Juniper

By Harley McRide

The Ardelean family had lived in Gypsy Falls, Maine, for years. Which meant everyone in town knew they were all had ‘Special Abilities.’ There were four of us daughters, I am Juniper, one of the middle children, and this is my story.
Since I can remember, I have always had the gift of speaking to the dead. Yeah, it sounds creepy, and the first thing everyone says to me when they find out, ‘I see dead people.’ It is annoying, which is why I didn’t broadcast who and what I see that others can’t. Instead, I am determined to open my shop with my family's help until it all went to hell in a handbasket when the dead mayor whom no one liked turned up dead and his spirit in my bathroom.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, my sister, who is a cop, has a new partner, Maxwell Trent, who is drop-dead gorgeous. He was distracting me from everything when I needed to get things solved.
I have no idea how this was all going to end, but it is going to be a wild ride!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jana Leigh
• Release date: Apr 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463737231

Harley McRide

I was on the back of a bike as soon as I was big enough to hold on. My love of the lifestyle, combined with my experience and imagination drove me to writing.Now that my two kids are grown and off to college, My husband and I enjoy the great outdoors with our three great Danes: Bowser, Killer, and Maddie.I grew up in Illinois, moving from place to place with my single mother until I was twelve. I now call the little town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas home. With it’s small town charm and population just over 10,000, it is the perfect place to hit the open road. When I need to get away, the hot springs are my go to unwind spot located less than thirty minutes from my cabin in the woods

Book preview

Juniper

Book One

Gypsy Falls

by Harley McRide

© Copyright April 2018 KO INK

Cover, art, and logo © Copyright April 2020 KO INK

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13 # 9780463737231Digital

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Dedication

To the one’s who are always considered weird and strange. You are who you are and be proud of it.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Books By Harley McRide

About

Table of Contents

Prologue

I’m Juniper Ardelean. As I walked around my store, I reflected on how this had been my dream for so long. I’ve finally accomplished it. I touched every counter, every shelf, making sure everything was in place. I lived in Gypsy Falls, Maine. Of course, being an Ardelean anywhere only meant one thing – we’re what you would call unique. Now, I’m sure you have heard that plenty, but seriously, everyone in my family has ‘gifts.’ Everyone in town knows, and everyone in town protects us. Not that we needed it, we weren’t magical creatures. They didn’t exist. We were people with powers, that’s it. They just helped us make sure that the media didn’t come snooping around if we helped find someone, or something similar to that. My family can be annoying on a good day and downright unbearable on a bad one, but they were good-hearted, and I loved all of them. But back to the gifts we have. You see, I can see, hear, and speak to dead people. That’s my gift. No jokes, please. I can make enough for everyone. Having this gift is seriously annoying. Do you know how many times I’ve been out on dates, then suddenly a dead person pops up?

I know this is strange. I know it’s hard to believe. But let me tell you a little about my family. Cora, my mother’s mother, is a witch. Yep, I said it, a witch. A real-life potion making, spell casting, slightly unbalanced, but an utterly loveable witch. She, by the way, is stocking my shelves with some of her harmless potions – you know, find love, get confidence. She was very excited to see how they worked. I, on the other hand, made sure I bought premium insurance and put warnings on every bottle. I didn’t want people thinking that if they didn’t work, I was responsible. Or, if one of her potions turned people's hair different colors, I wasn’t paying for it to be redyed. She was technically from a gypsy clan that were considered travelers in Ireland. At least that’s what she told us when we were young. However, as I grew up, I began to realize there was more to this gypsy stuff, but nothing to call Ghostbusters about. It was fairly harmless. We have a family (not a clan), and my grandmother talked to them weekly. She says we’re better off not meeting – too much power in one place could be tragic. I thought she was taking shit a bit too far.

