Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (153 page)

Her noisy delight, or perhaps her
mispronunciation of his name, seemed to persuade the cat that it
was time to leave. He leapt to the windowsill and proceeded to
clean himself, as though unaware that they all watched him.

Andrea captured the little girl’s hand when
she might have given chase. “Isn’t that nice of Lilith. Now, let’s
leave the kitty alone for a few moments and have lunch. You thank
Lilith.”

Jen grinned and waved to Lilith, before
turning her attention to the stairs. “Thank you, Lillit.”

The mangling of her own name made Lilith
smile. “You’re welcome, Jen.”

Two kids for a weekend. Oh, she would be
running!

Lilith grinned at the prospect. She felt
suddenly much younger than her six hundred years or so. D’Artagnan
bounded past her and stalked into the house, his tail straight as
though he was proud of his own role in this.

He might come to regret it, if Jen chased
him for the whole weekend. In fact, they both might sleep well
after a few days with two children underfoot.

Lilith could hardly wait.

*

It seemed that every day of the week was
hotter than the day before. The mercury inched higher and Mitch’s
temper wore thinner. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lilith. He
blamed it on guilt over his less-than-chivalrous behavior.

Just to make matters worse, Mitch wasn’t
sleeping at night. He blamed that on the heat. He deliberately
ignored the cluster of men on the sidewalk in front of Lilith’s
house, refused to so much as glance in the direction of her
house.

Mitch settled Jen and Jason into a friendly
day care at the end of the street by midweek and waved Andrea on
her way home that same morning. He walked the children home every
night, and unpacked with merciless persistence after they were in
bed. One night, he drove over to the lumberyard to get materials
for the fence. He bent his not-inconsiderable will on getting
Andrea to change her mind – without any noticeable signs of
success.

And he thought about Lilith every moment of
every day.

He noticed that Lilith had cleaned up her
garden so that it didn’t look so bad. He found himself listening
closely to Jason’s stories about Balthasar, the praying mantis near
Lilith’s compost, and was startled to feel envious of his son for
the chance to enjoy Lilith’s company.

Mitch tore apart the files at the office,
and found nothing more about his neighbor than he had the first
time. He looked again and again, he tried to dig deeper, but
without success. Even Isabel was starting to think he had lost
it.

On Thursday night, as Mitch lay staring at
the duo-green ceiling, he resolved to spend any Christmas bonus on
installing air-conditioning before the next summer. It was not only
the heat keeping him awake, though. Mitch wasn’t going to admit –
even to himself – that he was thinking of Lilith’s soft curves
tangled in her sheets not that far away.

It was a matter of principle, though, that
kept Mitch from Lilith’s door – as much as a conviction that she
would land another one of those kisses on him and his control would
melt like butter in the sun.

She probably used that technique all the
time. No wonder it worked so damn well.

Mitch hated that hew as even
susceptible.

Because it was wrong to swindle people.
Criminal. The issue was perfectly simple and clear. Mitch was right
and he knew it.

So why did being apart from Lilith feel so
wrong? She was nuts, or a manipulative con artist, or a witch, or
some combination platter of the above.

But Mitch wanted her in ways he had never
wanted a woman before. It was more than her luscious kisses. It was
that mischievous twinkle in her eye, her cleverness, the way she
surprised him, the way she kept him guessing. Mitch wanted to know
more about Lilith, and what he wanted to know wasn’t going to be
lurking in any dusty office files or government databases.

Mitch was starting to wonder about his own
sanity. Because the fact was, even knowing everything he knew, he
was really looking forward to the possibility of crossing paths
with Lilith this weekend.

Accidentally, of course.

It made absolutely no sense. And –
remarkably – it had nothing to do with being right or being wrong.
Mitch would be rebuilding a fence on the property line. It was only
natural that they would see each other, that Lilith might come out
to see his progress or make a suggestion.

The prospect of seeing her again was enough
to make Mitch anxious for Saturday morning to begin. He told
himself that his anticipation was a natural part of his quest for
the truth about Andrea’s cruise.

