8
After Lucien leftI was discombobulated. On one hand, he was super cute. On the other, I wasn't so sure he was trustworthy. But something was bothering me. The note the agency had left me stated my soulmate was dead. Of course, in this town, that meant undead.Hopefully.
Hank was a ghoul, though I had yet to see him eat anythingweird.
Lucien was a vampire with pristine manners and a possibly untrustworthysoul.
Except...I didn't know either man very well. Hank a little more because I'd been using his nursery for quite awhile. He was a big grump and found my hair to be offensive. Again, he thought I was annoying,too.
Lucien, on the other hand, comes onto my property, insults me, then gets caught trespassing red-handed. As soul mate material went, but both of these men weren't high up on my potential mate list. But...both of them were attractive. Hank in a rumpled sort of sweet way. Lucien in a men's cologne and underwear ad kind ofway.
But the bigger question was...which one was it? The rational part of me leaned towardLucien.
Or was it either ofthem?
Margo curled up next to me on the couch as I went through the massive stack of books I'd brought out from my lab. One of them caught my eye: Through the Veil and Beyond: A Study of What Comes AfterDeath.
That one could work. Even if it was all theoretical. I'd seen this one before but hadn't thought to pick it up. I was more interested in whether I needed to change the bindings up or in any way alter my ritual. Stupid me. I was more concerned with their appearance and how it would affect my clients rather than a fundamental change in theirbehavior.
I set that one to the side and continued to go through my pile. After setting aside three more books, my stomach began to growl. I grabbed my cell and dialedPepper.
"Dude!" she shouted into the phone. "Whatchadoing?"
I grinned. She sounded happy. Like she always did. "I'mreading."
"Boo. Hiss," she said. "Want to grab abite?"
I did. "I do. I haven't been out the house since the courtdate."
"Let's do it. Meet me at the shop. Wear something cute. We need to try the new restaurant that just openedup."
"Done. Give methirty."
"Look. Cute," Pepper emphasized. "Not like you're a bookworm who doesn't want to bethere."
"I'm wounded," I said,deadpan.
"Good," Pepper said. The phone beeped as she hung up onme.
I snuggled Margo. "She's making me get dressed," I whined. "Want to come withme?"
She put a paw on her nose and stared up at me. "Yeah. I already haveregrets."
Ten minuteslater I had on a pair of dark skinny jeans, black wedges, and a turquoise tunic. I'd brushed my hair, put on a new pair of contacts and even put on a light coat of makeup. I debated about Margo, but decided that so far she'd been a great girl. I let her out and while she was running around doing her business, I fixed her a plate of food and refilled her water. She came running back in and attacked the food withvigor.
"I'll be back in two hours," Isaid.
Margo ignoredme.
I flipped on the Food Network so she'd have something to listen to and grabbed my purse and headedout.
Pepper's shop looked magical.Of course, just about everything was magical here, minus the couple hundred humans who lived here, but Pepper's shopped just screamed I'M A WITCH. There was a crooked little sign announcing the name of her nursery written in cute curly q font. The building was painted teal and white and there wasn't a single available space where either a plant or a knick knack hadn't been crammed. Little toadstools lined the walkway up to her shop. Creeping rosemary and thyme curled close to my feet as I walked to the entrance. Above me was an arbor carefully cultivated with climbing jasmine, moonflowers, and wisteria. How that wisteria hadn’t sent the arbor crashing down, I would neverknow.
Hank might have had a gift for plants, but Pepper had a gift for nursery pizzazz. Everything I touched I itched to buy. She carefully chose her plants based upon their aesthetics, their magical properties and their scent patterns. Granted, she had a lot of flowers with no scent, but she also had tons of flowers with gorgeous heady scents that filled my head. I just felt good when I came into her store. Whether it was the plants, the kitschy knick-knacks scattered everywhere or the positivity charm she had hanging above the door, I didn'tcare.
Pepper's place wasawesome.
I pushed through the door sending the harmony bell above my head jingling through the store. I inhaled the scent of the tobacco flowers she had growing right by the entrance. Incense and something else added to those scents made it an intoxicating combination. I called her name but no one answered. I walked through marveling at the new arrivals of stained glass and goddess water fountains until I found her in the classroom at the very back of thestore.
