Epilogue #2
“I didn’t think Ash would be able to handle you. I should’ve known better. He was into you when we were teens and I thought you’d eat him alive, Roxy. But now… he’s happy to let you gobble him up.”
Neither Ash or me have any kind of retort to that. Most likely because we’re both waiting for Honey to realize just how that sounded.
She does. Wrinkling her nose, she shakes her head, her twin braids bobbing as she does. “Okay. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You sure? Because, I can tell you, Ash likes it when I do a little gobbling.”
Her hands go to her ears. “I’m not listening to you tell me what my cousin likes. La, la, la.”
I snicker, and Ash squeezes me to him in another one-armed hug. “You know, if you’re not careful, she might tell you whether or not Sheriff Max howls when they’re in bed.”
He has a point. “Okay. I’ll behave.”
“I didn’t say that. Rox… I don’t ever want you to behave. But unless you want to embarrass Honey into blurting out something neither of us want to know, maybe it’s time we change the subject.”
Ash is definitely right. There was that time I was teasing her about how wild opossums have thirteen nipples in front of Max before I knew for sure they were meant to be. She turned so red, I thought her head was going to explode. The last thing I need right now is for her to retaliate.
I cup my hand near my mouth, raising my voice. “Sorry, Honey.”
She must hear me because she drops her hands. “This is my fault. Karma is punishing me for my brilliant idea, and now I nearly walked in on the two of you fucking in the dumpster.”
Normally, I’d say I don’t believe in Karma. But if Fate can get it right, who knows what Karma can do to me if I stick my middle finger up at it.
“Okay. I’ll bite. What brilliant idea?” And then, because it just hits me that we’re missing a furry little menace, I ask, “Where’s Gus?”
“He’s holding down the bakery for me. I only have cherry tarts left for sale right now, and he knows to accept three dollars for them. If anyone tries to cheat him, he has my permission to take a nibble.”
He’ll do it, too. Happily.
“What if they pay card?”
“Gus helps them tap the card reader.”
Of course he does. “And the brilliant idea?”
Honey gestures for us to climb out of the trash. “Come with me. I left the book back at the bakery. I have to show you there.”
Ash and I exchange a look at the word ‘book’.
Uh-oh.
Honey is so insistent that we head straight to Dough You Believe in Magic, we even leave the eighth fork behind with the thought to come back for it before the dumpsters are emptied.
I suggest we stop home to take a quick shower—together since it would be even quicker…
in theory—but Honey knows better. She offers the industrial sink in her kitchen for us to freshen up, but refuses to let Ash and me go anywhere except the bakery.
Before last week, I could’ve borrowed the shower in the apartment over it. Now? Penelope Willows has moved in to it. I’m sure she’d let me if I asked, but I’d rather not bother the witch.
Especially since she’s decided to stay in town until her coven has reason to call for the cursebreaker…
If you ask me, there are two reasons why Penelope is sticking around: Olivia Frost and Riordan Lobo. Until there is some closure regarding either one of them and how they treated Penelope, she’s Moonburrow’s newest supe, and I totally get that.
When I made the sale to the coven, I kept the compact that started all this trouble out of the deal.
Instead, I gave it to Penelope as a gift from me and Ash for all she did to save him.
I wish I could give her what she really wants—answers from a still-missing wolf shifter—but, for now, I figure that’s good enough.
Once Ash has gotten rid of his gloves and we’ve both soaped up at the sink, we join Honey in the front of the bakery.
Gus chitters a greeting. Ash scratches him behind the ears. I hold out my fist and Gus bumps his nose against it.
I turn to ask Honey for the third time what her brilliant idea is when I see what she’s holding in her hands.
It’s the book.
The book.
Grandma Jean’s leather-bound recipe book.
I point at it as if it’s the devil. “No way. No fucking way.”
Honey taps the cover. “I know. And, just in case you’re wondering, I still have customers coming in everyday asking me when I’m going to have the ‘mate brownies’ back in stock.”
“That book is dangerous.” I rap Ash’s bicep with my knuckles. “Tell her, Ash. How did you find it anyway? I thought I hid it in a cabinet.”
“You did,” is Honey’s prim answer. “Gus found it for me. And I was thinking… the charms work. Too well sometimes, but they do work. I was looking for a recipe for fun this morning, but I saw this.”
Flipping open the book to a specific page, she shows it to me and Ash.
“‘Finder’s Seekers’ Fudge Cake,” reads Ash. His eyes go wide. “No. Honey, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? I read Grandma Jean’s notes on the back page.
” Hang on? There are notes on the back page?
That would’ve been handy to know. “The cake is supposed to help guide people toward what they’re searching for the most. I have my mate.
You two found each other. But what if… what if we eat a slice and it helps us find Olivia Frost? ”
Honestly? I can see where Honey is coming from.
Olivia Frost tried to rob me. She shot at me.
She threatened Ash, used magic against me, and fought Gus, then announced she would go after him in front of Honey and Max.
If I want revenge on that witch, that’s nothing compared to how much Gus’s mother wants to see the witch go down.
Her mate is the sheriff, too. It’s a black mark on Max and his team that Olivia managed to disappear from the single cell in the sheriff’s station.
Once Penelope was let out, Olivia took her place until the coven and the pack could decide on her punishment.
Only Olivia vanished before they could, the coven swore to the Alpha that they had no part in her escape, and all we know is that she isn’t currently in Moonburrow.
Will she be back? Maybe. I’d like to say good riddance and forget how she targeted me for the compact, but she’s not the only one missing from our supe town...
I chew on my bottom lip. “Do you think this cake will help us find Riordan?”
Gus lifts his hand, chittering away.
Ash translates: “Gus says that Riordan doesn’t need a pastry to find what the wolf is looking for. She’s right upstairs.”
As one, the three of us glance over our heads. If Riordan has a connection to Penelope… if he believes she’s his fated mate… that would explain a lot—but would it explain how he’s been able to stay away?
“That’s part of the plan. You see, Max wants to go looking for Riordan,” Honey tells us. “He can’t because the pack will fall apart without the Alpha and the Beta. I have to help my mate. We need to find Olivia and Riordan.”
One deserves to be locked up. The other deserves a little happiness.
The cursed wolf and the cursebreaker? That’s not any weirder than the punk rock raccoon and the preppy librarian opossum. Or the opossum baker and her Alpha mate.
“Okay,” I say, clapping Honey on the shoulder with one hand, latching onto my mate’s elbow with the other. “Let’s do it.”
I mean, it’s a Grandma Jean spell. It has to work, doesn’t it?
Not like I’m going to have a slice, though. Why would I? Honey has a point. I have everything I’ve ever looked for right here in Moonburrow—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.