But even Mitch noticed that the thought
lacked a ring of truth. He scowled at the ceiling as the clock
struck three and he faced an uncomfortable reality.

What he was looking forward to was, plain
and simple, a glimpse of Lilith’s smile. Just the acknowledgment
tightened everything within him. Mitch’s hormones were winning the
field, despite his perfectly reasonable suspicions.

It wasn’t like him to lose his professional
detachment when he chased a story. It wasn’t like him to lose track
of the point. It wasn’t like him to be…beguiled.

Maybe Lilith
had
cast a spell on
him.

The idea was so troubling that it ensured
Mitch couldn’t sleep at all.

*

By Saturday morning, Lilith was done with
it.

She had had more than enough of Those Men
mooning around in front of her porch and she wasn’t going to take
it any more. She had been hoping that time would do its thing on
wearing down the spell, but no such luck. The calendar was wrong
for her spell, but it didn’t matter. Lilith couldn’t wait any
longer.

Besides, she had a sneaking feeling that
their presence was affecting the reestablishment of her
relationship with Mitch. And that simply wouldn’t do.

Lilith put her cauldron on the stove and set
to work. An unbeguiling spell took a lot of concentration. It was a
delicate balance to persuade a smitten man to simply
not
to
love a woman anymore, at least without pushing the man into
actively disliking or even hating the woman in question.

Do whatsoever you will but harm none.
The old oath was tough to hold in this circumstance. Lilith was
determined not to mess up.

She peeked through the front curtains and
counted Those Men. If anything, their ranks had increased over the
week. Lilith might have been pleased to have concocted such an
effective potion - at least, if it had worked as it was supposed
to.

She would not think about Mitch or the
argument they had had the other night. And she certainly wouldn’t
think any more about him having no one lurking in his eyes - let
alone what she could do about it.

Lilith had lain awake enough nights over
that already.

She was going to fix all of that, first
things first.

Lilith frowned and considered the problem at
hand. A potion gone wrong should definitely be countered with
another potion, although Lilith winced as she guesstimated the
quantity of elixir she would need.

This concocting could take all day.

And it would clean out her supplies.

But there was no choice. She had to make
this come right. In fact, righting this unexpected wrinkle in her
magick could put her back in Mitch’s eyes where she belonged. You
never knew. At that promising thought, Lilith pushed up her sleeves
and went to work.

With luck, by late afternoon, she’d be able
to offer Those Men a quenchingly cool “herbal drink”. And then,
provided they each only had a precise measure, one of Lilith’s
troubles would be solved. She turned on the radio and grinned as
the chorus of The Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go?” filled the
kitchen.

In that moment, Lilith decided she liked the
oldies station after all. She danced barefoot across the cool tiles
and opened her cupboards with purpose, as her cauldron came to a
boil.

She even sang along.

*

Saturday went better than expected. Not only
did Kurt declare Mitch’s house basically sound, he set to work with
a vengeance that Mitch found hard to match. Cooley and both kids
defied expectation by staying out of the drying concrete in the
fence postholes.

In fact, they all played so amiably together
that Mitch tried not to look surprised. The fence took shape with
surprising speed and Mitch could have called the day a great
success.

Except for one critical detail. Lilith
didn’t make an appearance. Mitch peeled off his shirt in the
afternoon sun and couldn’t help thinking of her comment.

Instead, it was Andrea who appeared, lugging
a great big box emblazoned with the logo of a fancy clothier. It
looked as though she’d been indulging herself again.

Mitch smiled and shook his head indulgently,
nodding to his stepmother. The kids called delighted greetings,
while Andrea waved to the two men. “Hello, Kurt! How are you?”

“
Great, Andrea.” Kurt
paused to rub a hand over his perspiration-drenched brow and
grinned his most charming grin. He whistled low at the sight of her
and Andrea preened playfully. “How do you manage to look younger
every time I see you?” he demanded.

Andrea shook a finger at Kurt and laughed.
“And how do you get smoother and smoother every time I see you?
Still breaking all those hearts?”

