Don't Hex with Texas (10 page)

“I guess we’ll have to come back at night, then.” I could certainly go for that.

“If we need them, we will.”

I tried not to sigh in frustration that the conversation was stuck on work, but I couldn’t think of a way to bring up anything else. Life was so much easier in junior high when you could hand a guy a note that said, “Do you like me? Check yes or no.” Not that I’d ever had the nerve to do that kind of thing, even when I was in junior high. I picked up a strawberry and put it to my lips, trying to eat it as seductively as I could. The juice dripping down my chin to stain my shirt probably didn’t help the image I was trying to project.

Still, he did react. His eyes went wide and the tip of his tongue touched his lower lip, at the same spot where the juice dripped from my lip. Then he blinked several times, looked away from me, cleared his throat, and said, “So, how do we catch our culprit?”

With a sigh, I got out a notebook and started to take notes. I’d been a secretary—or administrative assistant—long enough that it had become habit, and it didn’t look like he was yet ready to move out of the business arena with me, no matter how much I tried to tempt him. “Do we keep trying to uncover him, or try to catch him in the act and then unmask him?”

“In the absence of any definitive clues, we might have better luck trying to catch him and unmask him. Unless he’s some freak prodigy, I don’t think we have to worry much about me not being able to beat him magically. Even if we’re equals, power-wise, which I think is highly unlikely from what I’ve sensed, I have years of experience and a lot more spells at my disposal than he could ever get from a correspondence course.” He frowned and stared off into space for a moment, then said, “We could always set a trap—give him something he can’t resist. But what do we use for bait?”

“I
’m guessing it’ll take more than a hunk of cheese to trap this rat,” I said. “What we need to do is figure out what he wants, what’s really driving him, and then make that available somehow.”

“Or not make it too available,” Owen replied, his eyes a little unfocused as he brainstormed. “Make it a challenge. He does seem to want money, but what it looks like he’s really enjoying is getting the chance to one-up everyone, to feel special and know he’s the only one around who can do this.”

“Shows how much he knows, with you in town,” I quipped. “Maybe we can use that, though. How likely do you think it is that our culprit even knows there are magical immunes like me?”

I saw the spark light in his eyes and knew he had an idea. “Not very likely. That’s seldom in Magic 101. He may know there are other magic users, but he probably doesn’t think there are any in this town. I’d bet the knowledge would disturb him. He wants to be the best.”

He grabbed my notebook and pen and went straight to work, outlining a plan in his textbook-perfect handwriting. “See, we find something he can’t resist that he’s sure to try to get into, then magically ward it. That should intrigue him enough to stop and study it. I doubt they’ve yet covered wards, so he won’t know what’s going on. Then we can grab him. He’ll probably try using magic to defend himself, but it won’t work on you, and I can deflect it. He’ll think he’s outclassed and outnumbered.” He looked up at me and grinned. “See, this is why I need you around. You make me think better.” Then he blushed furiously and looked back down at the notebook. “Well, most of the time. When you’re not in immediate danger.”

At least he’d acknowledged that he needed me, even if he’d felt the need to throw in the part about me in danger. That’s what had tripped us up the last time, and I didn’t like the reminder. “Then maybe we should just lock me up in a bank vault, and you can come visit me when you need to brainstorm.”

He completely missed my sarcasm in his excitement. “That’s it exactly! You know he’ll want to hit the bank. Emptying the safe would be the ultimate magical robber challenge. I should ward the bank. I’ll do it tonight, while he’s still probably recovering from last night’s activities and before he hits again. If I’m tired from what little I did, I’m sure he’s exhausted from making all those windows disappear.”

“Looks like another night without much sleep for us.” And it looked like we’d be spending more time alone together after dark. That was a big bonus.

Since we had our work out of the way, I would have thought we had the rest of the day after we finished lunch free for sightseeing or even just spending time together and really catching up, but Owen wanted to go back to town and check out the bank and surrounding area. I hoped that meant he wanted to get his work taken care of so he could focus on me, but I was afraid he just wanted to get back to New York.

We got home in plenty of time to help Mom prepare the huge feast. She’d already fried chicken, had chicken and dumplings stewing, and there was a roast in the oven. She set us to work snapping beans while she made a pie. Granny came over an hour early with a tuna salad. “Because it’s healthy to have salad with your meal,” she said, and Mom shot us a pleading look.

