Barbecue & Brooms (A Southern Charms Cozy Mystery Book 4) Page 4

  A bit of pride bloomed in my chest for the female broom racer. “Probably why you won so much.”

  She turned her attention to me and smiled with genuine pleasure. “Exactly. Goodnight.” With a quick nod of her head, she departed.

  Billy Ray chuckled. “She always was business first.”

  Seeing an opportunity to ask him about my grandmother, I opened my mouth, but Lee jumped in front of me and talked a mile a minute about brooms and spellcrafting one to go faster to the retired racer.

  “Son, let the man breathe,” insisted Leland Chalmers, Sr. “He’s already letting you crew for him. Don’t make me kick you out of our team area.”

  Mason sidled up beside me. “Is someone giving you problems, Mr. Chalmers?”

  “Nah, Detective. It’s all good. Your shift has to be coming to an end. Why don’t you pull up a chair and have a drink?” my friend’s father offered.

  Mason placed a hand at the small of my back. “I’m going to go with Charli to help her finish registering the teams. Maybe another time.”

  Our friends gave us a friendly goodbye but descended into snickers and whispers when we walked away. I rolled my eyes. “Those men are bigger gossips than the ladies of Honeysuckle.”

  “Sorry about putting my hand on you. I didn’t think,” Mason apologized.

  I took the detective’s hand in mine. “This is a small town, which means there really aren’t any secrets. I’d bet dollars to donuts they already knew something about the two of us.” I linked my fingers through his and walked to the very last group on the edge of the field closest to the tree line.

  “If you don’t listen to me, you’ll ruin the meat,” a young woman’s voice rose and floated in the air.

  It pleased me that a girl seemed to be in charge of one of the teams, and I hurried a little faster to register her. I dragged Mason with me into the light of their campsite and uttered a brief greeting. The sight of one of the members of the team staring back at me stopped me cold.

  Dash Channing looked up at me from his camping chair. He glanced between me and Mason, and settled a challenging gaze on me. “Evenin’, Charli.”

  Chapter Four

  Words jumbled around in my head, but not one coherent phrase floated to the top. Where had Dash been? Why didn’t I know he was back? Why had he been gone so long? With so many questions I wanted answers to, I couldn’t figure out which one to ask first.

  “Dash,” acknowledged Mason beside me, his grip tightening around my fingers.

  The slight pain alerted me to my current surroundings. I winced and drew in a breath. The detective let go but kept his eyes on the wolf shifter.

  “Detective.” Dash flashed his gaze to Mason for a brief second, nodding at the warden.

  A younger woman bounced over to me. “Are you the one we give the registration to?” She handed me the paper and giggled. “We’re the Lexington Boo-B-Q team. I came up with the name.”

  “We are not going with Boo-B-Q. I thought we discussed this,” complained a handsome young man from a seated position behind the campfire, popping the top of a can with a hiss.

  “Shut up, Davis. That’s his name.” The cute and chaotic girl pointed at my clipboard. “Write down Davis Channing. And mine’s Ginny Whitaker. Well, technically, it’s Virginia, but I don’t like my full name. You can call me Ginny or even Jinx. And I guess Dash called you Charli? It’s nice to meet you officially, Charli. Why aren’t you writing anything down?”

  I clutched the clipboard to my chest, still trying to process everything. Dash’s unexpected return. Mason’s caveman instincts turned up to an eleven. The chatty female trying to get my attention. It all overwhelmed me.

  Mason’s demeanor changed to one of serious authority. He tore his attention from the wolf shifter and turned to face me. “I think I should brief Zeke to what I’ve observed tonight. I’ll give you some time.” He nodded his chin once to punctuate his efforts to walk away and not escalate the situation, giving me the space to figure things out. “Call me when you want to leave.”

  “Mason,” I uttered with cloudy regret, but the detective hurried away.

  The fiesty young woman reached her hands out to take the list from me. “Here, I’ll write down the names for you.”

