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

  Before the grumpier cousin could reply, Lavender clapped her hands. “We’d be glad to help you. As long as we get some time off to watch some of the races.”

  “I’d help, too, but I’ve got to man the tent of baked goods with Sprinkle and Twinkle.” Alison Kate shrugged.

  Blythe turned her greedy gaze in my direction, and I concentrated on cutting a perfect portion of the quiche with my knife and fork. Nana had directed those involved in last night’s debacle to keep it to themselves for now. The more people that knew, the less of a chance we could keep it quiet.

  “I already know why you can’t help me,” my best friend teased.

  Realizing I’d misinterpreted her attention, I carefully chewed on my flavorful portion. “Hmm?”

  “It’s a small town. What, did you really think you could keep it a secret?” Blythe smirked.

  Nana would not be happy if rumors about Lucky were already spreading. “I have no idea what y’all are flapping your jaws about.”

  “Ooh, what do you know?” Lavender asked. “We only got out of her that Mason kissed her yesterday.”

  “Lav!” I opened my eyes wide to try to get her to shut up.

  Blythe stopped eating. “You got kissed by the detective? No way. Was it good? Where were you? Is it just the one time or has this been going on for a while? Are you two a thing?”

  I pushed my plate out of the way and banged my head against the table while my other three friends filled her in on the little I’d shared with them the night before.

  “Hey, wait. That kind of complicates things, doesn’t it?” Blythe pulled on the back of my hair, making me sit up straight. “What about Dash? I heard you went on a long walk with him. Did he kiss you too, or is he dating one of those girls on the mountain barbecue team?”

  Sweet honeysuckle iced tea, I did not need my girlfriends jumping into the very confused mix of things.

  Lily crossed her arms and flashed me a smug smile from across the table. “See, I told you so. Man problems.”

  My spell phone dinged several times in a row. Saved by the technological bell. I checked it and cringed reading Nana’s message first.

  “We still need to have a longer conversation today, Birdy. I’ll give you an answer to your question if you’ll answer mine.”

  Still nope. I couldn’t for fear my stomach would reject everything I’d already stuffed into it this morning. I switched over to see who else needed an answer.

  The simplicity of Mason’s text made me feel a little better. “Sorry about last night. When you get a chance today, can we talk?”

  We definitely had some things to discuss, but should I put it off until Dash and I finally have our say with each other first? Or should I give Mason the priority since he was the one who kissed me? And since I initiated the kiss the second time, didn’t that mean he should be the first of the two men I responded to?

  The name StupidPoutyPuppy popped up with another ding, interrupting my internal debate. Oops, I’d forgotten I’d changed Dash’s name in my contacts. I swallowed a silent curse at my stomach flipping with too much anticipation when I checked what he sent me before answering Mason.

  “I need to see you this morning.”

  “Of course you do,” I muttered. My fingers poised over the screen to type my response, but another message came through.

  “I can be at your house in minutes.”

  Panic killed the butterflies in my stomach. I glanced around the table at my friends who still and talked but kept watching me with amusement dancing in their eyes.

  “I’m not alone,” I punched in. It didn’t occur to me how it could be misinterpreted until the text was in the ether and out of my control.

  I rushed to type out an explanation, but another text beat me to it. “Neither am I.”

  Georgia’s face flashed in my mind, and I frowned. I thought he said they were just friends. If that wasn’t the case, then why would he want to bring her to my house?

  Another ping, and I clicked on the text. “Lucky needs to talk to you. It’s urgent. Can we just come over?”

  “What did you just read that gave you that smile?” asked Lily.

  I touched my mouth, not realizing what it was doing. Should the opportunity ever arise, I must remember to never ever gamble. Clearly, I lacked a poker face.

  With my phone, I took a quick picture of my friends’ eager faces and added it to my response. “There are four nosy girls currently at my house. Does Lucky want to talk in front of them?” I warned and waited.

  The answer came as quick as I expected. “No.” Another followed, “Meet at bar instead. Use side entrance.”

