David couldn’t believe that he’d almost confessed his greatest fear about bringing tourists to Gypsum Creek to Michelle, that he’d almost told her about the wolf-shifters that made the mountains around town their home. It wasn’t something you told people, especially not strangers, but the impulse to tell her had been so strong he’d had a hard time resisting.

He’d tried to talk to Jessie about it, but he’d blown him off. “The shifters aren’t going to bother the tourists; everyone here knows how important this is to the town. Besides, how many of you are there left anyway? Most of the younger generation left, so that only leaves the old-timers, and they’re all too old to cause much trouble,” Jessie said.

“And what if someone finds out that there are werewolves living here? All it’s going to take is one rumor, and we’ll be flooded with the wrong kind of people. I don’t think you and Kara are going to like that much,” he’d countered, thinking that Jessie was ignoring the obvious.

Jessie sighed. “My sister and I are perfectly capable of putting a stop to any rumors that pop up.”

David shook his head. “If you say so. What about the moonshiners? Do you really think they’re just going to give up their territory without a fight?” he asked, using his last argument.

“They’re not going to be happy, but don’t forget, we’ve got the town behind us this time. They’ll just have to move deeper into the forest,” Jessie said, then changed the subject.

David had given up then, used up all his arguments against the project and decided that he didn’t have much choice but to work as hard as he could to make Jessie and Sophie’s plan work. But showing Michelle around town reminded him that things might not be as easy as Jessie thought, and that Michelle could easily be the one who spread the exact stories they wanted to keep quiet.

He could tell that Michelle was more interested in what he was saying than the school, but he kept talking. “The school was built in 1920; before that, school was held in the church,” he said.

Michelle looked up and down the street, then spotted the little church next to the store. “How old is the church?”

“It was the first real building in town, finished around 1850, and we still use it,” he said.

“I’d love to see it,” Michelle said, then asked, “Are there church records going back that far?”

“I honestly don’t know; there are boxes and boxes of stuff in one of the back rooms,” David said. “It should be easy enough to find out.”

Michelle followed him down the street to the church, sighing loudly when they walked through the front doors. “It even smells that old,” she said.

David laughed. “I never really thought about how old buildings smell, but you’re right, it does smell old.”

Michelle walked around the church, then turned and asked, “Where are those boxes?”

“You don’t waste any time, do you?” David asked, leading her to the back of the sanctuary and through a door.

When he opened the door to the room they’d been using for storage for years, he was a little embarrassed. It was packed to the ceiling with piles of stuff. “Umm, no one around here ever throws anything away,” he said.

Michelle waved her hand in the air. “I’ve seen worse; some of the best treasures can be found in places like this,” she said, “I bet the old records are in the back.”

He watched as she wound her way around piles of stuff, almost collapsing several piles before she got to the back of the room. She disappeared behind a huge pile of boxes, but it wasn’t long before he heard her voice.

“I found them, or at least some of them,” she said, emerging with an old leather-bound book in her hands. “This one is from the early 1900s. I bet with a little digging I can find the rest.”

David wasn’t so sure that it was a good idea to let her start digging around, but he couldn’t make himself stop her. “That might take a while, and you might want some help.”

A blush spread across her cheeks. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry, I’m sure you have other things to do, and I shouldn’t be digging around without asking,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I get carried away sometimes.”

“That’s okay, I get it,” he said, although he didn’t really understand.

“I need to get unpacked anyway,” she said, setting down the book and winding her way back through the piles.

“We could go over to the diner and have a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of pie first if you like,” David offered, thinking that she looked even more beautiful covered in dust and cobwebs.

Michelle looked down at her clothes. “I think I’d better skip the diner. I’m a bit dirty now,” she said.

David laughed. “This is Gypsum Creek; no one is even going to notice.”

Michelle didn’t really want a cup of coffee or a piece of pie; what she wanted to do was get unpacked, come back to the church, and search for records of Molly and her family. But since that wasn’t going to happen, she decided that the friendly thing to do was to accept his offer.

He’d calmed down now that they’d spent a little time together; the stunned look had faded from his eyes, and he wasn’t ogling her any longer. “Okay, that sounds like a great idea,” she said, then almost laughed when she saw the shock on his face.

“Oh, okay, good,” he stammered.

When they came out of the church, he said, “Oh, I almost forgot to show you the store; it’s almost as old as the church, not nearly in as good of shape, but we’re working on it now.”

