“I’m sorry, but we really must continue the meeting. Can we move on for now, Simone?”
Her voice was tight. I didn’t understand why continuing the board meeting was such a big deal. I mean, in general, meetings were a lot of saying stuff that could be handled in an email anyway. But she was one of the only people actually making me feel welcomed here, and I didn’t want to add to her stress.
“Yeah, sure, in one minute. My point is that I’m going to need all of you to show me grace. And patience. I’m not going to strut in here power-hungry and change everything. I just want time to understand what the hell is going on. Agatha gave me thirty days. Can y’all give me that as well?”
“You got it, Simone.” Gumbo, who I’d already forgotten could freaking talk, hopped onto the table and rubbed his head against my shoulder. His cute kitten voice and loud purr put me at ease. He sauntered back to his seat, but when the chime happened again, he cast a nervous glance at the empty chair. It wriggled closer to the table, so I pointed at it.
“Who’s sitting there?”
“We’ll discuss it after the board meeting.” Ethan gestured toward Lauren. “For now, can we continue?”
Why did they keep asking me? They’d started the meeting without me, hadn't they? I was mostly sitting there with my big dumb mouth hanging open.
“Simone?” Brianne had returned to her chair. She reached across to the space in front of the empty table and patted it, as if a hand were there. She’d placed a spiral notebook there as well. Huh. “We need your words to continue the meeting.”
“Oh.” Well, that was interesting. I looked down at my own packet. I’d forgotten where we were. This was why I hated meetings. “Lauren, it looks like you’re next.” I gave her my bestI’m a professional and not at all on the verge of a nervous breakdownsmile. “Please continue the meeting.”
“Right, thank you, Simone.” Her return smile held an approval thatsoothed a bit of my nerve. This was definitely not the bully queen bee from high school. Maybe she really was on my side. I wanted to believe that. But then again, a physical therapist had just screwed my husband, and even if I didn’t want to bethat person, part of me unfairly held that against Lauren.
Oops. She was talking about important business things that I should have been paying attention to.
“... but we’ll see how they feel about that in August. Y’all know how difficult trolls can be.”
There was a collective chuckle of appreciation around the table. I smiled like I was totally in on the joke.
“In other news, the charmed injury recovery treatments are showing promise on our test clients. There are some muscles we can’t get into with dry needling or cupping, even with enchanted equipment. The fae in particular have deeper aches and bruises.” She winked at Lydia and Lyra, who let out twin titters.
“Thankfully everyone in Illusion Square has recovered from The Battle, and they are rebuilding. I heard someone is opening a craft store on one of the top floors. We’ve got a strong community because of them, and lots of opportunities for town growth.”
“What’s Illusion Square?” I felt bad interrupting the flow of the meeting, again, but it felt important that I know.
“It’s the shopping center that surrounds the Mighty Oak at town center. Ana built it to feed our tourism industry.” Lauren paused to see if I was following. We had a tourism industry in Treater’s Way? Huh. “Do you remember her, Simone? She was the librarian when we were kids.”
“Vaguely,” I said. Like most things about the town, it was a distant memory. Still, the name Ana brought a warm feeling to the pit of my stomach, like she was someone safe. I needed to explore the town when I was less overwhelmed. Maybe it would spark some familiarity. Then again, what other surprise magic would I find if I revisited my past?
They were all watching me, waiting again, so I waved a hand at Lauren. “Thanks. Go ahead.”
They all turned the page, and I followed suit. A fresh new horror engulfed me when I realized I would be expected to talk about the Magnolia Mental Health Division. I barely heard the rest of Lauren’s talk. What would I say? My heart pounded in my head.
I’d been on this soil for all of four hours. I’d spent several of thoseasleep. Now I was supposed to give a report about a company I barely knew?
A company that, I was beginning to see, was much more than it appeared on the surface. Apparently, it catered to werewolves and fae and who knew what else. Which begged the question… what kind of clientele could I expect?
Was I going to become a therapist for the supernatural?
What issues could the supernatural have? Would I be counseling vegetarian zombies or narcissist vampires?
Oh, God. Lauren was done. It was my turn.
What had Agatha been thinking? I couldn’t run a company. I had no idea how to run an entire organization, let alone a single division. I’d driven my own practice into the ground. Hell, I hadn’t even had a cup of water to offer Ethan when he visited.
I was spiraling. Big time. And they all sat and waited while I did it.
I glared at Ethan. This was his fault. He hadn’t prepared me for any of this. Even taking out the supernatural element, he hadn’t been clear about what I’d inherited. The walls were closing in on me. I was struggling to breathe. I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t even sure I believed any of it existed.
I opened my mouth to speak, just to fill the silence, hoping words would magically form. “I don’t…”
The empty chair beside Lauren lifted off the floor, halting whatever nonsense I was about to spout. It lifted over the air and hovered over the table, twirling until it faced me. I was staring at an empty chair, but it didn’tfeelempty. I squinted my eyes at the chair, barely able to make out the shape of a female. As I strained, she came into sharper focus.
