Never would have been a problem if we’d just stayed in town.
“So what are you doing here?” I asked, wanting more detail and not wanting to get lost in my own morose thoughts.
“Mostly as I said. I thought a friendly face could be helpful.” She shrugged. “My mother and I, and my grandmother before she passed a few years back, were all quite close with your grandmother.”
“You were?” That was news.
“She sat on the senior council of the OLS with my mother and grandmother before her,” Charlene said.
“The OLS? Senior council?”
Charlene grinned. “Don’t laugh, okay? But it stands for the Occult Lovers Society. We meet and talk about weird goings-on, urban legends that may be true. Just stuff like that.”
I laughed. “I’m sorry. I know you asked me not to, but that’s so silly.”
“Anyway,” Charlene said, not acknowledging my comment, “I figured after the funeral, and how you looked so overwhelmed, that maybe some food and caffeine would be welcome.”
“It is,” I said, reaching across to squeeze her hand in thanks. “It really is. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“You didn’t. It’s fine,” she said, opening the brown bag. “Now let’s eat.”
We dug in. Charlene had brought bagels and cream cheese, hash brown patties, some scones, muffins and even a pair of jelly-stuffed powdered donuts to top it all off.
“You know,” I said later from around a mouthful of delicious donut, “I’m just learning this, but it seems my grandmother was a part of darn near everything in this town. The church, your club-“
“Society,” Charlene corrected immediately.
I blinked, surprised at her insistence. “Sorry. Your society. Then there’s the local historical society, and she even had her fingers in with the bingo regulars. I bet you there’s more I don’t even know of!”
Charlene laughed. “Probably.”
“The clubs must be fun. Societies, sorry,” I corrected at a stern look that quickly melted away. “Grandma wouldn’t stand boredom, that’s for sure. Maybe I’ll have to check them out. See what they have to say about her.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I can go with you.”
“Maybe they can help explain to me why she wrote me a letter dated after she died. Would be nice to have some answers instead of questions.”
“What?” Charlene leaned forward.
I told her about the letter and its warning. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“No.”
“Yeah, same. All this talk about the forest. There’s more in a journal she left for me too. I don’t get it. Everyone says she was still sound in the head but … this doesn’t match what people are saying. And that is definitely her handwriting, I’d recognize it anywhere.”
“And what is this guardian?”
“I don’t know,” I said, staring bleakly into the cup of coffee.
A wolf’s head peered back up at me out of the dark brown liquid.
One eye blue. One eye gold.
Sylvie
“Sylvie?”
I jerked my head up, breaking the gaze of the imaginary wolf in my coffee. “Yeah, sorry. What’s up?”
Charlene stared back at me, her blue-green eyes soft and open. “Everything okay? You were staring into your coffee. Most people drink it, you know.”
“Just been a long twenty-four hours. That’s all,” I assured her, glancing down only briefly before taking a deep sip.
The wolf’s eyes were gone.
“I understand. Umm, do you want me to go? I don’t want to intrude, but if you need some time alone.”
“No, no,” I protested, quickly waving her back into her seat. “Not at all. I just got distracted, that’s all. The company is appreciated, but don’t let me keep you from work or anything.”
“I’m off today.”
“Right.” I stared back at the coffee, trying to find those mismatched eyes in its murky depths. The only thing I could see was caffeine needing consuming. “Hey, if you aren’t working, do you want to go looking into it today?”
Charlene blinked. “Looking into what?”
“My grandmother.” I brandished the letter. “I want to ask some of her friends what they think about it.”
“Of course, let’s do it. I’m totally in for a mystery investigation.” Charlene smiled broadly. “It’ll give us a chance to catch up some more too.”
“I’d like that,” I said, rising from the table. “It’s been kind of lonely. Did I mention I got dumped yesterday morning before I found out about my grandmother?”
Charlene choked on her coffee. “Youwhat?”
“Oh, yeah. Come on, I’ll tell you all about Caidyn and his impeccable timing to tell me he’dfound someone else.”
“This sounds juicy.”
I laughed, surprising myself. Perhaps moving on from Caidyn wouldn’t be that hard. “It’s more just an ode tothat kind of man. You know, the ones who can’t commit. Not a good man, unafraid of what he wants. That’s the type I should choose. I just never do.”
Charlene laughed. “You and me both. Our childhood selves would be so disappointed.”
“Right?” The giggle just slipped out of me. “Say, didn’t we make a pact that we would be married with five kids by the time we hit twenty-five?”
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