The Kitchen Witch (19 page)

As Shane directed a yearning gaze toward his father,

Melody threw an egg at the refrigerator. Splat! "
Eeeyyewwww
," she said. "Look at it slime its way to the floor."
She high-
fived
Shane.
"Don't you love the sound it makes when it cracks?"

Logan regarded her with a look of horror as Melody's next egg hit Shane, square, in the chest. She dusted her hands with pride. "Good shot,
Seabright
."

"Okay, Mel, that's enough," Logan said, grabbing for the roll of paper towels. "We get the picture."

Splat.
Shane's egg hit Melody at the base of her throat. She screeched, and Logan whipped around in time to watch raw egg slip into her cleavage.

Shane raised his arms in an athletic dance of success and crowed.

Melody squeaked and
yiked
as she tried to dig it out, but the broken yoke kept slipping between her fingers. "Yuck!" she said, though Shane's helpless laughter made her
laugh
as well. "It… it—" She looked up at Logan. "It slipped through my bra!"

Logan looked like he might like to go after it… until he saw Shane with the refrigerator door open, holding a second box of eggs. "Don't you dare!" he shouted, and made for his son.

Melody stepped between them, and Logan stopped, startled, slipped in the slime, teetered, and hit the floor with a thud.

Shane dropped the eggs.

Melody dropped to her knees. "Logan? Can you hear me?"

He opened his eyes and narrowed them as fast. "What, do you think I broke my ears? Of course I can hear you."

"Are you okay?"

He raised himself on an elbow. "Could be, but I'm not betting either of you will be when I'm finished with you."

Melody took Logan's empty threat as a good sign. She gave Shane a thumbs-up, but he didn't seem inclined to celebrate as yet.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure," Logan said grudgingly, attempting to sit up… until Melody knocked him back by breaking an egg on his forehead.

Chapter

LOGAN'S shock at getting egged was comical, but while they waited for his further reaction, Melody rose and stepped toward Shane.

The belly laugh, from somewhere deep inside Logan, took them all by surprise, even Logan. As his laughter
erupted
full force, Melody pushed Shane forward, until he lost his balance and fell against his father's chest, and the two of them got into a wrestling match, there on the egg-slimed floor.

Their laughter sounded like music to Melody, until Shane's morphed into something different, and suddenly he was sobbing with deep, soul-searing grief.

Melody watched, throat tight and aching, as Logan sat up and took his son in his arms to rock and shush him. "What is it, sport?" Logan asked gently. "What's the matter? You've been upset since yesterday. Tell old Dad what's up, will you?" he begged. "It's killing me seeing you so unhappy."

Shane shoved his father roughly away and rose to stand over him. "You forgot me!"

"Forgot you?"

"At day care, like Mom used to." Shane swiped his eyes as if he were too old for tears, too strong. "She used to forget me all the
time,
and I had to sleep at the sitter's." He stepped closer to his father, stood straighter. "I won't sleep at day care," he said. "Pretty soon, you'll be giving me away like Mom did. I don't want you anyway. I hate you!" he shouted, and launched himself at Melody.

Logan looked stricken.

"Oh, baby," Melody said, bending to Shane's level, trying not to cry all over him. She smoothed his hair and hugged him. "Don't cry, sweetheart. Your dad loves you so much, and he knows you don't hate him. He would never give you away. He doesn't even like to let me borrow you, remember?"

Shane pulled from her embrace and regarded his father. "You
gotta
let her borrow me sometimes, '
kay
?"

Gut-punched by the turnabout, Logan sobbed, and that was all it took for Shane to step back into his father's arms, the younger
Kilgarven
now soothing the older.

Melody rose and left the apartment. As she made her shaky way down the stairs, she wiped her eyes, aware she was in deep trouble. Not only did she love Shane, she was deathly afraid she was falling, and hard, for his workaholic father.

She could love a man who wept for losing his son's love.

Logan
Kilgarven
was the best father she'd ever come across. The kind of dad she'd wanted for herself. The kind she'd want for her own children, if she wanted children.

