Hallow Haven Cozy Mysteries Bundle Books 1-3 by Mara Webb (books to read fiction .txt) 📕

had hurried here alone. I hadn’t mentioned the keys that I had found by the rocks, but then again, I could barely speak without the pain shooting across my cheek.

I followed the corridor to the room with the open door and just assumed that it was where I was supposed to go. I just wanted pain relief; I didn’t care which dentist gave it to me.

“Hi! What a pleasure to meet you, I’m Dr. Barrow. Please, take a seat! You know, I had heard we had a new member of the Alden family on the island, but I wasn’t expecting them to walk through my door today. It reminds me of a time...”

“My tooth,” I whimpered. It’s one of the rare anomalies that catch you off guard, a talkative dentist. Either he has his hands in my mouth so I can’t respond, or my face is numb, or I’m in so much pain that I haven’t the patience to hear him out.

“Oh yeah, sorry. I’m a people person and most people come in here not wanting to speak, or they hate dentists. I think I might be lonely. Hey, a problem for another time, let’s have a look at those teeth,” he smiled. I did not need my medical professional to be having an existential crisis right now, but I doubted there were any other dentists to choose from on the island.

I lay on the chair, a dental assistant appeared out of nowhere and handed me a pair of glasses to shield my eyes from the examination light overhead, and Dr. Barrow leaned over my face to look at the problem.

“That looks painful,” he mumbled. I made a nasal sound in agreement. “I will need to numb the area and then it shouldn’t take more than two minutes for the extraction.” Extraction? I was suddenly in the mood for a general anesthetic. I braced for the injection, then prepared myself with a playlist of songs on my mind’s jukebox so that I could focus on those instead of the sound of medical instruments.

Nothing was clanging on a metal tray. I hadn’t had an extraction before, so my heart was racing, but I figured that they would need equipment, right? I moved my tongue around my mouth, pressing it against my cheek and soft palette to see if the numbing had taken effect, I couldn’t feel a thing.

“I am right in thinking you were raised without magic?” he asked. I nodded. “Okay, so you won’t have seen a cool dentist before then?” he chuckled. “Can you feel this?” He poked my cheek with his finger, and I felt the urge to smile, but physically couldn’t. I’d had dental anesthetic before, and this wasn’t usually how they confirmed that it had kicked in.

“What are you doing?” I tried to ask, but with the plastic thing in my mouth propping my jaw open it came out like a strange noise.

“You need a wisdom tooth out due to, what I’m assuming was, a nut incident,” he said. He held his palm in front of my face, fingers spread as if he was shielding my eyes from the sun. A second or two later, he was holding the tooth and smiling at me with a child-like enthusiasm. “I can move objects effortlessly and I’m a dentist! Is that the perfect combo or what? I’ve also wriggled a sesame seed free from one of your teeth too!”

The dental assistant helped me sit up, and I turned to face Dr. Barrow in amazement at the speed of my treatment. The anesthetic had removed the pain already, but I felt sure that I wouldn't have pain once it wore off.

“You’re a witch too?” I asked.

“Yeah! Fun, isn’t it? I used to just use my magic to clean my bedroom as a kid, then I figured dentistry was the way to go. I am probably the most popular dentist on the planet, I mean, people still don’t talk to me much in here, but they aren’t scared of me!” he beamed.

“How big of an object can you move?”

“Is this about Greta?” he replied, leaning forward on his spinning chair in anticipation of some juicy gossip.

“I can’t confirm or deny it,” I teased. I didn’t think it had anything to do with Greta, but if he was able to move objects regardless of their size, weight or location then maybe he could move those boulders on the beach.

“Sandy, cancel all my patients! I’m out of office on official peacekeeper business!” I hadn’t actually asked him to come with me, or that I had any plans for his object-moving skills, but apparently, I didn’t need to because he had invited himself along anyway.

He removed his gloves, held out his hand to help me hop out of the examination chair and guided me through to the reception area as if he were demonstrating the trotting skills of a show pony. I couldn’t help but smile, or at least think about it, my facial muscles weren’t moving yet.

“What do you think of the place so far? Have you eaten any of the seafood here yet? I personally wouldn’t touch calamari with a ten-foot pole, but some people are really into it. Same with prawns for me, and clams... I don’t actually think I like seafood at all, I always order French fries in those places and...” Dr. Barrow rambled on and on.

Greta appeared and caught us both off guard, we were towards the end of the main street now, the café was in sight. I wasn’t sure if everyone knew about ghosts, or if everyone could even see them. Greta seemed unconcerned with Dr. Barrow staring at her.

“Fitz, really? Have you been doing this the entire time I’ve been dead?” she asked. My frown lines deepened as I stared curiously at the ghost of my cousin. She was talking to my dentist.

“You always tell me to make myself useful!” he replied. What was going on? “I’m not doing anything illegal; I earned my