“You play dirty,” I grumbled with admiration. The only person who could tickle her was Boaz. Try as I might, I couldn’t get so much as a giggle out of her. “You should buy me a drink to apologize.”
“Crybaby.” Rolling her eyes, she approached the counter. “I’ll take two hot chocolates with extra marshmallows and a side order of Kleenex.”
The cashier blinked at her owlishly then passed over a handful of napkins.
Amelie thanked the woman then stuffed them down the front of my shirt, giving me a lumpy third boob, cackling all the while. I ducked out of her reach before she could tweak my nonexistent third nipple and caught movement outside the shop from the corner of my eye.
“Be right back.” I left her waiting on our order while I stepped up to the large display window. Jolene was the only vehicle in the lot, and I saw no pedestrians. I lingered a moment longer, scanning the area, but I came up empty.
“Grier?” Amelie walked up behind me. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands down my arms. “I thought I saw something.”
The light went out of Amelie’s eyes, and she took a look around as well. “Do you think we were followed?”
It had happened before, and it likely would again. “I’m not sure.”
“I’m texting Boaz.” She whipped out her phone. “He’ll skin me alive if I don’t keep him in the loop.”
“It’s probably nothing.” I closed my hand over her screen. “Besides, he’s not my keeper.”
“No, but he is my brother, and he is your wannabe friend with benefits.” She pried her phone out of my grip. “He’s earned the right to worry.” When she spotted the face I made, she laughed. “He’s four states away. He can’t drop everything and run home to shine a flashlight at shadows for you.”
“So you say.” Her brother was more resourceful than she gave him credit for, and more commanding too.
“He was right there. He saw the car pulling away, you inside it, and he couldn’t save you.” The playfulness in her swirled away like water down a drain. “Neither could I.”
“Ame,” I breathed, yanking her into a hug. “You did the best you could. You both did. I don’t blame either of you, and neither of you should blame yourselves.”
“We just got you back,” she said, echoing the sentiment I had shared with Boaz not that long ago. “I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I hauled her to the counter in time to pick up our order while it was steaming delicious curls. “I’m working on getting stronger, and I’m going to fortify Woolly too.” We took our drinks and settled at our usual table. “Plus, Linus lives shouting distance away. I’ve got ’round-the-clock backup.”
Amelie blew across her mug. “How weird is it having him as a neighbor?”
“Pretty weird.” Impatient as always, I sipped too soon and burned my tongue. “It’s odd having a guest, let alone one staying in the carriage house. No one’s ever lived there. It’s strange to think I can walk across the yard and talk to someone if I want.”
“I hate to break it to you, Grier, but you’ve been able to do that basically all your life.” She snorted into her cup. “I’m right across the yard in the opposite direction, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Linus was different, though. He had answers for so many of the questions I was just thinking to ask. Amelie was a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a sister of the heart, but Linus was a resource as valuable as any book in Maud’s library.
“You know what I mean.” I played it off like it had been a slip of the tongue instead of me realizing how much I liked the idea of having a living encyclopedia on the grounds. “He’s right there. There’s no buffer. It’s almost like having a roommate.”
“Has he changed much?” Her eyes fluttered closed on her first sip, and she licked the melted marshmallow off her upper lip. “I haven’t seen him in years.”
“He’s taller, thinner. He grew out his hair.” I pictured the wraith in his gaze and shivered. “His eyes are darker.” I didn’t tell her why, and I couldn’t explain keeping his secret, except conversations on magic between Amelie and me always dead-ended with each of us put out with the other. “Otherwise, he’s pretty much the same. Still prefers books to people. Still dresses like a little professor.” Except now he was one. Maybe there was something to the old adage of dressing for the job you wanted after all. “You should pop in and say hi sometime. He might enjoy having another social outlet.”
“Nah. I’ll pass. He never liked me much.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “He hated Boaz when we were kids, no idea why, the possibilities are limitless. He snubbed me since I was tainted by association.”
“I always thought…” Rolling in my lips, I wished I hadn’t opened my mouth.
“That it was a class thing?” Of course, Amelie knew exactly what I’d meant. “Linus was a little snob. How could he not be with Dame Lawson for a mother? But he was polite to other Low Society girls. He did have some manners. He just never used them on me. He wasn’t mean when you weren’t around, nothing like that, more like I ceased to exist.”
“Well, we’re all grown up now.” I poked the bloated marshmallows with my finger to watch them bob in their chocolatey bath. “Maybe things have changed.”
“Maybe.” Her attention drifted to the door behind me and stuck. “I still don’t like this. I wish we’d taken my car. Jolene leaves us too exposed.”
“I can check in with Linus if it makes you feel better.” With Boaz gone, we didn’t have a whole lot of other options.
“Linus?” She laughed so hard she swatted her mug on its side and spilled the last few swallows of chocolate. “Are you sure he’s qualified to act as a bodyguard?” She wiped up her mess. “Or were you hoping he’d borrow a few of his mother’s henchmen?”
Again I found myself biting my tongue about his wraith. “He’s got some tricks up his sleeves.”
“Call him.” She spun her now-empty mug in her hands. “We’ve got no one else unless we want to involve my parents.”
The Low Society tried to stay as far away from High Society politics as possible. Involving them would be a last-ditch effort since any assistance from the Pritchards would put them in the Grande Dame’s crosshairs.
There was only one small problem with my plan. I didn’t have Linus’s cellphone number. All I could do was dial the landline and hope there was still a working phone plugged in at the carriage house and that he would pick up.
“Woolworth residence,” an amused voice answered on the seventh ring. “How may I be of assistance?”
“I can’t believe you’re playing receptionist.” I laughed at the mental picture. “Are you that bored?”
“Not at all,” he assured me. “I was working on a syllabus when Woolly started flashing her lights in Morse code. I put down my notebook to play cypher, and that’s when I heard a faint ringing coming from the kitchen in the carriage house. I assumed that’s what Woolly meant, so I answered.”
Amelie cleared her throat and rolled her hand in a get to it gesture.
“The reason I called is I’m at Mallow with Amelie, and I maybe saw something outside.” I stuck out my tongue at her. “I checked, but I didn’t see anything. Do you think it’s safe to go home, or do I need to wait on backup to arrive? And when I say backup, I mean you.”
A sigh gusted over the line. “Step outside.”
“Oookay.” I pointed toward the door so Amelie knew where I was headed, waved off her protest, then stepped out onto the sidewalk. Still alone as far as I could tell. “What am I supposed to be—?” Movement above my head had me slapping the air like a bee might land on me. “Oh, my goddess.”
“Grier, it’s all right.”
Tipping my head back put me face-to-faceless with his pet wraith. “You’re spying on me?”
He scoffed at me. Actually scoffed. “You really believed I let you leave without protection?”