Page 3 of More Than Meets the Eye

“That was quite a blast from the past. It’s never boring when I visit Dead End, that’s for sure,” she said. “Did the disco ball actually make us dance?”

I noticed she and Grandpa Jed were pretty cozy. She’d first met him when she asked if she could interview him as a fascinating subject for an academic paper. Other than vampires and certain other beings who’d eat you if you tried to interview them, Jed was one of a very few humans who’d lived in Florida three hundred years ago and could tell historians what life was really like back then.

Then she’d written a book, and they’d gone on tour together, and there was even some talk of Jed consulting on a few projects in Hollywood. So, we hadn’t seen much of him since the time he brought a live turkey to Thanksgiving, horrifying my vegetarian little sister, and he ended up in the washing machine.

The turkey, not Jed.

“We’re in town and wanted to invite you and Jack over to the house for a barbecue tonight,” Jed said. “You don’t have to bring anything but yourselves. We’ve got the food covered.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Where have I heard that before?”

Millie looked confused.

“Ask him to tell you about Leroy and my Thanksgiving dinner,” I said dryly, amused to see Jed’s cheeks flush.

Back in the eighteenth century, women didn’t tease men, evidently. Jed was still getting used to it.

Jack finally walked back inside, but he looked oddly perplexed. When I gave him a questioning look, he shook his head, so I figured I’d get the scoop later.

“Tess was telling me about Thanksgiving and Leroy,” Millie said.

“He’s doing great. Still living it up with the Faeries in my backyard,” I told them, enjoying her startled reaction. “Yes, all the wild stories Jed tells you about Dead End are true. Probably understated, even.”

“I was just inviting you and Tess to a barbecue,” Jed told Jack.

If you saw them in the same room, you couldn’t miss that they were related. Jack was a few inches taller, with thick, wavy, bronze hair, where Jed’s hair was the same bronze but streaked with white. Strong, masculine features on both men framed emerald-green eyes that usually sparkled with good humor and always shone with intelligence.

When they were tigers, their eyes shone amber gold.

“Meat cooked outside. What’s not to like? Tess, do we have anything else going on?”

It still amazed me that our lives fit together so well. “No, I just need to go home and feed Lou. Are you sure you don’t want me to bring anything?”

“Well, if you have a spare pie sitting around, I wouldn’t say no,” Jed said, giving me a big smile.

I had to laugh. “Spare pie? Sitting around? With Jack in the house? Nope. But I’ve got some fresh-baked lady fingers. I can whip up a tiramisu.”

Jed paled. “You … you bake fingers?”

You’d think nobody would ask a question like that.

In Dead End, you’d be wrong.

“It’s the name of a kind of cookie,” I explained. “What time?”

“Whenever you want to stop by. We’ll eat around seven. Your Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike will be there, too, with Shelley.”

I hugged Jed, but of course didn’t touch Millie. I didn’t want to know how she was going to die, especially since she might be part of the family soon. They left a few minutes later, and Jack and I chatted about what to do with the disco ball without coming to any decisions.

Somebody would want it.

I could always find buyers for the enchanted objects, no matter how much they annoyed me. That’s why my interest was piqued when Joe Bob Turner walked into the store with a large, badly wrapped package in his hands and a sheepish smile on his face.

“Joe Bob! How are you? We haven’t talked since you tried to rob my store!” I grinned at him, but then an angry tiger, albeit still in human form, growled.

“He didwhat?”

Oops.

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