“Granny, Owen was fascinated with some of the local history. You’ve lived here a long time. I’m sure you have stories,” I said, moving her out of the kitchen and into the living room, where she regaled him with tales I was sure were mostly fictional, but still interesting, or would have been if I hadn’t heard them dozens of times. They were new to Owen, though, and he seemed to be paying attention, even taking mental notes whenever she lapsed into Lucky Charms land and started talking about things like the wee folk. He seemed determined not to let himself go off duty.

Then the rest of the clan started arriving, and the usual Chandler family chaos ensued. Beth and Teddy got there first. Beth greeted Owen with a kiss on the cheek, which momentarily flustered him. “How are you enjoying your visit?” she asked him.

“I really like Texas,” he said. “I’m enjoying the open spaces.”

“Very diplomatic,” she said with a laugh. “I guess the family can be a little overwhelming. I find them overwhelming, and I went to school with Teddy and Katie, so they weren’t strangers to me.”

That got him even more flustered. “That’s—that’s not what I meant…”

She turned to me. “Katie, he really is the cutest thing. I think I approve.” The only thing that saved Owen from dying of embarrassment on the spot was Lucy stretching her arms out toward him and whimpering. She practically wiggled her way out of her mother’s arms, and Owen caught her just in time. “Well, will you look at that,” Beth said, putting her hands on her hips as Lucy contentedly sighed and snuggled against his shoulder. “Katie, sweetie, you may have competition here for your man. Owen, you don’t have to hold her. I’ll take her back.”

“No, this is okay, for a while, I guess.” He looked a little lost, like he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Teddy clapped him on the back. “I may give my sister credit for thinking for herself, but my daughter doesn’t yet have much life experience, so I’ll be watching you, buddy.”

Beth slipped a burp cloth between Lucy and Owen’s shirt. “She’s teething, so she drools,” she explained. “Let me know when you get tired of holding her, or hand her off to Katie.” Then she darted off to help in the kitchen.

“You do know that’s going to set my mother off,” I said to him. “I’ll never hear the end of how much she wants more grandchildren, and how you seem to be very good with babies.”

“This may be the first baby I’ve ever touched.”

“That would be a dangerous thing to say around my mother. She’ll say you’re a natural. I bet it has something to do with the way you are with animals.”

“Yes, because babies and dragons are so much alike,” he said, the sarcasm obvious in his voice.

“You really haven’t spent much time around babies, have you? They’re basically the same as dragons, only smaller, without the wings, and with a different skin color.”

“She smells better.”

“Not all the time.”

It was only when I looked up as Frank, Molly, and their three kids showed up that I noticed my grandmother looking at us oddly. We’d been talking softly, and I was sure she was practically deaf, but the look on her face told me she’d heard the whole conversation.

Once everyone had arrived and we sat down to eat, the meal progressed without major disasters. Everyone was polite to Owen, and they didn’t ask too many embarrassing personal questions about him or about the nature of our relationship. As the meal went on, I quit stressing about what to say about him and about us.

But I shouldn’t have let myself relax. Mom was offering seconds when Granny asked, “So, how much time do you spend with dragons up in New York? I didn’t know they were still around. You’d think it would make the news if they were running free up there.”

Owen looked completely blank, and I stifled a gasp as he looked to me and two pink spots formed on his cheeks. “Mother!” Mom snapped, and I then noticed that everyone was looking at Granny instead of at us. We were lucky she was known for saying crazy things like that, or we would have been busted.

“He was talking about dragons,” Granny insisted.

“Mama, you know your hearing isn’t so great, so it’s easy for you to mishear things. Now, if you’d let me take you to get a hearing aid, you wouldn’t have these problems.”

“I don’t need a hearing aid. My hearing is perfectly fine. He’s got magic in him, so it’s natural for him to talk about dragons.” She turned to face Owen. “My da used to tell me stories about dragons, but he said they were only in the old country.”

He looked at her for a long moment, then said, “Actually, Katie and I were talking about dragons, so you did hear correctly. But we were being figurative. There were some people at work we called the dragons. It was kind of a joke. I’m sorry if we alarmed you.” He then gave her a smile guaranteed to melt a woman’s heart, no matter how old or young she was. It was a good thing he was oblivious to that particular power or he could have been truly dangerous if he was ever tempted to use it for evil. “You know, though, New York might be the one place where dragons could live without anyone noticing. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there were whole nests of them living in the sewers and subway tunnels. There’s no telling what’s down there.”

