Starlight Web (Moonshadow Bay #1) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,17

married. Then I started to gain it back—my body isn’t comfortable at a low weight. He started needling me about it, so I stopped eating very much, at least while he was around.”

“You ate when he couldn’t watch you, right? My sister did the same thing.”

“Right. And he couldn’t understand why I didn’t lose weight since I barely ate anything in front of him. We worked together, so I had to slip away from him in order to get a decent meal, and I just avoided dinner mostly and snacked later. It was easier to let him think that I was lazy, rather than argue for my right to eat.”

Killian shook his head. “I don’t understand men who act like that. Was he as controlling in other ways?”

I nodded. “Yes, and I kept my mouth shut to keep the peace. Oh, he never hit me, but I spent eighteen years under his constant criticism. I guess I didn’t realize that the emotional abuse was creeping up on me. It’s easy to excuse behaviors when they’re passive aggressive—and when your partner gaslights you.” I hadn’t intended on diving into the dark corners of my marriage, but since he asked, I decided to answer honestly.

“What finally made you leave?”

“Ellison cheated on me for a year. Magic finally brought out the truth. I cast a spell to find out if he was having an affair, and sure enough, two days later I walked in on him going down on his girlfriend. When we divorced, he managed to steal my half of the magazine we started, and he conned me out of the house. Trust me, I’m not stupid. He was just smart and sleazy, and I… I guess I never expected him to go that far. I trusted him when I shouldn’t have.”

I had probably just shunted Killian fully into the friendzone without meaning to. No man wanted to hear griping against the ex, especially right up front. But I liked Killian. If he ended up a good friend, I’d be happy with that.

Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, a little voice inside whispered.

I glanced at my watch. We had spent ninety minutes over lunch. It was going on 12:30. “I’d better go. I have a job interview at three, and I want to get my purchases home so that I don’t have to worry about leaving them in the car. Though there isn’t a great deal of crime around Moonshadow Bay.” I paused. “When will you be opening the new clinic?”

He leaned back, watching me. “I’ll be looking at the offices I took over this afternoon and examining how much work I need to do to renovate. I’d like to have my office up and running by the new year.”

“If I find a pet—which I am thinking of—I’ll definitely bring her…or him…to you.” I started to pull out my wallet, but he protested.

“No, please, I want to pay. I enjoyed lunch. And I enjoyed the company even more,” he said, reaching out to shake my hand.

Again I felt flustered, since I had been the one to ask him to lunch, but then I decided that if he wanted to pay, I’d be gracious and not object.

“Thank you. I had fun, too. I’ll see you around,” I said, standing.

“I think I’ll stay and have more coffee. Good luck on your interview!” He waved as I started for the door. “Wait, what are you interviewing for?” he called.

I glanced over my shoulder. “It’s for a paranormal investigator job at a place called Conjure Ink,” I said, then waved and pushed open the door.

Conjure Ink was headquartered in an office complex on the outskirts of town, surprisingly close to my house. It was also buttressed against Mystic Wood Park. The building also housed a computer company and an office supply store, and the complex boasted several restaurants as well. Conjure Ink was on the far end to the left, only steps away from the park.

I pushed open the door, peeking inside. There was a receptionist’s desk in front of another door. Otherwise, the waiting area was sparse—a few chairs, a table, and some magazines about UFOs and Bigfoot. The receptionist’s desk had a sign on it that read: ring bell and please wait.

I rang the bell and took a seat, smoothing my hair and making sure I had my tote with the file folder containing my resumé. I had also brought a few articles I had written, in case Tad wanted to see them. I