My smile widened as a warm feeling of understanding grew in me. Henry was a lot like me. Well, me if I was a middle-aged, balding male who owned a furniture store. But still, I felt an affinity with him. “Thanks for the coffee.”
He walked me to the door. “I’m glad you came by, hon. Stop by again before you leave. You hear?”
“I’ll do that.” Before I knew what I was doing I planted a kiss on his leathery cheek.
Embarrassed, I pulled back, but Henry was smiling. I waved goodbye and headed out. Such a sweet man. But then, Maddie’s mom saw something she liked in him, and something told me she was a good judge of character.
Outside, the difference between the air conditioned store and the sauna had me thinking about taking Henry up on that coming back to see him thing. Very soon. Like now, maybe.
I want to explore the town
,
I reminded myself. Besides, I was born a Southern girl. Just because I’d been living in Yankee territory for a while didn’t mean my body couldn’t re-acclimate to the weather—or at least that’s what I kept telling myself as I headed down the sizzling street.
The county courthouse and grounds took up its own block. I smiled as I remembered the cool music, and yeah, the UFO. I couldn’t help myself. It was interesting, even if the photos I’d shot didn’t really show anything clearly enough to identify. Maybe the thirty-five millimeter film would show up something when I got back home and developed those shots, but I had my doubts. It was a mystery, and I dearly love mysteries. I’m not good at solving them, mind you. But I love them nonetheless.
Across from the courthouse was a side road with several businesses. Misty Lane, the sign said. One two-story, red brick building had my breath catching in my throat. The wooden sign hanging outside said Blackwood Antiques. He had invited me. But it would be disrespectful to my very closest friend to enter the lair of her enemy. Right? On the other hand, I could do some poking around in there. If Maddie had such a problem with this dude, he likely had some serious secrets hidden away. Maybe I could discover one or two. Give Maddie some ammunition to work with, in case she wanted to blackmail him or something. Yeah, that sounded legitimate.
I headed in the shop’s direction, and when I saw the beautiful things in the window, I added another reason for going in to my list: the possibility of a bargain. After all, I was the queen of haggling. I’d be willing to bet I could get a great deal out of one Jake Blackwood or his pimply teenaged employee.
I opened the door, and my heart kicked into high gear.
No dusty junk cluttered Jake’s shop. This store was neat, clean and organized. Beautiful old furniture sat in key spots, surround by display areas showing off classic tools, gorgeous china, heavy silverware, and travel chests that looked like something Jane Austen might have used. There were old, but pristine, magazines. And cameras.
Of course, I headed straight to the camera section. A 1970s’ Polaroid, an early Kodak, the body of an old Nikon and its once expensive, but now scratched, telescopic lens. Very cool.
An old Brownie made me smile. My father had a camera just like that. He told me it had belonged to his father and one day it would be mine. Of course, the camera, like everything else of his, had disappeared. A familiar heavy feeling pulled at me.
“Stephie. How nice to see you.”
The voice had me jerking around in surprise. “Mrs. Clark?”
She smiled. “For goodness sake, call me Margaret. You’re staying in my house, and I’ve heard so much about you from Maddie I almost feel like you’re part of the family.”
I tried to smile, to cover my inner wince. “What are you doing here?”
So much for diplomacy.
Mrs., um...Margaret chuckled. “I work here.”
My head spun and I put up a hand to hold it together. “You what?
She put a hand on my shoulder and led me toward the sales counter. “I’ve been working for Jake for a little more than a year. I haven’t told Madison yet. I figured my dating Henry was enough shock for the time being.” She looked me straight in the eye. “I do intend to tell her though.”
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” No way in hell I’m touching that little piece of info. Margaret can tell her daughter all by herself. After all, Maddie isn’t likely to strangle her own mother barehanded.
“Thank you, Stephie. I appreciate your discretion.” She indicated a chair and I took a seat. “Would you like some coffee?”
I’d really like something with more mind-numbing ability, but if coffee was what was available, I’d take it. “Yes, thank you.”
“So what are you doing downtown alone?”
“Maddie had a cheerleader thing, so I thought I’d check out the town.” I looked around again. “Jake has a nice place.”
