This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

over to her to peer at it. There were bridal catalogues and dress patterns and all the fancy details.

“I know,” Vincent said, rocking on his heels while stuffing his hands into his pockets. “But uh, I wanted to meet the guy and uh, vet him personally before—”

Audry laughed. “You and everybody’s dog. Look, Vincent, half the planet has already vetted him.”

Shrugging, Vincent looked only mildly sheepish. “Yeah, I know. Doug said he did a Google search. I’m not saying that isn’t good. But I’d like to meet the man before I approve of him.”

Rolling her eyes, Audry waved him to the couch. “Fine. Hogan and I are having dinner tonight. You can meet him then.”

Nodding, Vincent grinned. However, he also beckoned Silvia to the side and whispered to her, “What’s your impression?”

“She hates him,” Audry piped up, poring over the page bookmarked for invitation styles. Her grandmother had checked off the wedding invitation designs she approved of. All of them looked like they were inviting people to a royal wedding which the queen of England could attend. It was annoying.

“Really?” Vincent smirked at her. “For what reason?”

Audry lifted her head from the page and nodded to Silvia. “You can tell him.”

With thanks, Silvia beckoned Vincent to the couch and proceeded to narrate all the reasons she didn’t like Hogan—starting with her personal impressions and what she had found out in her research. When she got to the goddess list and the stalker ex-girlfriend, Vincent was stunned.

“And you still want to marry him?” Vincent piped up, astonished.

“I think she’s delusional,” Silvia said rather dryly. “Living in a dream world. You see, he’s quite the charmer. Slicker than Harlin.”

“No kidding.” Vincent frowned. He went up to Audry. “Now I really need to vet him.”

Audry looked over his shoulder to her roommate. “Now tell him the main reason you object to Hogan.”

“That is the main reason,” Silvia protested, her eyes showing a mite of confusion.

“Does the word Breacon ring a bell?” Audry asked, smirking.

Vincent looked to Silvia, nonplussed.

Silvia broke into a laugh. She shook her head. “That is NOT my main reason, you silly. I was just teasing you about that because you two would be cute together and it irritated you so much.”

“What’s Breacon?” Vincent asked.

Smirking, Silvia strolled over to the counter and leaned against it flirtatiously as she said to him, “Breacon is the name of a ship—as in I shipped Bruchenhaus and Deacon together.”

Vincent colored, laughing. He looked to his cousin Audry. “I’d ship that.”

Audry groaned while Silvia giggled with personal satisfaction.

“No, really,” Vincent said, following Audry who was now closing the heavy books and going back to her research work. “I know I only spoke to Mr. H. Richard Deacon for a short time, but the guy is a classy dude. And despite the whole dietary issue, you two got on like—”

“A house on fire,” Audry said, shaking her head.

“No.” Vincent got nearer. “No. I saw how he responds when you talk to him. Out of all your boyfriends, he listens to you.”

“He was never my boyfriend,” Audry retorted, blushing “And don’t you say that near Hogan either.”

“Cause he’ll get jealous?” Vincent asked, his eyes sparkling.

Audry nodded. “Yes, of course. Who wouldn’t?”

Vincent shrugged.

“Hogan is already a little jealous of Rick,” Audry said, typing up more into her computer.

Nodding, Vincent smirked and folded his arms. “He should be. Silvia just told me he arranged this place for you.”

“For us,” Audry corrected.

“For you,” Vincent insisted.

She paled. Then she looked to Silvia to confirm it.

Silvia nodded. “I mean, yeah. Though I probably could have worked things out another way, it would have been harder for me. And he would have just gotten a bodyguard for you. But this situation does also benefit you, removing the need for a guard at the house. He wanted you to have a safe house—at least until the witches get the hint and learn to leave you alone. ”

“Witches?” Vincent lifted his eyebrows.

Audry had already told him about Silvia’s witch connection, but they had hardly ever talked about it since.

“Well anyway, you call that boyfriend of yours and let him know I am crashing your date,” Vincent said. He then walked to the living room couch and sat down as if to take a nap there. Both Silvia and Audry watched him. Vincent folded his arms and closed his eyes, getting comfortable.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Audry said.

“Napping.” He did not even open his eyes.

Silvia choked on a laugh. It came out more as a snort.

Rolling her eyes, Audry said, “Don’t you have a hotel?”

“Nope,” Vincent said. “I’m crashing on your couch.”

The two ladies exchanged more looks, then Audry said, “Why didn’t you get a hotel room?”

He breathed out with a sigh. “I was going to. But… the couch was beckoning to me.”

“Oh…” Silvia shook her head. She chuckled. Patting Audry on the shoulder, she said, “Let him sleep. Your sweet cousin is just affected by the apartment. I think I made the spell a little too general. I’ll have to tweak it later tonight when you get back.”

“Too general?” Audry felt shivers, as she disliked thinking about the spell at all, which she could still feel within the apartment like a light fog. 

Nodding, Silvia said, “Yeah. It was to confuse or knock out predators. If one were to get in, it would knock him out. But Vincent isn’t hunting us. He’s hunting Hogan. I might have to specify whom the predator is after.”

Audry stared at her.

