Life's a Witch by Amanda M. Lee Page A

Landon interjected.
    Chief Terry snickered. Even though he fought Landon’s interested in me for a long time, he was resigned to the fact that we are a couple now. In fact, he’d grown fond of Landon … although he probably would never admit it. “Yes, Bay. You’re popular now because you’re dating an FBI agent.”
    I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that … although you are studly and handsome, sweetie,” I said. “For several years there, when I was younger, I couldn’t seem to find footing. Everyone thought I was weird, and Lila was always out to get me. Sometimes it felt as though I was suffocating.”
    “And that’s why you left town and moved south,” Chief Terry supplied. “I remember.”
    “And then I found out about a different kind of suffocating,” I muttered, my mind wandering back to my years in southeastern Michigan. When I was a teenager, the idea of fleeing to a big city where no one knew about the Winchester witches seemed an attainable dream. The reality was different, and once I returned to Hemlock Cove I knew I was home to stay.
    “You needed that time to find yourself,” Chief Terry said. “You came back a much happier person. I know you didn’t like it down there, but it was good for you. By the time you came back, you could hold your own and didn’t need Thistle to fight your battles.”
    “Thanks for the pep talk!”
    Chief Terry rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, Bay,” he said. “You’ve always been my favorite … mostly because Thistle was mean and Clove used to cry on a dime to manipulate me. I used to worry about you, though.”
    “Well, you don’t need to worry about her now,” Landon said. “That’s my job.”
    “Whatever,” Chief Terry muttered. “Tell me about Willa. I don’t remember anything good about her.”
    “As far as I can tell, there’s nothing good to remember about her,” I replied. “She knows exactly how to get under Aunt Tillie’s skin. Granted, that’s not hard to do, but she seems to get off causing emotional upheaval.
    “So far she’s gotten in digs about Mom’s food, the beds at the inn, Landon’s hair, Sam’s job and Aunt Tillie’s parenting skills,” I continued. “She seems to be on a mission to make us all miserable.”
    “Why did Winnie allow her to stay?”
    I shrugged. “I’ve been asking myself that very question for two days now,” I answered. “The only thing I can come up with is that my grandmother wanted peace in the family, and this is a way for my mother to do what she couldn’t.”
    “Your grandmother was a good woman,” Chief Terry said. “She was easy to get along with. Tillie and Willa were the exact opposite. They are older than me, but my father told me some stories about the two of them.”
    “Like what?” Landon prodded.
    “I’m getting this all secondhand from stuff my father told me, so take it with a grain of salt. Apparently Willa went after Calvin at some point,” Chief Terry replied. “Everyone in town knew Calvin Hoffman was head-over-heels for Tillie. That didn’t stop Willa from going after him out of spite.”
    That didn’t surprise me.
    “There was some hair pulling and threatened curses,” Chief Terry continued. “They screamed at each other in the middle of a festival dance, and Tillie swore up and down she would turn Willa’s hair green and make her teeth fall out.”
    “Wait a second,” Landon interjected. “Calvin’s last name was Hoffman. Why isn’t Aunt Tillie’s last name Hoffman?”
    “Aunt Tillie claims there’s power in names,” I answered. “She never changed her last name. My mother and aunts changed theirs briefly, but after the divorces they all changed them back.”
    “Why don’t any of you guys have your fathers’ names?”
    That was a good question. “When we were born we had hyphenated last names,” I explained. “Aunt Tillie insisted we would be unprotected if we didn’t keep the Winchester name. I think that was a power play. It