Sugar and Ice by Eule Grey

Author:Eule Grey
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Contemporary, paranormal, lesbian, British/Yorkshire, holiday/Christmas, news bloggers, mystery, witch, ghost hijinks, bakers, holiday baking, humorous, over forty, disability-confident, neurodivergence
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2023-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

The Echo

Christmas Competition!

In the summer me and my sister played on the tree at the bottom of the lane. Swings, hide and seek, tiggy. All the branches froze up one winter, and the leaves turned into frosty maps. We picked one and pretended it would take us somewhere we could live together forever.

Nelly Neville.

Chapter Eight

An owl hooted, indicating it was the right time to discuss witchiness in bed with one’s boss…

I squeezed my face into Lisa’s neck and held my breath. The warmth of her body, along with the scent of lemony washing powder, was enough to loosen my tongue. Lisa was a fierce guardian of her younger brother, and I wasn’t at all sure she’d appreciate me dabbling. “You know Tom?”

She laughed softly and stroked my back. “Tall, skinny fella with hair and a foul mouth? Thirty-two years old, son of Earl and Iris. Yeah, I might’ve heard of him. Bit worried about him, to be honest.” She hummed the same song Tom had played at the piano—“Diamonds Are Forever.”

“When he came along,” she continued, her voice softened with nostalgia, “me and our Kath looked after him ’cause Mum had to go to work, and she wasn’t very well.”

“Aww,” I said, enchanted. It wasn’t often Lisa revealed much about herself, not through words anyway.

“He were my little diamond. So cheeky and full of life. Bursting with energy. I remember when he had to do a song at school—he couldn’t have been more than eight—he picked Shirley Bassey. Did you know her dad came from Nigeria, the same as Tom’s? Always loved her; he did. We went to the library and learned all about her; he knew all her songs. Anyway—I went in and sat with the parents, and when our Tom came on, I thought, Oh, God. Please let it be all right. There he was, jumping up and down like he used to because he could never stand still, and all the other kids were in a neat line. I remember thinking, If anyone laughs, I’ll fucking kill them.”

I held my breath. “And?”

She pulled me into her body. “He were brilliant. Sang “Diamonds Are Forever” while I bawled my eyes out. All the parents cheered. After that, I found the money for him to get piano lessons.”

I burrowed further into her body and considered going in for a tickle before she could. Matters of the heart often led to a bout of activity. “Is his dad still alive?”

A hand landed beneath my ribs right in the tickle zone. “Yeah! Lives in the complex by Windsor Way. He’s coming over on Christmas day, so you’ll meet him, the dirty flirt. Very like his son.” She snored lightly, indicating it was time to sleep.

I squirmed, wondering how to broach the topic of investigations. “But what I wanted to ask was—”

The snoring stopped instantly and turned into a wicked “he-he-he.” She was a devil for catching me out. “Tom’s sent fifty-three texts about how he’ll be the next ghost hunter. I’ve said yes, he can help if he stays close.

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