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

“Are you sure you remember the way? We could always give Ryder a call?” Effie said.

“So you can drool over him?” I smiled. “No chance. He wanted me to consult with you guys and that’s what I’m doing. He will only start ranting about werewolves again and I don’t need the headache.”

“What if he’s right?” Kate asked. “What if Miller is dragging people up onto the hill and eating them for… I dunno… werewolf reasons? Would you still be dating him?”

“First of all, we aren’t dating. Secondly, and I can’t believe I have to say this out loud, but I would put cannibalism on my list of dealbreakers,” I said.

“And she wonders why she’s single?” Effie laughed. “If you keep setting the bar so high then no man will ever live up to your standards. Oh, look at me, I only date people that haven’t eaten human flesh!” She was performing a flamboyant impression of my voice and waving her arms around. We all laughed as we continued our walk towards the base of the hill that Ryder had taken me to previously.

The shadowed area beneath the trees was cooler and I felt almost immediate relief to be out of the blazing sunlight. No one had spoken in a few minutes and I wondered if I should tell them about Miller walking me home last night. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I knew I was in trouble, especially so close to a mind reader.

“What!” Kate gasped. “Miller slept over and you thought you could hide it from us?”

“Excuse me!” Effie shrieked. They were both now standing directly in front of me to prevent me from hiking any further up the hill without giving them the information they desperately needed. “I want details, all of the details, even a detail that you don’t think is important… I want that too!”

“Guys, chill,” I laughed. “He walked me to the house and then he slept over on the couch downstairs. It’s not a big deal!” I was blushing wildly, and I just hoped they couldn’t see how red my face was in the mottled light beneath the trees.

“Sadie, I… am… speechless,” Kate said, dramatically pausing between every word. “He slept over, you kissed goodnight, right? You held hands on the sand on the way to the door, right? Did he read you a bedtime story? Ah! My heart is racing!”

“You are both ridiculous. None of that happened,” I replied. “Look, he walked me home after some weird confrontation with Jake Hall’s wife and when we got back to the house, he immediately said he would be sleeping in the living room and I went up to bed. He left before you guys got to the house, I guess.”

“Could you not have just lied to make the story more interesting?” Kate sighed as she turned back to the slope of the hill.

“Yeah, never let the truth get in the way of a good tale,” Effie agreed. The truth was that I had lay in my bed staring at the ceiling for an hour as I thought about Miller downstairs. The truth was that I was hoping we would have talked about something other than a murder; I had wanted him to talk about the feeling when our hands had touched.

We carried on twisting around trees and over fallen branches until I could see the clearing ahead of us. Seeing the scorched earth and the stone in the center then reminded me of the electricity between Ryder and I. Oh boy.

Was I just so desperate to fall in love again that I was imagining things? Maybe they had just both given me a static shock. I had gotten out of a long-term relationship and then flown straight out of town and moved to a remote group of islands. There’s a chance that it wasn’t the healthiest way to handle a break-up.

Effie stepped further into the clearing to inspect the dark stain on the rock.

“This is blood all right, no doubt in my mind. Kate?” Effie said, seeking her sister’s opinion.

“Y-yeah, blood,” Kate nodded.

“What do you think about all this burned plant life? I feel like I’ve read about something like this before, but I can’t place it,” Effie continued. Again, she looked over at Kate who was walking around the perimeter of the clearing with a concerned expression.

“Yeah, it’s burned big time,” Kate muttered. Effie’s cell phone began to ring, and she answered the call, turning away to begin the conversation.

Kate scurried over to me and grabbed both of my shoulders. “What’s up?” I asked, smiling nervously as I stared into her panicked eyes. Effie turned back to face us, and Kate immediately let go of me to look at the ground again. What?

“Dude, that was the café. They said they’ve been trying to call you, but they got no answer,” Effie said. I pulled out my phone and saw no missed calls. Weird.

“Sorry, it must have not had any signal,” I shrugged.

“They just need someone to come and help organize the walk-in fridges because the new delivery guy brought over a bunch of fruit from one of the islands and nothing is in the right place. I swear I have labeled those shelves a thousand times…” Effie groaned. “I’ll go, you and Kate look around and I’ll catch up with you when you get back.”

At that, Effie bounded down the hill and was out of sight within seconds. Kate turned back to me and resumed her look of concern.

“I need to tell you something,” Kate said conspiratorially.

“Do I want to hear it?” I replied.

“I’ve been here before,” she blurted out. I raised an eyebrow. “You know I said that I went hiking with my GPS roulette thing and met a guy in a clearing? Well it was this clearing. Only, it didn’t look quite like this.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.

“Because I still haven’t told Effie about Tim. It just