Page 2 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“Oh hi,” I said, stopping myself just before I said the idiot line about being in the neighborhood. “I wanted to bring you a housewarming gift, officially. Here’s a loaf of homemade banana bread and I brought a bottle of wine, too.”

Mae looked over her shoulder awkwardly. She didn’t budge. Clearly, she wasn’t prepared for me to be in the same room as whoever it was she had invited over. “Hi, Bianca.”

“It looks like you redecorated,” I said with a warm smile, making sure she knew I wasn’t taking it personally. Even though the truth was, it hurt.

“Oh, yeah,” Mae said. “We just did it like a week ago.”

“We?” I asked. Not trying to sound butt hurt and confused.

“Oh yeah, the club.” Mae forced out her words as if she was totally thrown off guard “The club my aunt was a part of. I decided to join and so now, you know, I do a lot of stuff with them.” She nodded as if that summed it up.

I was out in the cold.

I took a step backward.

“I just thought I’d drop those by,” I said, making it clear I wasn’t about to stay and ruin her evening.

“It’s not like that. I’ll invite you over another time,” Mae said clumsily, trying to preserve what remnants of our fledgling friendship were left. I guess I was her ’go out for tea or drink’ friend, not her ‘hang out at her house’ friend.

I shouldn’t be bothered. I should just let it go. I took a deep breath and turned away.

As I got in my car, I glanced up at the window and saw Trina, a tall skinny woman with a beak-like nose who ran Witches’ Brew Bakery. She was doing something weird on the table, mixing things like a chemistry experiment. I saw her hand move over a jar of liquid, making it bubble green.

Did I just see that right?

I was pretty sure I saw that perfectly clearly. She just turned, what looked like plain water into something bubbling and green.

“That’s not normal. There must be a Bunsen burner or something underneath it making it bubble.” I rationalized. I stepped out of my car and stood on my tiptoe, peering into the house. There was no Bunsen burner. She had cooked the liquid by waving her hand over it. I looked up at her in awe. I shrieked and jumped back as her head turned to where I was standing.

Trina’s dark eyes stared straight at me, narrowing as we made eye contact.

The craziest thing was, she didn’t seem surprised I was peering in through the window. She gave me a welcoming smile as if whatever project she was working on… now included me.

I turned on my heel and quickly left The Estate.

Maybe trying to friend Mae was a complete mistake.

Chapter 2

I headed back to my house, feeling awkward and jealous. How did Mae arrive in town and three months later, she had a party going on at her house? How had she made friends so quickly with people who, as much as I knew them, they didn’t exactly hang out with me. Not like that. I wished I could be more like Mae

The last thing I wanted to do right now was to go back to my cottage, with its low ceilings and barking dogs. No, I was going to go down to the Waldorf, leave my bottle of wine in the car, and have a whiskey sour. Matheus, the hot bartender, was probably still working the bar. It would be fun to chat with the young kid for a bit.

The Waldorf was pretty happening for Friday night in Cougar Creek. There were a lot of tourists in town which made for a fairly lively atmosphere. I joined in a game of darts with a couple of the old guys that were always propping up the bar. I thought at their age, their eyesight would be poor and they’d be a little worse at darts, but there was some sort of muscle memory that meant they hit a bull’s-eye almost every time.

I didn’t.

In fact, I was lucky if I hit the board and not the guy standing next to it. Not that I cared. I liked playing darts, and the random nature of where my dart landed added spice to the game. The locals were used to the way I played and they cleared the area when they saw me approach with darts in my hand and a bitter smile on my face.

I smiled at Matheus as he came by to bus the tables. Matheus was tall and lanky with sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes. He had long features, a chest to die for, and a devil may care attitude. It made perfect sense that he was a bartender. He was probably in his early thirties but he was most likely going to be a career bartender if I had any money to put on it.

“I’m feeling pretty lucky tonight, Matheus,” I said lining up my shot.

“Famous last words,” Matheus bussed a table near the dartboard. He paused for a moment, looking around at people standing in range. “Could you all please just back up? Let’s give the lady some room.”

“She definitely needs it,” croaked one of the old men with a bit of laughter.

“Hey, it’s my style. You don’t like it, move into the other room. Well, you should probably move as close to the other room as possible anyhow.”

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