Deep trouble, and to save herself, she needed to turn her energy in another direction.

MELODY'S "Boston Tea Party," her third
Kitchen Witch
show, was a huge success, especially her Wild Rose
Faery
Jam, a symbol of the goddess, Melody told her audience, though which goddess that was, Logan didn't know.

Melody wore a navy silk nautical pants suit from the thirties and looked as delicious as any of the iced confections on her tiered silver serving tray.

She baked Gloucester Blueberry Cake, Vermont Pumpkin Cake, and Connecticut Dabs. To top it off, she served every kind of tea imaginable, from spiced full leaf, to organic loose tea, to modern herbal tea bags.

Logan noticed that she hadn't quite made love to the cameras this week, so the two of them hadn't been as much in tune during the show, probably because she hated the sexual innuendo in the press. But as she sipped her tea during the final roll of the cameras, Logan managed to snare her gaze, over the rim of her cup. Saucy, he thought.
Stormy.
Sinful.
Seductive.
He wanted to take her to bed, carry her off the stage while everybody watched and screw them all.
Screw her most of all.

"I wonder where your mind
is?
" Tiffany said at his shoulder, startling him and drawing his focus from Melody.

Logan tried not to show his annoyance. He thought he might have managed a smile. "Tiffany. Good show, wasn't it?" He looked back at the set.

Tiffany touched his jaw and turned his face toward her, capturing his gaze. "Don't forget our date tonight." She let the words settle while Logan raised a brow.
"The dinner show at the Wang?
You remember
,
a local group is putting on
The
Witchling
for charity. You told me weeks ago that you'd come."

Ah, the
phantom date
. Logan was so disconcerted by Peabody's beaming approval, from across the
room, that
he didn't dare beg off. "What time should I pick you up?"

"
Sixish
?"

Did people say that? "I'll be there at quarter of."

Instead of going back to Daddy, as Logan hoped she would, Tiffany slipped her arm through his and gave him a smile filled with promise. Jeez, he thought, he hadn't said he'd sleep with her. He looked at her father to make sure the boss understood as much, but all Logan got was an approving smile. Son of a—

He tried to untangle his arms as he looked to see if Mel saw Tiffany get her claws into him, and though the audience milled about and the crew sampled her Boston Tea Party fare, it seemed as if Mel's broom had long since departed.

Aware that he should be glad Tiffany had made a move on him, Logan felt uncomfortable. God knew he'd been thinking about approaching her. She was a safer bet than Melody, though perhaps a bit too cozy. He should be looking forward to an evening with a reasonably stable, down-to-earth woman, instead of pining
for a
magical loose cannon.

Tiffany was a freaking poster child for home, hearth, family, stability. Forget that she chased him, "like a shark after blood," as Mel had so snidely phrased it, Tiffany appeared to be everything he should want.
Calm.
Organized.
Orderly.
No stopping traffic or rescuing kittens. No food fights, no food fires. No sparks or smoke of any kind. No chaos.

Tiffany would make a good mother. As a wife, she would be low maintenance, low disaster, low… sizzle. No sizzle.

Logan, the businessman, sighed, ignored his selfish tendencies, keyed into his years of retraining, and figured the equation again. After a serious minute of weighing the results of a wildfire, compared to good breeding and a degree in early childhood education, he nodded in satisfaction. Sizzle was overrated. Tiffany bore no resemblance to Melody, whatsoever, making the tote board heavy in Tiffany's favor.

LOGAN didn't know where Mel had disappeared to after the show, but she had not returned to their office. He sat there trying to call his mother to ask her to baby-sit, but she didn't pick up. He sure wished she'd carry the cell phone he'd given her.

Jess answered on the first ring. "Hey, Jess, how are you?"

"Running on fast forward, as usual.
I love it."

"Too fast to watch Shane tonight?"

"Why, where are you going?"

"I have a date. You said I should start dating again."

"You're finally showing some sense. How is Mel?"

"
Er
, Mel's fine. Why?"

"Isn't she the one you're taking out?"

"I'm taking Tiffany Peabody to a charity benefit. Her father's the station owner. So, can you sit?"

