Wild & Hexy (36 page)

‘‘You’re not?’’ Isabel lifted her eyebrows. ‘‘If you’re not the press, then who are you?’’

Annie met her gaze and realized she had no answer. Breaking news was what she did, what she was good at, her pathway to the career she’d chosen. But was that who she was? She’d like to think there was more to her, but if so, she was having a tough time putting her finger on it.

And if she didn’t know for sure who she was, Jeremy was an even bigger question mark. ‘‘Putting my identity crisis aside for the moment, I’d like to ask you a question, Dorcas.’’

‘‘All right.’’ Dorcas looked as if she’d been expecting it.

‘‘I take it Ambrose gave Jeremy some magic powers.’’

Dorcas nodded. ‘‘He couldn’t have taught him enough technique in the short time we had, so he placed a magical spell on him.’’

‘‘For how long?’’

‘‘It’s expired now.’’

Annie wondered how Jeremy would feel about that. She’d written a story proclaiming him the Internet Café Magician, and now he wouldn’t be able to perform those tricks. ‘‘Was there anything else? He seemed more confident than I remembered.’’

‘‘We gave him a potion to boost his confidence,’’ Dorcas said. ‘‘He only had a few days to win you over, so we wanted him to have his best shot, but it wouldn’t have worked if he hadn’t—’’

‘‘So everything was a lie.’’ Annie felt sick to her stomach. If she could have chosen, she would rather have the lake monster be fake and Jeremy’s personality real.

‘‘Not a lie,’’ Dorcas said gently. ‘‘An enhancement. You see—’’

‘‘I don’t really know anything about him,’’ Annie said. ‘‘How can I make decisions based on some magical
enhancement
?’’

‘‘You know more than you think you do,’’ Dorcas said.

Isabel yawned. ‘‘Frankly, I’m bored with the whole subject.’’

Annie heard Ambrose come through the front door. That was her cue. She pushed back her chair and stood. ‘‘You know what? It’s been a long day. A long week, come to think of it. I need to go home and get some sleep.’’

‘‘If you insist.’’ Dorcas looked relieved.

‘‘I do. If you think Jeremy’s recovered enough, I can take him back to his place, too.’’

‘‘I’m sure he’s fine. That’s a good idea.’’

Dorcas probably hoped Annie would spend the night with Jeremy. Annie hated to disappoint her, but she no longer knew who Jeremy was, really. She wasn’t so sure who she was, either, and she needed to figure that out, pronto. Sex would only cloud the issue.

Dorcas stood with Ambrose at the front door and watched Annie help Jeremy into her car. ‘‘I hope she comes to the right decision,’’ she said.

‘‘About Dee-Dee or Jeremy?’’

‘‘Both. I have to admit I’m worried. She’s thinking with her head instead of her heart, and that’s bad.’’

‘‘All the more reason to get a boyfriend for Dee-Dee so she’ll be tough to find if Annie chooses to go public with this and the news crews show up.’’

‘‘You’re right. Isadora says she has an idea.’’

‘‘I do,’’ Isadora called from the kitchen. ‘‘Get your butts back here so we can discuss it. I have a hot poker game waiting for me in the Whispering Forest. By the way, thanks for the stake, Dorcas.’’

Ambrose turned to his wife. ‘‘Is that what you bribed her with?’’

‘‘I had to come up with something.’’

Ambrose lowered his voice. ‘‘You know perfectly well that Isadora is not a good influence on George. She could undo weeks of progress with one late-night poker game. Plus every time they play, the raccoons steal another chunk of George’s treasure, which won’t sit well with the council. At this rate we’ll never get back to Sedona.’’

Dorcas smiled at him. ‘‘About that. Have you noticed that the boredom factor has all but disappeared around here?’’

‘‘Guys, I’m waiting,’’ Isadora called out again.

Ambrose nodded. ‘‘I can’t say I’m bored. And your point is?’’

‘‘No point. Just mentioning.’’ She gave him a light pinch on his tight derriere as they walked back into the kitchen. Their sex life had improved since moving to Big Knob, too. She wondered if that had anything to do with the large granite phallic symbol northeast of town. Probably.

Jeremy tried to convince Annie to stay with him in his apartment, but she refused, saying they were both exhausted and they’d talk in the morning. She made sure Megabyte went out to pee, and then she announced that she’d come back at first light and take him to the lake so he could retrieve his car. He was in no shape to seduce her into changing her mind, so he let her go back to her mother’s house.

