Chapter 11
Livvie
Everything was a blur. It was difficult to absorb all the information being thrown at me—Witches!
—but Wes’s touch was like being grounded in the middle of a lightning storm.
His hand wrapped around mine made me feel safe; put me at ease.
I didn’t have the foggiest clue why, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
It’d been ages since Sammy appeared out of thin air and flipped my world on its axis. Hours, at least. Wes had stayed with me, constantly holding my hand, and reassuring me I wasn’t alone. Not even Liza’s presence was as soothing.
My mind raced, however safe I felt. But I couldn’t land on a specific thought or emotion.
It was almost like I was stuck in one of the nightmares, just waiting for the wolfman to show up.
Yet it was all too surreal to be a dream.
The word witch played over and over in my head, the only thing that I was able to land on for more than a second.
Witch.
Sammy turned from her pacing and fixed her shrewd gaze on me. “What about your grandmother?” she asked.
I shrugged. “She’s my nana. I don’t know what to say.”
“Has she ever done anything that could be considered magical?” Sammy asked.
The tea flashed into my mind, but I didn’t mention it. I just shook my head.
“What about where you used to live?” Sammy asked. “You weren’t born here.”
I shrugged. “Some small town in Tennessee until I was nine. Then we moved here, Nana bought the bed and breakfast, and I went away to school. Now I’m back.”
“You don’t know where in Tennessee?” Wes asked gently.
My voice dropped. Talking directly to him felt intimate while he held my hand. “No.”
“Your parents?” Sammy asked, coming closer.
“I don’t remember them,” I said. “I think I’ve blocked stuff out because they died in a home invasion that I don’t remember. I was either injured at some point or I was hurt in the home invasion, but I don’t remember much of my childhood with my parents.”
Sammy opened her mouth to ask another question, but I held up my hand. “Only tonight have I realized that I’ve had an unnatural aversion to asking about my past or my life before we moved to Bluewater.”
She snapped her mouth shut, then breathed deep. “Interesting.”
But when she tried to start questioning me again, Wes held up the hand not holding mine. “Slow down. Let her process.”
Sammy looked fairly annoyed, but then sighed again and plopped down in an armchair.
Liza rubbed my leg soothingly while Toby and Anthony watched it all with wide eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Sammy said. Her expression softened.
“I’m intense, I know. It’s been a long time since I met another witch from my coven.
” Closing her eyes, she sucked in a deep breath and rubbed her hands along her thighs.
“Last I knew, they’d all been wiped out.
” Her voice sounded choked, but she cleared her throat and seemed to gather herself. “Let’s take a break.”
Jumping up, Sammy went back to pacing.
“I’m taking you to get some food,” Wes whispered.
I sighed in relief before I knew what I was doing. Standing felt like throwing off a blanket that had been suffocating me in my sleep. My need to escape was strong, and Wes gave me the perfect out.
As we walked toward the front door, Sammy muttered something I didn’t catch, really softly. Wes heard it, somehow, and stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “Be patient,” he said sharply.
I turned and saw Sammy’s face change into a bit of a pout. “Sorry. Things have been… dead around me, then boom! You come to town and suddenly witches are coming out of my past and can be mated to dragons!”
Um. What? I stiffened and glared at Sammy. That word got my attention to fixate. Dragons? “Excuse me?” I asked.
Sammy cringed and glanced at Anthony. “Forget what I said. Ignore me. I’m rambling.”
Maybe I’d misheard her. I was pretty sure I was going freaking nuts, after all. I decided to let it go and ignore her, like she’d suggested. “Whatever,” I muttered and walked out the door.
Wes led me to his truck, which had my car blocked in anyway. I sucked in several deep breaths of clean mountain air before getting in.
On the way to the pizza place, Wes didn’t say much. He gave me space to breathe, which I did with my head practically hanging out the window, letting the crisp night air rush over my heated face. When we parked, he turned to me. “Eat inside or in the back of the truck?” he asked.
“Truck,” I mumbled. “I’m not fit to be around others.”
He winked. “Be right back.”
I sucked in big gulps of air while he was gone.
The tailgate was hard to get down, but I eventually managed it.
Snooping around, I found a blanket behind the bench seat in the cab of the truck and spread it along the gate.
I’d barely gotten my butt up on the truck bed when Wes returned with a large pizza in hand. “That was fast,” I said.
“They keep plain pepperoni on hand most of the time,” he said. “I discovered that when we came and visited Toby a while back. It’s handy.”
I nodded. “That is. I’ve only ordered delivery from this place. I haven’t been inside to eat since high school.”
My stomach growled as he opened the box and handed me a paper plate and napkin. I didn’t wait for him to serve me a slice, just dug right in. “I was really hungry,” I said around a full bite. “Sorry.”
Wes laughed and took a big bite of his own, speaking once he’d swallowed. “Don’t apologize to me. I hate it when women pretend to never eat around a man.”
“Well,” I said before taking another bite. “To be fair, they usually do that when they’re dating.”
