rolled over facedown on the bed, hands fisting the sheets again as a blue haze took his vision. He had just enough time to realize he was having a seizure before the world went dark.
* * * *
The loud thump from Brad’s room jolted Ellis out of bed like a cattle prod. He’d awakened earlier to the sound of the shower running, but had drifted back to sleep when he realized he didn’t have to get up yet.
He burst out of his room and across the hall where he knocked. “Brad? You all right?” He waited two breaths for an answer before barging in.
He found Brad on the floor, a pair of shorts pulled halfway up, his body rigid and a glazed look on his face.
“Shit! Brad!” He got him rolled onto his side and held his hand, afraid to leave him and knowing exactly what was going on. Soon, Brad’s muscles relaxed and his eyes fell closed. “You’re okay, buddy. I’ll be right back. I have to get my phone.” Ellis started to get up to go call 911 when Brad’s hand closed on his.
“No,” he muttered.
“Dude, I need to call an ambulance. You had a seizure.”
The hand gripped him harder. “No. Give me a minute.”
Torn between what his friend wanted and what he knew he should do, he finally gave in. This one had only lasted maybe a minute or two from the time he’d heard the thud to when Brad had started coming out of it.
After a few minutes, Brad’s eyes opened again and he looked up at him. “I’m okay,” he muttered.
“You had a seizure,” he repeated, trying to stay calm. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“No.” When Ellis realized Brad was trying to sit up, he helped him. “I was stupid. I forgot to take my meds last night.”
Somehow, he managed to hold back the flash of anger at his friend. “You can’t do that.”
“I know. I…I fell asleep on the couch up there. I’m sorry.”
Guilt immediately washed his anger away. “No, don’t apologize. I didn’t want to interrupt you last night. I should have checked on you and made sure before I went to bed.”
That dopey smile, the one that could always make Ellis laugh, curved Brad’s mouth. “We need a woman to ride both our asses,” he joked.
More relief poured in. If Brad could crack funnies, he was feeling better. “Yeah, well, not my priority right now.” He helped Brad stand and kept him steady while Brad pulled his shorts all the way up.
“Admit it,” Brad said. “You were staring at my dick.” He grinned.
Yep, he was back to normal. “Dude, I’ve got one of my own I can play with. I don’t need to stare at yours.” Ellis finally stepped away, now certain Brad was steady on his feet again.
But Ellis still followed him downstairs to the kitchen and watched while Brad took his meds. While Brad did that, Ellis started a pot of coffee. “Maybe I should cancel our dinner with Mandaline tonight,” Ellis suggested.
Brad turned to him, frowning. “How’d you know about dinner? I didn’t tell you last night.”
Crap. Busted. “I talked to her on the phone after you went upstairs.”
“Why?”
Now he felt even guiltier. “I wanted to find out what she thought about the house. In case there was anything she didn’t want to say in front of you. And I wanted to talk to her more about the EMF stuff. If she really thought that was what’s going on.”
Did Brad look…relieved? “Oh. Okay.”
“I can’t help it. I worry about you. It’s my job. I’m sorry.”
“We need to get you a hobby.”
He smiled. “You are my hobby.”
“You’re a martyr.” But the smile had returned to Brad’s face.
“Maybe I should stay home today.”
“Nope. I was an idiot, and that’s all. I’ll eat a good breakfast and be fine.”
Ellis studied his friend. He always fought the urge to baby him, knowing Brad might not push back against it if he did, but that he deserved better from him than that. “All right. If you say so. But you call me if you have another seizure. Deal?”
“Deal. I’ll be fine. And we’ll have dinner with Mandaline tonight.”
He glanced at the time and realized he needed to get moving or he’d be late to work. “Okay.” He grabbed a cup of coffee and headed upstairs to get his shower.
* * * *
Alone in the kitchen, Brad heavily sat in one of the chairs and scrubbed his face with his hands. He wasn’t entirely sure the seizure was related to him forgetting his meds. He’d forgotten a dose of his meds before and hadn’t had a seizure.
His mind flashed to the demon drawing now hidden in the attic. Was there more going on? Was this a developing symptom of whatever was wrong with the house?
I’ll call Mandaline after Ellis leaves for the day and talk to her about it.
* * * *
Mandaline gave up trying to sleep a little after six that morning. She’d dozed off and on, but every time sleep tried to take hold of her system, so did hot, sexy dreams about Brad…and Ellis.
It didn’t help that even though she knew it was silly, she felt a little guilty about the distraction the two hunks provided her. Julie had only been dead a week, and the tree planting would be held tomorrow. Not to
mention there’d be an informal gathering at the store later Saturday night for the full moon.
Sachi had jokingly dubbed their gatherings the “coffeeshop coven” a couple of years earlier, a name that stuck even though they weren’t technically a coven. Some of the participants didn’t even consider themselves witches. They were just a bunch of friends from a variety of belief systems who enjoyed gathering for the sabbats and esbats.
It would be their first without Julie.
She took a long, hot shower. Then she poured herself a cup of coffee and called Pers before she headed downstairs. She grabbed his leash and took him on a long walk a few blocks down to the library. It wasn’t completely daylight yet, with purple shadows still tenaciously hugging the depths of trees and bushes. She let the dog sniff around the library grounds to his heart’s content while she sipped her coffee.
It’s not fair. She knew it was a pointless whine on her part, but never in her life had she imagined she’d ever not grow old with her soul sister. That they wouldn’t be together to share life’s ups and downs.
That Julie wouldn’t be there for her to cry on her shoulder, or there to make her laugh when Mandaline once again doubted her life choices.
Until last Thursday, she’d been relatively content with her life. No, not rich, but her bills were paid, she was out of debt, and so what if she was single? She was free.
Now she had a deep well of grief, people depending on her for their livelihoods, an extra furbaby to care for…and thoughts of two sexalicious guys that wouldn’t leave her head.
Not to mention she’d given one of them an accidental blow job.
She laughed aloud at that, making Pers turn to look at her. She never thought it possible to accidentally blow a guy, but damned if she hadn’t proven it possible.
Julie definitely would have laughed her ass off about that.
She looked up at the sky. “Why?” she whispered. “Why these two guys? Why couldn’t you have just pointed me toward a single guy? And why did you mark their case urgent?”
She heard a noise and looked to see Pers nosing around the base of a tree where a shred of paper lay. “Leave it, puppy.” She walked over to take the paper away from him. It looked ripped from a magazine advertisement. In large blue letters, the word BELIEVE was visible.