A Haunting Midlife (Witching After Forty #3) - Lia Davis Page 0,3

security. Let's go."

After waving him back inside I popped one more kiss to Drew's lips, then grabbed my small suitcase. "Bye," I called.

I walked back through the double doors, not turning until I had to. Zoey grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the gate. "I read all about flying online. We check in, get our tickets, then go through security."

"Zo, I checked us in at home," Wallie said. "We have all our tickets. Straight to security."

She gulped audibly. "Oh. Time for that?"

Throwing my arm around the young girl, I turned her toward the small line at security. "Stop fidgeting," I said softly.

"I can't help it." Her barely audible whisper was more of a squeak. "What if something goes wrong? I don't exist, at least not as far as the humans are concerned."

"Stop talking about that now." We were too close to the front already. "And chill."

She'd put a ball cap on to hide her ears just in case they made an appearance. We had a glamour on her, but I didn't want to trust that it would definitely, one hundred percent work.

"Okay, take off your shoes and put them in these buckets." I set an off-white tray in front of her. "And put your backpack in there, too."

I'd already coached her not to wear jewelry or a belt, so once the shoes came off, we were good.

"Miss?" A tired-looking woman leaned over. "Hat off, please."

Zoey smiled at her with wide, nervous eyes. We hadn't been able to do anything but glamour for her tiger eyes, which hadn't shifted back to human since I animated her. If that slipped, well, we were just screwed.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the hat came off and there were no ears. "It's okay," I murmured. "Step into that machine and it just scans your body to make sure you don't have a weapon."

This was the big test. Would the machine be fooled by a glamour? I had no idea. If her ears popped up or tail popped out, we were screwed with a capital F.

But it seemed to go well. Then, as Zoey stepped through to the other side and I walked into the scanner for my turn, Wallie hissed at me. "Mom! Her tail."

Turning my head back to Zoey, I gulped when her tail appeared out of the bottom of her skirt. In her relief to get through the scanner, she'd let it slip.

And the agent was turning toward Zo. The whole thing happened in slow motion, like in a movie.

"No!" I yelled and dropped to the floor, pulling all the attention on me. The agent who had been about to look at Zo rushed to my side, as did Wallie. All eyes swung around to me, including Zoey, peering over the agent's shoulder.

"Sorry," I said, getting to my feet and rubbing my butt. "I just tripped and fell on my tailbone."

Zoey's eyes slammed shut and she disappeared from sight. I'd forgotten to glamour her tail. All I could do now was hope she either managed to tuck it up inside her clothes or made it disappear.

"Are you sure you're all right, Mom?" Wallie asked with his nostrils flared.

"I'm fine, stop fussing. You know I'm just clumsy."

The security agent gave me a scathing look but backed away. We finished our scan without incident.

We weren't even out of Maine yet. This was going to be a long trip.

Chapter Two

When the cab dropped us off at the house in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, my stomach churned, and dread froze me in place. The last time I was in this house, I was a depressed grieving widow. Some things hadn't changed. I was still a grieving widow, just not as depressed. I was proud of how much moving back to Shipton had helped me.

With a sigh, I stared up at the split foyer and tried to make myself walk forward.

"Come on, Mom." Wallie put his hand on my shoulder. "We're ready for this. We've talked about it until we couldn't talk about it anymore. Just go in."

He was right. That didn't mean it would be easy, though.

With an encouraging look from Wallie, I unlocked the door and went inside. I didn't fall apart as soon as I set foot in the foyer, so that was a plus.

Wade had turned on the A/C so the house wouldn’t smell closed up. I thought it felt amazing.

"Geez, it's cold in here," Zoey muttered.

I pointed at them, my voice full of threat and sweat on my