Chapter 6
L ily opened her shop as usual on Monday, running through her to-do list as she hung her coat and purse in the storage room and made her way to the front. She usually arrived at 8AM, an hour before the shop opened, to get anything she needed in order and ease her way into her day. This day, however, the shrill ring of a phone jostled her easy morning routine. She reached for the cordless as she looked over the latest orders she'd received from her Etsy shop. The thought that she might just need to get her own web shop running, a big financial leap she'd probably, disappointingly, need to talk to Madison about, flitted through her head as she absently answered the phone. "Lily's Lights. How can I help you?"
Nothing. She waited a long ten seconds before again speaking. "Hello?"
Again, nothing. Just like the weird calls at her house and shop and the one call Isa took. She'd figured they were prank calls from some kid in the area. Still, it made the spot between her shoulders ache with tension the longer it went on.
Instead of talking to nothing, she hung up, suppressing the not-fun shiver down her spine as she stared at the phone. She'd had weird calls before, long looks from a distance, for a time in her life, but the calls then had involved screaming or crying or pleading. Never silence.
She just hoped like hell the source of those calls years ago wasn't up to his old tricks. Ryan had moved back to town according to all the gossip, but she’d yet to see him. She wanted to keep it that way, though it’d be hard in a tiny place like Holly Hollow.
S adly, her worries were confirmed around lunchtime that day. She spent her lunch as usual, eating her turkey sandwich at her counter and catching up on web things as she did, when the tinkle of the bell at her door made her look up. The bright customer-service smile she aimed at the door wilted quickly when she saw the man striding through it.
Ryan stood there, his navy wool suit and matching overcoat immaculate, a red tie bright against the lighter blue undershirt over his chest. If she could achieve a detached perspective, she might be able to say he was handsome in an all-American football player way: dirty blond hair trimmed short, no trace of facial hair, interesting hazel eyes, tall frame, wide chest, muscled limbs she could tell he maintained despite the time between last seeing him. Still, he lacked the icy gaze and gravitas of a certain god she'd recently met. He’d also broken her heart because he was a dirty rotten cheater, so she wasn't too keen on admitting anything good about the man.
"Lily," he said, his voice firm and saccharine, sickly sweet to her ears.
"Hello, Ryan," she replied, staring. Waiting. Knowing he would do something that'd piss her off shortly.
He stood in the center of her shop, hands stuffed into the pockets of his trousers, surveying the place. Evaluating it like he wanted to invest in her business. It ruffled her feathers for sure, but she waited for more.
"Your place looks good, Lil. I like it." He smiled wide her way, and Lily stiffened at the pet name no one had called her in a good seven years and continued to just stare at the man.
He chuckled, as if finding her lack of enthusiasm adorable, and wandered over to a display of the ginger cookie candles. One of his fingers stroked down a jar and it made Lily sneer, not liking him being near any part of something she'd made.
To be honest, Lily hadn't thought about Ryan in a long time. At least before he moved back to town. She'd moved on. Felt indifferent at best. Despite that, the man coming into her space made her feel off. Her shop, her business—it had been something he’d never touched because she started it up after they were done. Now he had. He’d stepped right into her current life and she didn't want him wrecking it like he had her past.
"Can I help you find something, Ryan?" Best to get the interaction over with and move on.
He shrugged, then grabbed a jar, examining the candle he rolled in his hands. Ryan tossed it gently up, but it caught enough air Lily worried it’d shatter on the floor. He managed to catch it with a grin her way and moved slowly toward her counter. "I think I'll take this. My mama said she saw one at Sandy Owen's place and loved the smell."
Ryan's mom had always acted polite but distant, and had never stepped foot in her store despite being around the small town all the time. Lily had never minded, never blamed her for being loyal to her son. Guess she liked her products, though.
Lily nodded and bent down to get a bag and a sheet of tissue paper. When she came up, there he stood, looming far too close. Not in the delicious way Boreas loomed, and for a second, she lingered on the stark difference between these two.
Pulled back from her thoughts of the god by Ryan inching closer, she said, "Back up, Ryan." Her hand pushed the air between them, like she could shove him over with a wind she couldn't control.
He put his hands up in front of him with a good-old-boy posture that caused Lily's anger to rise quickly. "No harm intended," he said and made a show of looking away, surveying her shop once more. "Business good?" he asked, but Lily didn't answer. She rung up the sale, wrapped the candle and cradled it in the bag.
"That'll be 15.89," she finally said, nodding toward the small credit card box at the edge of the counter. Ryan made a big show of pulling out a shiny black credit card and tapping it to pay. She ripped off the receipt as soon as it spit out of the machine.
"There you go," she said, handing it over to him and encouraging Ryan to move on with everything she had.
He cocked his head at her. "Really, Lily? You still gonna act like this?"
"Like what?"
"Like you don't care."
With a heavy sigh, she crossed her arms at her chest. "Surprisingly, Ryan, I actually don't care. Not anymore. Not for a long time."
"I think you just might," he whispered, leaning in close and winking in her face. A wink that would have made her melt seven years ago made her sneer now.
"What exactly do you want here, Ryan?"