“Forget about the subway tunnels,” I threw in, “there’s one who lived downstairs from us. She was a nightmare.” Everyone at the table laughed, but Granny just stared at Owen. Her eyes still measured him shrewdly, but I could tell he’d won an ally by deflecting the conversation away from her hearing problems or mental health. She’d still be watching him, but she wouldn’t try to expose him to Mom and Dad. I was rather impressed with him, myself.

After dinner, he got stuck with my dad and brothers in the living room while the women cleaned up. I knew it was a sexist division of labor, but ever since Dean had broken one of Mom’s good china plates, she wouldn’t let the men wash dishes. I always suspected that Dean had done that on purpose. Owen offered to help, but he was shooed away as company. I thought I should have been allowed to stay with him, since he was my guest, but I got drafted by the kitchen crew. I figured if he got into trouble with my dad and brothers, he could always blow something up as a diversion. With Granny on his side, he was probably safe anyway.

Mom and Molly put away the food, Beth washed the dishes, and Sherri and I dried them. Actually, I dried them and Sherri leaned against the counter. She shoved her hair back with one hand, then scratched her neck, and then surprised me by reaching up to open a cabinet so I could put a dish away. Molly, passing by, paused and said, “Wow! Look at that!” Only then did I notice the bracelet on Sherri’s wrist.

“Oh, this little thing?” she said with a laugh as she gave her wrist a shake. It wasn’t dripping with diamonds, but it was still a nice piece of jewelry, maybe even real gold, with some gemstones set into the charms. I did the payroll for the store, so I knew exactly how much money Dean and Sherri made, and I doubted it was enough for them to afford jewelry like that on top of their expensive car and house payments.

“Present from Dean, or did you treat yourself?” Molly asked.

Sherri gave a canary-stuffed-cat smile. “I’m not telling.”

“I’m guessing the former, judging by the, um, healthy glow you two had when you got here,” I said.

Sherri snapped me on the shoulder with a dish towel. “Oh, you! Don’t be naughty. How do you know that getting this for myself didn’t make me feel all sexy?”

I tried to study her face without looking like I was staring so I could tell whether or not she was telling the truth. Unfortunately, she could convince herself that anything she wanted to believe was the truth, and therefore when she said it, she didn’t think it was a lie. I was fairly certain she could beat any polygraph test.

The timing of her getting new jewelry clearly out of her price range the day after someone had robbed the jewelry store was awfully suspicious. Maybe Sherri really was a witch, in more ways than one, and
she
was our suspect. Of course, it was equally likely that the culprit was now selling jewelry and other stolen items out of the trunk of his car, and that was how she was able to afford it.

“You must have bought that at Murphy’s,” Beth said, drying her hands and leaning over to get a good look. “I think I saw something like that there the other day when I went in to get my watch battery replaced.”

Sherri laughed for no apparent reason and tossed her head back. I thought she looked uncomfortable, but I couldn’t tell if it was the discomfort from having stolen it and her sister-in-law recognizing the source or from having it recognized as stolen property she’d purchased illegally. Wearing stolen jewelry in a small town wasn’t the brightest idea. It was too likely that everyone would know exactly where it came from.

After a while, she stammered, “Well, I mean, uh, it’s really not that unique. They probably mass produce these in China and ship them over by the boatload.”

“What are you girls looking at?” Mom asked, joining us.

Molly grabbed Sherri’s wrist and held it out for Mom. “We were just admiring Sherri’s new jewelry,” she said.

“Oh, that is nice. I think that’s the one I saw in Murphy’s. I even thought about what a nice birthday gift it would make for you. But I guess I’ll have to think of something else, now that you already have it. Dean and I must share the same taste.”

Sherri held out her other arm and shook it. “I have two wrists!”

Beth turned back to the sink and plunged her hands into the hot water, then began scrubbing furiously. Molly drifted away, and I fought to keep my mouth shut. I had to struggle to keep up with Beth’s increased washing pace, but I didn’t mind because I couldn’t wait to get to Owen and tell him what I’d discovered.

When I finally escaped from the kitchen, I was surprised to see Owen looking perfectly at ease. He and Teddy were chatting, and while they shared a similar mind-set, I couldn’t imagine what they had in common to talk about. There was some chemistry involved in magical potions, but there weren’t too many other crossovers between Teddy’s agricultural work and Owen’s magic. I got close enough to overhear and found that they were talking about books. They both liked the same spy thrillers and mysteries and were exchanging reading suggestions.