I wanted to say yes but I couldn’t. I’d told too many lies already.
‘Just go,’ she said, stepping out of my way. ‘But try not to end the world if you can help it.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I said as I raced through the door, already too late to second guess myself. ‘I think that’s a bit beyond my abilities.’
‘Let’s hope so,’ she replied, closing it loudly behind me.
I saw Wyn before Wyn saw me. He was waiting, just like he said he would be, leaning against the same old oak tree, sleepy-eyed and smiling. My heart lurched at the sight of him. So much had changed in the last two days. Part of me knew I should be at home, safe in Bell House, waiting for Catherine to return to teach me more about my newly discovered legacy. But there was another, even more powerful part of me that was desperate to see Wyn. A longing so overwhelming, it was almost as frightening as finding out I was a witch.
I had already decided I wasn’t going to tell him, not yet. Sure, he said he knew a little about astrology but knowing your rising sign was a long way from believing witches were real and, oh, by the way, I am one. All I had to do was keep a lid on my magic, avoid storms, dangerous trees and unexpected ghosts, and we’d be completely OK. Simple.
‘I’d offer you a penny for your thoughts but I reckon they’d be worth a whole dollar,’ he said, interrupting my train of thought. ‘What’s on your mind?’
‘I was just thinking about, um, what was I thinking about?’
Don’t say kissing you, don’t say kissing you, don’t say kissing you.
I gulped and turned away, searching the park for an alternative answer. A golden retriever bounded towards the fountain, dragging its owner behind it.
‘Dogs. I was thinking about dogs.’
His crooked smile stretched so wide he couldn’t rein it in.
‘You were thinking what about dogs?’
In fairness, I wouldn’t have believed me either.
‘How come there are cat cafés but not dog cafés?’ I replied, fighting off an overwhelming internal cringe. ‘People like dogs just as much as they like cats, why don’t they have their own cafés?’
For what felt like a very long moment, he stared at me as if trying to figure out the joke. I smiled back too big. Why couldn’t I behave like a normal human being? What was I supposed to do with my hands? Why did my feet suddenly feel too big for my shoes?
‘Personally, I think it’s a million dollar idea but I think your question just answered itself.’
Wyn pointed at the same golden retriever as it hurled itself into the fountain, splashing its owner and anyone else within a five metre radius. ‘Would you trust him around an espresso machine?’
‘Oh, yeah,’ I agreed, wondering if the dog would consider dragging me into the fountain and leaving me there. ‘Probably a little too unpredictable.’
He smiled again and my heart skipped several beats.
‘Unpredictable can be good. Speaking of, how do you feel about a field trip?’
The owner of the dog wrangled it out of the fountain, and it wagged its tail until it was a blur. As soon as it was out, it leapt right back in, racing around in a circle and soaking the owner through. Unpredictable wasn’t good. Unpredictable was risky. What if I saw another ghost? What if I had anothervision? Travelling too far away from Bell House was a bad idea. The sensible thing would be to stay right here in the square.
Wyn reached out and took hold of my hand and all my fears fluttered away on the breeze.
‘There’s that look again,’ he said. ‘What is on your mind, Em?’
‘Absolutely nothing,’ I replied, closing my hand around his. ‘Let’s go.’
Sensible thing be damned.
Tybee Island was only a twenty-minute drive from downtown but when Wyn’s vintage cherry-red pickup truck pulled off the road and into the parking lot, I felt like we were a million miles away. The change of scenery was extreme, Savannah’s careful squares, with their centuries-old townhouses and towering oaks, gave way to beach houses, cute shops and restaurants, and as we drove into Tybee, Wyn pointed out the kind of lighthouse that looked like it should be in a movie.
It didn’t take long to find a quiet spot on the beach even though it was a scorching hot Sunday. It was still early by Savannah standards, no one ever seemed to be in a rush around here. I turned my face up to the sun and soaked it all in while Wyn opened a striped beach umbrella, his biceps straining against his sleeves as he drove it into the ground.
‘Welcome to Tybee Island,’ he said, grinning down at me while I attempted to lay out a matching blanket without kicking sand all over it.
‘It’s gorgeous,’ I replied, kicking sand all over it. ‘I can’t believe we’re so close to town.’