“For all I know, it will even knock out Howie Deacon.” Silvia snickered. “And we can’t have that.”

Audry’s eyes narrowed on her roommate.

That evening, once they woke Vincent and helped him downstairs so he could wake up entirely, Audry and he hopped in a taxi and went to meet Hogan. Hogan was fully prepared to meet Vincent Williams—Audry’s favorite cousin and one of her best friends. He had heard all about him already. Hogan was amiable, friendly, and funny as usual. Vincent liked him right away.

*

Green Club leaders announced a wilderness clean-up and campout, to which they begged Audry to arrange the vehicles for the trip so they not only would have a good time, but would also leave a small carbon footprint at the campgrounds. Though they already chose a location, they figured she had to have her say in it as her family was the type to do that sort of thing and she had to know some of the best hiking areas, especially for night hiking. It would be around the full moon and all the paths would be well illuminated.

Then they told her where they had chosen to go: Watkin’s Glen State Park. Audry immediately researched it since she had never been there. It was beautiful upstate New York location near the Finger Lakes with waterfalls, hiking trails and campgrounds. But one problem for their Green Club project came up that Audry noticed: Watkin’s Glen would not need any help with a cleanup. All her research proved that the campgrounds were well cared for, and so was the wilderness.

They decided to go camping there anyway—just for fun, Neil said. Someone went on the Trip Advisor website and had insisted it was worth the journey and had convinced him, he said. Their friend Jandra, who was one of the Green Club leaders, reserved campgrounds for them all in the Seneca Loop camping area of Watkin’s Glen, and they all intended to carpool from NYU together in rented and borrowed vans.  

Farrah had showed up at the parking lot with Jandra along with another friend who was not in the club but begged to be part of their party. Bobo also came, showing Audry that he truly had also joined Green Club, though she was sure Rick had sent him to act as her bodyguard despite the ‘shadow spell’ Silvia had created. Silvia had also come, mostly for the same reason Bobo had—to protect Audry—though she was a former Green Club member also, and she was getting cabin fever from being indoors all the time. When they saw each other, Bobo smirked at Silvia then went on to flirt with Jandra.

When Neil Garret arrived in the parking lot, everyone started to load up the vans. With him was Brooke Himmerman and her friend Paula, both former Green Club members Audry used to do vegan activism with who had gone on to working for web companies promoting social justice in racial equality. They shot one look at Audry with Hogan and rolled their eyes.

“Ok,” Neil said to the gathering crowd. “Our cleanup project has been arranged with the town of Watkins Glen. We’ll be cleaning garbage out of the lake. There’s been a lot of flotsam there from a recent storm, so we’ll be helping wherever needed.”

Audry wondered if that was true. It could be, though it was just as possible that Neil just said that to justify the event so that when they got there and all was fine he could claim that the job had gotten finished before them. He did things like that. Audry didn’t find him to be a very honest person. He liked the image of the club rather than the real purpose, which was to return the world to a healthier state.

They all packed into their vans, Hogan sitting next to Audry while Silvia and Bobo took the seats behind them and others filed in. Jeremy Deets, her other friend from her vegan activism, steered. The trip from NYU up through New York State on Interstate 80 to Scranton was about two hours. After a break they continued on Interstate 81 to Binghamton where they took another pit stop. From there they went on Interstate 86, then another highway to the north, pulling out at Watkins Glen State Park.

Travel-weary and tired, Neil insisted they head to the lake first before putting out their camping things. Surprisingly, to Audry at least, there actually was a cleanup at the lake and the locals were happy to see their group arrive. In fact, as they greeted the Green Club members, Neil glanced smugly at Audry as if to say: ‘See? I’m not what you think. I deliver’.

A little ashamed that she had misjudged him, Audry congratulated Neil and immediately went to join the locals to offer assistance.

“Are you joining us?” Audry said when Hogan lagged behind her, not as enthusiastic. He had also thought Neil was going to flake out and they would have a full day of free time together.

Cringing apologetically, Hogan said, “Actually, when I mentioned the cleanup to Water Way, they requested that I get water samples. So, no. I have to work.”

Audry nodded, sighing. That was always the risk in bringing Hogan to wet places. He always wanted to test the water. He even tested pool water for pee. He had tested the ocean water back at the other cleanup, giving his findings to his company.

“You’re a workaholic,” she said, laughing while walking backwards to join a group.

With a nod, Hogan smirked “That I am. So sorry. How about we go hiking later. It’s a full moon tonight. We might be able to get in some night hiking.”

That echoed in Audry’s head with Jordan Hague’s voice for some reason, only about night skiing—Jordan Hague who had been killed in Germany. Her impulse was to say ‘no’, that it was dangerous because hunters would be about. But then she regained her sense of reality, that she was not Rick Deacon who had to avoid psychopathic hunters on full moons. She said, “I’d love to.”

He went his way, and Audry joined the rest of the crew at the latke.

A local man by the name of Frank White explained the project to them. “The storm turned into a gale and many trees were uprooted and ended in the water. Most of us are hauling the large ones to shore and cutting them up for firewood. You can join that crew. Another group of us are handling dead animals found in the water, which might poison