  If I didn’t interpret his request to be urgent, I might spend a few extra seconds teasing him about day drinking. But given what happened to our leprechaun friend the night before, joking around wouldn’t be helpful.

  “On my way,” I typed.

  I downed the last of my coffee. “I’m sorry girls, I’ve gotta go.” Wiping my mouth and hands with the napkin, I got up from the table. “Ali Kat, is there any extra I might be able to take with me?” Maybe Lucky would feel better with some good food in his belly.

  She got up as well. “Here’s the deal. You go put on some clothes and I’ll package you up some goodies to take with you.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “If?” I prompted.

  Her smile beamed with mischief. “If you tell us who you’re taking them to. Is it Mason? Or Dash?”

  I clutched the back of my chair. “How do you know it’s not my grandmother?”

  Lily jerked her thumb at her cousin, and Lavender giggled. “Because I told you, love for your family members looks purple. Your aura is not purple.”

  “I hate you all,” I declared, escaping their interrogation to run upstairs.

  “No you don’t, and you didn’t strike the bargain yet,” Alison Kate reminded from the bottom step. “Who are you going to go see?”

  At this point, I didn’t feel comfortable breaking Nana’s directive. If I told them Lucky wanted to talk to me, they’d change tactics and start interrogating me about why. They already knew more than I wanted them to, so a little half-truth white lie wouldn’t hurt too much. “Fine. I’m going to meet up with Dash.”

  “Ha! Pay up,” I heard Blythe exclaim.

  “No way,” protested Lily. “It’s too early to tell who she’s gonna choose.”

  I stomped on each wooden stair to try and drown out their betting on my love life. It took me three outfits until I found the right one that struck the right balance between I’m-not-trying-too-hard and I-still-wanna-look-good. I typed out a message letting Dash know I was about to leave my house before navigating the endless teasing of my friends on my way out the door.

  On the road, I straddled my bicycle and sent magic through me and into my favorite mode of transportation since I’d lost Old Joe. It took off faster than normal, and I gripped the handlebars for dear life, holding on tight and trusting nothing ahead would knock me off course.

  After parking my bike in the alley, I entered Lucky’s bar through the side entrance and followed the murmuring voices into the bar.

  “I brought some freshly baked goods with me,” I chimed. No text could have prepared me for the look Lucky and Dash shot me. “What’s going on?”

  The two men glanced at each other, and my gut sank. I placed the container of goodies on the dark polished wooden bar and pulled up a stool. When neither of the boys responded to me, my stomach dropped again.

  Lucky lifted a glass of dark lager to his lips and drained half the glass. A little foam rested on his red whiskers, but I refrained from teasing him about it.

  “I need ye to do something for me, Charli girl,” the leprechaun said in a voice that resonated to my bones.

  Without hesitation, I responded, “Anything.”

  Dash placed his hand at the small of my back, and the shivers I didn’t even know I had stopped. Why did the shifter feel the need to touch me at this particular moment?


  Lucky finished what was left of the beer and slammed the glass on the bar. Taking a deep breath, he let it go and nodded at me. “Know this. I will pay ye whatever fee required.”

  The leprechaun’s thicker Irish brogue sent chills over my arms and made the hairs stand on end. His accent only came out that sharp when he was overly excited, angry, or under duress.

  “You don’t have to pay me anything,” I assured him.

  “What I need ye to find is worth more to me than all the treasures in all the wide world.” Lucky turned his head away and squeezed his eyes tight. “If only I could remember what happened.”

  “Stop blaming yourself,” Dash demanded. “Someone did this to you deliberately.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath, wanting to ask more questions, but Lucky reached out his hand and grabbed mine. “The why is nae important. What ye need to search for is.”

  “And what’s that?”

  He stood on his tiptoes and leaned over the bar so he could face me head on. “Someone has taken me luck, and I need ye to bring it back to me.”

  Chapter Eight

  “You want me to find your luck,” I repeated, not believing what I’d just heard.

  Lucky’s head bobbed up and down. “And ye need to do it as soon as possible. Ye can do that by touchin’ me, right?” He held out his hand.

