Read Online Inconvenient Murder: An Inept Witches Mystery by Auburn Seal, Amanda A. Allen - Free Book Online

because she wouldn’t mind a few minutes alone with Sheriff Hotpants.
    She hadn’t gotten him to look at her or flirt with her since they’d found dickhead’s body. It was super frustrating because she really, really wanted him.
    Pretty much in every way.
    She made her way to the newly installed espresso machine and made a drink for Gabe, using her magic with ease. She could sense that he wanted a froufrou coffee today. Something frothy and almost too-sweet. She warmed her straight black, perfect coffee and turned to him as he opened the door to the shop. The scent of his cologne mixed with the dust of the shop, and she told herself yet again to just hire a cleaner and a bookshop manager.
    It was ridiculous anyway. There was no way that she and Em would ever be reliable enough to keep the shop running at a profit. They needed someone uptight like the coven elder, Sun. All full of plans and willing to focus on charts and pie graphs and stuff.
    Most of the people on the island knew that there were witches among them. They bought love spells and wart removers from the ones they knew were witches and pretended they didn’t know whenever anyone was around who’d think they were crazy for believing.
    “Hello,” Gabe said. Just everything about him was perfect. He had a low voice, gravelly but not deep. Harrison’s voice was deep and low. Too often like a bull. Now, Ingrid found the sound of deep voices irritating. She wondered idly as she looked Gabe over if she ever really loved Harrison or if he was just easy.
    But she knew she had loved Harrison.
    Even still, the changes she’d made to make him happy made her sad now that he was gone.
    “Hello,” Ingrid replied. She handed Gabe the coffee, watched him take a sip, and waited for his grin. It was wide, full, and made laugh lines around his eyes. She liked those laugh lines very much.
    He grinned just as she wanted him to. The coffee was as perfect for him as she wanted to be.
    “Emily around?”
    Ingrid shook her head before explaining. “She’s off for food. She doesn’t cook. Ever. And my kitchen smells like smoke. Though come to think of it, I don’t cook either.”
    “Burn your toast?”
    “Spell gone awry.” He froze as she spoke, but she wasn’t going to play coy about her magic. She’d pretended she wasn’t a witch for Harrison. It made him uncomfortable. She wasn’t denying an intrinsic part of herself any longer. Not that she wanted to get good at magic. She didn’t. But she wasn’t going to pretend she wasn’t part of the coven and able to set things on fire with her mind. Besides, she really did want babies, and the man needed to know that her children would set things on fire when they threw a tantrum.
    “You guys do a lot of spells?”
    She knew the question for what it was—a piece of his investigation—but she answered honestly. “I don’t think Emily has done a spell in years. Skin isn’t as perfect as mine,” Ingrid said, “without magic. Nor are high heels as comfortable as mine and clothes as unlikely to experience stains.”
    “You could cure disease with magic.” He said it like a question, so she answered.
    “Some witches could.”
    “But you make your high heels comfortable.”
    “I like shoes.” Ingrid took another sip of her coffee. “My makeup doesn’t smear either. We can’t all be geniuses.”
    “What were you doing last night?”
    Again with the interrogation. That wasn’t how she wanted the flavor of this to be at all. “We were trying to clear Emily’s aura. We’re not very good at magic.”
    “Really?” He didn’t sound as if he believed her.
    Ingrid kinda wanted to flick him. This was a confession. He shouldn’t act like it was a joke or she was just messing with him.
    “Honestly.” She crossed her heart, sat down, crossed her legs and watched his eyes glaze a little bit. She hid her smile before she said, “Emily is a lot of things. She’ll knock you down for a designer bag that’s on sale.