CHAPTER THREE
Pizzas and breadsticks ordered, Taylor and I completed the closing routine.
As I bundled up the trash, I could hear Toni running the sweeper next door.
Taylor took the trash out back for me, and I tucked Hattie’s garment bag in the back room where it would be safe.
I closed the adjoining doors to the other shops, secured them, and shut off my lights.
After we went out, I locked the back door and quickly set the store’s alarm.
“I’ve never been up here before,” Taylor said as she followed me up the rear metal stairs that led to my apartment. “It’s not like Circe’s shop where she has interior steps up to her place.”
“Yeah,” I said, closing the door behind us. “The only entrance to my apartment is from the outside rear of the building. But I like it that way. It helps me keep work and home separate.”
“It’s pretty. All open like a studio apartment.” Taylor walked over to my drop-leaf kitchen table and set her purse down. “It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be.”
I nodded. “To be honest, the upstairs living space was one of the main reasons I bought this middle section of the building.”
My apartment—like my retail space below—was long but narrow with brick interior walls, hardwood floors, and two long windows at the far end. There was a small window at the kitchen end, and the windows out front were large and overlooked the street, letting in a lot of natural light.
The kitchen was on the small side, and the cabinets were situated right inside the door and left wall, making an L shape.
The bathroom created a bump out along the right side of the living space.
I’d tucked my bed in between that and the right window.
It worked out well as the bathroom bump-out created a bit of privacy and blocked most of the view of my bed.
My living area was set up along the left side of the apartment, with a simple deep green sofa, a coffee table and a vintage leather club chair. I’d picked up the table and chair for a song at an estate sale.
“Oh!” Taylor made a beeline for the shelves below my windows. “Look at all the different houseplants! They seem really happy here.”
Her enthusiasm made me smile. “Since I don’t have space for a garden in the city, I decided to create one indoors with the plants.”
“You named your plants?” She pointed at a wooden plant tag in a potted philodendron.
“That’s Phil.” I waited a second before I added straight-faced, “Last name, O’Dendron.”
Taylor started to laugh. “You kill me, Kate.”
“They all have names,” I said, toeing off my shoes. Bending over, I scooped the shoes up and took them to the narrow closet in my bedroom area. By the time I had tucked them away, I found she was looking at all of the plants and reading their name tags.
“Porthos?” She asked, looking at another plant label. “Is he a pothos variety of houseplant?”
“He is.”
“If I don’t find an Athos and an Aramis, I’m gonna be very disappointed.”
While Taylor amused herself checking the names of my plants, I went to the kitchen and got out plates and a few glasses. A short time later Circe and Toni joined us. And my cousin was carrying a bottle of red wine.
I poured myself, Taylor, and Circe a glass of wine and added ice to a tumbler and poured out a soft drink for Toni. Dex arrived when the pizza did, and he insisted on helping me set it all up.
Giving him a friendly smile, I reminded myself to ignore the fact that he was stunningly attractive. As we worked shoulder-to-shoulder, I made every effort to treat him like the rest of my guests.
The five of us ended up sitting around my coffee table eating pizza and breadsticks. With water to drink, Dex was seated on the couch beside me. Taylor took the chair, and Circe and Toni were on the ground, using my huge floor pillows to make it more comfortable.
“Hey, Cousin,” Circe said. “You don’t happen to have any oregano growing in that hydroponic garden thingy on your kitchen counter...do you?”
“I do,” I said around a mouth of pizza. “Let me go get some for you.” I stood and went to the kitchen, then plucked a few sprigs from the oregano.
“Is it Greek oregano?” she asked when I handed it to her.
“Of course it is,” I said, returning to my seat. “Mama would be scandalized if I grew any other variety.”
“What’s the difference between Greek oregano and regular oregano?” Toni wanted to know.
“Greek oregano is sharper, more pungent,” I explained to her, while Circe sprinkled the fresh herb over her pizza.
“Does it have magickal properties?” she asked next.
“Yes,” I said. “Oregano in general brings joy, protection and good fortune.”
“It’s also sacred to Aphrodite,” Circe chimed in. “Not to mention that it makes the pizza taste better.”
Dex held out his slice to Circe. “Let me try some.”
“Sure.” She sprinkled a few leaves of oregano over his food.
Dex took a bite and made a low appreciative sound. “Mmmm…”
It was a sort of deep grumble, almost a purr that he’d made, and it had my belly quivering in a helpless reaction. For a moment I wondered if he made that sound during sex. Would he be a tender, romantic lover? Or would he be intense, passionate and thrilling...
