Page 4 of Midlife Witch Unexpected

It was amazing I could remember it all so clearly, but I had spent a week there while Mom hashed out things with her sister. In the end, I had wandered around the town and through what locals called “the heights” for most of the week. So, I knew the town, some of the stately old homes, and the cemetery as well as anyone who’d spent a week in the town thirty years ago might.

It was supposed to be easier than this. After the initial shock of Tim’s sexual orientation wore off, I knew I would leave Los Angeles. There was enough money from the divorce I didn’t have to work, but I did need a place to live, and I had absolutely zero, nada, zilcho, idea of where or what that was going to look like. Our daughter was in college in Boston, but she didn’t need her mother on her doorstep. I was messed up. I knew that much. My daughter didn’t need that around. And, the truth was, as much as I hated to admit it…I needed some space to figure myself out.

My faith in my own judgment had taken a sharp slap up the side of the head. I needed some space to lick my wounds and figure out what to do from here. Aunt Emma's house seemed like the logical option.

“Do you think I could just get my jeep and go to my house?” I asked politely as Sheriff Ted pulled into his parking spot. Clearly marked with a worn metal plaque.

“Just come inside, Miss.” The Sheriff lumbered out of the truck. “We’re just going to ask you a few questions. We’ll get our dispatcher, Bianca, to take care of you and you’ll be on your way in no time.”

I groaned silently to myself. Time in towns like these was usually a lot different than time in the city where except for the never-ending excuse of “the traffic sucked” you were expected to show up at places and perform your duties in a perfunctory manner. Transactional.

I didn’t mind it. Shit got done.

It only took me a second to determine Bianca was not going to be hasty about a single thing.

Ever.

“Have a seat there, pumpkin.” She grinned as she snapped her gum through her teeth. “I’ll be with you in just one second. I want to grab a quick coffee. You want one? It’s super late to have someone come into the station, I mean we almost never get anyone this late like never, so I’m going to brew a whole pot.”

I glanced at Sheriff Ted, my eyebrows hiding in my hairline. Was this for real?

Could this get any worse?

But he just smiled as if this was a normal scenario to a normal day.

The coffee machine was set up on the filing cabinet and Bianca came back from what looked like the bathroom with a pot full of water.

“Oh, it’s clean,” she said with a grin. “We’ve got the artesian wells supplying water to all the public buildings in Cougar Creek. Who would have thunk, huh? But you know there’s a good bit more money around here than you’d recognize, and they took to channel the water. I mean, the homes get it too, why your home has a well on the property!”

“My home?” I asked.

“The Estate.” Bianca snapped her gum as she poked the coffee maker into life. “Emma Hayes was your aunt, right?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Marlene Hayes was your mom.” Bianca didn’t even pretend it was a question.

I tried to keep my jaw from dropping. “You knew my mom?”

“No. No.” Bianca’s laughter rumbled through the small sheriff’s office. “But my mom was friends with your mom and aunt when they were in school. They used to ride the bus-”

She was a tall skinny auburn-haired, middle-aged woman with her nails done in glittering black points. Her hair was coifed in sprayed curls. Her false eyelashes were perfectly applied, and she dressed in jeans, pumps, and a turquoise blue sweater. She looked extremely put together for the person manning the Cougar Creek sheriff's station in the middle of the night.

“Interesting.” I interrupted, exasperated.

Bianca paused, casting a critical eye over me.

My skin heated up in embarrassment. “I don’t mean to be rude but I’m exhausted.”

“I understand,” Bianca nodded. “That’s why I’m making a pot of coffee for us.” She gazed pointedly at the coffee maker, which was just finishing its final gurgling drips of coffee into the pot. “I thought we would relax a bit and make it a little more friendly. I mean, we can’t forget you did pull a gun on a Sheriff.”

I groaned. “I know. I mistook him for a predator.”

“Sheriff Ted?” Bianca’s rumbling laughter lifted my spirits a bit.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “I’m a complete idiot.”

“Must have been pretty dark out there,” she said. “To make him look menacing.”

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