“Exactly!” Kelley crooned. “Do you think I’ve got a shot with him?”
“Well, you’re kind of his boss. I’m pretty sure there’s laws against that kind of thing.”
Her features pinched into a frown.“You’re right. What was I thinking? I don’t have time for a relationship right now anyway.”
“Hey. There will be time for all that later. And you’re going to make some guy very happy one day. Look at you with the business and the house!” I hated to discourage her, but I also knew that Drake was interested in someone else—me. What I would give for that not to be true, especially nowthat I knew Kelley would happily take my place as the object of his affection.
She smiled.“You’re right about that, too. I should probably let you get back to your cats before they run away on you, huh?”
Right, the cats.
I gave her another quick hug.“Thanks for showing me around. It’s a lovely house. Congrats again, Kelley, and see you at work!”
I let myself out and raced back around the house, using my phone light to guide me. I found both cats standing near the old well that had served as Luna’s cauldron.
Luna had a lovesick expression on her face, and Merlin was the very picture of rage. Had I just walked in on my cats canoodling?Really?
“If you two have kittens, I am not raising them!” I growled into the night.
“That’s enough out of you,” Merlin growled right back. “It’s not our fault you took forever in there. We had to do something to pass the time. Now are we ready to go, your highness?”
I nodded stupidly.
“Then lay your hand on me, and I’ll teleport us back home,” the cat commanded.
I hesitated.“Um, that’s okay.”
Luna stepped forward, her blue eyes taking on a red hue in my flashlight.“Gracie, dear. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s all right. We were only grooming each other.”
Grooming, uh-huh.
Still, I didn’t want to stay stuck in this awkward situation any longer than I had to. I placed a hand on Merlin’s head.
He blinked twice, and we were home.
14
“Wait,” I cried as my feet touched down on the linoleum kitchen floor. “We forgot the ingredients for the spell!”
“Already took care of that while we were waiting,” Merlin said, jerking his head toward the table where an array of plant life had been spread across the surface.
“What’s this for?” I asked, picking up the only non-organic object on the table—a ceramic garden decoration shaped like a frog with a giant, open mouth.
Luna smiled wistfully.“This was Virginia’s. It used to sit on the edge of the porch. She used it to hide her spare house key.”
“Yeah, her and everyone else in the state of Georgia,” I quipped. Seriously, why have a spare key at all if you were going to make its hiding spot so obvious? “Why did you bring it back? Are you missing her, Luna?”
The normally docile cat snarled at me.“Heavens no! Why would you even think I’d miss that monster? We need something that belonged to the spirit in life. It will help us summon and trap her.”
“As opposed to some other ghost?” I deadpanned. “Because we have so many ghosts knocking on our door.”
Luna shook her head at my snippiness.“The potency of any spell is much stronger if you add an object that belongs or belonged to the intended recipient.”
Oh, yes. I knew this.“Like when you took Merlin’s hair for the love spell?” I pointed out with one eyebrow raised.
She let out a little cough.“Precisely.”
“So is everything ready? Can we make the potion now?”
“Carry it outside for us, and we can get started,” the she-cat told me, and I was quick to comply.
Once again, though, I questioned the wisdom of keeping the cauldron in our front yard, but it was at least late enough that we probably wouldn’t need to worry about gawking neighbors.
The cats worked together in mixing the brew while I kept my eyes on the street, just in case I needed to sound the alarm.
Thankfully, it only took a few minutes for them to finish their witchy work.
“Gracie, come grab this,” Luna called when they were done.
Inside the bird bath sat the little ceramic frog, its mouth filled with a dark green liquid. It looked like one of those disgusting concoctions my mother used to make in her juicer and then try to force me to drink in the mornings before school.
I didn’t care that it had antioxidants, I refused to ingest something that looked like it had been scraped from the bottom of a pond—and smelled that way, too.
I could hardly suppress a gag as I lifted the frog full of potion and carried it into the house.
“Put it in the hallway near the back corner,” Luna instructed. “The same place we sensed the ghost forming last night.”
“Remind me what this will do,” I said after following her instructions to the letter.
“It will help Virginia to materialize faster, and then it will trap her in place so we can deal with her.”
“And how do we plan to deal with her?”
“Eh, we’ll figure it out when the time comes,” Merlin added with a long, lazy stretch.
“Wonderful,” I muttered, pouring some crunches into the cats’ bowl for them. “So glad to know we’re doing everything we can to make sure we stay safe. Now if you don’t need me any longer, I’m going to bed.”
Both cats raced over to eat. Before lowering his head to the bowl, though, Merlin glanced over to the counter and frowned.“Luna, my love, did we forget one of the ingredients for our potion tonight?”
She stopped eating and raised her head.“No. Everything that should have been included was.”
“Then what’s that?” he asked, pointing his nose toward the counter where the black cactus dahlia Drake had given me still sat in a half-empty glass pitcher.
Both cats glanced toward the counter and then me.
“Gracie,” Luna prattled in a sing-song voice. “That’s not from my garden. Does it belong to you?”
No, no, no. I had hoped we’d all been busy enough that we could just skip past the part where the cats teased me about my non-date. They’d already laid into me pretty hard before Drake came over, and I just didn’t have the energy to endure their teasing a second time.
“It was a gift. Don’t worry about it,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“From your new boyfriend?” Luna cooed, her tail waving from side to side in delight.
“What was his name again?” Merlin asked, kicking up his back leg to scratch behind his ear.
“Drake,” Luna answered promptly.
“Not my boyfriend. Not even close,” I said through clenched teeth.
“But he gave you a flower,” Luna pointed out. “Isn’t that considered a romantic gesture among humans?”
“Yeah, he wants me. I don’t want him. In fact, my other friend does. Ugh, never mind. Can we just move past this whole elementary school thing, please?”
“What’s elementary school?” they both asked, completely transfixed on me now.
“It’s a place human kids go when they’re like six.”
“I’m only one year old,” Merlin said with a shrug.
“Me, too,” Luna chimed.
“So I guess it’s not past us then,” Merlin said with a sinister smile. “Now tell us, did Drakey Wakey kiss you nighty wighty?”
“I’m going to bed!” I shouted, then stomped off and slammed my bedroom door for the second time that day.
15
I woke up the next morning to bright rays of sunlight shooting through my blinds. Ugh. I really needed to invest in some blackout curtains if I ever wanted to sleep past sunrise again.
After a quick pit stop to the bathroom, I trudged into the kitchen and straight to my favorite appliance, then popped in a dark roast pod and waited for it to brew.
My morning coffee was becoming increasingly important to me now that everything at Harold’s was pumpkin spice flavored. I used to love getting those special lattes during the fall, but now that I’d been subjected to a PSL overdose at Kelley’s hands, I firmly believed seasonal drinks were seasonal for a reason.