Page 107 of Castings & Curses

The woman from the second floor arrived and began tugging at Dylan. “Dylan, are you listening at all? We need to go. Your kid ruined all of my clothes for this trip. Everything is covered in glitter.”

“You do that?” I asked Liv, remembering her new-found talent for throwing fairy dust.

She nodded.

“High five.” She hit my palm as hard as she could, which wasn’t much at all.

The other woman looked appalled. I guess she didn’t appreciate glitter, even though there was enough of it spilled on her.

“I want you to call our lawyer, this guy can’t threaten me and get away with it.”

“He didn’t threaten you, you fucking moron. Just leave us alone already.” Paisley looked up into the sky. “I thought we had a deal?”

“Dylan!”

“Yes, I hear you, can you wait a fucking minute?” He spun on the woman.

Her eyes went wide and her lower lip quivered.

“You should just leave him. Trust me, he’s not worth it,” Paisley said.

It was a fair enough warning, but the other woman didn’t like it. She went from pouting to seething in the blink of an eye.

“You want me out of the picture? Do you? It’s not like he’ll go back to you.”

Paisley must have thought this was all some kind of comedy farce, she started laughing. I knew that laughter well, it was full of tension and annoyance. And it pissed the other woman off.

“Why would I want Dylan? I have Eric, and he is so much better in every way.” Her eyes locked with mine and I felt love in that gaze.

She glanced at her ex and his angry new wife before turning back to me. “We should go, this isn’t settling anything. And you should probably get to work before you get into trouble.”

She took Liv from my arms and buckled her into her car seat. She then reached up and put my helmet back onto my head. I had to bend over to assist, but it was worth it to sneak a look down the V of her tunic at her glorious cleavage.

“You two coming over tonight, right?” I asked. “Ready to have a sleepover, Liv?”

“A sleepover with Sarina? Can I Mommy?”

“Absolutely. And we’ll pick up pizza for dinner?”

“Pizza sounds great.” We continued on as if the other two weren’t still standing there. They didn’t matter in our lives.

Paisley leaned out of her van and gave me a quick kiss. I grabbed the back of her neck and deepened the kiss.

“Ew, you smell like smoke. Take a shower before we show up.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

Dylan was still huffing and posturing like an impotent bull. His wife was storming away from us and yelling something about getting in the car, and he needed to get his things before the motel burned down.

“Are you really with her? She’s a freak! She thinks she has magic.” He sounded honestly confused.

I looked over my shoulder at her and smiled. “Yeah, she’s my freak.”

The van started to pull out and then stopped. “Hey demon boy!” Paisley yelled from the open window.

I turned to look at her.

“I love you!”

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