Yuletide (Matilda Kavanagh Novels Book 3) by Shauna Granger Read Free Book Online

better.
    He had wavy brown hair that was pushed back and looked as though he might’ve rolled out of bed with its perfect carelessness, but I had a feeling it took some time in the mirror to get it that way. He had a narrow chin and fine cheekbones that led to his warm, honey-brown eyes. When he smiled at me, one dimple formed in his right cheek.
    He said something, but a swing band had taken the stage and started up their rendition of Boogie Woogie Santa. I couldn’t hear him. Leaning in, I tilted my head so he could speak into my ear. In doing so, I felt his aura. He felt human, but there was a little something more there, something vaguely familiar. Something magical.
    “Hi,” he said, smiling again.
    I laughed and gave him a small wave.
    “Would you like to dance?”
    The crowd around us had shifted, half the people slinking to the sides of the dance floor while the rest partnered up. I’d never learned how to swing dance. I turned my head, and he obliged, giving me his ear.
    “I don’t know how,” I admitted.
    “Just follow my lead.” He held out his hands and lifted his brows expectantly.
    I felt Joey’s sparkling energy at my side and turned as she pulled my purse over my head and gave me a small push toward the handsome stranger. She waggled her pink brows, and I had to repress a snort. Half reluctantly, half excitedly, I gave him my hands.
    He leaned in with one arm around my waist and said, “Just rock step on every third step.”
    “What?” I managed to ask before we were off and spinning.
    My feet took a moment to catch up with the rest of my body as he led me through twirls and spins, but I managed to force myself to count. One, two, rock step. One, two, rock step. In no time, I felt like a natural.
    He flashed me that dimpled smile as I swung under his arm, rock stepping before he pulled me back through. The room swirled around me in a myriad of colors and sparkles, making my head spin. By the time the music came to an end, I was a little dizzy and out of breath, but I was laughing too. That was the most fun I’d had in a club in my entire life.
    “Thank you for the dance,” he said, bending slightly at the waist.
    A flush crept up my cheeks, and if my smile got any bigger, it would split my face. “Thank you.”
    “Can I buy you a drink?”
    I glanced at the bar, many of the seats open as the crowd rushed back onto the floor. The idea of sitting was pretty alluring, so I nodded. Joey passed me my purse as she went deeper into the dancing mob. At the bar, I ordered a water, feeling a little too warm in my jacket, and he ordered a simple beer. We sat on the high stools with one side toward the bar and the other toward the crowd so we were facing each other.
    “Cole,” he said.
    “Matilda,” I said. “But my friends call me Mattie.”
    “So which should I call you?”
    “Well, that was a pretty fun dance, so I think you can call me Mattie.”
    Cole smiled and lifted his pint glass in a toast, and I tapped it with my bottle of water.
    We fell into an easy silence as we sipped our drinks and watched the people around us. Slowly, Cole asked me a few questions, easing us into the getting-to-know-you conversation. It turned out my sense of something magical about him was right—he was a kitchen witch. His mother had been a full-fledged witch, like Ronnie and me, but his dad was human. Cole didn’t have his mother’s talents, but he could do some special things with medicinal herbs and food. As soon as I told him my last name was Kavanagh, he recognized me by my reputation and almost gushed over meeting me.
    “How do so many humans know who I am?” I asked. “I’ve had a sudden influx of human clientele lately.”
    “Because you’ll actually see humans.”
    “What?”
    “Remember all the attacks from PEACE?”
    A shudder went through me. Of course I remembered. I’d had to get a newly remodeled kitchen because an initiate set off a pipe bomb in my apartment. The look on my face