Tami Hoag - Magic

They were systematically working their way through Drake House, making an inventory. Faith, who had experience with antiques, was identifying each piece, then Rachel looked the item up in a dealer’s catalog, and they tried to arrive at a fair market value. Bryan tagged along behind them, jotting down their findings in the inventory book. Addie followed them to each room, then stood in a strategic spot and glared at them as they went about their business.

She wasn’t taking it well at all, he thought, stealing a surreptitious glance at the older woman. The peace mother and daughter had made the day before had already been wrecked. Addie was sulking in the corner of the room near the window, her mouth pinched into a line as she twisted the end of her braid. She dug a hand into the patch pocket of her cotton housedress, pulled out a long stalk of celery, and began to munch on it angrily.

Bryan knew Rachel had explained to her that the antiques would have to be inventoried and sold because they needed the money, and Addie had seemed to comprehend the situation, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. He couldn’t blame her. Her independence was being taken away from her bit by bit. A proud woman like Addie wasn’t likely to accept it with a smile.

Still, Bryan thought with a sigh, he had promised to try to ease this transition for both Addie and Rachel. Drawing in a deep breath, he broke into song again.

“ ‘She was a maiden fair with sunlight in her hair. Her name was Addie.’ ”

Addie scowled at him and gave him a loud raspberry, spraying bits of celery out at him.

“I think she likes me.” Bryan grinned, and winked at Faith. “What do you think?”

Faith giggled, dark eyes twinkling. The sun streaming in the window caught in her mop of burnished curls, turning them more red than gold. She poked Bryan in the ribs with the eraser end of her pencil. “Behave yourself, Hennessy, or we’ll send you out to do some real work.”

“You could have brought along my darling godchildren,” he said with a hint of reproach. “They would have kept an eye on me.”

“No doubt. Lindy would make you toe the line. You know how she bosses Nicholas around.”

“He’s just biding his time,” Bryan said. “In another few years he’ll be towering over her. We’ll see who the boss is then. I can give him some pointers on diabolical brother-type revenge.”

Rachel listened to their good-natured bantering. It was clear that Bryan and Faith were as close as brother and sister. There was a special understanding between them, evident when they smiled at each other. She envied them that. She had never felt that kind of kinship with anyone, not even with Terence.

As she was thinking it, Bryan turned and regarded her with the same warm expression, the same keen knowing in his blue eyes. There was an invitation in his gaze, an invitation for her to share that kind of special friendship with him.

Temptation pulled at her. A part of her wanted badly to accept. It would have been nice to have a friend to lean on, but another part of her flatly denied her that option. She had to take her responsibilities on her own shoulders, because she knew from experience she couldn’t count on a man like Bryan to give support forever.

Not that she blamed him. She couldn’t see how anyone in his right mind would want to take on the task she was facing if he didn’t have to. Why would anyone ask to share that kind of pain?

The word love passed fleetingly through her brain, but she dismissed it. She had given up on the idea of romantic love, just as she had given up on the notion of rainbows and happy endings. She couldn’t afford romantic fantasies any more than she could afford to lose sleep over the erotic dreams she’d been having lately.

Bryan Hennessy was proving to be one big distraction from the things she needed to concentrate on most. One big, handsome distraction…

She stared at him as he made a note in the book he cradled on his right arm. He wore faded jeans that hugged his lean male body in all the right places. A polo shirt clung to his strong shoulders. The color matched the blue of his eyes in a way that made Rachel’s breath catch. Glossy strands of tawny hair fell across his broad forehead.

His glasses were slipping down his nose. Without looking up from his work, he reached up and pushed at the wire bridge with the middle finger of his left hand. It was a gesture she’d seen him perform a hundred times, and yet, for some inexplicable reason, this time she thought it was curiously sweet.

Her gaze focused on his hands, and longing rippled through her. Those big hands were strong, yet so gentle, almost as gentle as his lips had been against hers. She’d dreamed of those hands caressing her every night. It seemed like eons had passed since he’d touched her, kissed her. It had been three days. She probably could have said how many hours and minutes had passed.

It irked her that she’d spent so much time thinking about it. She had told herself she couldn’t get involved with Bryan Hennessy. That should have been the end of the longing. Since their argument, she had avoided him as best she could, considering they were living in the same house. She had been as cool toward him as possible without being out and out rude.

And still he was sweet to her. The growing bouquet of roses on her dresser was testimony to that. There was one waiting for her on her pillow every night when she went up to bed. It seemed only a sweeter gesture when he denied knowledge of it.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him. If she had been the fanciful sort, she might have thought he’d cast some kind of magic spell on her. Instead, she blamed it on the flowers. She had always been a sucker for roses.

“Rachel?” Faith asked for the third time

Rachel snapped out of her musings with a start. “I’m sorry. What?”

A gentle smile turned the corners of Faith’s mouth, setting her heartshaped face aglow. “I was just going to suggest a coffee break.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” Rachel stammered, embarrassment heating her face. She stifled the urge to rub at the spots of color blooming on her cheekbones, winding her hands more firmly around the book she clutched against the front of her baggy pink T-shirt.

Suddenly Addie stamped her booted foot. “You’re thieves, the lot of you! You’re going to steal my bird cages. I won’t stand for it, I tell you. I’m going to call the police!”

“Mother!” Rachel wailed, at the end of her emotional rope. She had been over this with Addie a half dozen times. It was difficult to tell herself that Addie had undoubtedly forgotten every one of those conversations, that she wasn’t being difficult deliberately. “Don’t go dragging that horrid deputy out here again.”

“He’ll get to the bottom of this business,” Addie said. “He can find that ugly ghost while he’s out here, too, and haul you all away together.”

“If he hauls anyone away, it’ll be you, Mother. He’s angry enough with you as it is.”

Addie tossed the last of her celery stalk at her daughter and stomped toward the door. Bryan headed her off.

“Hennessy, get out of my way,” Addie commanded.

“Not a chance, beautiful,” he said with an amicable grin. “You know you have the most lovely complexion, Addie. How do you keep it that way?”

Addie blushed like a schoolgirl. She had always been vain about her flawless skin. Bryan’s compliment bolstered her flagging ego and easily derailed her thoughts from calling the police.

“All the Gunther women have beautiful skin,” she said coyly, patting a hand to her pale cheek. “It’s an old family secret.”

“Ah, a secret,” Bryan said with great relish. He took her arm and tucked it in his. “I’ve got one too. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Then we’ll dance the tango on the lawn.”