Chapter 14 Sparklers and Sparks #3
The night manager of The Crescent Inn still hadn't warmed to her. She gave Tilly a tight smile and handed the chief her tickets with a friendly nod. The woman smiled at him and wouldn't give her so much as a fake smile.
Once she was walking away, he slid her a questioning look.
"She hasn't really come to like me yet. She's the night manager at the inn."
He nodded. She shrugged. "I guess I would be wary of someone with no experience being given such a big job." She laughed softly, her eyes cast down as she added, "She's not wrong, either. I have no experience."
"Do you enjoy it?"
She looked up at him, surprised by the question. "Running the inn?"
He nodded.
"I," she stopped and thought about the bathroom toilet overflowing and fixing it.
She thought about the improvements she had made in stripping wallpaper and adding updated patterns that made the place come to life.
Another mysterious slip of paper had been unearthed from a loose floorboard upstairs.
There is a freedom from the prison of others' opinions of you when you're disliked by them.
She had sat there with iced tea, sweat sliding between her breasts, and wondering if that was true.
She thought about how the pastries that Eloise sent over every morning had become something both she and guests looked forward to.
Just this week, she'd started baking fresh loaves of bread for small plates of smoky olive oil and assortments of cheeses. She started to smile when she thought of the beaded trim she had carefully added around the crown molding of the foyer.
She was making larger batches of honey wine, fermenting and adding notes of berries that would be ready in a few months. She could picture selling bottles of white peach, apple crisp, or cranberry, depending on the season.
That smile grabbed one corner of her mouth.
"Yeah, I do. It's hard work and there's a lot more to do.
" Her smile grew, and she felt it in her chest. "But I have loved all of it.
" And she had. She stood there in the booth under the twinkle lights of the tent, a smile just for herself.
She wasn't sure she had ever felt this way about a job before.
He watched her intently, taking in the way that her eyes lit up, the way that she pushed a strand of her green hair out of her excited face.
He took in the inflection of her voice, capturing it and holding it against him.
It was striking the way that she glowed when she let go and spoke of something she loved.
He took all of that in. It was a gift. And maybe she didn't intend to give it to him, but it was a gift all the same.
She felt something loosen. Like hair worn in a tight bun for a full day, finally released. It was uncommon to her, this relief, and it took her off guard.
"Anyways," she said, her hand fluttering through the air, caught in the spiderweb of her happiness.
"Your sister seems terrible."
His blunt assessment of her sister took her back.
"She's not that bad," she said, but as the words were coming out of her mouth, words she had said so many times in defense of her sister that they felt like they took up residence inside of her, just ready to come out.
That bun-tightening feeling crept up again, and she stopped it with a firm shake of her head. "Actually, no. She is terrible."
When she looked at the Chief, he was quiet but encouraging.
The smile shut off, and her eyes became sharp.
"Frustrating. And unkind. She has treated me like I'm a side character in our family my entire life.
" She was straightening the sparklers, her hands hard and jerky.
"The other night, she called me after I had already left for the day and asked me to come back and bring her food.
Specifically roasted chicken and a leafy green salad with a freshly made avocado and beet dressing. "
"That's very specific," he said.
What she didn't say was more important, sharper. Her sister was cruel. She had lent Tilly too many moments of uncertainty about her worth to hold under a microscope of anxiety and find herself wanting.
Just then, someone stopped in front of their booth, and before she even lifted her eyes, she felt a darkness, like sadness and anger with a hint of threat roll through her body.
It was so sudden that she took a step back.
When she did look up, she saw dark glossy hair, calculating eyes, and two shadows on either side of her.
"Landry," Astra said. She had a deep voice. Up close, Tilly could see she had dark eyes, austere eyebrows, and high cheekbones.
"Astra," he replied. His voice wasn't warm. Though his tone tended more toward the intense side, it was never this chilly. "Still in town." It was an observation. Tilly had seen him hand her a folder the other night, but what was their connection exactly?
She smiled, though it looked threatening. "We have important business here in Salem. People to protect," she cut her sharp gaze to Tilly, and the look pierced her. "Secrets to keep."
