Haunted Hex (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 10) by Sara Bourgeois (best value ebook reader txt) 📗

store. She was already fed and freshly changed, so all I had to do was grab my purse and slip into some shoes.

She cooed at me as I buckled her into the car seat. Rides seemed to be one of Laney’s favorite pastimes, if babies could have favorite hobbies. I’d read in a book that at that age, Laney wasn’t very aware and she was only beginning to show emotion, but I didn’t believe it. When I looked into her eyes, I saw something there.

Of course, sometimes, she would just spit up on me, but other times, I could swear there was a deep awareness there.

The drive to the grocery store was uneventful, and Laney was snoozing by the time we got there. The store had been slightly damaged by the tornado, but the owner’s insurance had already gotten contractors out there to fix everything.

Mann’s was a little oasis of normalcy, and because of that, they were busy. I parked far out in the lot and put Laney into her sling. She barely roused when I picked her up and was fast asleep again as we passed through the automatic doors into the store.

I was going to go right to the baking aisle and grab the chocolate chips, but there was a big sign right inside the doors advertising that Georgia peaches were on sale. I could not pass that up, so Laney and I were going to make a detour in the produce section.

For some reason, you could always count on the produce section to be reasonably empty no matter how busy the store was at the time. People did not eat enough fruits and vegetables.

It didn’t matter that I was probably going to slice those peaches and dip them in some of the melted chocolate chips. It was an amazing alternative to chocolate-covered strawberries, and at least I’d be eating a peach.

“I’ll eat one without chocolate too,” I said to Laney and kissed her head.

“Excuse me?” a man’s voice came from behind me to my right.

I turned around and, man, I was caught off guard by him at first. Thorn was one of the most gorgeous men I’d ever met, but the guy behind me at the grocery store was a close second. He was like everything beautiful about Azriel without all the dark and sinister vampire stuff.

The man smiled at me, and it lit up his ocean blue eyes. He swept his hand through a lock of dark hair that had fallen across his forehead.

“I was just talking to my baby about the peaches,” I said and felt my face turn red with scorching embarrassment.

“Oh,” he said with a self-conscious chuckle, and I could swear I saw his cheeks turn a little red too. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were saying something too me.”

“It’s okay,” I said and turned back to the peaches.

I started picking a few up and putting them into a plastic produce bag. I ended up with about twice as many as I’d intended on purchasing as I waited for him to walk away.

For whatever reason, I couldn’t look up again, so I kept cramming peaches into that thin plastic bag like they were the last ones on Earth. Finally, the man walked away, and I exhaled the breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding.

Well, that was crazy, I thought to myself and ran my hand over Laney’s soft, blonde curls.

I wrote the whole thing off as a surge of post-baby hormones, and shuffled off to the baking aisle. It was blissfully clear of the handsome stranger in his perfectly pressed navy slacks and tailored white button-down shirt. The one that fit his chest and abs like a glove, but he’d rolled up the sleeves to expose his chiseled biceps.

“Snap out of it, Kinsley,” I whispered to myself as I hurried over to the chocolate chip shelf.

The only other person in the aisle was a little old lady I recognized but didn’t know. She chuckled and smiled a huge, toothy grin at me. “I saw him too,” she said. “If he could get this old motor started, then no one would fault you for taking a second glance.”

That made me laugh too, and I instantly felt better. “Do you know who he is? I don’t recognize him at all.”

“Must be new in town,” the woman said. “Or perhaps he’s here for some of the construction.”

“He did look like he might have been an insurance type,” I said dismissively.

“Well, then I need to get my policy updated,” the woman laughed and pushed her cart out of the aisle.

I got the fancy chocolate chips, which were nine dollars a bag, and headed up to the checkout. The man did not materialize again between there and my car, and by the time I pulled into the driveway at home, I’d half convinced myself I’d imagined the entire thing. The only evidence of the exchange was the three pounds of peaches in the grocery bag with my chocolate chips.

Laney wasn’t ready to wake up yet, so I put her in the bassinet in the living room. Meri jumped in with her and snuggled against her side.

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” I said. “I might need you later, though.”

“For?” Meri asked.

“I need to go through Samara’s grimoire and see if I can find the recipe for those bags,” I said. “Seems like something you should be involved with.”

“I’ll see if there’s room in my calendar,” he snarked.

Meri closed his eyes and snuggled closer to Laney. The conversation was over, so I headed into the kitchen to make the chocolate chip cookies.

It didn’t occur to me until I saw her sitting at my kitchen table that making the cookies would summon Samara again. “You shouldn’t be here,” I said softly.

“Then why did you bring me?” she asked without getting up from the table.

“I just wanted the cookies,” I said.

“Yeah, right,” Samara’s ghost snarked at me.

“Did you do something to my Auntie?” I asked.

“If you’re going to take the