Easy Magic (Boudreaux #5)

“I do love her,” I murmur. “I’m crazy about her.”


“A mother knows these things,” she says with a smile. “What could possibly be wrong with bringing the woman you love into your family?”

“She shut me out,” I reply immediately. “She was in danger, and she didn’t tell me. That’s no way to go into a partnership.”

“It always circles back to trust, doesn’t it?”

I nod and pinch the bridge of my nose. “Always. The ironic thing is, Mal and I have talked about the importance of honesty and trust from the beginning of our relationship.”

“And tonight you feel betrayed.”

“I should have been prepared,” I reply and push away from the counter to pace the kitchen. “I should have known what was happening so I could help her.”

“You did help her.”

“But I couldn’t defend her against the guy trying to kill her.”

“I didn’t need you to.”

Both of our heads whip around to the open back door where Mallory stands, watching us with tired eyes, her hands firmly propped on her hips.

“It was not your fight,” she says.

“I’m going to head out,” Mama says with a smile. She walks to Mallory and kisses her cheek, then pulls her in for a hug. “I’m so relieved that you’re safe.”

“Thank you.”

Mama winks at me as she leaves us alone in the kitchen.

“I thought you’d sleep for a while.”

She nods and steps inside, closing the door behind her. “I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” She smiles sadly and sits at the breakfast bar.

“So, you can read my mind now?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “But I can read body language and facial expressions as easily as the next person, and you’re not sorry. And that’s okay. You needed to be alone.”

“How much did you hear?”

“Enough.” She looks down at the countertop for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts, and when she looks back up at me, there is so much sadness in her violet eyes it makes me want to scoop her up and tell her that everything will be okay.

But I don’t know if it’s going to be okay.

“I scared you today.”

“That could be the understatement of the year.”

She nods.

“I need to tell you some things, but first I want to say this: if you want to part ways as friends after everything that’s happened tonight, and what I’m about to tell you, I completely understand.”

I’m not fucking parting ways with you.

I lean back against the countertop and nod. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out again. “I’d like to explain about what happened tonight. I didn’t understand all of it until it actually happened, and the pieces have just started coming together in the past week or two.

“The night I did the séance here, I saw a darkness. That’s the only way to explain it. It appeared fast, and it was gone just as fast because I slammed my mind’s door on it. Nothing like that had ever happened before, and I brushed it off as being something here at the inn, like a spirit.

“Then, the day I went to the cemetery with Miss Sophia and Lena, it returned, but stronger. And Miss Sophia knew what it was because she’d seen it before. It was the man who killed my grandmother all those years ago.

“He had been released from the mental institution, and was back at abducting and torturing young girls. And he was a powerful psychic, who targeted me because he assumed that because of who my grandmother was, that I would step in and try to help law enforcement find him.”

“Why didn’t you?” I ask.

“Because that’s not my gift. I can’t see the living psychically like my grandmother could. That’s how she helped find so many lost children. I can only see the dead. So, after the encounter at the cemetery, Miss Sophia gave me more details about my grandmother’s death, and she was researching how we should move forward with what was happening currently. She had put a protective spell over me, and I’d been bathing in lots of disgusting tea as protection too.”

“And you didn’t think that I’d want to be in the loop so I could also keep you safe?”

“I don’t know how you could have done that,” she replies. “You would have worried, but the dude in New York wasn’t a physical threat; he was in my head.”

I shake my head and pace as she keeps talking.

“I understand if you don’t want me to be around your family, but I can promise you that I will never put them in danger. I’m not normal, Beau, and I never will be. I’ve discovered that I can do a lot of good as a medium. I’m not saying that I’m going into business and seeking out a television show, but there will be moments when I have to turn my attention to someone you can’t see so I can help them.”

“That’s not my issue—”

“Let me finish.” She holds her hand up, and I stop talking, listening instead. “I’m not normal. But I love you so much I ache with it.”

I want to hurry around this island and take her in my arms to reassure her, but I wait, giving her space to finish.

“I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time, but I was afraid. It’s stupid,” she says and impatiently brushes a tear off her cheek. “Life’s too precious and short to not say what you mean, so I’m saying it. I didn’t withhold information to spite you, or because I didn’t trust you. I just—” She shrugs, as if she’s trying to find the words. “I just didn’t know what to tell you.”

“Everything,” I reply and finally cross to her. I tip her chin up so I can look in her eyes. “I want you to tell me everything. Especially if it hurts or scares you. I was so thrown off guard and afraid for you this evening; I thought I was going to lose you.”

“And if it wasn’t for my family, you might have.”

The thought turns my stomach. “You are everything to me, Mallory. You’re not abnormal. You can do things that others can’t do.”

“Do you believe me?” she whispers, making me frown.

“What do you mean?”

“I know that you’re a no nonsense man, and that you’ve indulged me, especially in the beginning. But Beau, I need you to believe me.”

“I don’t love you despite your gifts, Mallory. I love you, period. In the end, isn’t that what we all want? Someone to choose us, to love us, no matter the circumstances?”

She nods, letting the tears fall unchecked down her cheeks.

“You are a magical, beautiful, amazing woman, Mallory, and I love everything about you. I do trust you.”

“I’m a handful,” she says with a wet smile, making me smirk.

“I have two hands,” I reply, finally pulling her in for a hug.

“And you have me,” she says against my chest. “You’re my home, Beau. After Grandmamma moved on, all I wanted to do was come home to you.”

“Which leads me to what I wanted to talk to you about earlier this afternoon,” I reply and pull back a bit so I can see her face. “When it’s time for me to move into the new house, I’d like for you to move in with me.”