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“No, no.” Dom put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and gave him a shove toward the front gates. Crispin dragged his feet, but Dom was a lot bigger than he was. “It’s not a two person job. I know the filing system as well as you do. You can quiz him later.”

  “Otsuya?” Lady looked to her friend, wanting to make sure she knew she was welcome to come get Chinese food with them as well. Not that Otsuya really needed to eat. She was a ghost, a fact Lady found she had to remind herself of regularly. That didn’t mean she didn’t eat. She liked to eat. How she ate was still a mystery to Lady, but inviting her to lunch felt like the polite thing to do regardless.

  Being invited seemed to smooth over any negativity on Otsuya’s end. She cracked one of her usual smiles. Unlike Dom, a smile really suited her round face. “No. I want to keep an eye on the new guy.” She held out her hands. “Do you need someone to babysit Lion?”

  Before Lady could say anything, Lion had abandoned her in favor of Otsuya. She got the distinct impression that he was still holding a grudge. “You’re going to be in the library, aren’t you?”

  Otsuya scooped Lion up into her arms without hesitation. “Lion loves the library! Don’t you, Lion?”

  Lion said nothing. He was a cat.

  “He loves the library.” Otsuya pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “I’ll take him back to the inn when we’re finished here.”

  “All right.” Lady had her doubts that they would let a cat into a Chinese restaurant anyway. Besides, she trusted Otsuya with Lion. She loved the cat nearly as much as Lady did.

  ***

  They parted ways, Crispin and Lady continuing on to the car. The Chinese place wasn’t far away. Lady had thought they would grab something to go, but they ended up in a booth together. There were only a couple other customers there, so it was intimate. Maybe a little too much for comfort.

  “So, how’s life?” Crispin asked once they had both ordered. He was idly folding, unfolding, and refolding the wrapper from his straw.

  Lady raised her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. “Oh, you know.” He really did. They saw each other fairly often. It wasn’t like there was a whole lot to do in Dark Lake, and she was still relatively new in town. There were only a handful of people she knew well enough to spend time with. Granted, the few people she knew now were more friends than she had ever had in her life. She had been a very lonely child growing up, not very sociable. It probably had something to do with how often she had moved around as a foster kid. Or maybe she just wasn’t all that sociable.

  “You’re getting along with Ms. Poole okay?”

  Ms. Poole was Crispin’s aunt. At least Lady thought she was. She was a little murky on the details, and she tended to forget stuff like that. At the very least, Ms. Poole thought of him like family. That was saying something since Ms. Poole was one of the crankiest women Lady had ever met. “We’re getting along fine.” Lady reasoned that was true enough. “I think we get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but she hasn’t kicked me out yet.”

  “That definitely means she likes you,” Crispin offered with a smile.

  “Or she tolerates me anyway.”

  “Same difference with her, I think.”

  Lady laughed. “Fair enough. What about you? How are you using all this brand new free time?”

  Crispin hummed and looked out the window to their right. “I’m still getting the hang of delegating.”

  Lady was willing to bet that meant that he just couldn’t bring himself to leave the library for long periods of time without checking back in. It felt like a safe bet given how difficult it had been to drag him away earlier. “You’ll get used to it.” Lady wasn’t sure that was true, but it felt like what Dom would have wanted her to say. “It seems like Chad is doing a good job.” He would have wanted her to say that as well.

  “Really?” Crispin looked back to her. “I was getting the impression that you didn’t like him much.”

  Was she that easy to read? “He doesn’t seem like a bad guy.”

  Crispin inclined his head. He clearly didn’t believe her.

  “Okay, I kind of think he seems like a creep. That doesn’t mean anything, though!” She was quick to add that last part. “He could be great at his job. It certainly seems like he is. He just kind of bothers me as… you know… as a person. He seems kind of… judgey.”

  “Does he?”

  “Yeah, you know. It just feels like he thinks he’s better than everyone. Well, not everyone. Me specifically, I guess.”

  “Really?” It sounded like that came as a complete surprise to Crispin. “Has he said anything to you?”