The store was a bit of a mess with all the renovations going on, but she could see what it would look like when it was finished, “This will be the center of town when it’s done. Where did you get the old soda fountain?”

“It’s been here for almost a hundred years,” David said proudly. “When the store is opened again, I’ll make you the best soda you’ve ever had.”

“Sounds good,” Michelle said, meaning it since she’d never been to a real soda fountain, and certainly not one that old.

“Let’s go get that cup of coffee; there’s not much more to see. The living quarters up above are full of merchandise right now,” David said, guiding her out of the building with a gentle hand in the middle of her back.

Michelle was a bit shocked to feel a spark ignite deep inside her; it was nothing more than a slight tingling, but she recognized it for what it was. Stepping away from him, she crossed the street and headed for the diner, relieved when the tingling went away.

When they walked into the diner, which was packed with people, the room fell silent, and all eyes turned to them. David ignored the crowd and steered her over to the counter and the last two seats in the dining room.

“Hope you don’t mind sitting here. I forget sometimes how busy this place has gotten,” he said, then added, “Sally has had to hire three new servers and a couple of dishwashers. I’ve never seen her happier.”

It wasn’t long before a woman dressed in jeans and a brightly colored sweatshirt came up to them, grinning broadly at David. “Who do we have here?” she asked before he could introduce her.

“This is Michelle McIntyre; she’s going to be staying at Millie’s for the summer to work on her master’s thesis,” he said, then turned to Michelle. “This is Sally; she owns the diner.”

Sally gave her that look that a lot of women gave her when they first met her, then said, “This seems like a strange place to do that.”

Michelle shrugged her shoulders, “There’s lots of history here if you know where to look,” she said, smiling at the woman.

Sally gave her a once over again, then said, “Whatever you say. Now, what can I get you?”

By the time Michelle left the diner, she’d met half the town, been ogled at by every man, and was sure that Sally hated her. All she wanted to do was go back to her room, unpack her stuff and take a nap; her first day in Gypsum Creek had been far more exhausting than she’d expected.

But a nap wasn’t in her future. Instead it took her hours to unload her car and unpack her stuff. She’d just finished unpacking when she heard the bell ring for dinner and headed for the dining room downstairs. What greeted her made her wish she’d stayed in her room.

Stephanie had warned her that the house was full of men, but she was still surprised when she found so many seated at the dining room table. Suppressing a groan and trying to keep her face neutral, she started to sit down, but then Stephanie came through the door from the kitchen, her hands full of food.

“Oh, Michelle, I thought maybe you’d like to keep me company in the kitchen for dinner,” she said.

Michelle was so relieved, a huge smile appeared on her face. “That would be nice,” she said, sliding around the table towards the door Stephanie had just come through.

“Boys, this is Michelle; she’s going to be staying for the summer, so I’m sure you’ll have time to get to know her, but I’m going to steal her for tonight,” Stephanie said, putting the food on the table.

The men groaned, disappointed, but no one said anything. Then one man spoke up. “We’ll let you steal her tonight, but tomorrow night she has to eat with us.”

Michelle wanted to say that she wasn’t a thing to be bargained with, that she’d eat wherever she chose, but instead, wanting to keep the peace, she smiled, and said, “That’s a deal.”

Promising herself that she’d not only lock her door but put a spell on it, she followed Stephanie to the kitchen where she found Millie seated at the big scarred work table. “Hi, Ms. Millie, I didn’t expect to find you here,” she said, sitting down next to her.

Ms. Millie smiled at her. “I tried to eat with all those men once, and that was enough for me. Besides, this is where we ate dinner most nights, especially when daddy was gone,” she said, then launched into a story about her father.

As Millie talked, she relaxed, feeling more at ease than she had for most of the day. Stephanie set down heaping plates in front of each of them, then joined them with her own. When Millie had finished her story, she handed her a fork and said, “No more stories until you eat.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes, Michelle discovering that she was hungrier than she thought was halfway through her food before she looked up to compliment Stephanie on the meal. But before she could open her mouth to speak, a face appeared in the window above the sink, and for a second, she wasn’t sure if it was a real person or a spirit.

But then the face wavered and disappeared, leaving the window empty. Looking back down at her plate, she began a mental list of what she’d need to do before she went to sleep that night to protect herself from the spirts that were sure to be haunting the old house.