  Without thinking, I flinched away from him. “Wait a minute, I’m confused here. Are you talking about like a rabbit’s foot or something?”

  Dash huffed with impatience. “It’s a bit bigger than that. Can’t you just, you know, take his hand and figure out where it is?”

  “I don’t know yet,” I insisted. “How big is the thing you want me to find?”

  In my head, I tried to figure out what would represent a luck to a leprechaun. All I could come up with on the fly was a four-leaf clover or a pot of gold. I dismissed the clover for its size and marveled at my possible shot at being the one person in the world who got to find a real-life leprechaun’s treasure at the end of a rainbow.

  Lucky squinted at me. “I can tell by your smile that you’ll be thinkin’ of a pot o’ gold. Ye of all people should be able to think beyond your typical misgivin’s about the supernatural.”

  “Quit stalling, Charli,” Dash demanded. “Will you help him or not?”

  I swiveled to face the shifter, annoyed at his arrogance that he thought he could be the one to ask anything of me. “Sorry, but it’s not that simple. I need to understand what it is I’m trying to find. If it’s a tangible object, then yeah, I could probably do it, no problem. But that doesn’t seem to be what we’re talking about. I need to understand what I’m searching for before I can track it down.”

  The hopeful friendliness on the leprechaun’s face faded. “I’m truly sorry, Charli, but I have to insist.”

  After not being able to help find Lucky last night, I more than owed it to him. Plus, what good was it to run a business finding things if I didn’t do my job?

  Shaking off my initial nerves, I slid off the stool. “Let’s do this.”

  Lucky stepped down from his position and disappeared behind the bar, walking around the dark wooden barrier to join me in the middle of his place. “Do ye need to hold my hand?”

  I nodded. “It helps.” I accepted his hand and closed my eyes.

  Over the past few months, my abilities had grown stronger and more consistent. Having my magic not work last night rattled my confidence. I needed to start fresh this morning.

  “Try to focus on what it is you want to find. Bring it to the front of your mind. Make it what you want most,” I instructed.

  Testing where my powers were, at first I tried to find any type of connection without saying anything. When that didn’t work, I doubled my efforts in concentration and threw in a whispered spell. “Break the dam, let magic flow, and let me find what I still owe. From my friend’s grasp, his power plucked, I need some help to find his luck.”

  My body hummed with magic, but nothing as strong as I was used to feeling. The light buzz faded away without even the slightest thread intent on finding its target. I released Lucky with a squawk of disbelief.

  “Did it work?” he asked with too much eagerness.

  My panicked breaths increased in quick and uneven gasps. Even when I was little, I could at least make a minor connection. Now, only emptiness of nothing happening filled me. The room spun a little around me

  “Whoa, I’ve got you.” Dash bounded over to pick me up.

  I warned him off. “I’m okay. Don’t. Touch. Me.” I ignored how mean my rejection might seem to him, but I didn’t want to spread my failure around. “Just give me a minute.”

  I gripped the back of a chair to gain some balance and slow my breathing. Once rational thought returned, I silently reassured myself that failure was another way to learn. And if what my friend wanted me to find was something new, then I hadn’t finished the lesson yet.

  “Lucky, I think the problem is that finding something like a lost pair of glasses or keys is one thing. Connecting an object to a person is another that I struggle to master. But asking me to find something as abstract and intangible as luck? I wouldn’t know where to begin.” I pulled out the chair and slumped into it. “I need more to go on.”

  The leprechaun stroked his beard. “Aye. Tis a fair point.” He went back behind the bar and busied himself pouring a tall glass of beer. When he returned, he set it on top of a coaster in front of me on the table. “Here, ye’ll be needin’ this.”

  “I don’t typically drink in the morning,” I protested.

  Lucky sat down and invited Dash to join us.

  “Where’s mine?” the wolf shifter complained.

  “Ye’ve already had some.” Lucky pointed at me. “She may need it. Now, before ye start in with a lot of questions, I want your assurance that what I tell ye here does not get repeated. I cannae risk it findin’ its way to the wrong ears.” The leprechaun held out his hand in anticipation of the bargain.

