Many Blessings [Coffeeshop Coven 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  * * * *

  Mandaline drove back to the shop with her mind and heart in turmoil. Giving Ellis another chance seemed like a good idea at the time with Brad’s sweet eyes boring holes through her defenses.

  Alone in the Element, she wondered now if maybe she hadn’t made a bad mistake.

  A billboard just north of the city limits caught her eye. For one of the churches in town, it proclaimed BELIEVE IN CHRIST! HE BELIEVES IN YOU!

  She nearly choked on her laughter. “Okay!” she yelled inside the car. “Julie, knock it off. I’m going to give him another chance.” She let out a snort. “Ellis, I mean. Not JC.”

  Sachi gave Mandaline an upraised eyebrow when she returned. She followed Mandaline into the office. “Weeellll? You don’t look freshly fucked.”

  “Down, girl. They’re taking me out to dinner.” She coughed. “Then they’re coming tonight.”

  She grinned. “They’re…” Her smile faded. “Oh. You mean the literal form of coming, as in coming to coven?”

  “Yes.”

  She scrunched up her lips. “I only reloaded three boxes of shells last night, and I’m shooting three rounds of skeet at five with the gang. I could buy a couple of boxes from—”

  “Stop.” Mandaline glared at her.

  “I can’t commence wit da shoosting?”

  She let out a snort. “No shoosting, no snoot-pounding, no tossing out of doors. And absolutely no hexing.”

  Sachi jammed her hands on her slim hips and stomped a foot. “Darn it, Mom! You never let me have any fun!” She spun on her heel and stormed out of the office, leaving a laughing Mandaline in her wake.

  She knew Sachi had to be hurting almost as badly as she was. Even though she hadn’t known Julie as long and wasn’t as close to her as Mandaline had been, she’d looked up to Julie. Loved her. Yet other than a few brief times, Sachi had tightly bound her grief away, instead looking after all her friends, especially Mandaline.

  She also knew Sachi would rather let someone pull all her teeth without the benefit of anesthesia than impose her grief on her friends when she thought they needed her more. She would keep a ramrod up her spine, a smile on her face, and a comforting shoulder at the ready.

  And a handy joke or snarky comment to incite a smile or laugh.

  But she wouldn’t break. Not publicly.

  Not Sachi.

  I need help with her, Julie, Mandaline silently entreated. Help me help her heal.

  Sachi had a lot of emotional junk in her trunk. Rightfully so, considering some of the things she’d been through in her life. Mandaline actually felt relieved that Sachi was going out shooting today. Blasting clay pigeons out of the sky was a healthy way for Sachi to get some of her grief and anger out of her system.

  Not to mention it kept her from literally turning her gun on a real person.

  Or herself.

  * * * *

  Mina, Paige, and Makenzie were in charge of closing the store. Since all three of them were staying for coven, they didn’t mind working the shift. Mandaline grabbed a shower and changed into a cami top and long peasant skirt and was downstairs waiting for Ellis and Brad when they showed up at seven.

  Both men were freshly showered and shaved. Instead of jeans they’d both donned slacks, button-up shirts, and loafers.

  They looked good, like a couple of lawyers fresh out of the office. She wouldn’t deny her heart fluttered even as heat flared deep in her body, between her legs, ignited by her clit.

  I reeeeally need to get laid.

  Hell, even if they weren’t relationship material, hot kinky sex might be just the thing she needed to distract her for a while. She grabbed her purse and a crocheted shawl and let the men escort her to their car. Brad held the front passenger door open for her before climbing into the backseat.

  “So where are we going?” she asked.

  “There’s a new Irish pub on State Road 50, on the way to Spring Hill,” Ellis said. “A couple of guys in my office were talking about it this week.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  She felt his tension and didn’t miss how he’d avoided touching her. She was okay with that, because she realized how difficult this was for him.

  “How many people work in your office?” she asked.

  “I’ve got a receptionist who’s our office assistant, another lawyer, and a paralegal. But I rent some of the other offices out to a couple of attorneys and others.”

