The Only Purple House in Town (Fix-It Witches, #4)(26)

Of the bargains offered, only two patterns spoke to her. The white-and-black herringbone would be difficult to line up properly, which would make it more time-consuming, and it didn’t match the feel of the house. She picked up two rolls of the gray-and-white damask. That would class up the room and go nicely with the paint. I can probably get covers for some of the furniture too. Iris took the wallpaper to the counter while waiting for Eli.

“I wasn’t trying to listen in,” she said to Bruce. “But in a week or two, I’ll have more rooms to rent if you think your mom might be interested.”

“That would be great. She’s never lived alone, and she’s a social butterfly, so I’ve been concerned about her. My dad and mom were together for forty years, and then… Well, it’s best if I let her tell you. If she chooses to.”

“I hear senior divorces are on the rise,” Iris said.

“True.” The hardware store owner seemed unwilling to proffer more details, and she didn’t pry. “I’ll take your name and email if that’s okay?”

“You can have my cell number too if you want.”

“Perfect.”

She entered the info into the Notes app on his phone as Eli walked up with the plastic and a few extra trays. “All set?” he asked.

Smiling, she said, “Yeah. Maybe more than I expected.”



* * *



Eli wasn’t sure what Iris meant by that.

But she explained without him asking as they hauled their purchases out to his truck. He laughed as she went into great detail describing the woman’s hand-knit rainbow sweater. It sounded like Iris had already made up her mind about renting a room, even if she didn’t even know the lady’s name.

Why wasn’t it this easy to talk with anyone else? With Iris, conversations just happened; he didn’t need to fish frantically for new topics.

It’s so restful.

He stopped, shading his eyes to be sure of what he was seeing. Across the square, two women were scrubbing what looked like a nasty piece of graffiti from their shop. Someone had added “WILL BURN” to the Fix-It Witches logo in sloppy red spray paint. Iris followed his gaze and sighed.

“I guess even St. Claire has some badness,” Iris said.

“You’re okay with them? Witches, I mean.” That was definitely a fact-finding question. Her attitude toward witches would tell him a lot about how she might react to him being a shifter.

“I try to treat everyone equally,” she said. “But honestly, I’ve never met one…that I know of. But I think that’s what has people riled up. The sense that it could be anyone and that humanity has been…infiltrated. Ugh. I don’t even know why we’re talking about this.”

That response didn’t offer as much insight into her thoughts as he’d hoped, but it would likely seem strange to persist. He wanted to say something about HAPI—Humans Against Paranormal Influence—and see how she reacted. Chapters had sprung up all over, and a former local politician had been yelling online about it for several years. Now others were joining Dan Rutherford, and Eli hated to see the movement gain traction.

“Let’s go see if they need help,” she said.

Before he could respond, she jaywalked across the street and was animatedly offering her services. At least, he assumed so, as he couldn’t hear Iris from this distance. When he caught up to her, a woman with sun-streaked curls was saying, “I really appreciate the offer, but we’re good. I’m only doing this because Clem is afraid it’ll make things worse if we cast spells on Main Street, so to speak.”

The brunette woman sighed. “Gavin is reviewing the security footage now. Soon we’ll know who did this, okay? There’s no reason to—”

“I’d love to see you fix the sign with a spell,” Iris said, wide-eyed.

“We’re not giving demonstrations,” said the second witch, as the first one studied the sign with a measuring look.

“Danica, I’m so sorry this happened again.” Now someone else joined the convo, a slim, dark-eyed person in a hoodie.

“Rowan! Good to see you again. Do you have something for us to fix?”

Rowan raised a small paper bag. “My old iPod. I started feeling nostalgic, and I want to check out what I was listening to in middle school if you can get it working.”

“Of course we can.” The friendly witch turned to them with a warm smile. “Thanks for offering to help. St. Claire is great, mostly, but no place is perfect.”

The other three headed for the door to the shop while Iris glanced at Eli with an apologetic expression. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to delay us.”

“It’s fine. You were trying to do a good deed.”

She laughed. “Yeah, that didn’t pan out.”

They often don’t.

Iris went on, “But at least now I can say I’ve met some witches. They seemed nice, right? Well, Danica more than… What was the other one’s name?”

“Clem,” Eli said.

The two retraced their steps and got in the truck. While Eli brooded, Iris filled the silence with ideas, projects, things she wanted to try for the house if they wouldn’t cost a fortune. He only had to nod, put in a quiet opinion here and there, and it was perfect. Maybe he wouldn’t be this happy listening to someone else, but her voice soothed him, as if there were deeply woven magical notes. Honestly, the woman could convince him to do almost anything.