  “Let the woman do her job, Ginny. And I told you, we’re not calling you Jinx, especially not this weekend. You know words have power. Hey, I’m Georgia Whitaker.” The new person approaching me smelled a little like wood smoke, and I recognized her voice as the one in charge. She held out her hand to shake mine. “And we’re sticking with the Lexington Boo-B-Q team name, right Dash?”

  At the mention of his name, my heart jumped, and I frowned in frustration at my reaction. When I caught him staring at me again, heat rose in my cheeks.

  “Whatever you say, G. You’re the team captain since you’re the one communicating with your grandpappy’s spirit.” The familiar yet foreign sound of the wolf shifter’s gravelly voice beat against my heart like crashing waves.

  Georgia protested. “Don’t give away how we’re going to win. I’m sorry,” she apologized to me. “It’s not really a secret that I can see and talk with ghosts, but it can kind of freak people out. After they accept the possibility it’s true, they want to know if there are any spirits around them, which can be upsetting.” She glanced at the space to my left and right.

  I took a step back. “I’ve got ghosts around me?”

  “See?” she said. “It would probably spook you to know you’ve got two strong ones with you right now.”

  “G,” warned Dash.

  A sudden desire to show my strength to the formerly absent man overwhelmed me. With one bold step forward, I faced the situation with my head held high. “No it wouldn’t. My guess is it’s my mom and dad. I sensed their presence with me earlier today at sunset.”

  “Ha!” Georgia flipped her middle finger at Dash. “I like a woman who doesn’t mind a little haunting. Do you want to stay and have some of the liquor I brought from my family’s distillery? It’s got a bit of a kick in the alcoholic and magical sense, enhancing our normal behaviors. Which is why she’s a Chatty Cathy, why I’m the smartest cookie of the bunch, and why Dash is grumpier than usual. He’s always broody these days.”

  Dash growled out, “Georgia.”

  “So he hasn’t changed at all,” I accused with a little too much venom.

  The young man who’d been quietly watching all of us talk with a little too much amusement leaned forward. “Wait a minute. Your name is Charli?” he piped up, waving his beer can at me, clearly choosing not to drink the alcohol. “Are you the Charli? The witch my brother can’t stop talking about?”

  Dash’s intense eyes flashed golden and he snarled. “Everyone shut their mouths right now.”

  I jumped a bit at his abruptness and busied myself, writing down their names at the end of the last page. “Okay, you’re officially checked in. Good luck this weekend.” Dash’s short-tempered fuse was the last thing I wanted to witness.

  “Hold on.” Georgia held up her hand to stop me. Something about her plea made me stay.

  She approached Dash and leaned down to say something, reaching out to hold him in place until she finished. When she was done, she backed away and gestured for him to get out of his chair. Her foot tapped the ground while she waited with her hands on her hips.

  With a grunt, the wolf shifter put down his drink and pushed himself up. A pang of jealousy rippled through me at his obedience. Who was she to him that he listened to her?

  Dash approached with heavy steps, his head hanging down so his longer than usual hair hid his face. “Will you take a walk with me?”

  My mixed emotions battled it out with each other. A part of me wanted to hug him because I’d missed him, but my more pissed-off violent side wanted to beat that part of me to a pulp and then throw some punches at the shifter.

  More than anything, I didn’t think he deserved much more than watching me walk away. “I have to turn in a
ll the forms. Good luck and all that.”

  Georgia rushed over and separated us like a parent scolding two children on the playground. Turning to me, she flashed a very insistent smile. “Here, give me your clipboard. I promise to keep it safe while you two talk.” She held out her hand and waited with the same patience as before.

  A heated debate exploded in my head. If I gave in and talked to him now, I might forgive him for all of his transgressions way faster than he deserved. Then again, I wanted answers to my many questions. But if I did spend time with Dash, how would that make Mason feel? And how did I feel about the detective’s feelings versus the automatic stirring of emotions for the wolf shifter?

  “You two should talk. Give him a chance to explain,” whispered Georgia to me. “I promise, whatever the outcome, you’ll feel better. And you won’t be alone.” She nodded in acknowledgment of the spirits surrounding me.

