Page 67 of Ashes of Us
“Nah, this is mine now.” He was laughing softly as he teased her, and Danica let out a low growl of frustration.
“Alex!” She hissed, trying to keep the slight whine out of her voice. “Don't make me come over there! I can't sleep without my pillow!” there was no response but his muffled laughter for a moment. She sat up, ready to get out of her sleeping bag and wrestle it away from him if she had to, but within seconds of sitting up, the pillow hit her in the face, and she heard a soft “Bullseye” from the other side of the tent. “Oh, you're so going to get it tomorrow.” She grumbled, wondering how mad he would get if she pushed him off his paddleboard or tipped the canoe the next day as she put the pillow back behind her head.
“Uh-huh. Sure, Dani,” she heard him sit up, and a second later, the sound of his curtain falling into place came to her. “Sleep tight.”
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When Danica woke up the next day, the sun was already high in the sky, and the tent was almost uncomfortably warm. They had pitched it under a stand of trees, to keep it out of the wind and direct sunlight, but it was facing the water and the sun hit it directly until about noon. Pulling her curtain back, she saw Alex was still asleep, on his side with his back to her. He didn't snore, she observed, unlike Jasper, who could have brought down the house with his snoring some nights, especially if he had been drinking, but his breathing was deep and even, indicating to her that he was still sound asleep. Getting up as quietly as she could, she grabbed her bag and towel, slipped on her sandals and made the twenty-minute walk to the building that had the only flushing toilets and showers.
She had to wait for a shower when she got there and killed some time walking around the nearby recreation area that looked like it was designed to keep kids entertained on rainy days, the snack shop and then the store where she found out she could rent a pot and buy crab or lobster for a boil-up. She knew Emilia wasn't a fan of shellfish, but she loved it and so did Alex, and if Emilia followed the plan they came up with for her and Xavier, it would just be Danica and Alex having dinner on the site. Figuring she would have to come back later with Alex to carry it all back to the site, she went back to the showers and managed to grab one just as another woman came out.
After getting a coffee at the snack shop when she was done showering, she took her time walking back to the campsite, texting Maverick to ask how Indie was doing, and received several pictures of her playing with Watson or cuddled up with Maverick and Antonia.
She definitely misses you. She's very needy.
They texted back and forth as she walked, filling each other in on their weekends and agreeing to grab a coffee whenshe got back and picked up Indy. She'd asked him if they planned to do anything for the long weekend and if he'd mind taking Indie during her and Emilia's visit to the store. Maverick explained that September and October were the busiest months for Toni and the others with the lead up to Halloween between tourism, Wiccans and witches coming in to buy supplies for their All Hallows Eve things and their annual Halloween Party at the store, so Toni, Raven and Jynx didn't take time off between August and Mid-November, so he would be happy to take her dog for a couple of days.
“They have a Halloween Party here?” Danica looked around the store in surprise, wondering how they managed that with all the heavy shelving and stock they had.
“They call it a party, but it's more like just a really fun day at the shop for them. The store is open until midnight, they go all out decorating with a witchy theme, have special sales based around it, have fun little extras for customers and do draws and giveaways, that kind of stuff.” Maverick explained. “Last year the theme was “Cosmic Witch”, so Antonia ordered in extra stock related to the planets, astrology, tarot, Raven and Jynx debuted their Zodiac line, they brought in a few people to do birth charts and tarot readings, that kind of stuff.”
“There are different kinds of witches?” Emilia asked as she and Antonia joined them.
“Oh, yeah.” Antonia nodded and held up her hand, ticking her fingers. “Kitchen witches, cosmic witches, green witches, hedge witches, crystal witches, and elemental witches, just to name a few off the top of my head. There's overlap between them, like all witches use the moon and its phases for rituals and spells, but there are also lunar witches who worship the lunar goddesses and all their spells and rituals are centred entirely around the moon. Green witches and kitchen witchesalso have many similarities. Green witches are connected to the earth, and its energy and kitchen witches are more about the home and family. Still, they both use botanicals and plants, just one uses them for healing, like an herbalist or wholistic practitioner, and the other uses them to make their home a special and sacred place and to nurture their friends and families. We pick one type to highlight every year, this year it's Elemental Witches, so earth, fire, air and water will be incorporated into the decor and our fun extras.”
“Oh wow,” Emilia looked excited and looked down at the three shopping bags of clothes in her hands. “Will Raven and Jynx be debuting a new line again?”
