"That's alright. I don't want her to feel like we're spying on her, but I appreciate the offer."
Tess shrugged. "Yeah."
She smiled at Tess and asked her to help Bess with stock as she moved on toward her visitor. She topped the pink cup in her hand and set it down in front of where Kelsea was sitting, her fingers wringing. She looked tired and her hair was pulled up into a ballerina bun making her look like she was in college still.
"Hey, what's up? You don't look like your sparkly self," she said, leaning onto the bar with concern with a nod toward the pink cup. "Honey lavender latte for you."
Kelsea laughed, running a hand with chipped purple nail polish over her hair smoothing it. "I was up all night finishing an article, which brings me here. I was at the station talking to the editor." She paused as she lifted the cup to her lips and moaned. "Thank you for this. I needed it."
Eloise nodded.
"While I was there another journalist was getting information from the SPD about a new hex in town."
"Oh great," Eloise said, feeling the weight of it land on her shoulders. "Who, what hex and how are they tied to us?"
"Craig Peterson."
Eloise frowned at the name, and then she remembered an unwilling house trying not to let in the police officer. "Crap. What happened to him?"
"Craig Peterson suddenly cannot speak English."
"I'm sorry?" she asked tilting her head to the side.
"Apparently, he called the chief over to his house. Well, texted him. When the chief got there, every time Craig tried to say something, it came out in a different language."
A snort of laughter came out but she smothered it with a sip of water before asking,"What language?"
"Ukrainian."
"Ukrainian," she said bewildered. "Lucky man. That is a beautiful and difficult language. Lots of sounds shoved into one syllable," she said, pressing her hands together.
Kelsea laughed taking another long sip of her latte before she said, "But it was noted that he questioned you and Ursula recently and you both were not very willing to have him at the house."
Eloise straightened, putting her pointer finger in the air. "First, it was the house that was unwilling. Ursula and I were well prepared to make a new friend." Eloise grabbed a rag in the sanitizer water below the bar and started wiping it down.
Kelsea gave her a knowing look and Eloise smirked. "Friend might be a bold choice of words, but still. We let him in and answered his questions, which had no ground." She fiercely wrung out the rag. "I offered him a scone."
Then the reminder of what he had been questioning them about hit her. "He uh, told us that Rob Sandis, after getting married, yawned and now he cannot stop yawning." She bit her lip, her eyes focused on her friend as worry wove through her.She hadn't spoken with Kelsea about Rob since she found out the married man she'd had an affair with had been the same man that had tormented Ursula.
But Kelsea surprised her when her wide, sweet eyes rounded in shock and then a loud laugh popped out of her. She slapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and staring into Eloise's. And then Eloise laughed, leaning over the bar again as Kelsea kept her mouth covered as her shoulders shook, and sparkling tears gathered in her eyes.
The picture of the proud, aristocratic man in a perpetual state of a large, open mouth was satisfying, but to see her friend who had her own, layered and broken past with him find relief in that was delicious.
"I swear it wasn't us," she finally said holding up both hands. "Him or Craig. Shoot, none of these hexes are us. But some of them are damn funny and like this town's odd karma."
Kelsea grabbed a napkin, running it under her eyes as she caught her breath, her face serene and joyful. "I honestly needed that today."
"You doing okay? You could have told me who the married man was, you know," she said gently.
"I know. But, I hurt people. Including myself and that's a weird world to navigate."
"Probably not a book on it," Eloise agreed with a half smile.
Their eyes connected and they said more silently, communicated their understanding.
"Anyways, that's not all," Kelsea said.
"Lovely. This is like a dark hex game show."
