Under Her Spell (23 page)

Zach had given her that gift. Zach, who believed in progress and profit and had still done everything in his power to help. He'd seen how much she loved Kinney's Lagoon, how important it was to her, and done something about it. It was the best gift she'd ever received.

And now Zach was gone, and she couldn't even say thank you.  A wave of longing swept over her as she remembered his arms around her. It was hard to believe she would never feel them again. She wanted to cry, but there were no tears left. She had shed them all over the past few days, weeping silently into her pillow after she turned off the lamp by her bed.

She remembered the warning in the old book of potions:
If you will take a man for your own, give him this love philter. Yet do so not lightly, nor if you are not for each other. For that will lead only to misery.

That caution had become all too relevant to
her own
life.

Kasey slid into the other side of the booth. "Thinking of Zach?" she asked.

Bryony nodded. "This is his victory too," she said, and explained what she'd been told. "Zach should be here," she finished.

"You're right," Kasey said. "Why don't you call him, at least, and tell him what's happened? He'll want to know."

"I couldn't," Bryony said. "He'd only think I was plotting again -- chasing after him."

"Maybe now that he's had a chance to think about it, cool down a little --"

Bryony's expression grew cold. "No," she said. "Drop it, Kasey."

"Geez, all right," her friend said. "But Bryony, if it's only pride keeping the two of you apart, and you still love him --" Bryony's glare cut her off midsentence. "All right, all right, I'll stop.
For now, at least.
Come on, I'll buy you a slice of chocolate fudge cake. That'll make you forget all your sorrows."

Bryony smiled despite herself. "If you insist," she said, doing her best to put Zach out of her mind. It wasn't easy, but she knew it was for the best. After all, she couldn't spend the rest of her life thinking about a man who didn't love her.

If he'd said he did, even just once, everything would be different. She wouldn't have let him slip out of her life so easily. She might have taken Kasey's advice. But she had to face the truth. Zach didn't love her. He never had, and he never would.

It was that simple.

Zach stared out his office window, oblivious to the street scene below. His thoughts were elsewhere.

The dreadful emptiness of the past few days was wearing him down. He went through the motions of living and working, but his heart was not in it. He had no appetite, no enthusiasm,
no
joy in anything. He couldn't even bring himself to care about the next issue of the
Skeptical Observer.

Even his managing editor had noticed. Frowning over his friend's red-rimmed eyes and permanent scowl, Martin had commented that the vacation apparently hadn't served its purpose. Zach seemed even
more tense
than before he'd gone.

Now Zach returned to his desk and shuffled idly through the papers there. His eyes fell on the computer printout of his column. Martin was asking for it, but he couldn't
bring himself to turn it in. Maybe he would tear it up choose a different topic, one he could write about with more objectivity.

He put his feet up on his desk and, leaning back in his swivel chair, laced his fingers together behind his head. He found himself wondering what Bryony was doing. Working at Heart's Desire, no doubt, ringing up purchases and restocking shelves, or reading one of her fairy tales so intently she didn't even notice the customers coming in. She might even reach up absentmindedly to brush back a fiery curl, twisting it around her finger in the endearingly girlish way she had. His lips twitched into a smile, remembering how he had watched her do just that while she sat in bed, recovering from her fever.

Zach cursed aloud and abruptly planted his feet on the floor. Damn that woman, anyway. She kept intruding on his thoughts, no matter how he fought to keep her out. She had seemed so innocent, so guileless, but he had to keep telling himself it was nothing but an act. Bryony Lowell, the true Bryony Lowell, was not the person he'd fallen in -- the person he'd --

Just then, his secretary buzzed. Relieved by the interruption, Zach snatched up the phone. "A young woman to see you," the secretary informed him in aggrieved tones. "She won't state her name or business, just says she's got to talk to you. Should I --"

"Send her in," Zach said. His heart jumped in anticipation.
Bryony, here?
He would have thought her too proud to come to him, after the last scene at her house.

But the blond woman who rapped lightly on the door and then stepped inside wasn't Bryony after all. "Do you remember me? Kasey
Stollmeyer
. I'm --"

"Bryony's friend. Yes." Zach struggled to keep his disappointment from his face. The effort made his voice harsh and his expression forbidding. "What do you want?"

Kasey's eyebrows shot up at his rudeness. "I just have one thing to say, and then I won't bother you again. Bryony told me everything, about that stupid list and what you
thought. I want to set the record straight. I wrote that list -- it was my idea -- and Bryony had nothing to do with it. She's not the sort to scheme and plot to make a man fall in love with her. She doesn't have to. Bryony Lowell is the sweetest, best, most decent person I've
every
known, and for you to accuse her --"

"Did she put you up to this?" Zach asked.

"Absolutely not. She'd kill me if she knew I was here," Kasey said.

Zach fixed her with his most intimidating stare, the one that made quacks and impostors of all kinds cower in fear. "Why should I believe you?"

Kasey tossed her hair and glared right back. "I don't care if you do. I just had to get this off my chest. If you could see what you've done to Bryony -- she goes around half in a daze, working so hard I'm afraid she'll collapse, barely eating or sleeping, and it's all because of you."

Zach's face softened a fraction, but Kasey didn't notice. She went right on with her indignant speech, her hands on her hips. "You hurt her, Zachary Callahan. And I just thought you should know that. She says she loved you -- says she loves you still, if you can believe it -- but I don't know why, when you're the most heartless man I've ever met."

Zach started at Kasey's last words. "She still loves me?" he asked, in a voice barely above a whisper.

"That's right, she does," Kasey said. "And it's tearing her apart. All because you trust some mad invention of your suspicious mind over Bryony's word."

