Not to mention it kept her from literally turning her gun on a real person.
Or herself.
Mina, Paige, and Makenzie were in charge of closing the store. Since all three of them were staying for coven, they didn’t mind working the shift. Mandaline grabbed a shower and changed into a cami top and long peasant skirt and was downstairs waiting for Ellis and Brad when they showed up at seven.
Both men were freshly showered and shaved. Instead of jeans they’d both donned slacks, button-up shirts, and loafers.
They looked good, like a couple of lawyers fresh out of the office. She wouldn’t deny her heart fluttered even as heat flared deep in her body, between her legs, ignited by her clit.
I reeeeally need to get laid.
Hell, even if they weren’t relationship material, hot kinky sex might be just the thing she needed to distract her for a while. She grabbed her purse and a crocheted shawl and let the men escort her to their car. Brad held the front passenger door open for her before climbing into the backseat.
“So where are we going?” she asked.
“There’s a new Irish pub on State Road 50, on the way to Spring Hill,” Ellis said. “A couple of guys in my office were talking about it this week.”
“Sounds good to me.”
She felt his tension and didn’t miss how he’d avoided touching her. She was okay with that, because she realized how difficult this was for him.
“How many people work in your office?” she asked.
“I’ve got a receptionist who’s our office assistant, another lawyer, and a paralegal. But I rent some of the other offices out to a couple of attorneys and others.”
“What did you do with your apartment there when you moved out?”
“One side of it is now rented out to a guy doing graphic arts design. The other part is storage.”
“I guess practicing law here is different than in Tampa.”
He shrugged as he made the turn onto SR 50. “It’s a good kind of different. It’s quieter. I mostly handle family law, civil cases. The occasional minor criminal case for some of my existing clients. I gave up criminal law.”
“He’s too modest,” Brad piped up from the back. “He would have made partner in five years or less if he’d stayed with Kantly, Jessom, and Powell. They’re one of the largest firms in the Tampa Bay area.”
She watched how Ellis glanced in the rearview mirror. “It was a shark tank,” he said. “No way in hell could I juggle everything. Life’s a lot easier now.”
“In some ways,” Brad countered.
She looked over her shoulder and spotted the playful smile on his face. He radiated triumph. For him, getting Ellis to come along to dinner and coven had equaled a rousing success.
Maybe it was. She’d withhold judgment until the night was over.
At the restaurant, the hostess showed them to a booth. Ellis and Brad slid into one side while Mandaline sat across from them. It only took Brad a few seconds to start playing footsies with her. His brown eyes bored into hers as a playful smirk quirked his lips.
Ellis, however, had his face buried in the menu. “Please, order whatever you like,” he said. “I meant it. This is on us.”
She briefly considered ordering a pint of ale before nipping that thought in the bud. No booze for me tonight. Or maybe for the rest of the year. “Iced tea, please,” she said to the waitress waiting to take their drink orders.
Brad did order a pint of ale, while Ellis stuck to Coke.
Ellis seemed at a loss for conversation starters. Brad, however, apparently felt no qualms about jumping right in. Even as he rubbed the toe of his foot along her calf under the table, he met her gaze. “How did you end up working at the shop?” She gave him credit. His smile only faltered for a split second. “I meant, before.”
She offered him a smile in return. “Well, like any good story, the road took many twists and turns that I didn’t expect to get me to my current destination.”
Ellis opted to let Brad carry the conversational weight. He desperately didn’t want to screw things up. If not for his own sake, for Brad’s. Yes, he was attracted to Mandaline in ways he couldn’t fathom. He didn’t understand the pull she had on his heart. He barely knew her, but if he closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander, he, too, could see himself spending his life with these two people.
Happily so.
“How so?” Brad asked her.
She shrugged. “I tried doing things the traditional way. College, job, relationship. My craft was part of me, but I made the mistake of not making it the center of my soul. I tried to fit it in around everything else instead of the other way around. I tried letting my mind instead of my soul mold myself.”
“What’d you study in college?”
“I have a degree in accounting.” She smiled. “Not many people believe that. Numbers and what I do seem at cross-purposes.”
Ellis tuned in a little more. She’s an accountant? He wouldn’t have guessed it about her considering what she did.
“How long did you know Julie?” Brad asked.
She sadly smiled. “We’ve…we were friends since high school. She’s the one who taught me how to read Tarot cards back then. I was maybe fifteen. I was really, really good at it and we just clicked.”
She clasped her hands in front of her on her menu and let her gaze drop to them. “I know a lot of people don’t believe what I believe in, and that’s fine. It’s like when I was a kid, I never felt like I fit in. My mom made me go to church and I hated it. I didn’t believe in it. I had to keep my mouth shut and sit there, bored to tears every Sunday. I always felt tuned in to other things. Like I could tell things about people without them saying it.”
She looked up at Brad. “Julie’s the one who told me about empaths. She was one, too. She loaned me books and helped me learn about all of that. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a place, a calling.” She laughed. “Then we went to college together. She was always a better student than I was. I got by. She excelled. She went on to be a Rhodes scholar.”
Ellis spoke up. “And she ran a New Age shop?” He felt Brad glare at him but ignored it.
“Yep. It was her passion. She used her business training to make the shop profitable.”
“Did you open it with her?” Brad asked.
“No, she did that on her own. I was working for an auto dealership in Dade City and bored out of my freaking mind. She coaxed me into doing Tarot readings for people on the side, in my free time. But I was pretty hit and miss for a while with that.”
“Why?”
“I was always afraid to admit to others what I did. I was so busy working and trying to find a relationship that I forgot to keep myself centered. I eventually met a guy and he proposed and I stupidly accepted.” She smirked. “He wasn’t particularly religious, but his family was. They didn’t like me at all. His mother snooped once when she was over at our place and demanded to know why I had ‘devil worship’ stuff in my jewelry box.”
Brad’s jaw dropped. “What?”
Mandaline nodded. “Ohhh, you wouldn’t believe the stuff that bitch did. She’d found my pentacle.” She pulled it out from under her shirt. The silver, five-pointed star inside a circle hung from a delicate silver chain. “Julie gave it to me in high school.” She looked down at it, a sad smile on her face “Contrary to my ex-mother-in-law’s hysterical rantings, it has nothing to do with devil worship in most cases.” She snorted. “I don’t even believe in Satan, so how can I worship him?”
Ellis spoke up again, curious. “What’s it mean?”
“It represents the elements. Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit as the fifth point.” She smiled. “Pretty evil, huh?”