My parents are Aspen and Venus Ardelean – ignore the names, they were flower children. Their real names are George and Grace, but they legally changed them to Aspen and Venus, because they said that’s who they were meant to be. Both of them had separate gifts. My mother is a clairvoyant, or in other words, she could see the future. Despite her powers, she refuses to tell anyone, because according to her, the future is ‘fluid,’ well unless it was something serious, then she would warn people. Sometimes they just didn’t believe it. My father, well, his gift is unique. It’s called psychometry – he can touch something and can get information. When we were young, we could never lie. But now we’re smarter – we refuse to allow him to touch any man we’re seeing, or us after having sex. Truthfully, it’s just something I wanted to avoid, since the last time he touched my younger sister, he almost went to the hospital.

Then there are my sisters. I love them, but sometimes I’d like to choke them. I’m the oldest, then comes Maeva, who was the town librarian and had precognition. Next was Irina, who was an attorney – she was gifted with intuition. And finally, Ember was the youngest and a cop with pyrokinesis. That was it, the whole family. In Gypsy Falls, we were legendary, which was not necessarily a good thing. I, on the other hand, was rising above it and embracing my history. I was going to change the face of our family. No more crazy looks from strangers when I walked down the street and talked to a ghost they couldn’t see. No more having the fire department blame my sister for every single fire that was started. And no more of this whole ‘Magic isn’t real bullshit.’ It is, and my family is all magical. It was time to embrace the rainbow and finally let people know that fairytales are just fairytales. We were normal people, just with an extra pinch of spice.

Here’s where the story gets interesting. The day of the grand opening of my shop called Mystic, everything went to shit. Honestly, it was the worst and best thing that had ever happened to me. Because on that day, I met my future. I’m so excited to see how this plays out – read on my lovelies.

Chapter One

Juniper

There’s just no getting around being panicked and stressed on the day I open my new shop, Mystic. This morning, I took the time to check everything. It was quiet, and since I was living over the shop, I checked every single shelf before I showered and got ready. I loved everything about my shop items – the not so magical items that people think are magical, plus the little knick-knacks that were funny and cute. The layout was perfect for customers, and for me. I could see everything from the cash register. Unless the place was packed, then I was going to need my family to help me police. I didn’t want someone to pick up one of my grandmothers’ potions and not get directions on how exactly to use it. It would be a downer if someone turned into a llama by accident because they didn’t get proper education.

Everything from Grandma Cora was already attracting people. For years, the people of Gypsy Falls had wanted my grandma to sell her potions. She didn’t give them out to just anyone. Today she was going to be standing at her shelf, making sure people were getting the correct items. Because ‘shit can go wrong if they get the wrong potion, or they don’t know how to use it,’ as my Grandma Cora said.

With a sigh, I walked back through the large storage room where everything I had for sale in the shop was ready for restocking. It was a lot. There were lotions, dream catchers, scarves, soaps, trinkets, and so much more. I smiled, then walked to the stairs and began to climb. My new apartment – I loved it. Well, since my hippy mother decorated it in her fung shui way, it was actually very colorful and slightly loud, but it’s also gorgeous and unique. The colors were deep reds, golds, and greens.

I walked directly to the shower, ignoring the coffee pot that was calling my name. I had only had one cup and knew I needed about four more before the day started. However, a shower was more important. I stepped into my bathroom, got in the shower, then sighed when the hot water began to cascade down me. Damn, this felt good. All of the lifting, moving, and general cleaning up had made me sore.

I groaned as I reached up for shampoo and began scrubbing my long brown hair that glimmered with blonde highlights. Later I could put the braids in it, with a few feathers or beads. I wasn’t tall, and I wasn’t short. I was basically normal in height. I wouldn’t call myself beautiful, but I had one thing that all my family had, which I loved – my eyes. They changed colors all the time, usually with my emotions. Right now, they were bright blue, because I was anxious and happy. When they were green, yellow, or brown, I was angry or upset. I was humming a little folk song while showering, happy to get the day started.

When I heard someone singing a song, but not the song I was humming, I knew I was no longer alone. They were singing loudly, with terrible pitch, and they were in my bathroom. I screamed, then the suds dripped down into my eyes while my hands flew to the shower curtain to hold onto