Spells Trouble (Sisters of Salem #1) - P. C. Cast Page 0,63

up at her as he tucked in his shirt and zipped his jeans. “Are you sorry about what we just did?”

Mercy went to him and touched his shoulder as she avoided the honest answer there wasn’t time for her to give. “Now isn’t a good time. Mom died. Things are not normal. I—I don’t know how Hunter would take this. I don’t want her to think that I’ve forgotten about Mom—that I don’t really care she’s gone.”

“Okay, yeah, I get it. Hey, she already doesn’t like me much and this isn’t gonna help that.”

“H appreciates that you’ve been here for me—for us. The more you’re around the more she’ll like you.” She draped her arms over his shoulders and attempted to sound normal. “I mean, how could she not like you?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Seriously.” He cupped her butt cheek and squeezed. “Hey, if your sister and Jax are back that means I gotta get to practice. Crap! I didn’t realize it was that late. Being with a goddess definitely messed with my sense of time. Good thing Jax is here. Mom dropped me off, and I can bum a ride from him.” But Kirk didn’t move except to bend and kiss her passionately.

Mercy let herself relax into his arms. Kirk loves me, she reminded herself.

Hand in hand they hurried down the stairs. Mercy stepped into his arms one more time as they kissed slowly again. She did feel closer to him than she’d ever felt to any guy. And I love that closeness—that specialness that only the two of us share, Mercy told herself sternly. Then why do I feel so empty? The question hovered in her mind and Mercy shoved it aside.

Kirk was still kissing her when the sound of a car door slamming made her break the embrace and push him playfully out the door.

He backed onto the porch and mouthed I love you, goddess! before he turned to leap down the stairs.

Mercy closed the door and sighed as she leaned against it. What is wrong with me? If Abigail were here she’d understand. Mom would help me figure this out. If Abigail were here it wouldn’t have happened, Mercy thought, though she didn’t speak the words. She felt strange, like a rubber band that had been stretched too far. Mercy shook herself and spoke the rest of her thoughts to the quiet house. “I need to eat something to ground myself. That’s all. And I have to believe it’s all going to be okay. Hunter and I can save the trees, Emily is going to be herself again, and Kirk Whitfield finally said he loves me.” Resolutely, Mercy headed to the kitchen as she repeated, “That’s right. My Kirk loves me!”

Seventeen

At this time of year, when the sun camped out in the sky and gentle rains spilled from the clouds, it was easy for World of Blooms, Champaign’s largest nursery, to live up to its name. The candied scents of honeysuckle and lavender reached Hunter before she and Jax had even made it to the entrance. She inhaled and let the summertime smells pull her from the nearly empty parking lot, through the nursery’s sliding double doors, past the array of pots and seed packs, garden sculptures and indoor plants to the information booth set up outside the main building’s back entrance. The QS INTO AS hut looked like it belonged on the beach, complete with thatched straw roof, colorful orchid-shaped lights tacked up around the bar, and sun-streaked blond attendant.

Jax ran his hand through his earth brown hair, turning his textured fringe into a messy pompadour before he smoothed down the front of his T-shirt and flicked a speck of lint from his shorts.

Was he … primping?

Hunter trailed her best friend as he glided up to the hut and rang the small bell that sat in the middle of the bar.

The attendant’s soft curls bounced around her shoulders as she turned to face them. “Heya, what can I help you find?” Her voice was starshine, bright and clear and enchanting.

Hunter’s mouth went dry and she wished she, too, had combed her hand through her hair, turned it into anything other than the plain ponytail that hung down her back like the densely packed flowers of a cattail.

Jax leaned against the bar and glanced over his shoulder at Hunter. “What’d you say the name of that stuff is?”

Hunter’s tongue was a ball bearing pressing against her teeth. There was no point in crushing on anyone back