The War on Witches Read Free

ever-present scowl on his face.
    Paige paused for a beat with her bleeding finger still in her mouth, blinked once, then turned her attention back to the phone. “Can you hold for one moment?” Paige didn’t wait for an answer before putting the call on mute and losing all the politeness from her voice. “Can’t you see I’m on the phone?”
    Jackson let out a melodramatic sigh. “Chef refuses to double my shrimp order even though we ran out last night. I know I don’t need to tell you that—”
    â€œNo, you don’t,” Paige said, interrupting the line cook. She’d only been filling in at the restaurant for a week and had already had more than enough of him to last a lifetime. “As I was here last night and my ears are still ringing from your ranting.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œThe chef is your boss,” Paige reminded him. “And when she’s not around, you report to Piper. Nowhere along the way do I fit into this equation. I’m just here to answer the phones, which I can’t do if you’re bothering me.”
    â€œThis is what I get for working for women,” Jackson mumbled loudly enough that there was no doubt he’d wanted to be heard.
    Paige briefly considered orbing him to the moon. It was not the first time she’d considered teleporting Piper’s most annoying employee somewhere far away. The idea of breaking his body up into thousands of tiny balls of light and sending them out of her presence was tempting, but the thought of her sister returning to the restaurant to find a staff member missing always stopped her. To say nothing of the police investigation that would naturally follow.
    She had to be extra cautious about these things, considering her husband was a parole officer and some of his best friends were the ones who would be forced to arrest her. Paige’s regular job already put Henry in enough awkward situations with his law enforcement friends. She didn’t need to add this temp work she was largely doing as a favor to the mix.
    â€œCorrect me if I’m wrong,” Paige said. “As I know you will. But didn’t we only run out of shrimp at the end of the night? If I recall correctly, we only failed to fill one order of appetizers. Is that right?”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter—”
    â€œYes, actually, it does,” Paige said. “The amount of product we run out of most certainly matters—as I suspect most male business owners would tell you as well. And considering last night we had several tables of people who were still in town for last weekend’s shrimp festival it seems unlikely that we will have a run on the stuff tonight or ever again until this time next year. Either way, there is absolutely no need to
double
the order. Maybe you should politely take it up with your boss about requesting one additional batch or bushel or however you order shrimp.”
    â€œActually, they’re ordered in—”
    â€œDon’t care.” Paige held up the receiver. “On the phone.”
    As the line cook huffed off, Paige saw that Phoebe had come in behind him. Her less annoying sister—for the moment—was smiling as if she’d enjoyed the show.
    Paige held up the finger that was no longer bleeding to indicate she would be a minute before picking up her own cell phone and bringing up the weather app. She returned to the call on the restaurant phone as she checked the forecast. “I’m so sorry about that. It does look like we can fit your party in tonight, but the only seating we have available is on the patio. Now, I’m looking at the weather report for tonight and it is looking beautiful. It should be nice and warm and the skies clear. Halliwell’s has a lovely view of the bay.” Paige closed out the app and put down her cell phone as she listened to the happy future patron on the line. “Perfect! See you