He straightened, turned serious, and said, "I thought we could go out. Catch up. Tonight, when you close up."
"I'm open late tonight." Like every other shop in downtown Holly Hollow, she stayed open late the second Monday of every month, for people who needed more shopping time and the occasional vampire who came through the town.
"I know, darling," he drawled. "After."
"No."
"That's it. Just 'no?'"
"It's a complete sentence."
His face changed and she recognized the swift shift. Ryan never liked it when he didn't get his way. Just so happened she didn’t care. She also didn't have to put up with it anymore, and if she was honest with herself, shouldn't have put up with it for so long in her past. "We're done here, Ryan."
"Oh, I don't think so, sweet Lily," he whispered, a trace of menace there.
Done with this, done with him, she switched tactics. "You been calling me?" Years ago, he'd harassed her until her brother put an end to it with threats. Ryan was the type of dude who respected men's threats, especially men who could beat his ass. Now, however, her brother lived too far to threaten anyone here, and Ryan would see that as an opportunity.
He smiled at her, neither confirming nor denying.
"Stop it," she said, stretching herself taller, ready to stand her ground.
"You look good, Lil," he said out of nowhere, his blue eyes sweeping down then up her body. She sneered at the audacity and decided he needed to go. Right this minute.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to push him out on her own. In that instant, the bell sounded, and Betty stalked through the door with Ralph at her back, both huffing with anger.
"Whatcha doing in here, Ryan Moore?" Betty bit out, stopping only a foot from him to glare. Ralph loomed at her back, an old but solid presence.
"Just buying a Christmas gift," he said, snatching up his bag.
"Humph. Looks like it's bought. Now you should get."
Ryan laughed. "Okay Mrs. Booth.” He headed for the door then looked back at Lily from over his shoulder. "See you around, Lil."
Ralph squinted at the man who chuckled and strolled out as if he had not a care in the world.
Betty fumed. "Saw that snake when I brought in the sandwich board for the day. Grabbed my Ralph."
"Thanks, Betty." Lily doubted they intimidated Ryan, but he hated making a scene in front of others, so their presence did help. "Appreciate it."
"Ppssshhh. Next time he comes in, just bang on the wall and we'll come running. Ralph is hell with a rolling pin."
Lily laughed at the visual: seventy-five-year-old Ralph slowly chasing Ryan around the shop with a heavy wooden rolling pin. Her laughter cleared when she thought she might need help. Ryan never gave up easily. His calls would probably escalate, too, now that he knew she knew who made them. "Will do," she answered, a bit more serious. Maybe a bit more worried. And just when everything looked all merry and bright, too.
A t ten to nine, ten minutes before she closed the shop, the vampire who'd perused the candles on display for the last ten minutes let out a low, dangerous hiss. Lily, frightened, whipped her head toward the lithe woman. Her ghostly pale face, framed by ringlets of auburn hair, zeroed in not on Lily, but the back of the shop. Without a word or looking away from the spot where she stared, the woman set down the candle she'd been holding and slowly backed out of the store. Her eyes didn't break their stare until she turned to run away, too fast for Lily to track.
Heart beating hard in her chest, Lily gripped the counter and let out a harsh breath. She was thankful Isa had left an hour earlier. Nothing had happened, and there were few accounts of humans being attacked by vampires for no good reason, but they were still predators. Lily'd never felt that more than just then.
Given what happened, Lily moved to her front door, flipped the open sign to closed, and locked the door. There weren't many still wandering the streets now, so closing a few minutes early seemed just fine by her. She quickly did her closing routine, flipped off all her lights except the small lamp she kept going in the lab, and bundled up in her thick coat.
She hesitated at the door, her heart once again racing. Lily didn't know what had spooked the vampire, but something had. What if something scarier than a vampire waited out there? Shaking her head to loosen up the fear, she decided to push ahead. There were still plenty of people about, what with all the shops closing. A loud enough scream would hopefully bring some people running if she needed them.
As she pushed the door open, a little more cautiously than normal, a sharp sound cracked. She jumped about a mile but steadied herself quickly when nothing came rushing at her. Her head poked out first, looking around at the dark alleyway. She didn't see anything. Until she looked down at the back stoop.
A large stick leaned against the back wall, honed wood gleaming in the yellowish light of the covered bulb hovering above her backdoor. It looked massive, yes, but it was just a stick. Her hand shot down to grab it as she stepped fully from the door, letting it close firmly behind her.
It was a walking stick. Hand-carved, its intricate design popped out at her in the darkness. The deep grooves and swirls and swoops moved through images of tree-lined mountains. After she turned it over in her hand a minute or two, she realized what it represented: wind in the pines. Exactly as she'd described Boreas's scent to him.
Her breath caught, hope welled, and she called out "Boreas?" No one answered. She knew he wouldn’t. His scent didn’t hit her nose and the tightrope between them sat unmoving in her chest, no signal of him being close at hand.
Disappointment stung, but made a new resolve form in her mind. She yearned, a feeling she’d never experienced before, but she also thought. Thought about Ryan—what he’d done that day and in the past—and how regardless of need or want or desire, she would remain in control. She was no delicate snowflake blown about in a storm.