Page 21 of Midlife Witch Unexpected

Chapter 14

I headed home, determined to clean, but when I went into the altar room, I found I was resistant. Maybe I had gotten lazy in my old age? But I did not want to clean it. Without hesitating I turned on my heel and headed to the glassed-in patio. Maybe I could figure out where to put the new plant I was getting.

Branson must’ve seen some movement in the house because he stood up from the flower bed and waved. It made it seem a lot less creepy that I had inadvertently come out to the greenroom to look at him. My hands got clammy as he started walking directly toward me.

The least he could do was put a shirt on.

I turned away and fussed with an iced earl grey tea. By the time I turned back, he had thankfully put his T-shirt back on.

"Hey, you." He looked at me with his bedroom eyes. "Feel like going to take a look at the cemetery?"

As a matter of fact, I did.

And it wasn’t just because he was inviting me, although he was something to look at. I had already decided he was eye candy. For him to be eye candy, he needed to be within eyesight. So going to the cemetery seemed to be a very safe, yet satisfactory activity.

“It’s your job, or that of The Estate, to look after it now,” Branson said.

“I don’t remember hearing anything about that in the will.” I shook my head at him.

“From what I understand,” Branson explained, “you were meant to be raised within the family. But because of the rift between your mom and her sister, nothing was passed down to you except for the house.”

“The house and dead people,” I corrected.

“Right.” He pulled on his baseball cap.

“How do you know so much about everything?” I eyed him suspiciously. “Did you have a thing with my aunt?” I asked. The words came out of my mouth before I even realize what I was saying.

Of course, he didn't have a thing with my aunt. She would have been forty years older than him!

“No,” he said seriously, even though what I had suggested was ludicrous. “I’m the caretaker of The Estate. Part of my job is to know a couple of things.”

“I assume you’re supposed to pass information onto me?” I asked.

“That depends on certain things,” he said.

“And I suppose you can’t tell me what they are,” I said with a smirk as he walked me to the front of the house. “It’s like a mystery within a puzzle.” No wonder my mother wanted to get away from the crazy family with all these strange rules.

“Was my aunt mixed up in all the witchcraft stuff?” I asked pointedly.

"Yes, she was part of it," he responded as if he was programmed to respond to this particular string of questions. I decided to test out his story. We got into Branson’s truck and headed down the hill.

“Are you involved?” I asked. “Are you a warlock or something?”

"No," he said with a stiff shake of his head. "Not in the slightest."

He pulled into the front of the cemetery, which didn’t look like it got used too often.

“For all the fuss you guys make about the cemetery, it doesn’t look like they kept it up very much.” I frowned as I looked at the rickety old fence and overgrown pathways that were the cemetery.

"The point of the coven isn't to provide upkeep for the cemetery. Their purpose is to keep it untouched. A lot of people want to come in here and see the place. I mean, look at the statues. Even from here, they look amazing. The coven's job is to keep people away from here."

We got out of the truck and as much as I was trying to focus on what he was saying, I couldn’t stop my breath catching in my throat as Branson flexed his biceps while surveying the edges of the cemetery.

But sometimes I wasn’t so sure about him.

There was a niggling of doubt in my head that he wasn’t who he said he was. There was something animalistic about him. Truth be told, he made me a little bit nervous. I hadn’t been nervous around a man in a very long time. Not this kind of nerves. The kind of nerves that meant I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to him. Could be flight. Could be fight. Could be fall in love.

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