“
As many as I
can.”

“
And not getting any
younger while you’re at it.” Andrea sniffed disapprovingly. “What
you need is a nice steady girlfriend.”

“
Bah! A man needs variety.
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool bachelor, Andrea, and don’t even imagine
that I’ll change. Gonna die with my boots on.” Kurt winked
devilishly at Mitch, then nailed a board in place. “You’ll never
catch me committing to one flavor of ice cream for the rest of my
life.”

“
Ice cream!” Jen echoed,
picking up on a key word with her characteristic selective hearing.
“Who has ice cream?”

“
Are we having ice cream?”
Jason asked, poking his head out from behind the massive thistle
that had claimed the back corner of the yard.

Mitch rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Now,
see what you’ve started?”

Kurt chuckled, then began to whistle as he
worked.

“
Ice cream in a minute,”
Andrea declared.

“
Funny,” Mitch mused as
though he hadn’t already guessed what Andrea had brought. “We don’t
even have any ice cream.”

Jen pouted, Jason sniffed and went back to
his current investigation.

But Andrea grinned. “Now, how did I know
that? You know, I just happened to bring a gallon of my favorite
double chocolate chip. It jumped right into my basket at the
quickie mart.”

Both kids cheered and Mitch shook his head.
He pointed his hammer at Andrea. “Then, this afternoon,
you
can scrape them off the ceiling with a spatula,” he informed his
unrepentant stepmother. “It would serve you right for filling them
up with refined sugar.”

Andrea stuck out her tongue, then waved the
big box. “First, you all have to be suitably dazzled by what I
bought!” She hauled out an armload of blue chiffon and held it up
to herself, swirling on the steps. It was a great color for her and
Mitch had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly why she had bought
the dress.

His smile disappeared in record time.

“
Nana, let me see!” Jen
launched herself across the yard, muddy fingers outstretched for
this feminine delight, but Andrea whisked the dress out of harm’s
way in the nick of time.

“
It’s for Nana’s trip,” she
said sweetly. “For
dancing
.” And she punctuated that last
word with a glance at Mitch.

Though he’d fought the good fight, Mitch was
smart enough to know that he had lost this one - big time. No doubt
Andrea would come to him to do damage control - and knowing
himself, Mitch knew he wouldn’t even have the heart to say he’d
told her so.

He tried not to growl. “Nobody says you’ll
find anyone who can dance well enough for you.”

Andrea snorted. “Lilith says and Lilith
knows.”

At the sound of a woman’s name - any woman’s
name - Kurt looked up with interest. “Lilith? Who’s Lilith?” He
nudged Mitch hard and grinned. “Got a new girlfriend I can
steal?”

“
You should have stolen the
last one,” Andrea commented dryly.

“
Hey!” Mitch shook a finger
at her.

Andrea rolled her eyes then held up a hand
in surrender. “Okay, I know, I know. That topic’s off limits.”

Mitch checked but the kids weren’t
listening.

“
Where’s the ice cream,
Nana?” Jen asked as Jason listened avidly for the
answer.

“
Lilith’s just our
neighbor,” he said firmly, concentrating on hamming a nail
home.

“
Lilith is the most lovely
person,” Andrea confirmed.

“
Lillit has a kitty,” Jen
contributed.

“
And really neat bugs,”
Jason amended.

“
And she tells fortunes for
a living!” Andrea concluded. “She can tell you how to find your one
true love.” References apparently completed, Andrea herded the
children toward the kitchen. “Now, who wants ice cream?”

The clamor was enough to deafen anyone
unprepared for it. Cooley barked and bounded after the trio,
pressing his nose hopefully against the screen door when Andrea
firmly shut him out.

The dog whimpered, to no avail.

“
A fortune-teller? No
kidding.” Kurt glanced to Mitch and Mitch saw a familiar gleam in
his buddy’s eye. “The ditzy ones are a lot less trouble. This
Lilith have a true love of her own?”