Page 24 of More Than Meets the Eye

I waved the white napkin of surrender. “Stop, already. Do you see why you spent eight hundred dollars? I’m surprised it wasn’t more.”

He shrugged. “I put the apples back.”

Poor Millie. Maybe I should call her. She might be in shock about the reality of living with a shifter. On the other hand, she’d been traveling with him for quite a while. Also, he had quite a lot of money from the settlement the Fae queen gave him after he got out of that statue.

Speaking of that …

“I still need to get that Fae gold valued,” I told Jack. “The queen refused to take it back, so I guess it’s mine. It might be a nice nest egg or help me make a house payment or two.”

Jack choked on his biscuit. “A house payment or two? Tess, that was Fae gold. And in the amount she gave you, it’s more likely you can pay off your entire house with it.”

I froze, my fork in mid-air. My entire house?

Nope.

I can’t think about that right now.

“If that’s true, I have a lot to give thanks for in church this morning,” I said lightly, pushing dollar signs and shock out of my mind. “What’s the plan? Are you still going to Orlando, Jed?”

He shook his head. “No. Millie is heading out to California to deal with the apartment we rented and all that, but I’m staying right here until this situation with NACOS is resolved.”

“That may take longer than a week,” Jack said grimly. “But we can figure out who killed Quark and left him here last night, and I intend to do so as soon as possible. By the way, Tess, do you want to tell me why Carlos called me at three in the morning asking why you thought you had to defend him from an accusation of murder?”

I shrugged. “I texted him. Of course he didn’t do it.”

“Yes, but you might have given me a heads up. Or explained more to Carlos, who was understandably concerned.” Jack sighed, probably wondering how his life got so complicated.

“I was tired, so I didn’t think about all that,” I admitted. “Okay. Let’s clean this up. If you’re going to church with me, we need to leave soon.”

Jed offered to clean the kitchen for us, so I kissed his cheek and went to brush my teeth. Jack changed into a nice green shirt I gave him for Christmas and a pair of black pants.

“Gosh, you clean up nice.” It was almost embarrassing how much I loved looking at him.

“So do you. We could skip church, throw my granddad out, and explore how nice we look at length.” He stalked toward me, exactly as I imagined his tiger shape stalked prey, and I laughed and dodged.

“Not today, buddy. I’m in charge of the bake sale committee this summer, and I intend to do a good job.”

“Maybe ask Mrs. Frost for the recipe for her walnut-chocolate-chip cookies.”

We had a moment of silence for the awesomeness that was Mrs. Frost’s cookies, and then I kissed Lou’s head. “Bye, sweetie. It’s Sunday, so I’ll be home with you most of the day.”

She purred and then rolled over and went back to sleep. The life of a cat who lives in my house is a pretty good one. I’m occasionally envious.

“I’ll try, but Mrs. Frost never gives anybody her recipes. She might bake a few dozen for the sale, though. Especially ifyouask her.”

Jed was waiting for us by the front door. “I’m going to head home and do some things around the house. Let me know what our next steps are, Jack. Tess, you’re lovely, as always.”

He patted my arm and headed for his truck. Jack and I followed him down the driveway, and we chatted about everythingexceptdead bodies and evil consortiums on the way to church.

Earlier that year, I’d had a magically instilled moment of beautiful singing, and a few of my fellow churchgoers still hoped it would happen again. More of them, though, flinched when they saw me pick up the hymnal.

Mr. Russell, as usual, made a point of looking at me and turning his hearing aid off.

I just grinned at him and made my joyous noise unto the Lord.

It was an odd morning, though. Every time I turned around, people were staring at Jack with big grins on their faces. When they caught me watching them, they hastily looked away and became fascinated with their keys or phones or hymnals.

“Jack,” I whispered during a lull where the pastor was changing places with one of the lay ministers. “Why is everybody staring at you?”

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