Kiss and Spell (Enchanted, Inc.) (12 page)

“You know, any other day I might have said that was an outrageous theory, but since I can do magic, I’m not sure I can call anything outrageous anymore.
Anything
is possible.”

“Should we tell someone?”

“Who? We don’t have a ministry of magic in this world, and I’d rather not end up in some secret government laboratory.”

“So, what do we do?”

“I don’t know, but we should think about it, and we should definitely keep it a secret for now until we’ve figured it out.”

“Maybe we should use our powers to fight evil,” I suggested.

“What evil? We already vanquished the lousy coffee the old-fashioned way. That alone should earn us a medal.”

“Mild-mannered booksellers by day, magical superheroes by night,” I quipped, trying to sound like a movie trailer announcer.

We finished our cocoa in thoughtful silence, then he said, “It’s getting late, and we have a busy day ahead. I’ll walk you home.”

I started to protest that he didn’t have to, but I wanted him to. I tried to tell myself that it was only practical, but safety was the last thing on my mind. There was no sign of the magic that had happened there when we left the store. I felt like I’d left a magical world and had returned to reality, except the reality didn’t seem all that real to me either. There was a surreal quality to everything, and I felt more than ever like I’d stepped into a movie. Even the music was there, and I knew it wasn’t from the store’s sound system.

I was sure that Florence would say this was still more proof that I was staying with Mr. Wrong, my comfort-zone man, when I could have magic—literal magic, in this case—with Owen. And yet I felt weird, like I was doing something wrong, as I walked home with him, close enough to touch, but not holding hands or making any actual contact, except the occasional moment when our sleeves brushed.

We reached my front steps and paused there. “Thanks for walking me home,” I said and started to turn to go. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He caught my arm and said in a rough whisper, “Katie.” I turned, waiting for what else he might say, but he just stood there, like he couldn’t find the words.

I wanted to kiss him, more than anything, but I reminded myself that we’d have plenty of time for that. I didn’t want any nagging guilt to mar this perfect evening. I leaned back, away from him, and repeated, “See you tomorrow,” before turning and running up the steps. I forced myself not to look back because I didn’t think my resolve would hold if I saw him standing there.

The soundtrack playing in my head swelled dramatically, and the music made me want to cry.

Chapter Eight

It was with decidedly mixed feelings that I headed to work the next morning. I both dreaded and anticipated seeing Owen again. I hadn’t thought it possible to hold such contradictory views simultaneously, and doing so made me feel like my head was in imminent danger of exploding. I wasn’t even sure it had been real. There was a dreamlike quality about my memories of running around the store, doing magic. What if I had dreamed it? I decided not to say anything to Owen unless he said something to me first. I didn’t even try to do magic on my own, but I wasn’t sure if I was more afraid of finding out that I couldn’t or that I could.

When I got to the store, I slipped upstairs to the coffee shop, hoping to delay the encounter with Owen as long as possible so I’d have a better chance of having my head on straight. I was tying on my apron when Florence arrived. “My, but someone’s glowing,” she said, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

“Am I?” I blurted, raising my hands to cheeks that suddenly felt like they were on fire. Then I hurried to add, “I just put on a little more makeup than usual, and that had me running late, so I hurried to get here. You know, a brisk walk on a crisp, cool morning is just the thing to put color in your cheeks.” And then I realized I’d overexplained so badly that it was obvious I was hiding something.

“Uh huh,” Florence said, grinning as she leaned against the counter. “What, exactly, happened here after everyone else left?”

“Nothing! We hid the clues and had some cocoa and then he walked me home.” I knew she was talking about romantic stuff, so I didn’t feel bad leaving out the part about doing magic together. “Not so much as a kiss on the cheek.”

“Disappointed by that, were we?”

“No, it was my decision. I have a boyfriend.” A split second too late, I realized that had probably been the wrong thing to say. “Not that it even came up at all. He didn’t make a move. I just didn’t make a move because of that.”

“Mmm-hh,” she said, nodding. “So you were thinking of making a move until you remembered your boyfriend.”

