Page 50 of Bright Dark Curses

He blinked. “A what?”

“A curse on movies being filmed in Olmeda. Jim from the haunted house said there is one.”

“Bah.” He waved Jim aside with half a cookie. “Curses don’t work like that.”

Finally, someone who understood.

His scowl deepened. “Wait, does this have something to do with Brett’s poisoning?”

I was saved from answering when the front door opened and Veva’s friend came in with a pile of plastic containers in her arms. She stopped abruptly at the sight of Hutton.

“Uh, hi,” she said, somewhat shyly.

I rushed around the counter to take the containers from her. Yay, fresh muffins!

“This is Hutton,” I said, bringing the goodies to the counter. “Hutton, this is Mei.”

Hutton grunted. I kicked him in the shin.

“What?” he asked, all outrage.

“Be nice,” I chastised. Not that Mei had noticed his rudeness, mind you. She was staring at Hutton like he was an A-list movie star.

Hutton had a bit of a reputation among the paranormals. Objectively, he was good-looking enough, and of course he had the whole macho alpha thing going on, but how anyone could think him the better pick out of the two brothers had always confounded me. Ian was superior in every way. From the top of his brown-haired head to the tips of his big feet.

“Thank you, these are great,” I told Mei, opening the containers and checking on the delicious muffins and cookies inside. I brought out the empty containers from her previous delivery from behind the counter.

She made no move to take them. Instead, she dug into her coat’s pocket and handed me her receipt blindly. “Here,” she murmured, her eyes glued on Hutton.

Hutton didn’t appear to notice as he peeked into the full plastic containers. “These look good.”

Mei sighed deeply.

“Thank you,” I said for her. “Mei only bakes the best. Much better than Fairy Circle Cakes.”

That shook Mei out of her stupor. “Yes. Best baker in town.”

“She is,” I agreed.

“I see.” Hutton grabbed a muffin, took a large bite, and fixed me with a warning glare. “I’ll be keeping an eye on the…situation.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s rude,” I said.

He held my gaze, took another bite of the muffin, then turned and sauntered toward the door.

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “You haven’t paid for that!”

The door closed behind his back.

“Jerk,” I grumbled, putting the boxes aside.

“You’re so lucky,” Mei said with another sigh. She was staring at the windows. “I wish Hutton came to visit me.”

“Open your bakery and he might.”

“Nah. I like baking from home. Less stress.”

And speaking of baking… “Say, have you thought about expanding into savory items?”

---