“Yes, he does, and he’s quite proud of it.” Margaret smiled, and pride filled her eyes. “He works very hard.”
“It looks like it.”
A door opened somewhere, and Jake walked in from the back storage room carrying a stack of boxes. He shot me a big grin. “Well hello, Stephie. Welcome to my store.” He set the boxes down behind the counter and walked over to us.
“I think I’ll take a break,” Margaret said, as she sat a cup of coffee in front of me then hurried off through the same door Jake had just used.
Great. Now I was alone with the enemy.
What was that underhanded reason I had for coming in here? Something about kissing... I mean gathering information?
“Well, what do you think?” he asked.
That you‘re gorgeous? Oh, wait, he means the store. “I think you have good taste.” And I’ll bet you taste good too. Oy!
He grinned, and I grinned back. Mentally I was kicking myself for being so nice to him. I was flirting with the enemy. Literally. Crap!
I leaned back in the chair and forced my face into an expressionless mask, or at least that’s the look I was going for. “So, Maddie’s mother works for you.”
“Yes, she does, and I’m incredibly lucky to have her. Margaret’s an amazing woman.”
“And she’s Maddie’s mother.”
His eyes clouded, just before he looked away. “Yes.”
“And you don’t feel guilty about that?”
Dark anger flared in his eyes when he looked dead into mine. “I have no reason, at all, to feel the tiniest bit guilty.”
I held his gaze, and he didn’t flinch. For a long, searing moment, I felt what seemed to be pent up rage. Then he looked away.
“What happened?” I could barely hear my own voice.
His gaze met mine again, but his expression was more guarded this time. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“Maddie rarely talks about what happened when her father died.” I put a little extra emphasis on the last two words, and I saw him flinch. He didn’t look away though.
“It was hard for me too,” he whispered, then turned and moved to the far end of the counter. He poked through papers and moved things around a moment before he finally looked my way. “You’ll have to ask her why she did what she did. I’ve tried to figure it out for ten years, and I keep coming up blank.”
I stood and put my cup on the counter. “I need to go. I’m meeting Maddie.”
“See you around.” He didn’t meet my gaze.
I headed out, more confused than before. And wondering what the heck I was going to do for the next two hours.
I wandered the streets for a while, getting a handle on the layout of the town. The thing is, the downtowns of most small Southern towns look alike. The same sort of buildings, the same narrow streets, the same sidewalks. But I had to admit, Ugly Creek had a different kind of feel to it, sort of a tingle. Or maybe the heat’s cooking my brain. Maybe I should find some cool before I fry something I need.
I saw the sign, and I just had to check it out. Who could resist a place called the Arcane Restaurant and Magical Supply Shop?
Instead of the normal bell announcing my arrival, the opening door greeted me with the sound of tinkling wind chimes.
“Welcome,” a male voice said, holding out his hand. “I’m Roy, I recognize you from the reunion. You’re a friend of Madison’s aren’t you?”
“I’m Stephie. Wow, you have a good memory.” And a nice, strong handshake.
“To be honest, I might not have remembered if you hadn’t been with Madison. She’s kinda the unofficial star of our shindig this year.”
“Because of her dad.” Emotion filled my throat, and I had to swallow. “So you know Maddie?”
“Kind of.” Roy looked at his shoes. “Back in high school, I didn’t exactly run in the same crowd she did.”
“Cheerleaders weren’t exactly the kind of kids I ran with either.”
He looked at me, and we shared a not-a-popular-kid bonding moment.
“We have some really great fried chicken today. And we have a special on incense, if you’d prefer to shop.”
And once again I was in a store I wasn’t planning on buying anything in. At this rate, I’ll probably be reincarnated as a cheerleader. “I’m actually just looking around town, sightseeing basically.”
“You aren’t the first Yankee to poke around our little town. You’re welcome to look around, and of course you must get your free Tarot reading from Connie.”
“Oh, I didn’t bring my nametag.” How’s that for a quick excuse?
“You don’t need that. I saw you there.” He took a couple of steps toward the counter in what was apparently the mystical supply section of the place. “Connie, got a minute?”
“Absolutely.” The young woman came toward us, her brilliant red hair brushing her shoulders as she walked.