  “What did you do with your apartment there when you moved out?”

  “One side of it is now rented out to a guy doing graphic arts design. The other part is storage.”

  “I guess practicing law here is different than in Tampa.”

  He shrugged as he made the turn onto SR 50. “It’s a good kind of different. It’s quieter. I mostly handle family law, civil cases. The occasional minor criminal case for some of my existing clients. I gave up criminal law.”

  “He’s too modest,” Brad piped up from the back. “He would have made partner in five years or less if he’d stayed with Kantly, Jessom, and Powell. They’re one of the largest firms in the Tampa Bay area.”

  She watched how Ellis glanced in the rearview mirror. “It was a shark tank,” he said. “No way in hell could I juggle everything. Life’s a lot easier now.”

  “In some ways,” Brad countered.

  She looked over her shoulder and spotted the playful smile on his face. He radiated triumph. For him, getting Ellis to come along to dinner and coven had equaled a rousing success.

  Maybe it was. She’d withhold judgment until the night was over.

  At the restaurant, the hostess showed them to a booth. Ellis and Brad slid into one side while Mandaline sat across from them. It only took Brad a few seconds to start playing footsies with her. His brown eyes bored into hers as a playful smirk quirked his lips.

  Ellis, however, had his face buried in the menu. “Please, order whatever you like,” he said. “I meant it. This is on us.”

  She briefly considered ordering a pint of ale before nipping that thought in the bud. No booze for me tonight. Or maybe for the rest of the year. “Iced tea, please,” she said to the waitress waiting to take their drink orders.

  Brad did order a pint of ale, while Ellis stuck to Coke.

  Ellis seemed at a loss for conversation starters. Brad, however, apparently felt no qualms about jumping right in. Even as he rubbed the toe of his foot along her calf under the table, he met her gaze. “How did you end up working at the shop?” She gave him credit. His smile only faltered for a split second. “I meant, before.”

  She offered him a smile in return. “Well, like any good story, the road took many twists and turns that I didn’t expect to get me to my current destination.”

  * * * *

  Ellis opted to let Brad carry the conversational weight. He desperately didn’t want to screw things up. If not for his own sake, for Brad’s. Yes, he was attracted to Mandaline in ways he couldn’t fathom. He didn’t understand the pull she had on his heart. He barely knew her, but if he closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander, he, too, could see himself spending his life with these two people.

  Happily so.

  “How so?” Brad asked her.

  She shrugged. “I tried doing things the traditional way. College, job, relationship. My craft was part of me, but I made the mistake of not making it the center of my soul. I tried to fit it in around everything else instead of the other way around. I tried letting my mind instead of my soul mold myself.”

  “What’d you study in college?”

  “I have a degree in accounting.” She smiled. “Not many people believe that. Numbers and what I do seem at cross-purposes.”

  Ellis tuned in a little more. She’s an accountant? He wouldn’t have guessed it about her considering what she did.

  “How long did you know Julie?” Brad asked.

  She sadly smiled. “We’ve…we were friends since high school. She’s the one who taught me how to read Tarot
cards back then. I was maybe fifteen. I was really, really good at it and we just clicked.”

  She clasped her hands in front of her on her menu and let her gaze drop to them. “I know a lot of people don’t believe what I believe in, and that’s fine. It’s like when I was a kid, I never felt like I fit in. My mom made me go to church and I hated it. I didn’t believe in it. I had to keep my mouth shut and sit there, bored to tears every Sunday. I always felt tuned in to other things. Like I could tell things about people without them saying it.”

  She looked up at Brad. “Julie’s the one who told me about empaths. She was one, too. She loaned me books and helped me learn about all of that. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a place, a calling.” She laughed. “Then we went to college together. She was always a better student than I was. I got by. She excelled. She went on to be a Rhodes scholar.”

  Ellis spoke up. “And she ran a New Age shop?” He felt Brad glare at him but ignored it.

  “Yep. It was her passion. She used her business training to make the shop profitable.”