"But how can I know she's telling the truth?" Zach asked. "How can I ignore the evidence right in front of my eyes?"

Kasey heaved a deep sigh and shook her head. "You're too caught up in your scientific notions of proof and evidence and data, that's the problem. Why don't you just
look into your heart? If you'd ever done that, you'd know Bryony could never, ever lie to you."

"I want to believe you," Zach said. "But I can't. I don't know how."

"Fine." Kasey turned to go. "I've said what I came to say," she said over her shoulder. "The rest is up to you." She slipped out and shut the door behind her, leaving Zach alone with his thoughts.

He had no practice with trusting his emotions, no experience in thinking with his heart. It felt foreign and dangerous, like leaping from a cliff with no thought for what lay below. But the pain of the past few days drove him to it at last.

Half an hour later, he picked up the phone and called in his secretary. When she arrived, notebook in hand, he gave her very specific directions. Next, he asked Martin to come into his office.

"Here's what I'm going to do," he began.

Business was slow on Wednesday afternoon. Bryony sat on her high stool behind the counter and read from a thick volume of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. The dark and bloody stories fit her mood more than her usual romantic fare. Somehow, cannibalism and severed fingers appealed to her more than handsome princes riding to the rescue. Now she knew that happy endings were for stories, not real life.

The telephone rang. Bryony sighed and lay down her book. For the past few days, every call had made her heart jump, hoping she might hear Zach's low, sexy voice on the other end of the line. But she'd recently forced herself to stop hoping.

"Heart's Desire," she said in her crisp, businesslike phone voice. "Bryony Lowell speaking."

"Bryony," Kasey said, "Bryony, you'll never guess. It's too, too wonderful."

Bryony frowned. "What is?"

"I can't tell you, but turn on your television. Channel 2. Hurry!"

"What's going on?" Bryony reached for the knob on the television set she kept behind the counter and flipped it to the right channel. The news was on, and a reporter in a raincoat was talking about a hurricane that was damaging crops in Hawaii. "Kasey, I don't know anyone in Hawaii."

"Not that, silly! It's on next. You can thank me later." Without another word, Kasey hung up. Bryony gave the receiver a puzzled stare and then, hearing the dial tone, placed it back in its cradle. Now what was that all about? She turned to watch the television screen again.

The program had shifted back to the studio, and a brunette anchorwoman was announcing the next segment. "In local news, here's a switch," she said with a chuckle. "San Francisco's most rational man,
Skeptical Observer
publisher Zachary Callahan, called a press conference today to announce that, of all things, he now believes in magic!"

Bryony's heart jumped to her throat as Zach's face filled the screen. He was as darkly handsome as she remembered. She had to clench her teeth against the sobs that threatened at the sight of his strong, arrogant square face and close-cropped ebony curls.

Zach leaned toward the camera and smiled. "I know this will come as a shock to those of you who know me as a rational and scientific-minded person. But I want to tell the world that I recently fell under the influence of a spell -- a love spell fashioned by a beautiful enchantress."

Bryony clutched the counter so hard that her knuckles went white. Her lips began to tremble as Zach continued. "I've tried every antidote, fought it every step of the way, but it's no use," he said, his voice dropping so low it was almost a growl.

Bryony was unable to tear her eyes from the television. So intense was her concentration that she barely heard chimes above her door tinkle prettily as a customer came in.

On screen, Zach went on. "So the only thing left for me is to beg the spell's maker to take pity on a poor, foolish man. Bryony Lowell, if you're watching this, either set me free -- or marry me!"

Bryony gasped. Her knees buckled under her. She didn't see the shadow looming across the countertop until a man's silken voice purred into her ear, "So which will it be, Bryony?"

She whirled to find Zach watching her across the counter. For a moment, she was disoriented and confused. On television, he was still speaking, saying something she couldn't make out over the roaring in her ears. In the flesh, he was so close she could smell his musky cologne and see the tension in his jaw.

"If you want me out of your life, I'll go," the real Zach said. "I treated you terribly, and I'll understand if you can't forgive me. But I'd much prefer it if you'll agree to be my wife, because I love you with all my heart."

A joy so great she could hardly contain it bubbled up in her. Her eyes filled with happy tears. "Yes," she said. "Oh, Zach, yes."
His face brightened as if lit from inside by the sun. He reached over the counter, circled her waist with his hands, and lifted her over as easily as if she weighed nothing at all. And then she was in his arms, and they were both laughing.

Zach fumbled in his pocket and drew out a small, black-velvet covered box. "I was hoping you'd say yes," he whispered into her hair. Bryony gulped as he lifted her left hand and tenderly slipped on the ring. She stared at the brilliant diamond solitaire glinting up at her.

"It's beautiful," she said, her voice breaking. She put her arms around him again, pressing herself against his broad chest as if she would never let him go.

Zach held her so tight she thought her ribs would crack, kissing her as hungrily as she kissed him. Bryony was crying in earnest now, but Zach didn't seem to mind. His own eyes were suspiciously moist. He wiped the tears from her face with gentle fingers and brought his lips to hers once more.

When Bryony drew away at last, her face was solemn. "Will we live in San Francisco, then?" she asked.

Zach saw the consternation in her face and smiled. "I thought of that already. I can't make you leave Cypress Point, Bryony. I know how much you love it here. Besides, I'm starting to grow fond of it myself."

"It's such a long commute for you --"

Zach cupped his hand under her chin and drew her face up so that she looked into his dark, dancing eyes. "That's why I've resigned as editor of the
Skeptical Observer
. From now on, I'll stick with publisher and columnist. It's high time I promoted Martin anyway."