Page 7 of More Than Meets the Eye

With that, the mirror clouded over, and he vanished.

“Wow,” Tess said, clasping her hands together as if I’d just given her a present. “This is going to be amazing.”

One of these days, I was going to talk to her about using more of a poker face in her business dealings. “Amazing” when you’re about to negotiate a sale is like saying “I love it” to a used car salesperson. Never a good idea.

But despite an overly kind and trusting nature, Tess had made a genuine success of the shop. She was the living proof that integrity can be its own reward.

She also looks scary in the mornings when she wakes up,my inner voice, who was scared to death right now, muttered in my brain.Talk about bed head.

I grinned and ran a hand down her gorgeous waist-length red ponytail.

I could live with bed head.

After they agreed on a contingent price and did the paperwork, Joe Bob, now grinning ear to ear, rushed out of the shop. “Thanks, again, Tess! I’ll give Donna your love!”

Then he stopped and looked back at us, stricken. “I just, ah, well. Donna isn’t sure about you coming to the wedding anymore. I mean, after what happened at Eleanor and Bill’s reception … I’m sorry. I can talk her back around. Bye!”

He was gone before I could growl at him. Instead, I wrapped my arms around Tess and gave her a sympathetic hug. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know,” she said glumly. “It’s just … why do so many things have to be not my fault?”

It took me a moment, but then I understood, and I laughed. “Do you think that dress is salvageable?”

“Who would want to salvage that dress?” She shuddered. “I’m never going to live this down.”

I kissed her, which was such an excellent idea that I kissed her again, for about five minutes, and then the chimes over the door signaled customers.

“Okay. I have to run some errands. It’s almost five. See you at home soon?” I still hadn’t grown used to having a home, after all those years camping out in various far-flung, dangerous locations.

“I’ll close up at five exactly,” she promised.

When she went to talk to her customers, I headed out to my truck. For a minute or two, I just sat there, turning the sapphire over and over in my fingers. It was the most perfect jewel of all the ones the king of Atlantis had given me for helping save the city from demons, and it was the exact color of Tess’s eyes.

I already had a jeweler on standby.

But now, I needed to find the courage to utter the four scariest words in the English language:

Will you marry me?

3

Jack

The Frosts lived in downtown Dead End in a two-story Victorian house painted pink, green, and yellow, three of the traditional colors of a Painted Lady. It was a lovely house, and I knew my friend Dave, Eleanor’s son, had done some work on it, keeping it in perfect condition.

When I knocked, hoping to talk her into keeping my secret if she hadn’t already taken an ad out in theDead End Gazette,Mr. Frost opened the door with a worried expression on his face.

“She’s baking. A lot.” His frown told me he was the only person in Dead End who’d be upset about his wife baking. Her cookies regularly win baking competitions.

“Well—”

“She only bakes this much when she’supset,” he whispered, leaning closer. “I’m going to the store for milk, eggs, and ten pounds of flour. This isserious.”

“I—”

“Do something!” He pushed past me and walked as fast as the new hip could take him to his car, then he peeled out like he was heading for the racetrack.

I shook my head. The woman was tiny. How could he be so scared of her?

---