  Knowing my parents were by my side sparked my courage. With resolve to maintain a level of control and distance, I handed over my clipboard and narrowed my eyes at Dash. “Let’s go.” Without a word, I conjured a light ball and let it float in front of me, stomping toward the space between the edge of the field and the dark line of trees.

  Once my feet got going, I didn’t want to slow down for the wolf shifter to catch up. It felt good to push myself ahead, letting my blood pump and fuel my anger. My chest rose and fell with heavy breaths under the slight exertion and the fury boiling right under the surface.

  Dash stayed behind me, his footsteps following mine. At first, I relished his silence since he hadn’t done anything to earn my attention yet. But after several minutes of quiet and no attempts to explain anything, I spun on my heels to face him. His body crashed into mine at the sudden turn.

  “Shit,” he exclaimed, placing a hand on each of my arms to steady himself.

  His light embrace sparked a rush of heat through my body, which ignited my anger to full blast. I placed my hands against his chest and pushed him away. “You don’t get to touch me.”

  “Charli, before you bite my head off, can you give me a chance to explain?” Dash held up his hands in surrender.

  I poked him in his rock hard chest. “Oh, you want to talk now? Not like you had a spell phone and could call at any time. Not like you weren’t talking to Lee but refusing to talk to me. Not like you didn’t tell him you were coming back more than two. Dang. Months. Ago.” For good measure, I shoved him again.

  Dash kept his hands in the air. “I know, Charli. You’ve got a lot of reasons to be mad at me.”

  My mouth hung open, too many things I could say right now fighting to break out. My eyes watered and my bottom lip quivered. Large tears ran down my cheeks, making me more irritated at my emotional outburst, which only made me cry a little harder.

  Dash dropped his hands and reached out to wipe the wetness from my cheek. “Oh, Charli.”

  I batted his hand away. “I’m not crying because of you, you idiot. I’m crying because…because…” I couldn’t come up with a reason other than how much his staying away and not talking to me actually hurt.

  My chest ached so hard I thought it might crumble in on itself. Acknowledging that pain threatened to cause even more tears to spill. I raised my head to the sky in a failed attempt to force the tears to roll back.

  “Frosted fairy wings,” I swore at myself. With the palms of my hands, I wiped the moisture from my cheeks. “Ugh, fine. I’m crying because I am mad. I’m mad at you for staying away. And I’m angry at me for caring so dang much.”

  The concern on Dash’s face broke when he chuckled. His amusement did the trick and cured my bout of tears.

  “You find this funny?” I squeaked in indignation.

  He shook his shaggy head. “A little, but not for the reasons you think. If you think I stayed away from you to intentionally hurt you, then you never knew me at all.”

  With that one statement, he put me on the defensive. My hackles raised. “I didn’t say you did it deliberately. And you never gave me much of a chance to get to know you in the first place. I’d get a glimpse of who you were and then you’d throw up barriers, telling me how much trouble you would be. And right after what happened with Damien, you decided you had to leave. So you know what? I guess I’m justified in not knowing you that well.”

  I bumped him away from me with my shoulder and headed back to where his brother and friends waited to get the clipboard. No way did I need to hear any explanations from a man who ran away when things got tough and then had the audacity to try and turn things on me.

  A warm hand gripped my arm. “Charli, wait. That’s not what I meant.”

  Misunderstandings defined our relationship, and I paused not because he wanted me to but because I figured I didn’t have to make a choice between Dash or Mason. Who wouldn’t want the guy who broke down the walls between me and him? Why would I ever choose someone who made great efforts to keep cementing brick after brick of a barrier between us.

  “It’s okay, Dash. I get it. I’m glad you’re safe and that you have a nice girlfriend to take care of you now. Don’t worry about me.” Keeping my gaze as far away from his eyes as possible, I peeled his fingers off my skin. “I truly wish you all the best.”

  “Wait, what? What girlfriend? I don’t have anyone but…I have no one.” His surprise rang out into the darkness.

  Thanks to my incessant curiosity, I turned, allowing my floating ball of light to hover between us. “That woman who’s running your barbecue team. Georgia. Aren’t you with her?”