Catching myself, I hastily took a large bite of pizza. Stop it! I silently warned myself.
“You and Circe are cousins, right?” Toni asked me a moment later.
“We are,” I said, grateful for the distraction. “Our mothers are sisters.”
“Oh.” Toni nodded. “Which is why you have different last names.”
Circe smiled at Toni. “Papadias and Weaver. My parents, they met when our mothers were on a post-college trip to visit their grandparents in Greece.”
“And my Mama met my Daddy at Auburn,” I said. “They were college sweethearts. The Weavers have been in Alabama for five generations and immigrated originally from Scotland.”
“Scots,” Dex said from beside me on the couch. “That explains the undertones of red in your hair.”
Self-consciously I lifted a hand to my hair, wondering if my curls were misbehaving.
“And my father is also Greek,” Circe continued. “He was so smitten with my mother that he applied for a work visa and moved to America.”
“So you’re both Greek?” Toni asked, as she gobbled up another breadstick.
Circe smiled. “Me more so than Hekate, but yeah, we both have Greek ancestry.”
Toni’s eye went round as she considered me. “Your real name is Hekate?”
I nodded. “It is.”
“That’s so witchy and cool,” Toni breathed. “But why don’t you use your full name?”
“Most folks mispronounce it, or make a joke,” I told her. “It’s pronounced: heh-KAH- tay. Emphasis on the second syllable.”
“Oh.” She tried the pronunciation herself.
Taylor paused from taking a sip of her wine. “I’ve heard some folks say the goddess’s name with a “tee” sound on the end.”
“The eternal debate,” I joked. “Which is why I simply go by Kate.”
Circe tossed her long hair over one shoulder. “Oh, and before you ask, Toni, no one has ever made fun of my name.”
“I bet not,” Toni said, dipping her breadstick in some marinara. “They probably figure you’d turn them into a toad.”
Circe wiggled her eyebrows in return. “Oh, honey, I can be much more creative than that.”
The conversation shifted to Halloween and how everyone was going to celebrate it. Taylor and Toni had a reservation for a ghost tour at the Sloss Furnace, and Circe and I planned to hand out candy at the front door of the shop, like we had since we’d opened almost two years ago.
“How ‘bout you Dex?” Taylor asked.
“I usually help Lorna with any trick-or-treaters, then I go up to my place and watch a movie.”
The rest of the evening passed quickly. Despite the fact that I was hyper-aware of Dex, I had a great time hanging out with everyone.
Soon Taylor and Toni headed home, loaded with a box of left-over pizza that I’d given them.
Circe gave me a one-armed hug and wandered toward the door, and Dex remained in the living room area, stacking plates.
I shut the door behind my cousin and went to take the plates from Dex. “You don’t have to do that,” I said.
He held them just out of reach. “Happy to help.”
With no other option, I let him hold onto the plates. “Thank you,” I said. “Please set them in the sink.”
“Okay,” he said, his shoulder brushing past mine on his way to the kitchen area.
My heart slammed against my ribs from that innocent and brief contact. Taking a deep breath, I raised up my energetic shields higher, with the intention of blocking him from reading my physical reactions.
Blindly, I went for the coffee table, giving myself a silent lecture on all of the ways my attraction to him was extremely inappropriate.
He’s four years younger, I reminded myself as I stacked the empty boxes.
He’s Lorna’s employee—Lorna is my friend.
She adores him like a brother...and I’m being stupid.
Intent on my inner monologue, I straightened, turned, and then bounced right off him.
“Oof!” I said as we collided and the boxes went flying.
His hands went automatically to my waist to steady me.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, my eyes dropping to his shirt. “Did I get any pizza on you?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
There was marinara sauce splattered on his shirt. “You got splashed with dipping sauce,” I said, brushing at it.
“Kate, it’s fine,” he said.
“I can wash it for you,” I offered as I tried to wipe the sauce off his cotton shirt. “I bet I can get the stain out. Take your shirt off.” No sooner had the words left my mouth when I regretted them.
“Kate.” His voice was a low rumble.
Hearing his husky tone, my hands stopped moving. There we stood in each other’s arms, my hands pressed against his chest. As soon as I realized how intimate our position was, I snatched my hands back from his shirt so quickly that I overbalanced.
But I didn’t fall...because he kept his hands anchored at my waist.
“Why are you so nervous around me, tonight?” he asked.
I made the mistake of glancing up and meeting his eyes. “I’m not.”
“You’re trembling,” he pointed out.