  “Oh, no.” Lady hadn’t really spoken to him outside of conversations where Crispin had also been present. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it. It’s just… You know. Humble bragging or name-dropping all this stuff he’s done or written.”

  “Oh.” Crispin stared across the table at her for a few seconds. “Do I—” he began.

  Lady cut him off before he could finish that thought. “Oh, no! You’re great. I mean, you don’t talk down to people or anything. It’s just a vibe he gives off. Some people have a lot of books smarts and want to lord it over people. You… It feels more like you want to share it.”

  “Well, we’re a library. It’s what we do.”

  “Right.” Lady felt herself smiling. God, she found Crispin charming. He was like Chad but somehow was also his total opposite. It was like it hadn’t occurred to him that knowing more than other people for its own sake was anything to be proud of. “Maybe I’m just too insecure. I never did very well in school, and I certainly never went to college.”

  Crispin shrugged. “The education system in this country is abysmal, if you ask me. And it’s not like there’s only one kind of intelligence. Dom never went to college. He didn’t even finish high school, and he’s one of the smartest people I know. I’d wager he’s read more books than Chad ever has— Not that the number of books one reads is overly important.”

  That eased Lady’s nerves some. It also made her a little fonder of Dom. She hadn’t thought about that before, but it made sense that he didn’t have much formal schooling. She couldn’t picture him in a classroom setting. Under the bleachers smoking, maybe.

  “You’re smart too,” Crispin added, earnestly. He didn’t make eye contact often, but his gaze found hers. “You shouldn’t need me to tell you that, but you really are. I think you’re one of the fastest learners I’ve ever met.”

  Lady could feel her face heating up. She had to find something else to look at, and quick. She focused on her silverware. “Try telling that to Ms. Poole. I’m sure she wishes there was stuff I would pick up faster.”

  “Ms. Poole already knows it,” Crispin assured her. “Believe me, you’d be hearing a lot more about it if she thought you were a slow learner.”

  Lady had to concede that that was a fair point. Ms. Poole wasn’t the sort of woman that kept that sort of thing to herself. She had no problem telling others precisely what she was thinking. “I try. I’m not doing so hot with the meditation stuff, but I try.”

  “You’re not going to be good at everything. No one is. At least you maybe know what your area of expertise is.”

  All witches had an element. At least that was true according to Ms. Poole. Lady had never known a witch before, didn’t even know they existed before coming to Dark Lake, so she was inclined to believe her. “Nature… or animals, maybe… I don’t know. It seems pretty vague.”

  “You’re good with Lion. I’ve known a lot of witches that have familiars, but the two of you definitely seem to have a special bond.”

  “Hey, maybe my area of expertise is just cats. I’m a cat witch.”

  Crispin laughed. “I guess there are worse things you could be.

  “I’m not complaining. This is all… pretty amazing. Some mornings I wake up and think I’m back at home.”

  “How is home, by the way?”

  “Hmm?” Lady had to think about
that question for a moment. She shrugged. “I don’t know. Okay, I guess. I don’t really check in. They were my foster parents. I know I told you I was adopted. I’m sure the whole adoption thing works out great for a lot of kids. I’m sure a lot of adoptive parents are fantastic. I just didn’t have that.” She shook her head. “Sorry. I know we’re here for lunch. I don’t mean to get all heavy on you.”

  “No,” Crispin said quickly. “We’re friends. I’m interested in your life before you came here.” He seemed to realize how that might come off then. “If you want to, I mean! You don’t have to talk about this stuff if it’s too private.”

  “It’s not.” Lady didn’t mind talking about herself. She just wasn’t used to people being all that interested. “I don’t know what I’ve told you already. I mean, I had the foster parents. I had a few foster parents, but those last ones I stayed with for a while. They had two boys, twins. They were okay. The twins, I mean. I called them and told them where I was. I figured they’d want to know. We got along all right.”

  “And your parents?”

  “I talked to them a little too. I’m not sure they really cared, but they tried to be polite about it. I’m sure they were ready for me to move out. I’m an adult now. I’m lucky they let me stay as long as they did. I’m even luckier that I found this place.”

