Read Page 43

“Whoa, no forming outside alliances,” Dean said with a laugh. “I thought you and I were supposed to gang up on the new guy to make sure he’s good enough for our baby sister.”

“I think Katie’s smart enough to choose for herself.”Advertisement

I stepped out from under Dean’s arm and blew a kiss at Teddy. “And that’s why you’re my smartest brother,” I said. “Now, we have things to do. You can torture Owen tonight at dinner.”

Once we were in the car and pulling away from the square, Owen said, “I’m glad my intentions toward you are totally honorable. It looks like you’re well defended.”

“They’re all talk. You have nothing to worry about, so you don’t have to keep your intentions too honorable.” I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the flush that spread across his cheeks.

We drove out to a roadside picnic area on a creek bank, complete with sheltered table. I hated to admit that my mother was right, but it really was the perfect spot for a romantic picnic. Mom had even packed the picnic basket accordingly, with dainty finger sandwiches, strawberries, and other foods that were perfect for feeding to each other. She’d also included a tablecloth and plastic dishes. I set the table, wondering if maybe, just maybe, he had some other agenda in bringing me out here. We could have talked work almost anywhere, but this was the perfect place to talk about us.

“It’s nice out here,” he said as he sat at the table. “I guess that creek over there is the same one that runs through town.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” I passed him the plate of sandwiches. “Do you think the magical creatures are there?”

He took a few sandwiches and passed the plate back to me. “Maybe. They’ve probably moved out of town, but we wouldn’t see them at this time of day. They tend to be nocturnal.”

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

“If we need them, we will.”

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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.” pqdm.com