Page 58 of Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist

I glanced up. Harlow was waiting for a reply, though she looked like she already knew. It felt like a sucker punch to the gut.

“I broke up with Lou because I was afraid to commit and then she died and I never got to move on and . . .” I sighed and swept my hair off my face. “And she thought that meant she had to help me move on with someone else. The first person to walk into the apothecary was you. She knocked that bottle off the shelf the other day. She wanted to set us up so that she could move on.”

Harlow’s eyes misted, and it made my heart crack open. “So you were only dating me to get rid of the ghost of your ex? God, that feels weird to say out loud.” Harlow threw her hands up in the air as a tear streamed down her cheek. “This fucking town! You were just tricking me the whole time?”

“No, Harlow.” I took a step forward and reached for her. “Baby. Please don’t cry.”

She sobbed at that. “Don’t fucking ‘baby’ me.” She shoved me away. “Just go. I can deal with a ghost, but I can’t deal with the girl I’m fucking lying to me about it.”

“You can deal with a ghost?”

She glared at me. “Everyone in this town acts like I can’t handle this. Willow acts like I can’t handle working at the café. The townspeople give me a wide berth like I can’t handle their secrets because I’m a human and that makes me less than. I mean, yeah, Billy was a bit of a shock at first, I’ll admit, and that swamp monster, Juniper, but everyone treats me like I’m a fucking damsel in distress, as if I’m always so unreliable?—”

“I know you’re not,” I said, unsure if I should take a step toward or away from her.

Goddess, the woman had given me one of the best orgasms of my life, and now I just wanted to wrap her up in my arms and apologize over and over until she believed me.

“I am!” she shouted. “I am unreliable. I always let people down. Every single friendship and relationship and job I’ve managed to fuck up because I’m different from everyone else.”

“You fit in here,” I said more softly. “We’re all different here. Maybe you just needed a little more magic in your life.”

She pressed her lips together and the tears fell faster. “At least this time it wasn’t my fault that everything fell apart.” She wiped her eyes and wandered to the bedroom door, holding it open for me to pass. “You can let yourself out.”

And my world shattered as I turned toward the door.

27

HARLOW

I’d thought about leaving several times that night and many times after. I’d wanted to storm out into the darkness and catch the first bus to anywhere but Maple Hollow. I would have if it wasn’t for a second wave of illness hitting Willow that morning. I couldn’t bring myself to abandon her. But I’d promised myself that as soon as she wasn’t going through a box of tissues a day, I was out of there. Until then, I had a strict “No Jordyn” policy.

Jordyn had tried to come into the café a few times, but Wyatt had told her off before she could get to the front door. He kept vigil at the table beside the front door and I paid him in copious coffees. He was giving up his sleeping time, but he insisted on staying to help however he could while Willow was condemned to her bed. And right then, helping meant protecting my heart from the girl who’d broken it.

How could I have been such a fool? There was no way a girl like Jordyn would’ve fallen for me. She had just been using me to fix a summoning mistake.

Jordyn had finally gotten the point after Wyatt had gotten Billy involved. I’d fought back the twinge of guilt when both men had scolded her. I couldn’t believe even Billy was on my side.

On the third night since our breakup—God, was it even a breakup?—I was rage-cleaning again.

I’d dated girls for months, years, and it hadn’t come close to the way I was feeling now. We’d only slept together once, had shared only a handful of dates and stolen kisses, and still, it had just felt so right. She was the other half of the same coin—balanced in the ways I was chaotic, timid in the ways I was bold, serious in the ways I was sarcastic.

I groaned and threw the dish towel into the bucket of dirty mugs. Why did the sex have to be explosive? We’d barely even scratched the surface. I bet she had a million more tricks up her sleeve. What kind of magic could she bring into the bedroom? Great, now I was torturing myself thinking about her. The ghost of her ex-girlfriend had been there for every moment, every shared kiss, whispering in her ear and saying God knew what, and she hadn’t told me.

Had any of it been her choice? Or had she been shoved into every interaction we’d shared? Had she even wanted to be with me? The look in her eyes when I’d told her to leave made me think yes . . . but that didn’t excuse her lies. I couldn’t trust her.

The front doorbell clanged, and I frowned down at the table I was cleaning. I’d forgotten to lock the door.

“We’re closed,” I grumbled without looking up.

“Sorry for the interruption.” A saccharine-sweet voice met my senses along with the smell of fish and . . . alcohol?

I lifted my head to see Katie standing a few steps into the café. She clutched a small container in her gloved hands, but her appearance surprised me more than anything. Her hair was pulled back with a baseball cap atop it, but the skin around her neckline looked tight and irritated. Her white overalls were covered in smudges of blood, mud, and dried fish bits. Did fishmongers actually work at this time of night? It seemed like a morning thing.

But it was the look in her eyes that sent ice through my veins.

“It’s been a long night, Katie,” I said warily. “Any chance we can talk in the morning?”

“Oh, sorry,” she said in her too-high voice. “I just wondered if you wanted these?” She offered the Tupperware to me and held my gaze. Her makeup was much heavier than usual and caked around the small lines near her mouth, nose, and eyes. I hadn’t asked how old she was, but I’d assumed she was around my sister’s age.

---