“No! That’s not what I meant!” Rather than dig myself in deeper, I went to work making coffee and arranging the bakery case. “And why are you so invested in this, anyway? If you’re so keen on him, you make a move.”

“I’m not the one who’s feeling the magic,” she said.

I nearly whacked my head on the counter from rising too quickly with a stack of paper cups. “The magic?” I asked, my voice rising in pitch and volume. How could she have known?

“You know, that connection you two have. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it. I can practically see the little hearts circling your heads when you two are together.”

Actually, little hearts had been about the only thing that hadn’t circled our heads the night before. If it had even been real. It had felt like a dream. But if it had been a dream, that might mean it was something I wanted to happen, and I wasn’t ready to admit that. I needed to deal with Josh before I started having romantic dreams about other men.

When Owen came to the coffee shop to test the new brew, I knew that it must have been real, unless we’d had the same dream. He didn’t quite look me in the eye and he blushed as he spoke to me. Florence watched all of this with great amusement. I’d never convince her that there was nothing going on.

“Let me know how it goes,” I told him before he headed down to open the store and start the treasure hunt, my attempt at a bright, cheerful tone coming out a little squeaky. Yes, he was just as cute as I remembered, and my whole body tingled at the thought of the magic we’d made together—literally.

I had to break it off with Josh, I decided right then. Even if nothing ended up happening with Owen, if I could feel this way about someone else while dating Josh, it was a pretty good sign that Josh and I weren’t meant to be. I couldn’t marry him.

At that moment, Josh came up the stairs into the coffee shop, holding an enormous bouquet of flowers. “For you,” he said, presenting them to me with a flourish.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” I said. “This is a surprise.”

“Well, this whole store revamp thing is a big deal for you, and I wanted to congratulate you. I think I haven’t come across as very supportive, but I just want what’s best for you. I didn’t think that would involve working in a bookstore, but that’s my issue, not yours, and I can see how much happier you’ve been lately.”

He was saying all the right things—too right, come to think of it. He sounded like he’d been perusing the self-help section before coming up to see me because his whole speech was right out of one of those “learn to communicate with your mate” books.

While I was still thinking about how to respond, the phone rang, and then Florence called out, “Katie, they want you downstairs to help kick off the treasure hunt.”

“Oh, sorry, I’ve got to go,” I said, then remembered that I was still holding that huge bouquet of flowers. Florence reached over and took them from me, and I headed off again.

“Apron!” Florence called after me, and she took the apron from me once I’d untied it. I nervously smoothed my hair as I hurried downstairs.

“We couldn’t start this without you,” Owen said, now sounding less bashful than he had earlier. There was a small crowd of customers gathered around the table where we were handing out the treasure hunt clues. “Do you want to do the honors?” Owen asked me.

“The honors?”

“Start the hunt.”

“Okay, on your marks, get set, go!” I called out. The contestants instantly dispersed. “That seems to be going well,” I said. “And I’d better get back up to the coffee shop because it looks like we’re going to be busier than usual.”

“I’m sorry, I should have hired someone to take your place before now. That detail slipped my mind.”

“Take my place?” I asked, suddenly alarmed. Was he angry that I hadn’t kissed him the night before?

“I’d planned to make you the assistant manager in charge of marketing and get you out of the coffee shop entirely—that is, if you don’t mind. I should have talked to you about that earlier.”

“Well, yeah, that sounds wonderful,” I said. “But for today, we’re swamped. The new coffee is going over really well already. You may have to hire a couple of new people.”

He grinned. “We make a pretty good team.”

“Yeah, I guess we do.” I had that same sense of gravity pulling me toward him that I’d had the night before, and again I resisted it. Before the temptation could overwhelm me, I hurried up the stairs to the coffee shop.

I paused at the top of the stairs when I saw that Josh and Florence were in the middle of an intense conversation. I hadn’t thought they knew each other all that well or that they’d have anything to talk about other than making small talk about me, but they seemed to be arguing.

“I thought your assignment was clear,” he said to her, and I moved behind a display so I could eavesdrop without being seen. What assignment could he possibly mean?

