Page 49 of Witch Upon a Star
“The car backfiring. I heard it again. I think something’s wrong with their car.”
He lowered his head and kissed my hair. “Stay here andlock the door behind me. I’ll go check it out, but Grumpy swore their car was in near perfect condition.”
I started to get a sick, dreaded feeling in my gut. “Please,” I begged. “I think something’s wrong.”
“Lock the door,” he repeated before heading out into the night. Silly man wasn’t even wearing his jacket.
I stayed by the door to watch him run after my parents and our pets. After a few minutes of watching them at my dad’s open hood, I decided I was doing no one any good just standing here, and I might as well get to cleaning so Starbucks and I could get home all the faster. I took three steps away from the door before I remembered his directive, and went back to lock it.
I started with the trash. Making the besoms had been an awesome and fun activity, but a messy one. Twigs, petals, stems, and twine littered tabletops and the floor under the tables. I wished I’d thought ahead and brought a vacuum cleaner.
The tables themselves would be removed. I had only put them up to make the besom craft projects easier for customers. We would move them into the back for a prospect to pick up the next day. Or I guess,todaysince it was after midnight.
I was bone tired, but I also knew that I couldn’t open tomorrow morning with my shop looking like a tornado had hit it. I was just regretting not accepting my family’s help to clean up. But after the crowd and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I wanted some alone time with Starbucks.
After sweeping up, I took the trash bag around the entire store to see if there was anything else littered about. I founda few disposable cups around, but nothing much. Also found a credit card in one of the seat cushions and a partially licked lollipop stuck to the back of a chair. Ew. People were nasty.
I tied off the trash bag and was about to step into the back when Starbucks opened the door again. I paused. He looked a little chilled, but not concerned.
“What happened?” I demanded, putting the large trash bag down.
He shrugged. “I’m not a mechanic, but I know enough to pass for one. I couldn’t find anything wrong, Winnie. I gave your nephew… What was his name?”
“Thyme, but everyone calls him T.”
“Right. Our kids, by the way, are not being named after herbs and spices,” he proclaimed. “Anyway, I gave T my number in case something happened.”
I liked when he talked of our kids, like it was a done deal. But even that couldn’t make me feel better right now. That feeling of dread was still churning in my stomach like a witch’s brew. “Thank you for checking. You should have grabbed your coat first.”
Starbucks waved my concern off. “I’m fine, Winnie. Now, what do you need me to work on first?”
“I was just about to take the trash out back?—”
“Let me do that.”
“No,” I insisted. “You just came in from the cold. I know you’re a big, strong macho-man but I don’t want you getting sick.”
“You shouldn’t go out into the back alley alone at night,” he argued.
He may have a point there. “Fine. I’ll put it by thebackdoor and we’ll take it out when we leave so neither one of us has to go back out into the cold more than we need to.”
Starbucks seemed amenable to this. “Where do you need me to start?”
“Can you wipe down the shelves? I need to see what I have in the back to restock and make a list of what we need to bring with us from home tomorrow morning.”
He gave me a salute. “Sure thing, boss.”
I smiled at him, which did not lessen that dreaded feel in my gut. “I like the sound of that. ‘Boss’. You don’t mind answering to me here?”
“Why would I?” he asked back. “I’m the boss in the bedroom and you don’t complain.”
My cheeks heated at the reminder. He wasverybossy in the bedroom, and fuck me, because I loved every second of it. “Touché.” I picked up the top of the large trash bag again. “I’ll be right back.”
I stepped into the storage room. I had a wide path between the door to my shop and the backdoor that led into the open alley. I needed to get utility shelves to help organize back here, but since customers didn’t see it, it hadn’t been a priority so far. Boxes were stacked in piles, and after it took me too many failed tries to locate more candles tonight, I had plans to label all of them with a big, black marker tomorrow.
I wondered if it would be pushing my luck this early on to ask Starbucks if I could borrow one of the prospects to build some more shelves next week. Then again, I needed tobuysaid shelves before I could schedule to have someone set them up for me.
As soon as the door swung closed behind me, I heard the echo of the car backfiring again. I jumped,but of course, there was no car in the storage room. I sent out a prayer to the universe that my parents were safe. The fact that Thyme was following them home made me feel a lot better.