Sure enough, the sky was barely growing light when someone pounded on the back door of Click-or-Treat. Rousing herself, Megabyte started down the stairs. Jeremy threw on jeans and a Click-or-Treat logo T-shirt, gargled some mouthwash, put on his glasses, and followed Meg down. On the way he ran a hand over his jaw and winced. He must look like a homeless person.

Annie, however, looked terrific. She stood at his back door wearing a long-sleeved knit top the color of lime sherbet and a pair of snug jeans. She would probably complain that they were too tight, but he thought they were perfect.

Annie gave Meg a head rub as the dog walked past on her way to the yard. Turned out Meg got a friendlier greeting than Jeremy did.

Annie didn’t offer to kiss him, didn’t touch him at all, in fact. ‘‘Let’s go get your car.’’ She said it gently, which was sort of comforting, but otherwise she was all business.

‘‘I need to feed Meg first.’’

‘‘That’s fine.’’

‘‘Want to come in?’’

She shook her head. ‘‘I’ll wait out here.’’

He didn’t like the distance she was putting between them, didn’t like it one bit. Last night she’d seemed to care a lot. She’d even been crying. Today—not so much.

He took Meg back upstairs, poured out her ration of kibble and waited the ten seconds it usually took her to gulp it down. When he came back downstairs, she followed him.

He opened the door and gestured to his dog. ‘‘Can she come?’’

‘‘Sure, why not?’’

He felt better having Meg along, riding in the backseat and sticking her head between the front bucket seats. Meg loved him unconditionally, whether he knew magic or got drunk or almost drowned himself. Annie probably didn’t love him at all, conditional or un. If she did, she wouldn’t be acting so standoffish today.

Having her drive him was a new experience that gave him a chance to study her, and he could tell from the set of her jaw that she was tense. But even tense, she was gorgeous.

He loved looking at her hair, which was a million shades of blond, especially when it caught the light. He wasn’t sure if she had on makeup or not because she was good with that kind of thing. She could be wearing it and he wouldn’t know it.

Whether she was wearing makeup or not, she’d spent time on her appearance before coming to pick him up. Normally that would be a good sign, but judging from her expression, she wasn’t feeling soft and cuddly. ‘‘You said we’d talk today,’’ he said. ‘‘Maybe we should do that.’’

She let out a breath. ‘‘Maybe we should. I found out a few things from Dorcas last night while you were asleep on the Lowells’ sofa.’’

‘‘And?’’

‘‘I don’t know if you realized it, but they gave you some herbs and stuff that . . . well, they’re sort of a mood enhancer. They wanted you to feel more confident in approaching me.’’

Jeremy didn’t want to hear that. He’d suspected as much, but he hadn’t asked for fear he’d discover the truth—he’d been operating under some sort of mind-altering substance. All that personal power he’d felt had been fake.

Still, he had a morbid fascination with the topic. ‘‘Did you ask about the magic?’’

‘‘I did. They helped make all that happen, too.’’

‘‘I don’t see how. They weren’t always around when I tried magic tricks.’’ Vaguely he remembered struggling to conjure up the lake monster last night with his magic word, but most of the evening was very unclear.

‘‘I’m not sure how they did it. They have some very developed abilities.’’ Annie approached the turn to the lake road and made a left.

‘‘And you all still think there’s a lake monster out there?’’

‘‘Probably.’’ She drove slowly down the narrow road to the lake. ‘‘I hope you’re convinced by now that the Lowells didn’t make it up so they could cash in on the tourist business. They do some unorthodox things, but not because they want to get rich.’’

Jeremy had to admit that scenario didn’t fit very well anymore. ‘‘Yeah, I’m convinced.’’ As they neared the parking lot, he saw the crazy way his Suzuki was parked and groaned. ‘‘I must have been really sloshed last night.’’

‘‘You were, which is mostly my fault.’’

‘‘That’s not true.’’

‘‘Yes, it is.’’ She pulled her rental up next to Jeremy’s car and gazed out through the front windshield toward the lake. ‘‘Except now I know that Dorcas and Ambrose deliberately tried to make me fall for you, so I don’t feel
quite
as guilty.’’