“Actually, yeah, they will.” Antonia chuckled. “The Zodiac debut went over so well that they decided to make the Halloween Party their official launch date for new clothing lines, and we agreed to make the theme of the party as close to the inspiration for the designs as possible. Since the inspirations for the upcoming collection were sirens and phoenixes, or water and fire, we figured Elemental Witch was the closest fit.”
“So do we need special invitations, or can we just show up?” Emilia nudged Danica, grinning. “Cause I'm not above begging or bribes to get in.”
Antonia looked surprised, then laughed. “You can just show up, but I believe Raven and Jynx wanted some people who would be willing to model their clothes throughout the day. You'd get to keep whatever you wore, and I'm pretty sure they were thinking a change every two hours.”
“So, if I signed up for the full day, I could potentially walk out of here with six free outfits?” Danica didn't think she'd ever seen Emilia so excited before and sighed, knowing she was about to get roped into doing it too.
“Five, signing up for the full thirteen-hour day would mean an hour lunch and two half-hour breaks because you'll be on your feet the whole time whenever you're on the floor.” A sweet, bell-like voice spoke from behind Danica, and she turned to see Raven and Jynx smiling broadly as they joined them. “I'm glad you guys are still here. We got stuck on that call and thought for sure we missed you. I'm Jynx, and this is Raven.” She nodded at her twin and Danica, while she knew they were identical, she didn't think she would ever be able to tell them apart. Aside from their clothes, they were identical right down to the beauty mark near their right eyes. The only thing Maverick had in common with them was his build, all three of them were tall with lean runner's builds, and his nose, otherwise there was nothing to say they were related, let alone triplets.
“And she says thirteen hours because while we open at noon and close at midnight, you'd be expected to be here at 11:30 in the morning and realistically, you probably won't leave before 12:30.” Raven tacked on to her sister’s explanation. Danica was relieved to hear their voices were different with Raven’s being more of a low rasp then her sisters. “But if you guys are interested, we'd love to have you. We're trying to find people with different body types and looks to showcase that our clothes don't just look good on skinny people over 5'11, it was designed to be flattering on everyone.”
“I'm in,” Emilia said immediately after they introduced themselves, and Danica thanked them for the gift certificate and cards, holding up her bags with a slightly sheepish grin. “I love your clothes.” She turned to Danica and gave her big, pleading puppy dog eyes. “Please, Danica?”
“You don't need my permission.” Danica tried to deflect her with a laugh. She knew she was going to give in, but shewanted to make Emilia sweat a little for putting her on the spot. “You're a grown woman.”
She'd let Emilia beg and pout for a few minutes before agreeing but limiting her hours to between six and midnight since Halloween was on a Friday. She wasn't about to ask Alex for the day off to go model clothes and they were leaving to do the California audits on the second, so they were going to be busy with the lead up to that.
Reaching the campground, she saw the others were up and sitting at the picnic table eating lunch, and after she threw her bag back in the tent, she joined them and asked what the plan was for the afternoon.
“Well, since you guys spent the afternoon at the beach yesterday, Xavier and Emilia want to go check out some of the historic sites over in Popham.” Alex held up his sandwich. “I'm thinking I'd rather do something less academic, so it's up to you. Historic sites or something that doesn't require walking around and reading plaques.”
“Oh, easy.” Danica laughed as she pulled out the stuff to make herself a lettuce and tomato sandwich. “Something that doesn't require walking around and reading plaques. But if you guys want to go do that, go for it.” She watched as Xavier hesitated, giving Danica and Emilia a suspicious look before his love of history and museums won out, and he nodded.
“You two will be fine without the car? After eight hours on the bike yesterday, my ass needs a break, and since it's supposed to start raining at some point,” He looked up at the sky, inspecting it as he spoke. It was currently sunny and warm, but there were a lot of clouds moving overhead, and it was pretty breezy. “I'd rather not get stuck on the bike with her; she's nervous enough when it's dry.”
Danica looked at Alex, who shrugged. “Yeah, at most we might decide to go to the beach or rent paddle boards, I doubt we'd go anywhere that would require the car to get there.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and this way Danica and I can make sure everything is good here if it does start raining or if the wind starts to pick up anymore.”
“Then that's settled,” Emilia said brightly as she started to clean up after her and Xavier. “I just need to grab my purse and I'm ready to go.”
