Charmed Spirits Read Online Free PDF Page A

her head.
    “Damn
small town.”
    “Come
on, you missed us some.”
    “Not
even a little.” She shook her head as he laughed. No, she hadn’t missed the town.
She missed Matt and his brothers and maybe a few others, but not the town. The
busybodies and sharp-tongued residents were the reason she’d left in the first
place. Well, at least most of the reason.
    Matt
held his hand over his heart and staggered back. “I’m hurt.”
    “Shut
it. I don’t have time for your pains.” Though to soothe them… Geez, this was
going to be even harder than she’d thought.
    “I
like it when you’re feisty.”
    She
leveled a look at him and walked toward the mound of cleaning supplies and trash
bags she’d bought the day before.
    “That’s
enough of that. We said we wanted to be friends for as long as I’m here, and
you talking like that isn’t helping anything.” She had to get it out there
because, if he kept being his normal charming self, she wouldn’t make it.
    Matt
put down the box of trash bags he held and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Okay, there are a few things wrong with that statement. First off, yes, I want
to be your friend. We were best friends once, and I’d like to have you back.
Second, what the hell is with that ‘as long as I’m here’ crap? If you leave
this time—”
    “Not
if, when.”
    He
rolled his eyes. “Fine, when you leave this time, you don’t get to do it
without a goodbye and a phone number. We’re going to talk once you leave and do
what friends do—connect.”
    Guilt
ate at her from the memory of her leaving before, but she buried it. It had
been a long time ago.
    “And
third, I’m being myself with you, Jor. I’m not groping you or kissing you like
I’d do if we were more than friends. I was teasing and playing around. That’s
what friends do. I know this is awkward, and we’re not talking about the
elephant the size of Montana in the room, but we’re going to get through this.”
    “I
don’t think it’s possible for an elephant the size of Montana to actually fit
in this room.”
    He
let out a breath. “It could, and it will, considering our history. Awkwardness
doesn’t follow the rules of physics; it’s one of the commandments or
something.”
    She
raised a brow. “Really? God said ‘Thou shalt not follow the rules of physics when
awkward’?”
    “Something
like that.”
    They
broke out in laugher, and just like that, the tension eased a bit. They picked
up the cleaning supplies and started to work as a team. With each trash bag of
junk collected, they reminisced about the times they’d spent in her
grandmother’s house. She had thought she’d have felt sad in the place where she’d
grown up and ultimately rejected, sitting with the man she’d left, but with
Matt’s smile and laughter, she couldn’t quite feel too depressed. As always,
Matt made her feel whole again.
    Too
bad she was going to leave him again once when she figured out what she was
going to do with her life.
    “Do
you still practice?” Matt asked as they sat on her porch and gulped down the
ice water she had in her cooler.
    “Practice
what?”
    “Witchcraft.”
    She
froze, surprised he’d broach the taboo subject with such ease. “Sometimes.”
    “Sometimes?
That’s it? What does that mean?” He took a long drink then leveled his gaze at
her.
    She
shrugged, not comfortable with the topic. He’d always been her protector when
she wasn’t protecting herself. But he hadn’t been there for all if it and hadn’t
seen what had happened when others found out about her talent. If she could
even call it that.
    “Jordan?”
    With
him sitting there with that honest look on his face, she couldn’t hold back. He
made her feel transparent, so she told him the truth. “I don’t practice as much
as I’d like. But I’m always using my powers. I mean I can’t not be a
witch. It runs through me; it’s in my blood. I just don’t do everything that I
want to with