Tilly frowned at the words, at the way that the woman's eyes held hers, knowing that after their uninvited dinner party appearance, she had meant them for her.
She held out her right hand, and Tilly looked at it before she tentatively took it.
Then something happened.
Or, Tilly thought that something happened, but the moment that Tilly's hand touched hers, Astra let it go and stepped back. Her severely unmoving expression cracked for less than a full second before it was back, but that darkness she'd felt from Astra moved, ink blooming inside of her.
"You must be Tilly."
"Tilly Nguyen," she replied, trying to infuse her voice with gumption though she was feeling thrown off.
"I do hope nothing awry happens while we're here," she cooed. Her dark head tilted. "That would be troubling."
Tilly frowned. The feeling of apple cider vinegar sliding down her throat, disrupting a calm stomach, overcame her.
Her hand at her side clenched, then she felt the chief's warm hand gently lay on her lower back; it was both shocking and soothing. She could imagine the darkness losing its form, ink blooming before fading into water.
"Well, I'll see you around, chief." Mocking. But then she and her two comrades were off, like a trio of well-timed synchrony. Tilly watched once again in awe at their coordinated steps that ate up the ground with strength and precision.
"Do you think they practice walking together in step? I mean, they have to, right?"
He let out a breath, one of the first times she experienced him being remotely untethered to his stoic self. His hand was still on the small of her back, and she wouldn't admit it to him out loud, but it felt nice, a comforting weight.
When he finally withdrew, she mourned the loss for a moment before she turned to look up at him. He was watching the three women walk down the street and part the crowd without effort.
"You know them."
He nodded twice slowly.
"If you can help it, don't get tangled up with them. Especially Astra."
"They made it pretty clear when they crashed our dinner party that they were here watching us."
His eyes cut to her sharply. "They sought you out?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm moving into The Lost Souls House because," she shook her head, "never mind. But we were having a dinner party in the back garden to celebrate, and at the end of it, the Sanderson Sisters there showed up with veiled threats."
He frowned, a question on his lips that was extinguished by the call of her name.
They both turned to see Crystal saunter over in her flowing silver pants and matching sleeveless blouse. From her ears hung white and silver stars that caught the festival lights.
"Dear, how are you? Oh, and chief," she turned her twinkling eyes to Theo, reaching out a thin hand for him to grasp gently. His large hands holding hers looked enormous, and the feeling Tilly got was that of a great beast gentling to handle a small animal.
"Miss Crystal. How are you doin' tonight?"
"Well, I'm just a strawberry shortcake shy of being perfect. You look handsome. Like a rugged cowboy," she said with a wink at Tilly, who bit her lips to keep from laughing. Or telling her to quit it.
"Thank you, ma'am. You look nice yourself. The stars have nothin' on you."
"Oh, you stop it," she flirted.
Tilly watched with delight, unable to keep the laugh from bubbling out when Crystal asked him if he knew how to ride a horse with her eyes wide and her head tilted just so.
The woman could flirt.
And the chief? He was charming. It was an odd sensation to look on watching a man who had occupied more than her waking thoughts, categorizing him as intense, nearly apathetic, immovable, and to see him smile and his dark eyes shine.
The way he took care to make Crystal laugh and flip her silver hair was charming.
She could not afford to be charmed by him.
A group of teenage girls found their way to the table, a shock of lightness and mirth trickled through Tilly as she took them in.
Four of them, all wearing that look of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood - curious hope with a dash of unyielding boldness.
She felt it sink into her. She was taking feelings deeper than usual lately, like they had formed claws and dug in.
Chief Landry took them on, to their delight, and while he was exchanging tickets for sparklers Crystal leaned over the table toward her with her familiar conspiratorial look.
"Here, darling. I have something for you." Crystal slid a black and gold card across the table where Tilly's hand was. She took it gingerly, sliding it into the back pocket of her jean shorts.
"Another misfortune for me?"
"I think not," the older woman replied thoughtfully. "I believe that should help you at the inn."
"Speaking of," Tilly slid a look to Theo, who was serving a family. "Do you know much about the Grandmother Clock?"