Seven Secret Spellcasters (Kitchen Witch Mysteries #7)

CHAPTER 1

M ia Malone sat in her catering director’s office at the Magic Springs Lodge, reading the new catering proposal specifications again.

Trying to understand them was a whole other task.

On the one hand, the Lodge’s loosening of Frank Hines’s policies from when her former boss ruled the hotel was a good thing.

It meant that Mia’s Morsel’s, her catering company, would be able to at least send proposals to a local board that would make decisions on who would be awarded the contract.

On the other hand, the specifications were so detailed that Mia didn’t think her company would qualify to even compete.

Even with the extensive community contacts of her current manager, Abigail Majors.

Blake Sandburg, Mia’s new boss at the Lodge, wanted bids from catering companies that had at least fifty employees, had a nondiscrimination policy in place for staff, and would sign an NDA for each assignment.

The minimum-employee policy alone would rule out any catering company in the local area, and most Boise-based companies didn’t want the three-hour-each-way drive for a local event.

She guessed that Twin Falls companies might apply, but they mostly hated coming up the mountain, especially for evening events.

Mia thought her new boss might have to change her criteria.

Blake was all business. Her meetings ran fast with a preset agenda. If you had something to bring up, you sent the request to her email no later than two business days before the weekly meeting. Or the item was put on the agenda for the next week.

Frank liked to play with the staff’s minds. Blake didn’t want anyone to be surprised or have to think on their feet. Working for Frank had been a nightmare, but Mia wasn’t sure working for Blake was going to be much different.

James Holder, the head chef at the Lodge and kitchen manager, stuck his head into her office.

“Want some butternut-squash soup for lunch? I accidentally made too much when I was testing a recipe for next week. I’m serving freshly baked bread with it.

Come into my office, and we can plot a mutiny while we’re eating. ”

The kitchen and James, as the chef, had been given new rules as well.

Menus were to be standardized with only limited menu changes that allowed them to save money on ordering in bulk.

This also meant that James was limited in what he could order from Majors Grocery in town.

A problem she’d heard about not only from James, but also from the store owner and her boyfriend, Trent Majors.

She’d told Trent to file a complaint with the corporate office, not her.

She’d told his mother, Abigail, the same thing when she complained about the catering rules that were excluding Mia’s Morsels.

She wasn’t fighting anyone’s battles but her own.

Mia knew there was more to the story than the loss of the Lodge’s business adding to Trent’s recent bad mood.

His dog, Cerby, was at his hellhound training at the McMann werewolf camp in the deep woods north of Magic Springs.

Trent got updates every evening from Cerby’s trainer.

And, from what she’d heard, Cerby was acting out due to experiencing homesickness.

The cages they’d seen when she went up to the camp with Trent last week to drop off Cerby had been huge and indestructible, with iron bars.

She’d made Trent leave Cerby’s favorite blue-and-white print blanket and stuffed dragon with him, even though his other classmates didn’t seem to need anything from home.

The cage next to Cerby had held the biggest Rottweiler Mia had ever seen.

And she was positive that the “cat” in the next cage was a mountain lion.

Cerby, now a year-old Maltese, looked like he’d been misplaced in the residential camp.

When they’d taken him up for testing, even the werewolf who’d completed his intake had been skeptical until the five-pound Maltese had levitated the six-foot-tall trainer and held him there until Trent convinced Cerby that the man had a treat in his pocket.

As Mia closed her computer and tucked the printout of the application process into her tote, her phone rang. It was Trent. “Hey, James, I’ll meet you there in a couple of minutes. I need to take this.”

“Tell Trent hi,” James said as he left her office, closing the door behind him.

She answered and followed his directions as she sat back in her chair. “James says hi. What’s going on?”

“Why do you think something has to be going on for your boyfriend to call in the middle of the day on a Wednesday?” His warm voice held a twinge of humor.

“Nothing’s wrong? I guess I’m just on edge.

I’m so glad I’m off tomorrow before the Friday event.