"I take back what I said. You're not showing any sense."

Logan regarded the phone as if it malfunctioned. "What did you say?"

"I'm working tonight." She hung up.

Logan sat staring at his phone until Melody returned to the office at the last minute before picking up Shane. In silence, she grabbed her purse and briefcase and walked back out. "We'll meet you in the car," she threw over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought.

Logan felt as if he'd missed something. He liked fetching Shane with her, but he supposed they shouldn't spend any more time in the elevator.

Ten minutes later, he pulled the Volvo up in front of the day care entrance and watched Melody, still silent and introspective, strap Shane into his seat, before getting in herself.

On the way home, Shane, his usual chatty self, gave them a blow-by-blow description of his day, thank God.

"Teacher cut Nathan's hair today," he said with a laugh.

Melody turned in her seat. "Teacher cut it?"

"Why?" Logan asked.

Shane did a double take, branding his father's question as pure stupid.
" 'Cause
Torrie
got her gum stuck in it, of course." He may as well have started with, "Duh."

"Ouch," Mel said.
"Poor Nathan."

"Aw, he acted like a big ole' baby, just 'cause he
gots
a bald spot."

Logan cleared his throat with a bit of difficulty. "Where exactly is his bald spot?"

"Where
Torrie
stuck her gum." Another unsaid, "duh" resonated in the air.

"Of course," Logan said. "But, I mean, where on his head?"

Shane made a big circle with his fingers and laid it dead center, above his forehead as he rolled his eyes. "
Torrie
had 'a mother of a gum wad,' teacher said."

Silence held for half a beat before Logan and Melody burst into laughter. When they calmed, Shane shook his head as if he would never understand them. "It's not that funny," he said. "Can we make caramel apples for Mel's Halloween show
cookin
' lesson tonight?"

"Supper tonight."
Logan ran a hand over his face. "I knew I forgot something."

"Are we still gonna?" Shane asked.
" 'Cause
you promised, Dad. You said we
gotta
'cause Mel needs lessons for the show, and we need a job."

"I'll manage," Melody said, turning to look at Shane. "It's okay, sweetheart. If you and your Dad have plans tonight, I'll make caramel apples with you tomorrow, okay?"

Logan glanced at Melody,
then
he faced his son, in his rearview mirror, his guilt intensifying. "I'm afraid I made other plans, sport."

Shane and Melody regarded him, Logan thought, with identically accusing looks, while the silence stretched so long, his tie got tight. If someone didn't cut the spell soon, he'd break into a sweat from the heat of their looks alone. "I have a dinner… meeting."

"For work?"
Melody asked.

"Well, not entirely. I've been invited to a dinner theater fund-raiser, with old man Peabody."

"And Tiffany," Melody said, her smile so eloquent, he wished he could deny it.

"You have a problem with that,
Seabright
?"

"Why should I? I have a date, too."

"Like hell you do."

Melody raised a brow.

"Until ten minutes ago, you thought we were cooking tonight."

"Obviously we're not, and since I turned Woody down for dinner, so we could, there's no longer any reason not to. I'll just call and tell him we're on."

"What about me?" Shane asked.

When Logan said nothing, Melody frowned. "Logan, who did you ask to watch Shane while you go out on this date?"

"It isn't a date, not really."

"Who?"

"Mel, listen—"

"Jess?
Or your mother?"

"They're both busy tonight."

"So you were going to do what?"

"Ask if you would."

"Hooray!" Shane drummed his feet with enthusiasm. "We can make caramel popcorn, too."

"Wait a minute, buddy," Melody said. "Your dad hasn't asked me yet."

"Mel, can't you just—"

"What? Give up my love life for yours?
Fat chance."

"Love life?"
Logan scoffed.
"With Woody?"

"You think that's more absurd than you and Daddy's girl? Is she out of college yet?"

"Look," Logan said as he pulled the car into their garage. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Peabody owns the station. I can't just break it off at the last minute, and you don't actually have a date. Please, Mel? It's for charity," Logan said as he came around to her side of the car. "You're always doing stuff for charity."