The Professor Woos The Witch
Pandora smiled without too much effort. “Thanks. But I’m fine. Really.” And then she meant it a tiny bit. Like saying it had made it so.
“Are you sure?” Marigold wiggled her fingers. “I could cast a little happiness spell over you.”
“No, I’m good. I swear.” She leaned her hip against the counter. “Mom told me I shouldn’t get involved with him anyway. All this stuff about what happens if we bond as witch and familiar but end up not working as couple. It’s just bad news. And I want no part of it.”
Marigold looked skeptical. “If you say so.”
“I do.” She gave her sister a quick hug. “And now I’d better get back out there before it gets any weirder.”
Marigold handed her the carafe. “Fill this and take it out. It’s good cover.”
It wasn’t actually, but Pandora appreciated the gesture. She topped off the carafe and went back to the table. Marigold rejoined them a minute later and instantly went to work keeping the conversation going.
Pandora poked at her food, now lukewarm. She took a bite. Nothing had any taste.
She sensed Cole sneaking a look at her, but didn’t react.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“Great,” she muttered back. Enough already. Time to shift his attention to other things. Like his daughter. “So, Mom, Kaley needs some tutoring in the craft, seeing as how she didn’t grow up with witches around her. You have any suggestions? Other than a mentor, obviously. Which might be tricky with them leaving.”
“I don’t know if a mentor is completely out of the picture,” Corette said. “True, most witches expect it to be a long-term relationship, but there might be someone who’d be willing to do it for a couple months.”
Corette turned to Kaley, who had stopped chatting with Saffie at the mention of her name. “Why don’t you come with Pandora to the coven meeting tomorrow night? You can meet some of the other witches in town and get a feel for what a meeting is like. We can talk about mentoring some more then. How does that sound?”
“Epic,” Kaley said. She looked at her father, her questioning gaze mixed with accusation and expectation. She wasn’t happy with him so he’d better allow her this much. “Can I, Dad?”
“I guess.” He looked at Corette. “What time is it?”
“Six thirty. And it won’t go past eight. I know there’s school the next day.”
He glanced at Kaley. “I guess we can go.”
Corette laughed softly. “Oh my dear. A familiar at a coven meeting? I don’t think so. Only witches allowed.”
Cole’s father harrumphed, like a witches-only meeting was underhanded business of some sort.
Cole ignored the noise and looked at Pandora. “Are you willing to take her?”
“Absolutely.” Kaley was the innocent party in all this.
“Okay.” He nodded at Kaley. “You can go.”
“Yay!” She finished with a reluctant and slightly snide, “Thanks, Dad.”
Stanhill pushed his chair back. “Are we about ready for dessert?”
He got loud yeses from Kaley and Saffie.
He laughed. “You two are getting chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream filling. As for the rest of you, I hope you don’t mind being guinea pigs. Delaney sent me over with a test cake. It’s a triple-layer chocolate bourbon cake with maple frosting. She assures me we won’t need after-dinner drinks with it.”
Marigold, Charisma and Pandora all answered him with oohs and aahs. Corette stood up. “I’ll put some decaf on, then.”
She and Stanhill went into the kitchen.
Charisma stood and picked up her plate, but directed her attention to Saffie. “You and I are on table-clearing duty, love bug.”
Kaley jumped up. “I’ll help too.”
She and Saffie went to work picking up plates. Pandora smiled, and it wasn’t lost on her that Cole did too.
Kaley fit in well here. Too bad her father was going to take her away.
Pandora tried to ignore that thought. That path wasn’t going to take her anywhere good.
Marigold shifted in her seat to face Jack now that there weren’t two children between them. “What line of work are you in, Mr. Van Zant?”
“Please, call me Jack. I’m a warehouse foreman for Greenway, the big grocery store chain. I run the number fifteen facility in Wilmington.”
Cole nodded. “He’s been there for twenty years.”
“Twenty-one,” Jack corrected. “What business are you in?”
“Twenty-one years is impressive. I run the little florist shop in town,” Marigold said.
“It’s not that little,” Pandora corrected. She looked at Jack. “She does practically all the weddings in town.”
“Funerals too?” Jack asked.
Pandora smirked. “Considering who lives here, we don’t have many of those.”
Jack lifted his chin. “No, I suppose you don’t.”
“We have some.” Marigold smiled. “Thankfully, not that many.”
Stanhill and Corette walked back in. Stanhill carried a tray laden with small plates and big slices of cake. Corette had a silver coffee urn. Charisma and the two girls followed with cups, saucers, creamer and sugar.
Cake and coffee were distributed, and everyone dove in.
Pandora glanced over at Kaley and Saffie and laughed. “Stanhill, those are not cupcakes. They’re big enough to be the top tier of a wedding cake.”