Page 33 of Bait N' Witch

Interest lingered in his dark eyes as he walked beside her. “Oh? Most find it disconcerting. What do you enjoy?”

Had that been the wrong answer? Too late to change it now. “It’s like the universe comes to you, and I love all the colors. I imagine setting up a room of Monet paintings and then spinning in circles might have the same effect.”

“I’ve never heard that description, but I do see what you mean.”

“Do you like it?” Curiosity always had been a weakness of hers. Grey was quickly becoming another weakness.

As he unlocked the door, he flicked her a glance she couldn’t interpret. “I do.”

He let them inside, then promptly disappeared into his office. She frowned after his departing form. What had she said wrong this time?

It doesn’t matter. Distance is what you wanted.

She gave herself a shake. As long as he believed her story, his feelings about her, one way or another, should make no difference. The more important question at this moment was how she was going to find time to get away today. She needed to talk to the hummingbird.

Normally, she’d take her Sunday to disappear for a bit, but this weekend, the triplets were staying home for once. Grey had already asked her to stick around, saying he’d give her both Saturday and Sunday off the following weekend. She couldn’t wait that long.

Danger is coming, the hummingbird had said. Had the witches discovered her, and Grey played it cool? Or did a different danger lurk in the woods?

Chapter Twelve

Rowan wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself the rest of the day. On Saturdays they took the girls out. And Sundays she occupied herself while Grey took to the girls to visit one or the other of their grandparents.

But today was different. Hanging out in the house with the girls around but nothing for them to do was weird. Now they were up in their rooms, leaving her alone with Grey, who, for once, came out of his office. They sat at opposite ends of the family room—him binge-watching a favorite show on TV and her reading a book with Nefertiti curled up in the crook of her bent legs, snoring softly.

Only she’d read the same damn paragraph over and over for about twenty minutes now. Rowan hid a sigh and hopped up.

“Tea?” she asked.

Grey’s ready smile set her heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings. He’d been doing that more lately. “It’s not nighttime,” he teased.

“We’ll do a black tea then and risk the caffeine.”

“You and your tea.” He shook his head.

“Is that a no?”

“Actually, it sounds good.”

Almost on autopilot, Rowan moved to the stovetop where she got out the teapot, filling it with water.

Grey appeared at her side and, without a word and in perfect tandem, he got out the teacups and the tin of loose-leaf tea. She reached in a drawer to hand him the infusers, which he filled.

Before she knew it, they were leaning against the counter, sipping warm, soothing liquid like they did every night. Some nights they talked for hours, others they sat together in companionable quiet. Like now. But right now, in the middle of the day when it was harder to pretend they were living in a different world, it struck her how…homey…a picture they made. A pleasant habit. Almost as though they’d been doing this for years. Rowan closed her eyes, but couldn’t remove the images of what they could be if…

If nothing.

A series of sharp pings sounded and Grey pulled out his cell phone to check the screen. “What the hell?”

Rowan peeked over the top of her cup to find Grey staring at his phone.

Uh-oh. Slowly, she buried her face in the tea. Was he only just now figuring out his phone had an issue? It had been weeks since she’d cast that spell. No way was she that good. He had to have noticed the issue sooner, right?

Another hiss of frustration followed by mutterings. “No wonder.”

“What?”

“I knew there was something wrong with my phone. I thought I’d missed a few calls. People have said they left messages, which I didn’t get. Well, I guess they all just showed up at once, thirty missed messages.”

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