The Hidden Grimoire by Karla Brandenburg (pride and prejudice read TXT) 📕

“This morning? Both of them? At the same time?”

“This morning,” she repeated.

I waited, but when she didn’t elaborate, I set Ash on the rug on the counter and went over to Cassandra. “I thought you wanted Lucas to ask you out.”

“Toby asked first, and Lucas was there. I’m pretty sure he only asked because Toby did.”

“But he asked.”

Cassandra adjusted the headband in her mane of ice-blonde hair, but remained silent.

“What did you tell them?” I pressed.

“Nothing.”

I blinked, not sure I’d heard right.

She heaved a sigh. “Toby, I went to school with. Lucas, he’s a year older, you know?”

“Okayyy.”

“I was standing in line, checking my phone, waiting for my coffee and Toby leans in and tells me how good I look today and asks if I want to go out this weekend.”

She was dressed in a black sweater, camo pants, a rhinestone belt—her unique style. Toby was the mason’s son, the one who repaired the crumbling chimneys in town and added the artistic decorations to hide the bumps. Cassandra’s camo pants—well, everyone had their own criteria for attractive. Many of the folks in this part of Wisconsin were hunters and it wouldn’t surprise me if he found a woman in camo irresistible.

“I ignored him,” she went on. “Then there was a whisper in my ear. Lucas standing a foot behind me saying, ‘or you could go out with me.’”

Shivers at the imagined whisper made me fold my arms. “And you ignored him, too?”

“Like I said, I’d lay money he asked because Toby did.”

“But he asked you,” I said again.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head with a dramatic sigh. “Relationships suck.”

Once again, making me laugh. “You aren’t even in a relationship, unless there’s something you’re keeping from me.”

“Right. Says the woman who took the cheating bastard back.”

Target hit. Cassandra normally wasn’t a mean or vindictive sort, and I chose to think she was shooting darts at me to keep from dealing with her own problem. I returned to my stool behind the counter.

“I’m sorry,” she said a moment later. “You and Kyle, it’s none of my business, and honestly, I’m a little jealous. The guy wears his heart on his sleeve. The way he looks at you...”

“Is exactly the way Lucas looks at you. Why didn’t you accept?”

“Because it was a knee-jerk reaction on his part. Seriously. If he wanted to ask me out, why wait until someone else does?”

Because Lucas was the buttoned-up sort. He was a teacher and as conservative as they came. Sandy brown hair, freckles, glasses. Cassandra wore rhinestone belts with camo pants.

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Well, if he asked once, he might ask again, but you might have to wait a long time. You’ve already been waiting a long time. Since he made the first move, you could give him a call. Ask him what he has in mind.”

Cassandra was rarely timid. In fact, I admired her ability to put the town gossips in their place. The uncertain look on her face was alien to everything I knew about her.

Her voice grew quiet. “If I go out with him, you know what everybody’s going to say, and it won’t go well for him.”

“What? That he’s a lucky guy?” I teased.

She exhaled a sigh. “They’ll either make fun of him or me. I don’t think I’m up for either scenario.”

“Nora always told me what other people think of me is none of my business,” I told her. “Pretty sure you subscribe to the same motto. Why now?”

“Because I’m not the only person this affects. I don’t care what they say about me, but he’s more soft-spoken, you know what I mean?” Again, she shook her arms at her sides. “He was whispering when he asked me out, for heaven’s sake.”

“So you call him where there isn’t anyone to hear and you go somewhere no one will see you. Find out if he’s too much of a wimp for you or if he’s as sweet as you think he is.”

She shook a finger at me. “He’s not a wimp.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“And everything to gain,” she said with a sarcastic flourish.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“What if I’m too much for him?” she asked.

“I’ve never seen you so unsure of yourself,” I said. “And I know you want to date him. What’s the worst that could happen? It doesn’t work out? At least then you’ll know instead of pining after him.”

“I do not pine,” she said. “Sappy people pine. Like you and Kyle. Honestly. I knew it was only a matter of time, even if I’d hoped you were done with that phase of your life.” She said it with a hint of humor, and I knew she was teasing more than serious. “I’ll call Lucas. After I finish hemming Alice’s pants.” She took the garment she’d been working on and pulled pins.

“I’m going in back to mix bath salts,” I said. “You want me to make some for you? Brynn’s Mix worked for Lisa and Dylan.”

Cassandra laughed. “No, thank you. I’m not the enchanting type. I’d rather do this on my own—pass or fail.”

“Look at you, using schoolteacher language.”

She laughed again, and I smiled, pleased with myself for having made her feel at least marginally better.

Half a dozen jars of bath salts later, the bell on the front door rang, the first customer we’d had all day. I printed labels, leaving Cassandra to help whoever had come in—until I heard the customer raise his voice.

“She isn’t home. She has to be here.”

I grabbed a towel and dried my hands as I walked to the front of the store. My cousin Jason, and the woman who’d transferred to be with him.

Jason took a step toward me. “Where’s my daughter?”

Chapter 20

“Do you want me to call Kyle?” Cassandra asked.

“Not until we know what this is about,” I told her.

“Georgia’s gone missing. Don’t tell me you don’t know where she is,” Jason said.

I crossed my arms. “What do you want me to tell you?”

“Where is