Miss Frost Ices The Imp: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 2) (3 page)

Cooper offered to help me set up the rug, so I let him. I might have mentioned that thing was heavy. And getting it into place required furniture to be moved. But wow, did it make a difference in the way my apartment looked. Really gave it a homier vibe. I hadn’t realized just how bland it had been until now.

Once the rug was taken care of, I thanked him profusely, then shooed him off as quickly and politely as I could. Getting the new stuff situated would have been easier with his help, but being around him was clogging my head with thoughts I wasn’t ready to deal with.

Such as how much I liked him.
And
how much I liked Greyson.

A girl could like two guys, right? I certainly thought it ought to be allowed. Especially after all my years of liking no one in the North Pole.

Cooper didn’t seem to be upset at me for showing him the door. He knew I had work to do and we were seeing each other for dinner. Hopefully, between now and then, I could get my head on straight. One thing that might help was dealing with the rest of the stuff I’d brought home. At the very least, it was a distraction.

I put the pillows on the couch as artfully as I could, positioned the decorative box on the coffee table (promising myself I’d test my lock-picking skills after everything else was tackled, including the paperwork awaiting me in the office downstairs) and went to work hanging the robe hook. That wasn’t too hard. Juniper had lent me her toolbox a couple days ago and it had an assortment of screws and nails in a little plastic container. I found two screws the right size, got it level and secured it in place.

Spider’s incredible velvet Elvis was next. That took almost no effort. One nail, a few taps of the hammer and his meal area was totally swagged out. Okay, maybe not totally. I still needed to buy him a snazzy placemat to go under his dishes to complete the ensemble. “Spider, come see how pretty your dining room looks.”

He was sitting on the new rug, swatting at one of his many catnip-scented toys that I’d tossed there.

“Spider. Seriously. Come over here.”

He ignored me, took the toy in his mouth and trotted off toward the bedroom. He liked to hide his toys under the bed. I’d found twelve of them under there last month while looking for a shoe.

I gave up on him temporarily. It was time to hang the big picture over the sofa. That took more work than I anticipated. And I have to confess, this hammer-and-nails business is not my forte. The first time I attempted to put the painting up, my measurements were a little off and the bottom of the frame touched the top of the couch.

I measured again, tapped the nails in, hung the painting and hoped for the best. The best being the picture hiding the extra holes in the wall.

Fingers crossed, I jumped off the couch and stepped back. Yep. The mistake was hidden. I nodded at my handiwork. The place was really coming together. And now that I had the rug and the tropical landscape, I had a color scheme. Green and blue with tan.

The magical snow globe I used to communicate with my dad looked completely out of place on the table next to the sofa, but that couldn’t be helped. It stayed. Magic was about the only way I could reach him since electronics were unreliable in the North Pole.

But the hula salt and pepper shakers definitely worked. And I could order some more things, like a comfy throw for the back of the couch and maybe a runner for the kitchen table and even a valance for the big window that led to the fire escape.

Look at me getting all domestic. And it wasn’t even nine A.M. yet. That had to be some kind of personal record.

As impressed with myself as I was, I had yet to eat or shower, and at some point, I needed to get down to my office and take over the magic running the Snow Saturday.
My office.
If I can be honest, that still sounded odd to my ears. Odd in a good way. I grinned. I liked the ring of it, and after all the work that had gone into cleaning it up and organizing it so that it made sense to me, I was proud of the space.

Toly, the previous manager (and one of my uncle Kris’s former tinkers), had used the office as a workshop space for his toy designs (in addition to usual office activities), and as a result it had overflowed with papers and drawings and half-completed models.

But I’d put in the sweat equity and earned the right to call it mine. I’d cleaned it out, painted it and transformed it into something efficient and welcoming. A place I didn’t mind spending time. Which was why I was ready to go down there and get some work done.

I gave Spider his second breakfast, grabbed a Dr Pepper and jumped in the shower. Yes, I drink pop in the shower. I’m a multitasker. I still hadn’t eaten, so I didn’t stand under the water as long as I would have liked. I dried my hair and dressed in what I liked to call business casual, which meant a sundress and sandals. I was getting the hang of summer in Georgia—no small feat for a winter elf.

I was just finishing my makeup when I heard a loud crash. It was followed by a loud meow and then the thundering of little cat feet through my living room. I rolled my eyes. It was still too early for this amount of crazy. “I wish I had a never-ending supply of Dr Pepper. That would make this nuttiness easier to take.”

But I didn’t and I was going to have to deal with whatever mess Spider had made in my current only partially caffeinated state.

“Spider, what have you done now?” I called out. Shaking my head, I walked into the living room to survey the damage. The decorative box I’d just bought was on the floor. The top lay a few feet away, the hinges…unhinged. “So much for picking the lock.”

Spider sat on the windowsill, licking his foot and pretending he knew nothing.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You silly creature. What gets into you, huh? Was it the catnip? Do you need a twelve-step program? I wish you could talk. Then at least you could explain yourself.”

He stopped mid-lick like he’d blown a fuse, eyes wide and staring at nothing, then after a second he went right back to cleaning.

Who could understand cats? I sighed as I turned and squatted to examine the box. Empty, just as I’d suspected. Although there was an odd green iridescence to the inside of it. Almost like the powder off a butterfly’s wings. I studied the hinges. I supposed they could be repaired. Spider was still a stinker. I shook my head. “Thanks for getting the top off, you rascal.”

“You’re welcome,” a male voice said.