“Hey, I’m just the sassy best friend in this scenario,” she said. “If you knew the source material, you’d know she’s supposed to ignore my advice. I’m the person she’s supposed to resist, and I’ve been giving her plenty to resist, trust me. I can’t help it if you aren’t holding up your end of the script.”

“Not holding up my end? What more do I have to do? I brought flowers!”

“I wouldn’t call telling her that she might as well give up finding a job and marry you a good campaign for Mr. Right. That’s Mr. Wrong behavior.”

“That wasn’t my idea. That was in the scenario.”

“Then you’ve got a lot to overcome. Someone set you up for failure.”

This made no sense. It sounded like they were in on some kind of plan together. I slowly backed away, heading toward the stairs, as Josh said, “I guess I’ll just have to reset things. Supposedly, this shouldn’t have worked on either of them, especially on her, but it has, so it looks like we had bad information. We can still fix it, and then no harm done.”

I’d just reached the stairs and was ready to flee when Josh left the counter and strode over to me. “Hey, there you are, darling,” he said with a smile. “How’d your contest go?”

I tried to get away from him, but he moved faster than I did and caught my wrist. “Don’t touch me!” I cried out and jerked away from him. I lost my balance and would have fallen down the stairs, but he caught me, and I was too stunned and shaken to get out of his grip. He held me tightly, staring into my eyes, and then I got dizzy. Everything went blurry and dim.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself still staring into his eyes, but I couldn’t quite recall what I was doing on the stairs. All I knew was that my heart felt like it would burst from love as I looked at him. “You saved me,” I whispered.

He smiled in what looked like great relief and released his iron grip on me to brush my cheek with his fingers and sweep my hair away from my forehead. “Of course I did. Are you okay?”

“I–I think so,” I said. “I’m a little dizzy, though.”

With his arms around me, he supported me as he led me to the nearest seat. “Maybe you should bring her something to drink,” he shouted at Florence, who shot him a glare before pouring a cup of coffee and adding a generous dose of sugar to it. He took it from her and handed it to me, kneeling by my side as I drank it.

“What happened?” I looked up to see Owen standing there, looking alarmed. My head swam again, and the impression I’d had of him as a good friend who’d sparked magic in me shifted. I didn’t know where that had come from, but now I knew him as the skeevy boss who’d been making passes at me. I’d nearly fallen on the stairs while trying to get away from him and back to Josh.

“She’s fine,” Josh said curtly. “I’ll take care of her.”

“Katie?” Owen asked warily.

I shied away from him. “I’m fine,” I snapped. The hurt in his eyes gave me that weird dizzy feeling again, like I was the center of a tug-of-war between two versions of reality. He didn’t look like the kind of boss who’d make unwanted passes at his employees during business hours, and he certainly didn’t seem like someone I’d be so desperate to flee that I’d trip on the stairs and nearly fall, but that was how I remembered it.

“Okay, then,” Owen said with a nod, and he turned away and headed down the stairs.

“I’d better stay with you for a while,” Josh said, “just to be sure.”

“I’ll look after her,” Florence said.

“No, I think I’ll stay.”

I got the impression of conflict between them, but I wasn’t sure what it could be. I recalled her warning me about the boss and how I shouldn’t get my head turned by his good looks while I had a nice, solid man like Josh around.

I forced myself out of the chair. “I’m fine. I didn’t actually fall, so no harm done. And now I have to get back to work.” With what I hoped came across as a saucy wink and not a nervous twitch, I said, “You’re welcome to hang around awhile, but you’ll have to buy some coffee first. Don’t worry, it’s much better than it used to be.”

Without waiting for his response, I headed back to the counter and put on my apron. “Do you want the usual house blend or the special of the day?” I asked him.

“Surprise me,” he said, leaning forward, his elbows on the counter. I had a vague memory of Owen doing the same thing, back when I’d thought he was just another customer and I’d warned him about the coffee, but then the image shifted so that he was leering instead of smiling and I was telling him about the nasty coffee to get rid of him. Yes, that was what had really happened. I must have tried remembering otherwise to make it easier to work with him.