Gillian edged closer, hoping to get her fingers on the diary. If she needed to, she could take on her gram. “What were you doing in my room?”
“Just tidying up.”
Tidying up? Her room was as clean and sterile as the library. “You don’t need to tidy up my room.”
“It’s my house, isn’t it? I can go in any room I like.”
Gillian blinked as a sudden thought rocked through her. With the money from the safety deposit box, she could afford to move out.
As if she could read Gillian’s thoughts, Gram snorted, horse-like. “This is a lie! I knew your mother much better than you ever will, and this did not belong to her. Where did it come from?”
“An attorney notified me of a safety deposit box.”
“An attorney?” Gram’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What attorney? Where’s his office?”
Doubts tickled in the back of Gillian’s mind. Of course, if her mom had taken out a safety deposit box, it would have been in a bank in New York—not Seattle. But that diary…it had to belong to her mother, she was sure of it. “Give it back!”
Gram stood and moved to the fireplace, where flames blazed.
Horror swept through Gillian. “Don’t you dare!” She darted in front of her Gram. “Tod! Do something!”
“Now, Mrs. O’Hare,” Tod lumbered toward the crackling fire, “don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“I can’t have this trash in my home!” Gram announced.
Gillian darted forward and plucked the book from her grandmother’s fingers.
Gram froze. “Where’d you get that ring?”
Gillian held out her hand, admiring once again the sparkling stone and intricate gold setting. “In the safety deposit box.”
Gram clutched her heart, staggered back to the sofa, and fell onto it. A puff of dust settled around her.
“Gram? Are you okay?” Gillian asked, worry replacing anger.
“Mrs. O’Hare? Would you like me to call an ambulance?” Tod asked.
Gram pinned Gillian with a steely gaze. “Get that book out of this house!”
“Gram,” Gillian began.
“Get out! Get out!” Gram shrieked. “This is my house and I can say who and what belongs here and what doesn’t.” She pointed a wavering finger at Gillian. “GET OUT!”
Gillian stared at her grandmother with an open mouth.
Tod took Gillian’s elbow and steered her from the room and out onto the porch.
“She doesn’t mean it,” Gillian said in a shocked whisper. “She can’t really mean it.”
Tod gave her a sympathetic glance and rubbed her back. She eased away from his touch.
“Do you have somewhere to go?” he asked.
She nodded. “Flora, Jessie, or Mindy.” She had lots of friends who would probably be happy to let her sleep on their sofa for a few nights.
Tod shuffled his feet. “I was going to say you’re always welcome to stay with me. It’s not much, and I’d have to clean up…bachelor, you know?”
“That’s sweet, Tod, but not necessary.”
Gram appeared in the doorway with a shotgun in her hand. She cocked it. “Are you still here? I want you off my property immediately!”
“Gram!” Gillian gasped. “She’s lost it!” she said to Tod.
“Give me the gun, Mrs. O’Hare,” Tod said, looking officious for once. He tossed the words, “Get out of here, Gillian,” over his shoulder. “Go somewhere safe!”
#
Gillian sat on the edge of Flora’s bed with her hands between her knees. Flora sat beside her with a comforting arm around Gillian’s shoulder.
“You have to go,” Flora said.
“It’s another sign.”
“This—according to your scorekeeping—makes four signs, and there’s nothing magical about four.”
Flora shook her head. “You were right before. Summer comes no matter what, so that wasn’t a sign. But this is.”
“I can’t leave her!”
“You don’t have a choice,” Flora insisted.
“She needs help!”
“Of course she does. But you don’t have to be the one who provides it. Have you called her sisters?”
“Yes, but you know they’re all as crazy as she is.” Gillian sucked in a deep breath. Just thinking of her great aunts gave her a panic attack. The last time the three sisters had been together, they’d watched Fox News and gotten in a shouting matching over political issues that they all agreed with. It was craziness that they could scream at each other even when they all shared the same opinions. She found it strange that the sisters who were constantly bickering had all migrated from Ireland together and couldn’t seem to live without each other. “Auntie Verna and Auntie Sarah said they would be here tomorrow.”
“Just another reason for you to leave.”
True.
“I don’t have a suitcase. I don’t have any clothes.” Gillian bit her lip, immediately recognizing her mistake and wishing she could take back her words.
Flora grinned and bounced off the bed. “You, my sister, have come to the right place!” She disappeared out the door. “Come and see what I just found!” Flora called from the next room.
“I can’t pillage your stash!” Gillian said, not moving.
Flora returned with her arms full of clothes. “You can and you will!”
Flora ran an online clothing business where she found pieces at local thrift stores and garage sales, dolled them up, and resold them at outrageous prices. Even though she’d dreamed of being a fashion designer, she’d chosen to get a degree in math because she considered it practical and she liked a teacher’s lifestyle and benefits. But her online business was quickly outperforming her teacher’s salary.
Gillian wasn’t about to take her inventory. “I can buy my own clothes,” she said.
Flora, ever the savvy businesswoman, rubbed her hands together in glee. “Did someone just say shopping?”
