Page 25 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“Bye, Lorna!” Chloe waved at me as they walked away.

Watching the two of them, my mind raced with unanswered questions. Then I caught myself and purposefully steered my thoughts back to my plant selections. I focused on the geraniums before me, determined not to give that man another thought.

Which proved to be damn near impossible.

Because I thought about Charles Montgomery and his adorable daughter for the rest of the afternoon.

***

Working on my back porch, I had a twenty-five-pound bag of potting mix propped up on one of my patio chairs and the half-finished window box on my patio table. My trio of wind chimes sang merrily in the breeze, and I calculated that I had just enough flowers to fill up my final window box.

My back gate swung open and my neighbor Kathleen let herself in. “Hey neighbor!” she called out.

“Hey, Kathleen.”

“Oh wow,” she said, stepping onto the back porch. “You got your vegetables in and look at all those window boxes and containers! You’ve been busy this afternoon.”

“Decided to do something different with my containers this year,” I told her.

“I love the coral geraniums,” she said, tucking her purple sunglasses on top of her hair. “And is this an orange and red petunia? I’ve never seen this kind before. Is it a new variety?”

“I think so. Got them at the Broussard’s nursery.”

She pursed her lips as she thought it over. “I might have to go snag a few of those for my own containers this year. They’re very pretty.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s this red flower in the window boxes?”

“That’s red verbena. It’s protective,” I told her.

Never content to sit and watch, Kathleen insisted on helping me carry all the finished window boxes and containers around to set them in place. I was glad for her help. Moving the last big pot was a two-person job. We hauled it down the porch steps and I placed it at the corner of the paver path that cut through my backyard.

While I tidied up and put away all my tools and rolled up the half empty bag of potting mix, Kathleen swept up the soil that had spilled while I worked. It didn’t matter that I told her she didn’t have to, she just gave me a look, grabbed the broom from my hands and did so anyway.

“You seem sort of wound up today, Lorna,” Kathleen said as she finished up.

“Yesterday was a tough day,” I said, stacking empty plastic plant pots.

“Anything to do with the fact that your community secretary ran off with the funds for the Witches Ball?”

I froze. “Wow. Word certainly traveled fast.”

“I’m in a garden club with Ruth Thomas,” she said. “Our kids went to high school together. We’ve been friends for years.”

“Sometimes I forget all the connections in the south side. Everyone knows everyone else it seems.”

“That being said...” Kathleen placed the broom against the house wall and took a seat in one of the patio chairs. “Joe got called in to consult the other day on a homicide case. So much for my husband being retired.”

A shiver went down my spine. “Oh?”

“Yeah, he was pretty concerned when he noticed that the gentleman who found the body showed up at your house with pizza last night.” Kathleen sighed. “I told him not to be so nosey...but he was concerned for your safety.”

I sat in the chair across from her. “I see.”

“I’m sorry, Lorna,” Kathleen said. “Joe means well.”

“Charles Montgomery and I know each other—socially, you could say—from the magickal community.”