  “Did you open it with her?” Brad asked.

  “No, she did that on her own. I was working for an auto dealership in Dade City and bored out of my freaking mind. She coaxed me into doing Tarot readings for people on the side, in my free time. But I was pretty hit and miss for a while with that.”

  “Why?”

  “I was always afraid to admit to others what I did. I was so busy working and trying to find a relationship that I forgot to keep myself centered. I eventually met a guy and he proposed and I stupidly accepted.” She smirked. “He wasn’t particularly religious, but his family was. They didn’t like me at all. His mother snooped once when she was over at our place and demanded to know why I had ‘devil worship’ stuff in my jewelry box.”

  Brad’s jaw dropped. “What?”

  Mandaline nodded. “Ohhh, you wouldn’t believe the stuff that bitch did. She’d found my pentacle.” She pulled it out from under her shirt. The silver, five-pointed star inside a circle hung from a delicate silver chain. “Julie gave it to me in high school.” She looked down at it, a sad smile on her face “Contrary to my ex-mother-in-law’s hysterical rantings, it has nothing to do with devil worship in most cases.” She snorted. “I don’t even believe in Satan, so how can I worship him?”

  Ellis spoke up again, curious. “What’s it mean?”

  “It represents the elements. Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit as the fifth point.” She smiled. “Pretty evil, huh?”

  He laughed. “She sounds like a piece of work.”

  The waitress brought their drinks and took their orders.

  “Oh, she definitely was,” Mandaline continued once they were alone again.” Her expression turned sad. “I thought I loved Carl, but I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I know most Christians are really nice, sweet, live-and-let-live kinds of people. I even have plenty who I read Tarot for. She wasn’t.”

  Her expression darkened. “And Carl wouldn’t even stand up to her for me. So I ended up divorcing his ass. His parents had money and paid for his divorce, meaning I got screwed. I finally ended up just walking away and signing everything over to him. I had my clothes and stuff from before I met him and that was it. He got everything. I spent my free time at the store, with Julie, getting reacquainted with myself and my beliefs until I was happy with me. Then I realized my job made me miserable. Julie offered me full-time here, plus reading and teacher fees. Not as much as I made working in the office at the dealership, but for the first time in a while I woke up happy every morning, eager to get to work. It was well worth the money trade-off.”

  Ellis realized he envied her a little. He also completely understood what she meant about being happy to go to work.

  It was how he now felt. “You must really like what you do.”

  “I do. I’m content, and I think that’s important. Enough about me,” she said as she sat back. “How do you like Brooksville?”

  * * * *

  Mandaline tried to pay close attention to Ellis, which was difficult with Brad playing footsies with her under the table. She’d finally slipped off one sandal and placed her foot on his seat, between his knees, so he could reach under the table and massage it for her. She eventually slipped off her other sandal and placed her other foot there as well, allowing him to give them equal treatment.

  It did fabulous things to her libido and mood, but horrible things to her powers of concentration.

  “Brooksville’s nice,” Ellis said. “Quiet. Peaceful.”

  “Except for owning a possessed house?” she teased.

  He had a nice smile when he chose to use it. “Exactly.”

  They had a pleasant dinner. Once she was able to draw out Ellis in conversation, she was able to more easily look past the angry, frightened man she’d encountered in her apartment after their dinner.

  “How about,” she said as they were waiting for the check, “I come over tomorrow evening with equipment to check out the house. Say, around six? That way I can be there both during daylight and at night.”

  Brad eagerly nodded. They looked at Ellis.

  “I’m fine with that,” he said.

  She glanced at her phone for the time. “We need to get going. It’s after eight thirty.”

  She kept an eye on Ellis for any signs of him changing his mind, but he nodded.

  “Anything I need to know so I don’t put my foot in my mouth?” he joked.

  She smiled. “Just remember that if Sachi mentions skeet shooting, or shotguns, or anything like that too many times, she’s just being very protective.”

