“When you’d be willing to meet with her. If you’re willing, that is.”

Sebastian stared at the man. To be face to face with Evangeline again after all this time…a thousand possibilities filled his head, followed by only a few outcomes. “Even if she didn’t bring up money, I’m sure that’s what this is about. Just find out how much she needs this time and I’ll take care of it. I don’t need to see her face to face to fill her accounts.”

“I really don’t think that’s what this is about. She wouldn’t need to see you in person if she was just running low.”

Greaves had a point. Was it possible something in Evangeline had changed in these last centuries? “Then what do you think she wants? As best as you can tell.”

Greaves pondered the question. “My guess is she wants to apologize.”

“Evangeline? Apologize? How much did you have to drink, old man?”

“I know, it doesn’t seem like her, but she was different. Almost…contrite. I think you should at least see what she wants.”

“Damn it.” Sebastian shook his head. “Fine. I’ll meet with her. But on my terms.”

“Of course.”

He hated the hold she had over him and yet felt powerless to do anything but respond exactly as she’d probably guessed he would. No matter the responsibility he still felt toward her, he could not let her have the upper hand. Not this time.

If he did, he would be completely destroyed. “Go back to the pub. Get a number for her. Or find out where she’s staying. Tell her I’ll contact her when I’m ready to talk and we’ll meet where I want to meet. If she wants to see me, it’s going to happen how I want it to.”

Greaves seemed to puff up a bit. “Very good, sir.” He left to deliver Sebastian’s message.

Sebastian put a hand to his chest as he leaned back into his chair. If his heart could beat, he felt sure it would be pounding. He closed the file before him. The project budget could wait.

He had a lot to think about. A lot of feelings to sort. Scenarios to play out. A course of action to decide upon. A promise to keep.

After all, it wasn’t every day your estranged wife came back to town and wanted to talk.

Tessa Blythe reluctantly put her new kitten, Duncan, down on the floor so she could grab the ringing phone. He scampered off, undoubtedly in search of another roll of toilet paper to shred or catnip toy to disembowel. The little monster was a terror. Cute enough to melt butter, but horribly behaved. She was utterly and completely in love with tiny tabby kitten. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s your sister.”

“Hi, Jenna. What’s new?” Jenna was a sheriff’s deputy in a silly little town that celebrated Halloween three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Sounded like a recipe for disaster to Tessa. “You’re not calling to tell me you got stabbed by a criminal, are you? Or bitten by a zombie or whatever unfortunate element roams the streets there? Oh, please tell me you didn’t have to kill someone in self-defense.”

A sigh answered her. “Tessa, this is Nocturne Falls, not the dark streets of some crime-ridden city. It’s like Tim Burton’s version of Disney. I can’t even tell you the last time I took my gun out of its holster. I swear, you’d love it here. It’s very friendly to supernaturals. And really, considering who we are, you need to get over your fear of living a genuine life.”

“I am living a genuine life. And can we please not go into that again?”

Duncan was now climbing the side of the couch, claws digging deep in the ancient plaid fabric that covered the ugly thing. (The apartment had come furnished, but ugly was ugly.) Tessa put her hand over the receiver. “No. Bad cat. Bad.” She was never getting her security deposit back.

“Who are you yelling at? Did you say cat? Did you get a cat, Tessa? Holy Loki, please tell me you did not get a cat. You’re turning into a cliché.”

“Just because I’m a librarian, possibly with a cat, doesn’t mean I’m a cliché.”

“No, but when you also wear glasses you don’t need and generally seem to have your hair in a bun, the scales do lean in that direction.”

“I wear magnifying lenses because it helps me with my job.”

“You wear glasses as way to disguise your looks.”

“Are you saying I don’t look good in my glasses? That’s very cruel.”

“Had any dates lately? Or does that birth control bun effectively keep the men at bay?”

Tessa reached up and pulled the elastic out of her hair. “For your information, my hair is down right now. Besides, you wear your hair up all the time.”

“I have to, it’s a job requirement. You don’t have that excuse, but hey, if you want to hide yourself from the world by becoming a cliché, that’s your business. I love you, frumpy bun and all, you know that. I wouldn’t be trying to get you to move to Nocturne Falls to be near me if I didn’t love you. Right?”

“Right.” Tessa wouldn’t mind moving, even if the town was a tourist trap. She’d moved to Dayton, Ohio, only because it was where she’d gotten her first librarian job. And she’d love to be near her sister, but there was the matter of getting a new job. And quitting her current one. Not that her current one had turned out to be anything that fabulous.

“So listen, that’s why I’m calling. I just heard through the grapevine that the private school here is hiring a dean of library studies. And the money will be good. I don’t know how good, but Harmswood Academy doesn’t cut corners.”