  It felt like such a little thing to agree. “Deal.” As soon as our hands met to shake on the bargain, the great importance of it weighed on me.

  Dash shook his hand after, and Lucky settled into his chair. “I know it must seem a bit odd for a leprechaun with the name of Lucky to have lost his luck.”

  “It is,” I agreed, wanting to follow up with a question.

  He held up his hand to stop me. “Let me get through what I have to tell ye before you go needlin’ for answers to things I may or may not be willin’ to share.”

  “Plus, it’ll go faster if you stay quiet,” Dash murmured from his seat next to me. I kicked his shin and made him wince.

  Lucky ignored us. “Although I may not look that old, I count myself as one of the oldest residents here in Honeysuckle Hollow. It is not me first home and it may not be me last. But I choose to live here because it is the first place that has felt like where I belong since I left my fair isle.”

  The leprechaun wasted no time in continuing his tale. “Once, in the place now called Ireland, the aes sídhe outnumbered the mortals that existed. Although we coexisted with man, we were more concerned with our own magic and power. In those days, we did not hide who we were and lived freely in our mounds o’ the earth, roamin’ the wide fields or livin’ in the frothy sea.”

  I leaned forward, caught up in the visions Lucky’s Irish brogue conjured. “I didn’t know leprechauns lived in the ocean.”

  Lucky waved his hand in front of his face as if to brush away an annoying fly. “The term aes sídhe is an old one for all of the supernatural beings that existed then. I think in today’s stories, they call us the daoine sídhe. Either term covers many races of fae. It makes no never mind what ye call them now.”

  Without asking, the leprechaun reached for the unclaimed glass of beer. He took one sip and wiped the froth away with the back of his hand. “By now, ye may have figured out that the word ye use for me is not the real one.”

  “You’re not a leprechaun?” I a
sked.

  “I am, although I am not as I used to be. But I mean me name, Lucky.” He took another sip. “If I tell the two of you my real one, you must try and forget it as soon as you hear it, for it carries with it a terrible burden.”

  I nodded while Dash answered, “I promise.”

  “There is too much history to explain for ye to truly have a sense of who I was. I will need to skip to the most important parts.” He fixed his eyes on a point we could not see, and they sparkled at some unknown memory. “It may surprise ye to know that I am the son of a king. Not the high king, mind ye, but the ruler of the southern half of Ulster, King Fergus mac Léti,” explained the leprechaun.

  I could barely contain my awe and excitement to find out we had royalty in Honeysuckle. Shutting my gaping mouth, I tried in vain to act cool and cover up my disbelief. “So you’ve always been a Southerner?”

  Lucky cracked a smile. “I did not think of it in that way. Yes, I supposed the term fits. My real name was Fergus mac Róich. I served me da’s kingdom well, trainin’ to take over in his stead when the time arose. As his only son, me father’s gifts passed onto me upon his death. He has his own tale that has been told and passed on over the ages, but the short of it is that he encountered three water sprites who dragged him into the sea for sport.”

  “They killed him?” I couldn’t stop the question from bursting out of me.

  “No, he had been sleepin’ by the shore when they took him. He woke just in time and defeated the three sprites and earned favors for their misdeed. They granted him the power to swim and stay under water as well as the ability to produce and maintain good fortune. Me da counted himself more powerful than the northern half of Ulster, using his newfound powers to test what he could take.” Lucky shook his head and paused.

  Dash pressed his knee against mine. His face remained passive, but his fidgeting underneath the table signaled his own excitement. I guessed the leprechaun hadn’t told him all of these details to justify needing my services.

  “I’ll admit,” Lucky continued, “I supported me father, the king, in all of his endeavors. Some good, some bad, but he became a bigger hero to his own people the richer and stronger he grew. His head filled with desires to gain as much as he could in his lifetime, and he forgot the most important aspect to all of the daoine sídhe. All magic comes at a price, and no one ever struck a bargain without some sort of consequence.”