Love Potions by Michelle M. Pillow Read Free Book Online Page B

was fantasizing about him.
    “Soon, leannáin, very soon.”
    …
    Lydia stared at the mess of lotion that covered her kitchen. It glopped down the walls, over the floor, covering both her and Charlotte. The scent of lilies filled the air, heavy and unmistakable. For a long time, she didn’t move. After the last four days filled with clumsy accidents, she was hardly surprised the thing exploded.
    “What just happened?” Charlotte asked, her eyes wide. “How does a vat of lotion just blow up like that?”
    “I…” Lydia shivered. Her grandmother’s favorite scent was lilies.
    “Gramma Annabelle?” Charlotte asked, as if reading her mind. She took a deep breath before covering her mouth and coughing.
    “No, there has to be a reasonable explanation for this.” Lydia flung her hands, trying to shake off some of the mess. Splats of lotion rained onto the floor around her. “Something logical. Something that is not my dead grandmother sending messages from beyond the grave.”
    “But she always said she’d come back if you needed her,” Charlotte insisted. Lydia knew Charlotte had always been a little more open to the possibilities Annabelle had talked about. “And, well, you’ve been moping about the house for days. Is something going on that you aren’t telling me about?”
    “No, there’s nothing,” Lydia assured her. “I’m just overworked.”
    “Feels like a warning from Gramma to me,” Charlotte said under her breath. “We didn’t put lily oil in the batch. It should smell like mint.”
    “I was distracted. I could have grabbed the wrong scent.” Lydia doubted it, but the denial made her feel better.
    “Uh-huh.” Charlotte picked up the mint oil and wiggled the nearly empty bottle, drawling sarcastically, “I’m sure that’s it.”
    Just as Lydia was about to retort with another logical excuse, a knock sounded on the screen door. Both women jumped and yelped in surprise, turning to see who it was. Lydia’s heart flip-flopped in her chest. Erik eyed them, smiling, his brow quirked in amusement. He looked extraordinarily striking in his button down black shirt and faded blue jeans. The shirttails hung loose about his hips blowing in the wind, causing her gaze to drift downward.
    “Afternoon, ladies. I’m not interrupting, am I?” His words caused her gaze to dart back to his face. Why was it she ogled him like some depraved addict whenever he was near? She purposefully looked away.
    Lydia didn’t meet Charlotte’s eyes. She hadn’t told her friend what had happened that day in the mansion’s gardens. How could she? In fact, she’d not seen Erik since it happened either. Her face heated with embarrassment. Weakly, she waved him in. Erik acted like he was about to move and then paused, glancing around the door frame.
    “Ya going to invite me in, love?” he asked.
    Lydia frowned. Isn’t that what she just did with the universal hand gesture of “come on in”? Instead of repeating the offer, she said, “It’s a little messy in here right now—not really a good time.”
    Charlotte made a weak noise, and Lydia could practically feel her friend’s determined look. Charlotte had spent every second since she’d met Erik telling Lydia how perfect it would be if they got together. The handsome Scotsman neighbor and the local business lady, sharing the same hill overlooking town, romancing it up in the very mansion that had captured Lydia’s girlhood fantasies.
    If Charlotte only knew the half of it.
    Oh, please, make him go away. This is too embarrassing.
    “All right.” Erik lifted a bouquet of lavender. “I found a bunch of this on the property and thought ya may be able to use it.”
    My lavender!
    Lydia nodded weakly. He’d found her herb garden. She knew it might happen, but she’d hoped to be able to harvest and transplant the herbs to her own property before they saw it. It was just that the light and soil was so much better on his land than on hers. She’d already snuck