Prelude to a Witch, Amanda Lee [ebook reader web txt] 📗

her part, the woman looked more amused than annoyed. Her smile never faltered and she cocked her head as she regarded my great-aunt. “You must be Tillie Winchester.”

Aunt Tillie’s eyes narrowed. “Who told you that?”

“You’re famous in certain circles,” the woman said with a laugh.

“I’m so sorry.” I held up my hands as I strode into the lobby. I couldn’t believe Aunt Tillie was harassing a guest. I expected her to go all out to drive the profiler crazy. What she was pulling now was beyond my scope of understanding. “Are you checking in?” I saw the reception desk was empty. “Where is Twila?”

“Doing something stupid,” Aunt Tillie replied, her eyes never leaving the woman’s face. “She mentioned something about getting a book from the library.”

“How is that stupid?” I asked.

“It’s a book on teaching bears to drink from teacups.”

She had to be making that up. “Well, fine.” I kept my smile in place even though I wanted to pound Aunt Tillie into the dust for making a mockery of Mom’s business. “I can check you in.” I moved behind the computer. “Your name?”

“Hannah Waters,” Landon replied, taking me by surprise.

“How do you know that?” I was confused.

“Landon.” The willowy blonde was completely focused on my fiancé. “It’s been a long time.” She extended her hand. “A very, very long time.”

The annoyance I’d been feeling thanks to Aunt Tillie’s antics turned into something else. I couldn’t give a name to it — or maybe I simply didn’t want to — but it felt like a mishmash of jealousy and discomfort. “You two know each other?”

“We do.” Landon shook Hannah’s hand and then released it, even though I had the sneaking suspicion Hannah would’ve been fine extending the greeting. “We were in the academy together.”

“Oh, well ... .” I didn’t know what to say. I’d been expecting a male profiler. “Um ... it’s nice to meet you.”

“A pleasure.” Hannah’s blue eyes were bright when they finally met mine. “Do you work here?”

“Not really.”

“This is Bay’s mother’s inn,” Landon volunteered, moving behind the counter to join me.

“And you’re Bay?” Hannah’s composure never cracked. “Do you work with Landon?”

“Sometimes,” I said.

“Bay is my fiancée,” Landon said.

“Oh, I heard.” Hannah bobbed her head. There was no disappointment when she focused on me a second time, although it was clear she was taking my measure. “I had drinks with Tom and Kevin in Chicago about three weeks ago. They mentioned that you’d gotten engaged. I didn’t believe it at first, but they swore it was true.”

“Who are Tom and Kevin?” I asked.

“Those are code names,” Aunt Tillie hissed. “They’re rogue Mary Kay sellers who want to infiltrate my inn.”

I lightly cuffed the back of her combat helmet. “Stop being weird.”

“Who’s being weird?”

“You,” Landon replied. “But that’s nothing new.” He shook his head before turning back to Hannah. “You’ll have to excuse Aunt Tillie. She’s ... an individual who likes attention.”

“So I see.” Hannah said. “Steve gave me a rundown on what to expect. He suggested I stay here. I wasn’t certain why, but now I assume it’s because you’re often here.”

“Actually, I live on the grounds.” Landon was doing his best to appear relaxed, but there was tension around the corners of his eyes. He was stressed out and pretending otherwise.

“You live in an inn.” Hannah looked to the ceiling. “That’s ... interesting.”

“Not in the inn. I live in a guesthouse on the property.”

“With your fiancée?”

Landon nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, that sounds ... like something out of a book.” Hannah giggled. “I didn’t realize your life had changed so much.”

“You can’t trust anyone who smiles that much,” Aunt Tillie warned me in a low voice. Even her best attempts at being quiet were failures. “That’s one of the first lessons I ever taught you. Remember it. Live it.” She thumped her hand against her chest. “Also, Mary Kay is crap. Nobody needs half the stuff they sell.”

I felt as if I was out of my element, but I refused to let this person — someone Landon clearly wasn’t expecting — rock my world. “Please ignore Aunt Tillie. The longer the day goes, the loopier she gets.”

Aunt Tillie growled. “And just for that, you’re on my list.”

Landon perked up. “Let me just say, I love the smell of bacon.”

Aunt Tillie had cursed me to smell like bacon as punishment more than once — resulting in half the male members of the town giving chase. He wanted the bacon curse again, but he couldn’t admit that in front of Hannah.

“I’m not rewarding you,” Aunt Tillie shot back, extending a finger in Hannah’s direction. “I will be watching you. If any of my good makeup is replaced with bad makeup, you’ll be in a world of hurt.”

Hannah’s smile never diminished, even when Aunt Tillie turned on her heel and flounced out of the room with Peg giving chase. “This is a unique place.”

Landon chuckled and moved his hand to my back. It was normal for him to touch me, but now the simple gesture felt somehow different, as if he was trying to send a message. I recognized the message wasn’t for me but for Hannah, which made me suspicious of exactly what their academy days were like.

“They have you down for a room on the third floor,” I said, keeping my eyes on the computer screen. “It looks like they’ve already run a corporate credit card.”

“Yes, Steve said he’d taken care of everything with one of the proprietors. Someone named Marnie.”

“It looks like everything is settled here.” I grabbed a keycard from the stack on the desk and ran it through the machine. “This should work. Room 302.”

“Great.” Hannah was all smiles as she took the card. “I believe Steve said that I would be in time for dinner.”

“Dinner is in fifteen minutes,” I confirmed, looking to Landon, who avoided eye contact. “We’re looking forward to a fun meal.”

“I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family,” Hannah said.

“Yes, won’t that be fun?”

8

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