He froze mid-bite and nodded as the cheese dripped down his chin. “I guess that’s true.”
I laughed and leaned over, snagging the long string of cheese with my finger, and pulled it, but it kept going. We both ended up laughing by the time he bit off the end of it and I wiped my finger on my napkin.
The laughter did me good. When I stopped, my mind felt a bit clearer, and one question stuck out.
“It just occurred to me,” I said as I grabbed another slice.
“Nobody was particularly shocked about the presence of witches in Liza and Toby’s living room, other than me.
” Meeting Wes’s gaze, I raised my eyebrow and took a big bite of pizza.
“Why?” I asked before I started chewing.
I hoped he didn’t mind mumbled words around mouthfuls of food, because I wasn’t waiting to ask, and I wasn’t waiting to eat. I’d been hungrier than I’d realized.
He chewed thoughtfully. “There’s a clear answer to your question, but in telling, I’d be giving you a whole new worry.”
I sighed and threw the crust in the pizza box before grabbing my third large slice. “So, this wasn’t all another one of my nightmares.”
He shook his head. “Nope, sorry.”
Half the third slice was gone before I asked my next question. “When will you tell me about the rest of it?”
Wes put his warm hand on my arm. “I promise, as soon as possible. But you’re exhausted. Your shoulders are drooping right here on my tailgate.”
The last pizza crust bounced out of the box and landed on his truck bed after I threw it carelessly.
He grabbed it for me. “Did a witch really, honestly appear out of mid-air and tell me I’m a witch?
” I stared at my new friend, who was also my employee, technically.
But I didn’t know what I would’ve done tonight without his steadying presence.
“She did.” He still had his hand on my arm. “And you are.”
Laughter bubbled up my throat, but this time it wasn’t a cleansing, sweet laughter like before. Now that my belly was full, exhaustion pressed behind my eyes, and my laughter took on a bit of a manic edge.
And then the tears came. Wes shoved the pizza box back and scooted closer, wrapping me in his warm, steady arms. “Shh, it’s okay.”
“No, I’m crying in relief,” I said between laughing sobs. “Now it makes sense. The strange things that happen around me all the time. I’m not imagining them. I’m not insane!” I pushed back and sucked in a breath. “I’m a witch, not a lunatic.”
Wes nudged my hands to the side and cupped my cheeks, wiping my tears with his thumbs. “You’re not crazy. And being a witch is pretty cool. Especially with Sammy by your side. She’s crazy powerful and Toby speaks very highly of her.”
“How does he know her?” I asked as I tried to calm down.
“Another day.” Wes hopped down. “We’ll finish the story.”
He grabbed me by the waist and lifted me from the truck like I weighed no more than a child. I wasn’t particularly large, but I was a pastry chef for cripes’ sake. I was a little heavy.
He pulled me toward the passenger seat and held out his hand for me to hold as I climbed in.
A gentleman. Normally I wouldn’t have needed help whatsoever, but the exhaustion was starting to press on me. My limbs felt heavy and cumbersome.
“I’m still so confused,” I whispered, but he wasn’t in the truck. Turning my head, I rested it against the back of the seat and watched him jog the pizza box over to a dumpster on the side of the building.
“I know you’re confused,” he said when he opened the driver door.
What the heck? Had he heard me? No. Coincidence. Unless maybe he was some sort of witch too. Or a dragon. HA! Yeah, right. Some things were beyond ludicrous.
“It might feel like reality is shifting.” Wes took my hand after he put the truck in gear and pulled out of the pizza place parking lot, turning toward the bed and breakfast and my cottage. “But after you’ve had a real night’s sleep, you’ll feel better.”
My attention was already waning. I was going to fall asleep in his truck and I didn’t think there was anything I could do to stop it.
“Don’t go,” I whispered. As soon as he took me home, he’d leave me.
I’d be all alone, and all of this would start to feel like a dream or my insanity welling up.
“Don’t go.” That was all I could manage before I fell asleep.
I didn’t wake again for a while, and when I did, I was in my bed, shoes off, but still in my clothes. And I had to pee something awful.
Shuffling out of my bedroom, I stopped short when I saw Wes’s enormous frame on my love seat, which served as my sofa in the small cottage. There wasn’t enough space for a full-sized couch, not without overwhelming the room.
If he hadn’t been snoring, I would’ve woken him and made him get into my bed. But he was dead to the world, so I left him and used the restroom.
On my way back to my bedroom, I grabbed the spare big blanket out of my closet and covered him up. The throw blanket he’d used from the back of the couch barely covered his upper body, forget his legs.
I had a quilt in the closet, and feeling safe and secure, and still relieved that I wasn’t a nutcase, I went back to sleep within seconds of hitting the pillow.
The next morning, I woke with the sun streaming through the curtains to find a note on the blanket, neatly folded at the foot of my bed.
Take the day off. Doctor’s orders. Sleep and rest. I’ll call you tonight.
Wes
Smiling, I tucked the note under my pillow and did just what he said, going back to sleep without any hint of dreams or nightmares.