Witch Weigh (A Paranormal Romantic Comedy) by Caroline Mickelson Read Free Book Online Page A

women but something told her that Claudia she might be able to tolerate, at least in small doses. Bethany she wasn’t so sure about.
    “Your turn, Bethany,” Liam prompted her. “What brought you here?”
    Tears pooled in Bethany’s eyes. Tessa looked away. A protection spell would come in handy just about now. She was not going to get sucked into someone else’s misery. No way. No how.
    She focused instead on a ladybug navigating the blades of grass along her journey to wherever it was that ladybug’s went. She was not listening to Bethany’s soft voice tell of her husband’s latest deployment and of how she’d struggled to cope with three young children all alone. Not listening, Tessa silently chanted. Not to a word, not even to the tales of days spent working in a tedious clerical job and evenings spent trying to be both mom and dad to the children, all the while worrying about her ill mother who lived clear across the country. Nope. None of it was sinking in. Not the nighttime Oreo binges or the attempts to medicate herself with French fries.
    “I don’t know how much more loneliness I can take,” Bethany confessed. Her fragile voice held a soul bearing honesty that unnerved Tessa.
    Unable to bear anymore, Tessa jumped to her feet. She brushed the grass off of her surprisingly puffy thighs. “I’m going back down now to find some food.”
    Liam frowned for a moment and then stood. “We will pick this conversation up later. Claudia and Bethany, you take your time talking and just follow us down when you’re ready.” He glanced at his watch. “Lunch is in an hour. After that we’ll be taking a tour of the gym and starting our first workout.”
    “Sure thing, Coach,” Claudia said. “Tessa, are you sure you don’t want to sit and chew the fat with us for a bit?”
    Liam slipped a hand under Tessa’s elbow. “I need to have a word with her so we’ll meet you ladies in the dining room.”
    Tessa waited until they were out of hearing range before she protested. “Whatever it is you have to say, it had better be good. And where is Jinx?”
    “I wondered when you’d get around to asking about your dog.”
    “Cat.” She tried to cross her arms over her chest but couldn’t easily manage it. Damn double D cup. She avoided meeting Liam’s eye, she had no doubt he was amused by her efforts.
    “Jinx is fine,” he assured her. “He’s at the groomers.”
    Tessa groaned. How much more ridiculous could this all become? “I demand to know what the hell is going on here. I’m tired. I’m hungry. I’m furious. I’m hungry--”
    “You said that twice,” he interrupted her.
    “That’s because I’m twice as hungry as I’ve ever been.”
    “Then let’s quit wasting time and get moving because we’ve got something to do before lunch.” Liam motioned for her to go ahead of him down the path.
    “What kind of something?” she demanded.
    “A class. And it starts in less than fifteen minutes so let’s move.”
    The amusement in his voice set off warning bells in her mind. “What kind of class?”
    “Anger management.”
     
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    “My name is Tessa and I’m a raving lunatic bitch with massive anger issues. May I leave now?”
    Seated in the back of the room, invisible to everyone except Tessa, Liam shook his head in exasperation. Tessa’s voice was just as defiant as it had been when he’d brought her to her first anger management class three weeks ago. Twenty-one days into her stay here and she hadn’t said twenty-one positive words yet.
    He reached into his pocket and pulled out his remote. He hit the pause button and waited for everyone in the room to grow still.
    Tessa’s expression mirrored her surprise at his action. She took in the frozen-in-time occupants of the room before looking directly at him. “What’s the matter, Coach? My confession wasn’t contrite enough?”
    He shook his head. “It wasn’t contrite at all.”
    She flipped her hair