Oh, no. The poor woman. I watched her go back to her table with a heart full of sorrow. This wasn’t the best way to introduce everyone to my powers and food.
I started across the floor to try to cram more cookies in more people’s faces, but my hostess stopped me. “Phone call from the police department.”
Crud. Had someone called the police on us? I hurried over to the phone at the hostess podium. “Hello, Deva’s Delights.”
“Hey, Deva, this is Dottie, down at the police department.” My heart unclenched. Dottie was the secretary. “Some of the guys are coming for dinner and it’ll be a big order. We wanted to give you a heads up since it’s the first day.”
“You got it, Dottie. Thanks for the warning!”
I hung up and looked at Carol and Beth. “We have to make sure everyone eats a cookie who needs one. The police are on their way for dinner.”
We scurried around, table to table, looking for anyone who still seemed to be acting odd.
There wouldn’t be an easy way to explain to the police why everyone in the café was high.
Opening day was turning out a lot more interesting, and dangerous, than I ever expected.
SIX
Deva
Six officers walkedin about ten minutes later.Holy crow. Half the department in my restaurant at once.Which, of course, wouldn’t normally be a problem. But I was trying to hide a huge mistake, and half the department was the last thing I needed right now.
Not that I had a choice.
I knew all of them by name. Some were aware of the supernatural world, and some not at all. But all of them were nice guys, one way or another. Still not people who would be okay with me accidentally poisoning the whole town though.
“Welcome,” I said, forcing a smile. “We’ve got a nice big table over here for you by the window.”
I waved at the hostess. “Put two tables together for Mystic Hollow’s Finest.” She nodded and hurried over to the tables.
My smile felt more and more forced as the seconds passed. The guys asked me about my opening day, about how my husband was doing, and then started chatting with each other about some recent funny business in town. All the while, I let my gaze slide over the room. Nothing crazy was going on, but that didn’t mean nothing crazy would happen while they were here.
“All ready!” The hostess said, coming back to them. “Right this way.”
As they passed through the tables, a man stood and saluted.Oof.He was still feeling the effects of the pancakes. And no wonder. I could just see his cookie. It barely had a tiny bite off of it.
“Go make him eat,” I said out of the corner of my mouth to Beth. She hurried around the side and darted between tables to get to the man before the officers noticed his salute.
“Mr. Browning,” Beth hissed. “Here.” She grabbed his cookie and as soon as he turned to look at her, she crammed it in his mouth.
He nearly choked on it, but a few seconds later, he was sitting. Beth laughed. “Too much sugar. Deva’s got us all on a sugar high.”
They laughed and nodded, and continued to their tables by the windows.
People weren’t freaking out anymore, mostly, and thank the heavens, they didn’t seem to remember their crazy antics. I didn’t know what I’d do about the others, the ones who hadwitnessedit all. Maybe some fortified wine.
Oh, that was a good idea. But I didn’t have a license to serve alcohol.Crap.Okay, that meant fortified tea. I rushed back toward the kitchen and over to the big tea maker. I was in luck. Someone had just made a fresh batch. One of my servers came in. “Start giving out free house tea,” I said, sneakily pushing magic into a pitcher as I let the tea flow. “Insist they try it. Everyone gets tea.”
More servers came in, and I kept filling pitchers and addingeverything will be finemagic to it.
Half an hour later, I stood by the door, handing to-go cups to people as they left. “Thank you so much for coming. Here, have a tea, it’s the house brew!”
I smiled and laughed, charming the worry out of everyone. The ones who were enchanted didn’t remember, but the others… Well, the tea seemed to be working.
Sucking in a deep breath, I relaxed, finally. Things were calming down. Thank heavens.
“Hey, Deva?” Vic stuck his head out of the kitchen.
