And the person missing from Stonewick tonight might matter more than anyone realized.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The tea shop stayed quiet longer than I would’ve expected.
It wasn’t exactly fear. Stonewick had seen too much lately to panic over every strange turn. But Gideon standing there in Stella’s doorway changed the feel of the room all the same.
People noticed.
Conversations slowed. A few heads turned. You could almost see the thoughts moving behind their eyes as they watched him and tried to decide what his presence meant.
I was still sitting at the table near the window with Luna’s compress pressed against my shoulder when Keegan moved.
He didn’t rush.
He didn’t posture.
He just pushed himself away from the wall where he’d been standing and walked toward the door.
Toward Gideon.
Every pair of eyes in the shop followed him.
For a second, I thought they might start fighting right there between the teapots and the sugar bowls.
Keegan stopped a few feet from him, and the two of them stood there quietly, close enough that I could see the faint scratch still marking Keegan’s jaw and the calm, unreadable look Gideon wore like armor.
Keegan said something no one in the room expected.
“You might as well come sit down.”
The silence that followed could have been bottled and sold as a rare artifact.
Even Stella blinked.
Gideon tilted his head slightly, as if making sure he’d heard correctly.
“With you?” he asked.
Keegan shrugged.
“Unless you’d rather stand in the doorway all night.”
The corner of Gideon’s mouth twitched, and much to everyone’s surprise, he stepped further inside.
“Well,” Twobble whispered from somewhere behind my chair, “this is new.”
The entire room shifted to watch them walk over while Stella intercepted Gideon halfway across the floor.
She stepped directly into his path with the cast-iron skillet still gripped in one hand like a medieval weapon.
“Tea?” she asked.
Her tone made it sound less like an offer and more like a test.
Gideon glanced at the skillet and back at Stella.
“Yes,” he said calmly. “Tea would be nice.”