“This is Stephie,” Roy said. “She’s a friend of a classmate of mine.”
Connie smiled at me. “So you’d like a Tarot reading.”
“I…I’m not sure.”
“Trust me, you’ll enjoy the experience.”
Oh, what the hell? I followed Connie, and I couldn’t help thinking she didn’t look anything like a psychic. Thin, pretty, wearing jeans and a light blue top, she looked more like a college student than an expert in the occult.
She sat me down at a small, round table, and took the seat across from me.
“I have to tell you, I don’t believe in this Tarot stuff.”
Connie spread a red velvet cloth on the table and laid a deck of cards in the middle of it. “Honestly, I didn’t believe in Tarot either until I started reading them.”
Maybe the sun really had cooked some of my brain cells. “Why would you start reading cards if you didn’t believe in their power, or whatever?”
The young woman’s gentle, tinkling laugh was relaxing. “I was a bit of a rebel back in high school,” she said. “Whatever would upset my parents appealed to me. I dressed in black clothes, dyed my hair a different color every week, bought pentacles and anything else that would freak them out. One day, I saw a gorgeous set of Tarot cards on the Internet and I bought them. It was supposed to be one more poke at my folks. Turned out, I was the one freaked by the things. The cards felt good under my fingers, like they were supposed to be mine. I did the spread like it said in the little booklet that came with them. And when I turned the cards over, I saw my life laid out before me. I’ve been working with Tarot ever since.”
“Are the cards ever wrong?”
“No. But my interpretation is sometimes.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m going to shuffle until you tell me to stop.” She smiled as she worked. “The cards give us the information; it’s up to us to interpret it.”
“Now.”
She nodded, then spread out the cards, facedown, in an odd pattern. When she finished she turned over one card. “This is your past. The card is—”
“Don’t tell me the names of the cards and all that, please. I’d prefer to just hear the weird news straight.”
“Okay.” Instead of being insulted, like I was afraid of, she chuckled. Then she turned over more cards, and her smile vanished. “Your past shows pain and betrayal; also the leaving behind of something important.” She continued turning over cards. “Your present includes hard work, skill, and success.”
All right, the woman seemed to hitting the right notes, but she might have been reading my expression, or even just guessing. I’m not a believer, okay, Aunt Octavia notwithstanding.
The way Connie tipped her head to the side and frowned slightly had me wondering if she was trying to come up with something believable—or seeing something weird. Wait a minute, crap! “Is that the death card?”
“That’s the common name for it, but it usually doesn’t mean death. In fact, in this case it definitely means change.”
“Change?”
“Change, decisions, the ability to see hidden truths—and the potential for love.” She grinned. “You have a very interesting spread.”
“Um, thanks, I guess.” Decisions again?
“It’s good, I promise.”
Apparently the “spreading” was over, so I stood.
“I’m really interested in how things turn out. Do me a favor and let me know.” She handed me a business card.
“I’ll do that.” I turned to go.
“I’m serious,” she said. “Your life is about to change.”
“Hopefully for the better.”
“That’s up to you,” she said, then turned her attention to picking up her cards.
As I headed out to meet Maddie, my head spun with the weird psychic stuff. First Octavia, now Connie. I was looking forward to hearing how the brunch went. How weird was that?
Maybe after lunch I could talk Maddie into going back to her mom’s and relaxing for a while. I knew there was something planned for tonight, but she wouldn’t tell me what. What were the odds I could get out of going? Slim to none, probably.
I took a deep breath and pulled open the door to The Café. So my spread was interesting, huh. Great. What was that saying? May you live in interesting times. Wasn’t that a Chinese curse?
Chapter 6
I never in a gazillion years would have thought I’d attend a beauty pageant. But that’s not the weirdest part. See, the kicker is that I was enjoying myself. How’s that for about as strange as it gets? Of course, it helped a lot that most of the contestants only came up to my waist and none of them were old enough to drive.
The Little Miss Ugly Creek Pageant was held two days before the official Miss Ugly Creek Pageant. You know, the kind with the eye scratching, hair pulling young women putting their half-naked bodies out there to win fame, fortune, and college scholarships.