  “I think Dark Lake draws people to it, but I take your point.”

  “I’m lucky it drew me here then.” Lady paused to thank the server as their food was delivered. “But yeah—” she began, picking up where she had left off. “They know where I am, but I don’t keep in touch. That’s fine, I think. I’m starting a new life here, and I feel like I’m doing a decent job at it.” She took a deep breath as the weight of what she had just said came down on her. “Man, I have kind of started a new life here, huh? I know I live at an inn, but still.”

  Crispin gave her a warm smile. “I think you fit in great.”

  “Yeah?” Lady took a bite of her fried rice. It wasn’t the best she had ever had. Truth be told, she had tasted better when she was living in the city. Still, it was well worth the tradeoff.

  “So… I was wondering.” Crispin began that thought slowly. He was looking down at his own plate, pushing a bite of food around without picking it up to eat.

  “Yeah?” Lady prompted.

  Crispin forced himself to look up. “I was wondering if, maybe, you’d like to go out for lunch sometime.”

  Lady stared at him, not immediately sure how to respond to that. She looked down at her plate. “Aren’t we, um… Aren’t we doing that right now?”

  Crispin’s pale skin took on a very bright shade of red. “Right! We are! I ah— I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking more like—” He cut himself off with a groan.

  “You mean like a date?” Lady ventured, feeling her mouth grow dry as she said the words.

  Crispin bit his bottom lip like he wasn’t comfortable coming right out with it like that. He started to nod then finally settled on a shrug. “I guess. I don’t know. It can just be lunch. We can see how we feel about it after that.”

  “Well, we’re kind of doing the whole lunch thing now. Do you want to see how we feel after this and decide whether or not to do the date thing next time?”

  Crispin turned an even brighter shade of red. “This was really bad timing.”

  Lady laughed. She couldn’t help it. “No, no. It’s fine! Honestly, I’d been thinking about asking you out sometime.”

  “Seriously?” That had caught Crispin by surprise. He raised his eyebrows at her.

  “Yeah.” Lady didn’t see what was so hard to believe about that. “I just held off because…” Lady didn’t finish that thought. She remembered why she hadn’t asked him. She remembered Otsuya. Otsuya and her obvious crush on Crispin. God, why hadn’t she thought about that before now? How was Otsuya going to respond to all of this?

  “It’s just that I like you a lot as a friend. I don’t want to make things weird between us if this doesn’t work out.” Crispin was looking back down at his plate again.

  Lady could probably have backed out of the whole thing right then and there if she wanted to. The terrible thing was that she didn’t want to. “I don’t think that’ll happen though,” Lady assured him. Sadly, she couldn’t say the same for her friendship with Otsuya.

  Chapter Two

  The day was warm. It was perfect weather for a day of swimming. Destiny had called that morning and asked if she wanted to join her at the docks. “There’s nothing to do today, and I’m lonely. Bring Otsuya down too.”

  Lady didn’t have a swimsuit, but Destiny told her not to worry about that. That worried her. She made sure to wear a t-shirt she wouldn’t mind getting wet. Ms. Poole offered her a tube of sunscreen. “I want you back by four. I need your help with dinner.”

  Working for Ms. Poole was an odd experience. It was more or less a full time job, but it was also the happiest Lady had ever been. Working for her was sort of like having a very strict mother. She had never had a mother figure in her life. Maybe it would have been obnoxious for a lot of people, to have Ms. Poole talk to her like she did, but Lady kind of liked it. She would never tell her that, of course.

  Otsuya was happy to go. She didn’t have any work to do today, it seemed. Her relationship with her own employer was, perhaps, odder than Lady’s. There wasn’t any kind of parental vibe there either. Doyle was shady. That was the only way to describe him. He made deals with people. Cryptic ones. He was old too. Not just normal person old. Like, old-old. Supernaturally old. He looked like he was maybe in his mid to late thirties, but he most definitely wasn’t. Lady hadn’t gleaned much from him, but she knew that.

