And, as usual, he seemed to know exactly what to say to put her at ease.
As she went about her day, Nova wasn’t sure her feet ever touched the ground. Or that there weren’t little bluebirds flitting around her head with hearts dancing among them.
Oh, yes, she was in love with Torin Gallagher.
And no longer as scared about it as she had been. The man’s kisses were that good.
The lunch rush morphed into the happy hour crowd and Nova was running her feet off.
Every so often, they would have a day where happy hour stretched straight into dinner hour and the restaurant was busy the entire time. It seemed today was going to be one of those days.
She seated people and ended up helping take drink orders because Addie and the waitstaff were having trouble keeping up. There wasn’t a single empty table in the place and the bar area was packed as well.
As she moved around the restaurant, doing her best to keep up with everything, Nova felt something peculiar. She tried to brush it off as stress, but the niggling sensation wouldn’t go away.
Damn, today was not the day for her will o’ the wisp instincts to kick in. She didn’t have time for this.
The itching on the back of her neck became worse, intensifying to the point that it was nearly unbearable.
Finally, she hurried over to Addie and said, “I’m sorry, but I need five minutes. I feel a little off all of a sudden. I’ll be right back.”
Addie started to wave her off until she got a closer look at her face. “Hey, you look a little shiny. You’re not going to faint on me, are you?”
Nova shook her head. “No, I think I just need to splash some cool water on my face and take a couple of deep breaths. I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”
“Take your time if you feel sick. It would suck if you puked on someone’s table.”
“I won’t be sick,” Nova promised. “Just a little light-headed.”
A group of men came in the front door and Addie lifted her hand at them in a “be right there” sort of gesture. “Go freshen up. Come back in a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Addie.”
Nova headed toward the hall that led to the bathrooms and ducked into the ladies. She ran cool water over her fingers before she patted it onto her face. Then, she dried off and dampened a paper towel to put on the back of her neck where that itchy feeling just wouldn’t go the hell away.
A trio of women came into the bathroom and Nova ducked out, heading toward the rear of the hall rather than back toward the dining room. She just needed a few minutes to breathe.
Nova rounded the corner that led to a storage closet and stopped, leaning her head against the wall as she pressed the damp paper towel to the nape of her neck.
The sensation had faded somewhat but it was still there.
It didn’t happen often, but as a will o’ the wisp, her instincts sometimes went into overdrive. Most will o’ the wisps were sensitive to their environment. If negative energy was strong enough, it could affect them.
Nova was no different.
She took several deep breaths and the feeling faded even more.
Finally, she lifted her head and opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Ulrich.
Nova jumped and clamped a hand to her chest as she exclaimed, “Agh!”
He stood in the mouth of the hall, his hands fisted at his sides.
“Ulrich, what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” he said.