  Loud laughter pealed out of his mouth and his shoulders shook. “She would be mortified if she heard you say that. She’s ended up being a good friend after everything that happened.” Reminded of his recent past, he sobered up and cleared his throat. “I should tell you who she is to me. She and her sisters. Why I couldn’t call you even though I wanted to. Every day. Every damn minute.” He stepped closer to me. The wind blew his hair aside, giving me a clearer view of him.

  I took one long look at his bearded face and gasped. My fingers flew to the long raw scars scratched across the left side of his cheek. “Oh, Dash. What happened?” I didn’t even attempt to stop the renewed flow of tears.

  He winced as my fingertip brushed the edge of one of the scars and grasped my hand to stop me. “It really is a long story. But my brother Kash made sure I would never forget how hard it was to fight him. Or how important it was to win.”

  “When did you get hurt?” I counted the months since I’d seen him last in my head.

  Dash snorted. “My brother always did fight dirty. He hired a couple of witches to help him. These,” he pointed at the gashes in his face, “were made with his claws that were dipped in a potion mixture of wolfsbane and atomized silver. Georgia’s older sister Caro has worked hard to get me to look this good.” He attempted a wry smile.

  The wolf shifter was right. We did have a lot more to talk about. I set aside my anger for the moment in order to ask him more important questions. But a loud explosion shook the ground underneath us, and an inferno of fire blasted into the night sky, lighting everything up.

  Would I go to jail if I strangled a retired racer? Thanks to him, I might never hear Dash’s story. “That’s gotta be Franklin ‘Fireball’ Irving. He’s been showing off his actual fire magic while drinking. I’ll bet he gets more than a warning of being disqualified,” I explained with a sigh.

  Dash sniffed the air and stiffened, his eyes wide in high alert. “No, I don’t think whatever’s happened is quite as harmless. Look. The blaze is still roaring.”

  Alarmed shouts rose in the air, and my stomach clenched. Both of us took off running toward the chaos, but Dash’s shifter abilities allowed him to arrive faster. My orb of light vanished in my panic, and I did my best not to trip and fall until I made it to the edge of the gathered crowd.

  Heat emanated from flames that shot up into the night sky. I pushed my way to the front, unsure of how I could help, and stood next to Dash. There wa
s already a group of people surrounding a body on the ground.

  “He didn’t mean to do it,” shouted Big Mouth Bass, pointing at a person rolling on the ground.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “It’s Fireball Irving,” a voice across from us answered.

  Dash’s brother Davis broke through the crowd and wrapped a blanket around Fireball. “I think he’s out,” he assured us. “He’ll need some minor medical attention, but he’ll be fine.”

  Dash leaned into me. “My brother worked for the fire department before.” Pride dripped through his words.

  “I’ll get Doc Andrews,” shouted a voice I recognized from Honeysuckle.

  An unknown witch stepped forward and raised his hands at the smoker still filled with roaring flames. “I’m going to cast a water spell,” he informed us.

  “Don’t,” yelled out Henry. “You do that, we could all go up in flames. I didn’t serve on the volunteer fire department for four decades for nothing. Everyone move back.”

  Without hesitation, he cast a spell that encased the blazing smoker and contained everything within it. Straining, he concentrated and mumbled something under his breath. “Gotta get the air out,” he gritted.

  “I’ll help.” Steve stepped up next to his friend and extended his hands out as well.

  The quiet cook added his magic to the mix, and the spelled pocket of air keeping the fire contained shimmered with more power. Checking with his friend, Steve counted down from three. Both men concentrated, and the flames of the fire dwindled until they flickered and went out. They kept up the spell until smoke dissipated inside the containment. Coordinating together, Steve and Henry released the spell, and the crowd erupted with applause.

  Doc arrived with Nana in tow, and they moved others out of the way to check on Fireball. Mason, assisted by Zeke and my brother, moved the crowd back, trying to disperse everyone. He looked over and found me standing next to Dash, and my stomach dropped. But he turned his attention back to the task at hand, ignoring me. Add him as another man to the list of people I needed to have a long talk with.