Page 3 of Lion's Share
“They’re not necessarily monsters,” I said automatically.
An eyebrow quirked. “Call ’em what you want. But there must be decent money in that, considering how I saw that his channel has more than a hundred thousand subscribers.”
“I guess so,” I said vaguely. “It’s not really my business.”
Her mouth opened to reply, but right then, the fluorescent lights overhead flickered. “You having problems, too?” she asked instead, and I nodded.
“For the past couple of weeks,” I replied. “I had Jimmy come out and take a look, but he said there was nothing wrong with the wiring.”
Jimmy Hansen was the local handyman, and I doubted there was much he didn’t know about electrical systems and plumbing and general carpentry. If some kind of problem had been lurking in the walls of my store, he would have found it.
“I had him take a look, too,” Eliza said. “But if we’re both having problems, then it can’t be the wiring. Maybe we need to check around and see if anyone else is experiencing the same issues. That would mean it’s probably something going on with the grid itself.”
Which, if that turned out to be the case, could turn into a huge mess. Silver Hollow’s electrical grid had been built in the early twentieth century and basically held together with spit and baling wire ever since. The whole thing should have been upgraded years ago, but since it seemed to soldier on despite the antiquated equipment, no one had wanted to spend the money to improve the system.
If it decided to collapse now, during the height of tourist season….
“That’s not the only thing, though,” Eliza went on. “My cell phone’s been acting up, too. Bethany told me her friends’ parents are saying it’s sunspots or something, but I haven’t heard anything on the news about that.”
Once again, it seemed as if Eliza’s…and her daughter Bethany’s…experiences were mirroring my own. Not that I used my cell phone very much — who would I even be calling, when pretty much everyone I knew was right here in Silver Hollow and a five-minute walk away? — and yet I recalled that several times Ben had sworn he’d sent me a text, and it seemed to have disappeared into the ether. If I were dealing with a few of the guys I’d dated in the past, I would have said he was lying and just trying to make himself look good, but I knew Ben Sanders didn’t operate that way.
Not that we were really dating. We had dinner at least three nights a week, and we got together at other times to share theories about what was going on in the forest, but it still felt as if we were stubbornly occupying the friend zone.
“I haven’t heard anything, either,” I said. “But my phone’s been a little glitchy, too. There couldn’t be a connection with the electrical grid, could there?”
Her slim shoulders lifted. “I have no idea. It doesn’t seem like one would affect the other, but I’m not exactly what you could call an electrical engineer.”
And neither was I. Well, Ben and I were already planning to have dinner at my house. I’d just have to ask him if he’d been experiencing similar glitchiness.
Knowing Ben Sanders, he’d probably have a few theories.
He was right on time, showing up at exactly seven o’clock as we’d planned. And, as usual, he carried a bottle of wine with him. We often didn’t drink the whole thing, but rather corked it up and left the remainder for whatever dinner we had planned next. Was that because we were both a bit concerned about what might happen if we let ourselves get a little tipsy?
Maybe. There was still so much about him I didn’t know — not because he wasn’t happy to volunteer that information when asked, but because I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to probe. If I kept things surface level, then maybe we could coast along like this for a while longer.
I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to him…and yet I also couldn’t help thinking my life had enough complications as it was.
The meal was simple enough, just enchiladas I’d put together with shredded chicken from a crockpot meal the day before yesterday, but he ate with a good appetite. I’d never claim to be the world’s greatest cook, although my grandmother had taught me enough that at least I didn’t have to worry about giving him food poisoning.
After we’d both had a few bites and drunk some wine, I said, “Have you been having any issues with the electricity at your place?”
He set down his fork and sent me a serious look. About three years older than my own twenty-seven, he had thick, medium-brown hair and hazel eyes that reminded me of the depths of a forest pond, and was probably the best-looking man I’d ever seen.
Then again, I’d be the first to admit that I was a little biased.
“As a matter of fact, I have,” he replied. “Nothing huge, just the lights flickering from time to time and one time a brownout that lasted long enough that I had to reset the clocks on the stove and the microwave, but it’s been a little weird. I asked Nancy about it, and she told me she’s been having trouble, too, mostly with her garage door opener. The thing keeps glitching for no reason.”
Nancy Petterson was Ben’s landlady. She had a big Victorian house about a five-minute walk from my place, and a while back, she and her husband had fixed up the small cottage on their sprawling property as a way of bringing in some additional income. As fate would have it, the place had become available just as Ben was looking to relocate to Silver Hollow, and he’d been living there for nearly a month now.
But because I knew the cottage had been completely updated less than five years ago, I also realized that the wiring shouldn’t be acting up. The glitches I’d experienced here at the house and even at the pet shop could have been excused, since my home was more than a hundred years old and the building where the store was located wasn’t much newer.
And when you threw in the problems with the cell service….
“Do you think it could all be connected to that?” I asked, and tilted my head in the general direction of the forest.
Being Ben, he didn’t try to argue or tell me I was being ridiculous. Instead, his expression grew thoughtful.
“I suppose it’s possible,” he replied. “After all, we don’t really know for sure how the portal operates. I could see how something about the way it comes and goes might be affecting the electromagnetism in the area, although I’d be the first to admit that this isn’t exactly my field of expertise.”