BUY NOW:
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Other books by Kristy Tate and Eloise Alden
ROMANTIC COMEDIES
The Tick-Tock Between You and Me
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CZ67FQY
Darby thought she had love all figured out until she heard the tick-tock of a clock.
Dreaming of You and Me
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FN6V4YN
When you find the man of your dreams…
The Music of You and Me (novella available in the Authors of Main Street Christmas wishes box set. Novel not yet published.)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K63PFH9
The Billionaire's Beagle
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HQYV596
Wes and Letty are forced to fess up to their lies and exaggerations before their problems (and beagles) get completely out of hand and off leash.
The Oblivious Billionaire
https://www.amazon.com/Oblivious-Billionaire-Romantic-Forgetful-Misbehaving-ebook/dp/B07KPKVM53
How can you know where you're going if you can't remember where you've been?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KQ9JT5C
When Andie breaks Whit’s glasses, he offers to forgive her debt if she’ll pose as his date to his brother’s wedding. It's the perfect mixture of business and pleasure, until business threatens to get in the way of a happily-ever-after neither Andie nor Whit could have ever imagined
That Song in Patagonia (novella)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H7R2DVQ
Two people with hurting hearts and unrealized dreams explore the streets of Buenos Aires and the South American countryside, and it changes them both forever. And what they find in each other is something that might just heal them both.
The Highwayman Incident
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QL15NQ8
Celia and Jason must tread carefully, as what happens in the past can reverberate through the ages. Their lives, hearts, and futures are caught in time’s slippery hands.
The Cowboy Encounter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UM6B7TK
When Dr. Becca Martin stumbles into the Witching Well, she finds that all of her medical training can’t protect her from the dangers of the Wild West and the charms of Clint Warwick.
The Pirate Episode
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017DZPT6O
Cambria Brandt, a senior at Norfolk High, juggles homework assignments, tennis practice, and her overprotective mother, all while struggling to conceal her crush on Dr. Fleur, her biology teacher. But one sip of the witching well water makes her all concerns disappear.
The Witching Well series box set
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079V92M7C
The Little White Christmas Lie (novella)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MPZJA14
Carson nor Millie know that their lives are about to spin out of control thanks to a patch of black ice, a cow, and a little white Christmas lie.
Baby Blue Christmas (novella)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077JGFM46
As Christmas nears, Sophie and Luke’s love for Jamison draws them together, causing them to rethink their plans for the future and redefine their ideas of family.
A Ghost of a Second Chance
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007IK0KZK
As Laine unravels the mystery of her grandparents’ marriage she is forced to confront her own estranged husband and answer one more question of the heart—can love live even after it has died?
Stealing Mercy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FCFHZ6
Serving murder, mayhem and pies, Stealing Mercy is a romantic adventure set in 1889—on the eve of the Great Seattle Fire, when more than a city is set on fire
Rewriting Rita
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078SZS99Z
Reeling with grief and self-doubts, Addison Mills never suspects her life is about to change when a stranger gifts her a manuscript and asks her to rewrite the ending.
YOUNG ADULT SPECULATIVE FICTION
Beyond the Fortuneteller's Tent
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H2CA18U
When Petra Baron goes into the fortuneteller’s tent at a Renaissance fair, she expects to leave with a date to the prom. Instead, she walks out into Elizabethan England, where she meets gypsies, a demon dog and a kindred spirit in Emory Ravenswood.
Beyond the Hollow
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HYLT34
If Rip Van Winkle was telling the truth, anything is possible…
Beyond the Pale
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N34SRU0
Beyond the Pale is the stunning conclusion in USA Today bestselling author Kristy Tate’s Beyond series, where Petra is reminded that love can conquer even the most villainous.
Beyond Box set
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MST7QPF
All three books in the award-winning and bestselling time travel series.
Witch Ways
https://www.amazon.com/Witch-Ways-Kristy-Tate-ebook/dp/B07HHMLH3C
Everyday each of us must decide whether or not to be a witch. For Evelynn Marston, that decision is becoming increasingly difficult.
Witch Winter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014QDXSVE
Evie gathers her wits and a heaping dose of her own brand of magic to right a terrible wrong, never suspecting the life she saves might be her own
Witch Wishes
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ATTOP52
Somehow, someway Evie must summon and restore the magic the earth and all her people have lost.
Menagerie
https://www.amazon.com/Menagerie-Kristy-Tate-ebook
Everyone talks to animals. Some do it every day, although very few stop to listen for a reply.
Melange
https://www.amazon.com/Melange-Menagerie-Book-Kristy-Tate-ebook
Lisbet discovers the wolves have terrifying abilities, capable of destroying not only Lizbet and Declan’s plans for their future but also their hope for happiness.
Melee
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074MJKS1Y/
Lizbet realizes that maybe the most terrifying changes are the ones she’ll have to make to survive.
Grace in the Mirror
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071Y61238
Fairy tales can come true. But it’s terrifying when it happens to you…
Grace James thinks having to wear a hand-me-down uniform while trying to fit into her posh new school in glitzy Orange County is bad but being followed to class by seven little angry men is worse.