I froze. I was alone in the apartment. Or at least I thought I was. I spun around, staying in a crouched position. Still alone, as far as I could tell. I got up, put the box and lid on the kitchen table and ran to the window, throwing it open to check the fire escape.

No one there, although I thought I heard the faintest tinny laugh fading away.

“Okay, that was
weird
.”

Spider rubbed against my arm. “What’s weird?”

I whipped around to look at him. It was possible that rising early had caused me to split with reality. Or maybe it was my lack of sugar. Had he just said that? Couldn’t be. He was a cat. I laughed it off. Or tried to. “You can’t talk, right?”

He lifted his little head and looked right at me. “Nope.”

“Good, because—yikes!” I jumped back. “Son of a nutcracker, why are you talking? Have you always been able to talk? Am I losing my mind? I need sugar, don’t I?”

He canted his head at me, like he didn’t understand.

I took a breath and repeated the question I was most interested in having answered. “Have you always been able to talk?”

“No.”

“Then why now?”

“That’s what Mama wished for.” He started licking the other foot.

“Mama? Who’s Mama? Wait, am I Mama?”

He paused and looked at me. “Mama.”

“Are you saying you granted my wish? Are you a genie?”

That got his attention. “No genie, cat.” He lay down. “Spider tired.”

Just like that, he was out.

“Hang on, buster. No going to sleep in the middle of this. Did you grant the wish?”

One eye came open. “That salmon cat food is yucky.”

“Focus. Who granted the wish?”

He closed his eye, did a big sigh and went back to sleep.

I took that to mean he didn’t know. I stood there for a long time, staring at him, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

I couldn’t. The best I could do was…my cat could talk because someone had granted my wish that he could.

Who that someone was, I had no clue. Well, it wasn’t a genie. According to my
talking
cat. I needed food. And sugar. Fast.

I grabbed my purse and headed for the elevator. I went straight downstairs to the warehouse, past my office and into the store, where big fat flakes of magical snow were drifting to the floor and disappearing without leaving a single drop of water.

Juniper was working with Kip, one of the two new employees. He was working the floor, so that gave me a chance to talk to her since she was behind the register.

She smiled at me. “Get everything situated? And, more importantly, do any kissing?”

I shook my head and was about to speak when she said, “You don’t look so hot.” She leaned toward me. “And why do you only have mascara on one eye?”

The mascara thing was perplexing, but not as much as what had just happened. I sidled up next to her behind the counter and hissed, “Spider can talk.”

She squinted at me. “What did you say?”

“My
cat
can
talk
.”

She pressed a hand to my head. “You feel okay? Are you putting too much effort into the snow, because I can handle this if you need to—”

“I’m serious. And I haven’t even begun to help with the snow. Listen, I don’t know what happened, but he can talk. He said it’s because my wish was granted.”

Juniper turned and smiled as a woman came into the store.

She stopped at the counter. “Do you have that new game, Bobbles?”

Juniper pointed toward the game section. “Yes, ma’am. You’ll find that in with puzzles and games, to the right of the dolls.”

“Thank you.”

The woman left, and Juniper’s smile disappeared as she whipped around to face me. “You need to start from the beginning.”

I told her the whole thing, about the crash and the box and what I’d said and what Spider had said. “I’m freaking out.”

“I would be too.” She tapped her fingers on the counter. “Do you think there was a genie in that box?”

I made a face. “Are you making fun of me?”

“No! There could have been.”

“Seriously?”

“You just told me your cat can talk because your wish was granted. Are you not seeing the connection?”

I sighed. “I just didn’t think genies were real.”

She snorted softly. “You remember where you live now, right? This is Nocturne Falls. Also, can I just remind you that your uncle is Santa Claus? You of all people should know anything is possible.”

She had a point. I took a breath and put both hands on the counter. “So…a genie. That would explain what happened. But shouldn’t I have seen the genie? Shouldn’t there have been a puff of smoke or something?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know how this stuff works. It’s not always how it is in the movies. But if it is, you might have two wishes left.”

“I need to be careful what I say in my apartment, then.” I rubbed my forehead. I wouldn’t want some offhand comment to become my next reality. Unless it was wishing for a lifetime supply of chocolate doughnuts. Can you imagine if they all showed up at once? What a way to die. I refocused on the matter at hand. “Why would anyone sell a box with a genie in it?”

“Maybe they didn’t know? It could have been locked the whole time. That woman Bryn said the owners collected things from their travels. And if they were supernaturals, which is a fairly high probability in this town, there’s no telling what kind of places and shops they might have been to.”

“Very true. I think I need to find out who the owners were.”

Juniper nodded, smiling at another entering customer. “That would be a good starting place. And you know who could help you with that?”

“Greyson?”

She rolled her eyes. “Cooper. He’s a fireman. Firemen know who lives where. Or they can at least find out.”

“Yeah, I suppose. He’ll be over for dinner tonight, as you know. I can wait until then. I mean, this whole thing could be temporary.” I didn’t want Cooper to think I was making excuses to talk to him. Maybe I’d text Greyson instead. Just as soon as I left the shop.

“Maybe, but it might be fun if it wasn’t. You’d never get lonely. So long as Spider isn’t super chatty.” Juniper gave me a little shrug. “This is Nocturne Falls, Jayne. You have to expect the unexpected.”

“I suppose you’re right. And it’s not like Spider got turned into a giant version of his namesake or anything. Talking’s not so bad.”

“Exactly.” She crossed her arms. “You going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll figure it out. I’ll be in my office most of the day. Right after I get some breakfast at Mummy’s. I feel the need for something supremely over the top.”

She smiled sweetly. “Maybe go put some mascara on that other eye first.”