‘‘You shouldn’t feel guilty at all. I was the one with ulterior motives.’’ Jeremy was not encouraged about how this was going. He unfastened his seat belt, but she didn’t. She didn’t shut off the motor, either. Bad sign.

She turned her head to look at him. That was the first time he realized she had tears in her eyes.

‘‘Oh, Annie, don’t.’’ He started to reach for her.

She waved him away and sniffed. ‘‘I’m too vulnerable right now.’’

He felt pretty damned vulnerable, too, but he didn’t say that. His rep had already taken too many hits. ‘‘I don’t want you to be sad.’’

‘‘Can’t be helped.’’ She wiped at her eyes and took a shaky breath. ‘‘I’ll be driving back to Chicago this morning.’’

He’d expected that, too, but expecting it and hearing it were two different things. He couldn’t have prepared himself for the pain he’d feel. ‘‘Are you coming back anytime soon?’’

‘‘I . . . I don’t know. I got in over my head with you, Jeremy. But it wasn’t really you, was it?’’

He gazed at her. ‘‘I’m not sure I know the answer to that.’’

‘‘And if you don’t, I sure don’t. With Zach I fell in love with an image, and I’m not about to do that again. I need distance. Time to think.’’

He had no choice but to accept that. No doubt about it, he wasn’t as advertised. The Lowells’ plan had backfired and he was left wondering if Annie would have been interested in him without the magic. It was a little late to find out.

When he started to speak, he had to clear the misery out of his throat first. ‘‘Have you decided what you’re going to do about the lake monster?’’ He’d wanted to find it for her, but he’d failed at that, too.

She glanced away. ‘‘I’m still thinking about that.’’

‘‘If you want to come back and try to get a better picture, then I’d be glad to—’’

‘‘We’ll see.’’ She glanced at him and swallowed. ‘‘For now, we’d better just say good-bye.’’

Agony ripped through him. Even Megabyte must have sensed it, because she whined and nudged his arm with her wet nose. She was probably telling him to get the hell out of the car before he started doing something unmanly, like begging.

Somehow he met Annie’s gaze and nodded. Reaching blindly behind him for the door handle, he opened it and climbed out of the car. It took him forever to find the mechanism to let the front seat down so Megabyte could come out. No question that he’d lost his Mr. Smooth persona.

‘‘Jeremy, this week has been . . .’’

Heaven and hell.
‘‘For me, too. Good-bye, Annie.’’

‘‘ ’Bye,’’ she said softly. Then she put the car in gear, made a quick U-turn and barreled out of the parking lot with the tires spitting gravel as she left.

Jeremy watched her until she was out of sight. All week long he’d wondered if this time with Annie was too good to be true. Now he knew the answer. It was.

As he stood beside his car trying to get himself together so he could drive home, he heard a droning sound off in the distance. Glancing up, he saw a blimp several miles away. Must be a golf tournament in Indianapolis today.

With a sigh, he walked around to the passenger side and opened it for Meg. ‘‘Come on, girl. Looks like it’s just you and me again.’’

Annie rolled her car windows down and let the breeze dry her tears as they fell. With the window open, she had no trouble recognizing the steady drone of a blimp’s engines overhead. She saw and heard blimps all the time in Chicago, where they were used for various outdoor sporting events. This one must be on its way to somewhere else, because there would be no reason for a blimp to hover over Big Knob.

Dorcas’s words came back to her. No, that was too crazy. But it wasn’t any crazier than some of the other things that had happened this week. Annie pulled off the road and leaned out the window to get a look at the blimp. Sure enough, it was headed in the direction of the lake.

Up ahead was a wooded side road. She drove to it, pulled in and managed to turn the car around without getting stuck. So far, so good. Now she had to wait for Jeremy to drive by and hope he was so distracted that he didn’t notice her car back in the trees.

Soon his Suzuki whizzed by, Megabyte’s massive head sticking out the passenger window. With Megabyte riding shotgun, Jeremy wouldn’t be able to see into the woods on the right side of the road, anyway. She was in luck.

Once she was positive he wouldn’t see her, she headed back for the lake, but parked on the side of the road before she’d reached the turnoff. If she was right, she didn’t want to announce her presence.

Taking her camera from her purse, she left the car and cut through the trees toward the lake road. The blimp drew nearer. Her chest tightened in anticipation and a tingly feeling traveled down her spine. Once again, she was poised on the brink of something amazing.