I’m not sure I can get all of Blake’s pre-event checklists done before she wants me to start on the debriefing checklists.

The woman loves her reports. Paper. Not a verbal check-in at the meeting or an email.

She wants a hard copy on her desk no later than Monday morning at ten a.m. This is a routine, monthly dinner for the Magic Springs Men’s Club.

What happens when I do a big event?” She sighed, then realized she’d been venting for a while. “Sorry, so why did you call?”

“Are you still getting off at two today, like you planned?” He waited for her to confirm, then continued.

“Good, because we need to go pick up Cerby. Max McMann, his trainer, thinks he’s not ready for hellhound training.

Maybe in a few months. He said they might need to do an individualized program for him. ”

“Uh-oh, what did he do?” Mia hadn’t liked the idea of sending the dog away for a residential training program in the first place.

Cerby didn’t like being away from Trent.

When he’d stayed with Mia while Trent was fishing with his dad, he dreamed of dragons.

And what Cerby dreamed, he shared with Mia.

Even that distraction hadn’t kept him from missing Trent.

He slept with her on her bed. Not in an outdoor cage.

“Max wouldn’t tell me, but there was laughter from the other guys when he called. He said we’d find out when we got to the camp.” He said something to someone else. “Look, I’ve got to go if I’m taking off. I’ll pick you up at the school at two fifteen?”

“Sounds good. I’m missing my Cerby cuddles.

” She hung up and tucked her phone into the back pocket of her jeans.

It was funny how quickly the little hellhound had become part of her life as well as Trent’s.

She’d eat a quick lunch with James, get all the gossip, then come back and finish the midweek report.

Tomorrow, Grans was coming over to help her set up the new potions lab.

Abigail had agreed—no, insisted—on helping them stock the shelves.

After she took the coven’s national council test on Monday, Mia’s training as a kitchen witch would be complete.

Her grandmother had scheduled a transfer of powers the night before Halloween.

Just in case she decided to join the coven at the party they were having the next evening.

She thought it unlikely, but her grandmother had insisted she leave the option available.

Mia wasn’t a joiner. She found her groups of friends more naturally in her activities. Okay, she admitted to herself, her friends were all work friends. But really close work friends.

The October calendar kept filling up with must-dos, but at least now, Cerby would be home with them.

She’d missed the little guy more than she’d realized she would.

Maybe she was reacting to Christina Adams, her former employee and almost sister-in-law, in the process of moving to Oregon.

She wasn’t gone just on a vacation. Christina was leasing an apartment and attending the mandatory training for her new job that started the second week of November.

Change was happening all over Magic Springs, and Mia wasn’t liking it one bit.

She knocked on the open door to James’s office, and he waved her inside.

He was on the phone. “Yes, Blake, I know I haven’t turned in my proposed menu changes for November, but you also changed my supply chain and I’m scrambling to make sure I can locally source the product for the holidays. ”

He bounced his head back and forth as he listened to her response.

“Well, yes, that would help tremendously. I’d love to use my normal suppliers for the holiday season.

As soon as I confirm they can still supply us after I told them we weren’t going to be using them anymore, I’ll turn in those new menus. ”

Mia tried to stifle a laugh.

“Of course, I understand this is a onetime exception. I’ll be looking for new suppliers who meet your criteria right after I confirm the menu changes and get that on your desk.” James grinned at Mia. “One step at a time, Blake.”

Mia lifted one of the covers on a tray in front of her. The soup smelled divine—and it even had a hint of cinnamon. Her mouth watered.

“I’ve got to go now,” James said as he hung up.

He took the cover off the other tray revealing two bowls and a plate of warm rolls with a generous side of butter.

“You can tell Trent he’s welcome when you see him tonight.

I got us a reprieve from Bossy Blake. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m kind of missing Frank. ”

“Bite your tongue. At least Blake isn’t actively trying to get rid of me. At least not that I know of. Have you heard anything?” Mia took the cloth napkin and put it on her lap, then she took a spoonful of the soup. She closed her eyes and groaned. “Yummy.”