Page 15 of Wicching Hour

Carter kept it quiet and discreet, telling the man this was private property and he was making the artist uncomfortable, so he wasn’t welcome.

After sputtering a fewWell, I nevertype comments, the man left.

Carter turned, saw me, and shook his head. “Sorry, but I could see it in his eyes. That one isn’t giving up.”

EIGHT

Oh, Thank Goodness. The Raccoons Have Arrived

When we closed at seven, there were several groups lagging behind that had to be moved along. Elizabeth came in to collect her kids as Carter was locking the front door.

“I drove by earlier,” she said, “and your parking lot was full. Was it a good day?”

Hester took off her apron and walked around the counter. “It was, though much busier than Arwyn thought it would be,” she said on a laugh. “Some psychic she is.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “I can’t see my own future. You know that. And I figured anyone interested would have been in last night.”

“People have had their eyes on this place for months and months,” Carter said. “I have a feeling we’ll be busy for a while. At least until everyone gets a chance to experience it themselves.”

“Mom,” Frank said, “is it okay if we fill in before we go?” He was tapping on the point-of-sale tablet screen, doing the totals and shutting down the software. “And Arwyn, you had a really good day. I sent the day’s totals to your email.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you all. But you two don’t need to stay. We don’t open again until next weekend. We have time to fill in.”

“But you have that big order to deal with,” he pressed. “You don’t have time for this stuff. Faith and I can do it. I was also thinking. I can make lists for you of which items and which price points are selling the best and if there are a lot of people requesting something you don’t make. For instance, Monterey is often linked with otters, but you don’t sell any glass or ceramic otters. Oh, and I think you should sell your photographs just mounted on a board and put in plastic sleeves. More people can afford fifty or a hundred or whatever for a photograph that they frame or not themselves than they can afford a thousand for an oversized one already framed on the wall.”

He came around the counter and continued, “You know what I mean? Maybe some photos can be sold as individual shots—five-by-seven and eight-by-ten—and the rest of your more spectacular shots are only sold in the larger format with the frame you’ve chosen for that photo.”

I stared at him a moment, thinking.

“I mean, it’s your gallery,” he said, now seeming embarrassed. “It was just a thought.”

Faith glanced between her brother and me, clearly wondering if he’d overstepped.

“I thought I was just hiring salespeople and instead I got a business manager,” I said, clapping my gloved hands. “Those are fabulous ideas, and I’d love to know what customers are asking for. Maybe I’ll make them. Maybe I won’t, but at least I’ll know there’s a market for them if I do. If you’re interested, I’d love to have you talk with my agent, Mary Beth. You two can coordinate on the business end of things so I can concentrate on my work.”

Frank nodded, a huge smile on his face. “I could do that.”

“Perfect.” I looked around at everyone, feeling so blessed. I patted my chest. “How did I luck out and get the perfect crew right off the bat?” I shook my head in wonder and then noticed Hester standing in the shadows. “And you stayed the whole shift. I didn’t mean for you to have to work five hours.”

Hester waved off my concern. “It was busy. There are lots of people who can’t afford your art, but they can get tea and a cookie and then walk around and experience the Sea Wicche. I liked being here to give them that.” Smiling wistfully, she added, “It’s magical what you’ve created here. People recognize that, so even though there were times when it was crowded in here, it didn’t get loud. They spoke in hushed voices.” She shrugged. “It was exciting to watch them experience your art for the first time.”

Blinking back tears for the second time today, I cleared my throat and said, “Thank you.”

“Um, Arwyn?”

I turned to see Faith staring out the back windows.

“Your boyfriend is talking to three raccoons.” She looked at me. “Is that normal?”

I laughed. “It’s normal around here. You guys met Declan last night, right?”

Frank and Faith nodded.

“Good. Do you want to meet Otis, Daisy, and Jasper? They’re new friends who are no doubt coming to see if I have muffins for them.” I looked over at the pastry display case.

Hester went back around the counter and put on plastic gloves. “We have two apple cinnamon muffins, one blueberry, and one strawberry-pistachio left.”

“While I appreciate the automatic donning of plastic gloves, the raccoons aren’t concerned about germs,” I joked. “How about the two apple and the blueberry?”

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