“Do I go with tulips or roses?” I asked, glancing up from the catalog to Beatrice. “What do you think?”
Beatrice glanced at the pages. “What about sunflowers?”
“Girl, this is a spring ceremony,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s true,” she said, scrunching her nose up, then checking her watch. “Shit,” she hissed and grabbed her purse. “I gotta go. I’m going to be late for work.”
“Okay. Have fun with all that,” I said, grinning at her.
“Oh yeah, loads of joy. See you later. Love you, chick.”
“Love you too,” I said, and went back to perusing the florist catalog.
Sitting at the counter of the secondhand store, I let my mind drift as I looked at dozens of different colors of flowers in the catalog. I couldn’t help but think about the dinner the three nights before with Levi and Anders. It was possibly one of themostawkward nights of my entire life. Even now, I couldn’t tell if Levi had been aloof because he didn’t want to be aroundmeor because he didn’t want to be aroundAnders. Possibly both.
I hadn’t seen Levi since that night and had only spoken to him via text a couple of times to discuss Naphele’s murder. Honestly, I was getting irritated with myself. Since my last vision, I’d hadnothingsince. Not a dream, not a fantasy, not a hint of anything. I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to approach the suspects if I didn’t have any more visions. All the suspects were either dead or so old they could probably barely walk or talk. They’d be hard to find if they were living in a nursing home a hundred miles away. Deep down, I knew whatever was happening to me was a gift that was incredibly difficult—if notimpossible—to control. That didn’t make it any easier.
It didn’t make any sense. If Naphele’s spirit was dead-set on finding out who murdered her and was going so far as to invade my consciousness, then why hadn’t she done anything more? Was I supposed to freaking figure it all out by replaying the horror scene of her death over and over in her head? Frustrated, I flipped the next page of the catalog hard enough to tear it.
The bell rang on the front door, but I didn’t even look up. I continued to browse the pictures and shoved away my anger before calling out in my best customer service voice, “Good morning, welcome to Hollis Haven, let me know if you need anything.”
“What are you looking at?”
His scent struck me. That musky, woodsy, smoky smell that even now made my mouth water. Levi.
Snapping my head up, I found him frowning at the catalog, confusion evident in his eyes.
“Oh, this? It’s…uh, I’m planning for the mating ceremony.”
A shadow crossed Levi’s face as he nodded. “Working on some real important stuff, I see.”
The sarcastic tone of voice grated on my nerves. Whatever excitement I’d felt in the back of my mind at his arrival vanished in a flash of anger.
Slapping the brochure closed, I glared up at Levi. “You know, I don’thaveto help you. You do know that, right?”
He blinked in surprise and took a step back, obviously surprised by my anger.
“Help me?” he said. “You mean finding out who killed Naphele?”
“Yes, damn it,” I growled, my inner wolf leaping forward in my mind to feed my irritation with some of her own.
I circled the counter until I was almost chest to chest with Levi.
“You know, most women in my situationwouldn’tbe helping you,” I said.
“Hang on,” Levi said, recovering enough to respond. “Why are you so pissed off right now? And what the hell do you mean yoursituation? What situation?”
Gritting my teeth, I glanced back to make sure neither of my grandparents was around, then jabbed my finger in Levi’s chest. “Imeanthat I’m helping the guy Iusedto have sex with,whileI’m paired with another guy. That’s…like…fuckingweird,right?”
“June, I came here to talk about the case, okay? I didn’t come to try and make you mad,” Levi said, which somehow had theoppositeeffect. “You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to. I’m also trying really hard to put that part of our relationship in the past. Okay?”
That line nearly made my head explode. Was he saying that because he never cared about me that way, or was it too hard for him to think about because it had hurt him so badly? I couldn’t figure out which he meant, and it pissed me off.
“Listen, buddy,” I said, “You’d better?—”
“Stop makingme angry on purpose, Levi.”
“I’m not trying to. Can’t you see that?” Levi said, pushing away from the fireplace mantle where he’d been leaning. “I’m just stating a fact. It’s nothing but a little problem that needs to be handled.”