  Fortunately, he was holed up in his room that particular morning. “Oooh, a beach trip? Sounds fun!”

  Dark Lake didn’t really have a beach. At least not one with sand and a designated swimming area. If it did, Lady hadn’t seen it. Where they were heading was the marina. Not an ideal place to swim, but it was where Destiny worked, so it was where they were going.

  “Do you have a bathing suit? I can loan you one.”

  Otsuya didn’t seem to own a bathing suit that wasn’t a bikini. It might have more or less fit, but she definitely wasn’t going to wear it. Lady wasn’t ashamed of her body, but she had reservations about wearing an ill-fitting bikini to a marina she probably wasn’t supposed to be swimming at in the first place. Besides, Destiny had said she was inviting “everyone.” Everyone included Dom. It probably included Crispin as well. She’d be okay with him seeing her half-naked eventually, but this wasn’t how she wanted to do it.

  The thought of Crispin made things a lot more awkward between her and Otsuya all of a sudden. She hadn’t said anything to her about it yet. What could she say?

  She had thought a lot about it since eating out with Crispin. They hadn’t gone on their official date yet. (Date. She supposed that’s what they were calling it.) They hadn’t even decided when and where it would take place. It seemed like something that was definitely going to happen, though. Bringing it up with Otsuya at least in passing seemed like something that should happen before that.

  God, she hoped Otsuya wouldn’t overreact. She was sort of a… vengeful spirit. A really friendly one to be sure, but vengeful all the same. You didn’t want to get on the bad side of that. They were more or less best friends, though. That had to count for something.

  How would Otsuya even date Crispin anyway? Assuming she had feelings for him, that is. It wasn’t like she had made them known. If she did, what would he do? What kind of life could you build with a ghost?

  Lady pushed the thoughts from her mind. This was something she was going to need to take care of sooner rather than later… but not before they had some fun at the docks first.

  ***

  Destiny was waiting for them out on the docks already. She had on exceptionally short shorts and a red bikini top. Lady hoped that wasn’t an indicator of the suit she had brought for her. Destiny lo
oked right at home in the sunny weather. She was a witch too, and the sun was her element. Her skin was dark enough that she wouldn’t burn in it as easily as Lady. She could already feel her own pale dermis frying. Lady had just about the fairest of fair complexions. Otsuya did as well, but it was unclear whether the sun could or did bother her at all.

  “Hey, girls!” Destiny called, waving her arms over her head in case they hadn’t seen her. She was standing on the wooden planks, a plastic grocery bag at her feet. She squatted down and took a few compact items of clothing from it as they approached. “I didn’t know what you’d wear, so I just grabbed everything I had.” She looked through what was in her hands, seemed to decide against sorting through them then and there, and shoved the whole lot back in the bag. She thrust the bag itself in Lady’s direction. “Something in there should fit.”

  Lady looked down at the bag in her hands. “I don’t have to go in the water.” Truth be told, she had some mixed feelings about swimming in this part of the lake. She’d seen someone drown in it. Heck, she had almost drowned in it.

  “Nonsense.” Destiny clapped Lady on the arm. “You sounded excited over the phone. You want to swim. I can tell.”

  She did. It wasn’t like she didn’t feel some closure over the whole drowning in the lake thing. She didn’t feel unsafe. It felt a little macabre going for a swim where something so horrible had happened, but it wasn’t like anyone else was drawing attention to that.

  “You can go change in the shop,” Destiny offered. “The door is unlocked, and no one’s in there.”

  Lady took the bag and headed back down the dock. The shop in question was one that sold bait in the front and had an office for the marina in the back. Lady went into the office. She felt a little weird about the whole thing, stripping down in front of someone’s desk. She hoped Destiny’s boss didn’t have plans to come in any time soon.

  The suits Destiny had picked out were about what she had expected. Most of them were two pieces. The kind that weren’t really suited to her body shape. Destiny was considerably curvier than she was. It would be fair to call Lady a beanpole, though she liked to think of herself as “willowy.”