Free The Single Undead Moms Club (Half Moon Hollow series Book 4) by Molly Harper Page B

tattoos, huh?”
    “Don’t read my mind without my permission!” I hissed quietly. “That’s just rude!”
    “Hey, I only got half of the picture before you managed to shut me out. How did you do that, by the way? Meditation exercises?”
    “Do what?”
    “Shut me out of your head,” she said. “The only other person who can do it is Nola, and she has an unfair magical advantage.”
    “I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I said. “Let’s just get out of here before I make a bigger scene.”
    “Eh, there’s so much background noise no one really noticed the muffled voices coming from the closet.”
    I stopped in my tracks, turning on my heel and shouting toward the now closed closet door, “And my face is fine , by the way! Thanks for asking, jerk.”
    Danny was still happily rolling about on the magic story-time carpet in the library when I found him, completely engrossed in Miss Lisa’s narration of Pete the Cat: Rockin’ in My School Shoes. Jane took a deep breath as we entered the library, as if she missed the smell. Afterward, I tried to give her some space as we walked to the car. She looked a little weepy. Danny filled up the silence with chatter about his new friend Charlie, Pete the Cat, Charlie, the cafeteria, Charlie, the music room, and Charlie. Charlie was apparently the source of all things cool. He had a dog named Ratchet and a collection of snakeskins and arrowheads.
    “So I take it you’re excited about this year, buddy?” I asked him as I buckled his seatbelt.
    “Yup. Charlie and I are going to be in the same class. We’re going to play pirates at recess. But close the door, Mom. I don’t want anybody seeing that I still use a Bubble Guppies booster seat.”
    I nodded and saluted as I closed the door. The poor kid had always been a little sensitive about being smaller than the rest of the kids in his class. He considered his continued use of a preschool-brand booster to be on par with thumb sucking or needing a sippy cup. But he hadn’t outgrown it yet, and booster seats weren’t cheap.
    “I’m proud of you,” Jane told me. “That was a lot of sensory input, and you handled it beautifully. And you didn’t even show any signs that you’d been turned. Do you know how hard that is? I barely got through a first visit with my mama, and she kept trying to force-feed me pot pie!”
    “Thank you, vampire Yoda,” I said. “Do I get my ‘first outing’ merit badge?”
    “No, but I’m going to ignore the fact that you’re sassing your mentor. You should consider that a gift.”
    “I do,” I told her solemnly.
    “Drive safe,” she called as she walked toward her tank of a car, an SUV she called Big Bertha, Jr. “I need to swing by my place, and then I’ll see you at the house.”
    “I always drive safe. It’s a minivan.” Just as I turned toward the car, which had been moved to the school while I slept by a helpful human Council employee, I tracked a flash of hot pink in my peripheral vision. My head whipped toward the movement, a predatory instinct that made me more than a little uncomfortable. About twenty feet away, Ashlynne Carson, the little sister of one of Danny’s classmates, was chasing her wayward “Welcome Back to School” balloon as it floated toward the parking lot. Ashlynne’s mother, Candace, was busy talking to Mr. Walsh and didn’t see her daughter in danger. And Nina Paltree was backing her huge Yukon out of its space and had no clue that Ashlynne was behind her. In fact, it seemed like no one was watching Ashlynne at the moment.
    Without thinking, I sprinted the short distance at top speed. I caught Ashlynne under her arms and scooped her up, springing to the side, out of the path of the car. It would have been a graceful rescue had my foot not caught on the curb and sent me sprawling across the sidewalk. I wrapped my arms around Ashlynne’s squirming body, rolling across the pavement and taking the brunt of the impact on my