  “Um, oh. Okay.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The coffeeshop coven group was never an advertised gathering. They didn’t need to, because they always had plenty of attendees. Tonight, it looked like anyone who’d ever been to one of the meetings was in attendance. Mandaline felt both grateful for the support and sad that Julie wasn’t there to see how many people’s lives she’d touched.

  She didn’t miss how Brad freely mingled with everyone, introducing himself and getting to know people, while Ellis took up residence in a chair in the far corner.

  I will cut him some slack. At least he’s making an effort.

  The evening wore on. A few times she glanced at Ellis and saw him checking his phone, probably reading e-mail.

  Brad, however, was a hit. When people found out he was an artist, and he showed them pictures on his phone of some of his work, he became the center of attention.

  Makenzie, whose reservedness usually made Sachi look positively warm and snuggly by comparison, even seemed to react to him. “Hey, we could put some of his pieces in here to sell.” She blushed and looked at Brad. “If you wanted to,” she added.

  Mandaline had to beat back a sudden and unexpected surge of jealousy over the way Makenzie responded to him. That was followed by a rush of shame. She’s my friend and my employee. And Brad is very special.

  Brad, however, smiled at Mandaline. “I would like that very much. If you wanted them here.”

  Mandaline felt like she was alone in the room with him, from the force of his gaze. “That’d be great.”

  At ten o’clock they all gathered in the front of the store in a rough circle to talk about Julie. Mandaline was happy to see more smiles than tears from her friends. Julie would have wanted it that way. Even Ellis pried himself out of the chair to join them, standing next to Brad.

  They went around the room, everyone saying a little something about Julie. When they reached Brad, he let out a sigh and looked at the floor. From across the room Mandaline sensed the shift in his demeanor. From the way Ellis draped an arm around his shoulders, she guessed he did, too. “She was a beautiful soul,” Brad softly said. “I wish I’d known her longer.” He sniffled.

  Ellis nodded. Mandaline couldn’t read his expression as he spoke. “I didn’t know her well or long either, but it’s obvious from all of you who did, who loved her, that she will l
ive on in your hearts and memories. I think that speaks highly of what a wonderful person she was.”

  Mandaline waited until he met her gaze to nod and smile. Thank you, she silently mouthed to him. He nodded and returned his attention to Brad.

  Once everyone had a chance to speak, Sachi clapped her hands together and stepped into the center of the room, a paper bag in her hands and a grin on her face.

  Oh…crap.

  She flashed a playful smile at Mandaline. “We all know how Julie was fond of playing matchmaker and trying to fix people up.” A wave of soft laughter and knowing nods swept through the room. “I was talking to Mandaline earlier and joked maybe now that our friend is on the other side, perhaps she can help those of us out who are still single and looking.”

  With a flourish, she produced a large pink dildo from the paper bag. Apparently made of some sort of jelly material, it also had a suction cup built into the base. She licked the cup and then stuck the ten-inch toy to a table with a soft plop. It stuck, slowly waving back and forth.

  The room erupted in gales of laughter.

  Sachi, her audience’s reaction only spurring her on, wasn’t even close to being done. “I told Mandaline we needed to do a chant for guidance, for assistance.” She turned and grinned at Mandaline, pointing to her. “For getting laid.” Mandaline let out a soft groan and felt her face heat. When she glanced over at Ellis and Brad, she found Brad grinning even more broadly than Sachi, and Ellis had actually cracked a smile.

  Sachi raised her hands over her head as she walked around the room, inciting others to join in with her and repeat her chanting. “Hail, Dildous! Hail, Dildous! Hail Dildous!”

  It was hard to hear the chant over everyone’s laughter. Even Mandaline joined in, knowing the healing that this would incite in everyone, the joy it brought them, was worth it.

  Sachi stopped in the middle of the room again, next to the table with the toy stuck to it, and sliced her arm through the air to call for silence. She raised her hands again, the consummate showman. “Oh great and mighty Dildous, we ask for your celestial vibrations to rain down upon us. OmmmMMMMMM!”