He Stayed

I dragged the last of the boxes into place. Pete was pushing the file boxes in one corner and setting up his toy area in the other (he had picked it out himself, and I was so proud of him). It had just been him and me on this move, and it had been rough... but I was unendingly grateful that we had found a new place for the office!

My old building had been torn apart by lightning and a partial tornado—witches hated being caught when they were doing bad things with magic and tended to be petty. Hence, a tornado out of nowhere hit my office after I closed a case of witch child trafficking. I had zero regrets!

But I had needed a place to put my business. There was no way I was running a P.I. biz out of my house... and one dealing with the supernatural at that! Huh, NO.

So when my local mall called and asked if I wanted to rent space, it was like a liferaft. I couldn’t take Pete to work with me if I wasn’t self-employed, and Pete needed a lot of care... too much for daycare, and his dad apparently. Plus, I refused to put my nonverbal kid in a daycare! Good grief! I wasn’t big on them anyway, but for a nonverbal—there was just too much that could go wrong.

So Pete stayed with me or my mom. We homeschooled him and took care of him, and he was a happy little camper. He even helped me with work sometimes—he loved helping.

I know, I know—a P.I. office in a mall... what the heck!

But actually, it worked out really well. My shadier clients had to meet me for coffee, which kept my office clean, and all of the rest of my clients could pretend they were headed to the grocery store or laundromat or any number of things and could slip off and meet me. Also, I could do all of my grocery shopping and such before I technically left work! The convenience was WONDERFUL!!!! And Pete loved it here!

The rent was good, and it was peaceful... and it was a lot harder to curse an entire mall vs. a tiny P.I. office, so it also acted as a shield for us for right now.

They said this mall was haunted by a phantom. It was apparently pretty aggressive... but I hadn’t seen or felt anything, and Pete (who was ridiculously energy sensitive) was happy as a little lark—as long as it wasn’t a super busy day in the mall (too much energy, too many people’s feelings, too many other people’s thoughts). And if it became a problem, he had a calming corner (his tablet, kinetic sand, headphones, rain app, and lots of crystals!!!!!). Burn a little incense, and he was good... I wished we had a better water feature, but I was working on it. Water was the quickest filter for Pete.

Pete kept going with the boxes. He wanted everything set so he could just feel the space. I smiled and went to get a cup of coffee.

“Tea?”

He nodded vigorously. He was a complete tea hound... it had switched recently from apple juice. Probably due to allergy season.

I held up the tea packets. He knew them by color. He picked green—mint and black tea—and held up his mug. I poured water into the hot water pot (courtesy of my mom, kitchen fanatic that she was) and went about prepping the tea when I felt an odd tingle.

Hmmm, a ghosty. Well, I hadn’t felt one since we started moving a month ago. Well, as long as they were harmless, that was fine. And heck, a lot of times they would hang out with Pete and actually play with him—as long as there were no ill intentions and no mischief (beyond normal kid stuff), which I thought was pretty cool.

I sighed and smiled. I didn’t get anything bad off of this one.

I observed Pete. He had stopped moving and was staring at the gate that opened our space to the rest of the mall. He was checking the spirit. He finally nodded, deciding that it wasn’t a threat, and went back to moving boxes.

“How late do you plan to stay tonight, ma’am?”

The deep, resonating voice sent tingles all through me, and I almost dropped Pete’s mug—which would have been bad. I gulped and swung around to the gate to see the source of that voice...

It was the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen standing there.

He wore an older version of the mall security uniform and was drop-dead handsome! He had to be at least 6 foot 4, blonde curls that were just slightly shaggy, with a tall, lean build that was slightly athletic. And his voice was doing things to me that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Uh oh.

I really, really hoped he was just a temp. Oh God, I did NOT want to go through this shit again!

I closed my eyes and steadied myself, clearing my throat. “Uh, we are moving in, and it might take a while... will that be an issue? I just really want to be set up for Monday. A lot of my clients are weekday. ...And would you like a cup of coffee?”

I held up a yellow mug with a happy little bee on it. My mom loved yellow. This guy sent electricity through me like I was chewing on a power line. Good grief!

He was looking at me rather intently, then seemed to blink and come back to himself. “Uh, no—no issue. Just wanted to know. That way I can make sure to check on you two. Your boy, I’m guessing?”

He nodded over to where Pete was still shifting and shoving boxes.

I smiled. Pete brought me back to myself. “Yep. He’s my baby bear.”

He looked at me, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Cute kid. And yes, I think I will take you up on that coffee—it smells delicious.”