Free Wicked by Any Other Name by Linda Wisdom

sit down next to the table—not surprisingly by the chair where Blair usually sat. For all Blair’s muttering and complaining, she never failed to share food off her plate.
    The collie raised a paw and whined.
    Blair shook her head as she poured juice and popped bread in the toaster, while Stasi finished up the scrambled eggs.
    â€œI have to say that for two hot looking chicks, we must be having a miserable life when we share our breakfast with a lovesick ghost and two dogs,” Blair said, returning to the table with plates of toast.
    â€œIt could be worse,” Stasi reminded her.
    â€œAs in?” Blair pinched off a piece of buttered toast and tossed it to the dog, who caught it with a quick snap of his jaws. He pricked his ears alertly and cocked his head, watching her intently.
    â€œSmiley Joe could have shown up with Fergus.”
    Blair groaned at the mention of the long dead miner. Smiley Joe was missing most of his teeth, and what few he had left were stained from years of chewing tobacco. Not to mention he sported a glass eye that didn’t match his other eye color, and had an alarming way of staring at their cleavage with his one good eye as he uttered a low laugh as if he found something amusing. Neither of them had the nerve to ask him what he found so funny. They didn’t think they’d like the answer.
    â€œThere must be wards we can put up to keep out ghosts,” Blair muttered, sitting down to her breakfast and furry fellow diner. She leaned over and pinched something off the top of the dog’s head, then returned to finger comb through his fur.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Stasi asked.
    â€œI think I found a flea.”
    The dog looked up and curled his lip, uttering a low growl.
    Stasi giggled. “I think he’s telling you he’s flea free.”
    â€œYeah, well, he needs to have a closer look at the top of his head.”

Chapter 4
    Stasi shivered from the morning chill and wrapped her sapphire pashmina shawl more closely about her as she walked down the sidewalk. She felt the need for a short walk to clear her head before she opened the shop.
    â€œAll I wanted was a lovely peaceful Samhain,” she grumbled to herself.
    â€œHaving a good conversation with yourself, Stasi?” Ginny Chao teased. She was a descendant of one of the men who’d originally come to the United States to work on the railroad, then tried his luck in the mines. He proved to be a better cook than a miner, and was successful enough that he was able to bring his wife over from China and open a small café. Over the years, the restaurant was handed down within the family. Ginny had inherited it from her grandmother. She greeted Stasi with a smile as she swept the wooden sidewalk in front of her restaurant. Ginny’s Sit ‘N Eat café never lacked for customers, thanks to her down-home cooking and homemade cakes and pies. The town council, consisting of four elders, usually took up a rear table as they debated town business over coffee and pie. Floyd, his honor the mayor, once suggested that it was good for business for them to be there and it wouldn’t hurt Ginny to comp their food. She tartly informed them she lost business by them taking over her best table, and they’d not only pay for their food but leave a decent tip, or they could go elsewhere. They grumbled and threatened to move down to the bakery, which offered an eating area, but all knew the small round bistro-style tables wouldn’t easily handle four oversized men. So they stayed and paid the bill, along with leaving a tip for their waitress.
    Like all the longtime residents, Ginny knew that Stasi and Blair were witches and had lived in the town several times under similar names. Now that the supernatural community was better known and an open secret among the mortals, the two women were comfortable with the residents understanding what they were, even if they didn’t know the