Simone was a ghost, but that hadn’t stopped her from seducing more married and otherwise attached men than I had stitch markers. We spent a few gossipy minutes exchanging details about Simone’s many conquests and bemoaning their terrible taste in bed partner.
“Where’s Oprah when you need her?” I murmured and we both laughed like teenagers.
Midge Stallworth wandered over with a convoluted tale of in-law woes while I watched Laria being handed from one MacKenzie to another while each moment was captured for posterity. Or, at the very least, next year’s Christmas card.
“By the way, Luke’s sister is crazy,” Janice said as we poured ourselves some hot chocolate from a giant urn. “The guy kicks her out in the middle of nowhere and she’s sobbing and texting him every two seconds.”
I followed Janice’s gaze and, sure enough, there was Meghan MacKenzie, thumbs flying across her smartphone, while she spilled her story to everyone within a ten-foot radius.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I said. “First Elspeth is flirting with Luke’s uncle and now his sister is confessing to Verna Griggs.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about her. My sister Sandy was the same way before she settled down,” Janice said, reaching for a tea sandwich. “The worse a guy treated her, the more she wanted him. She fell in love with a werecat who had three other families and even that didn’t stop her. She wouldn’t know a good guy if he bit her in the ass.”
“Metaphorically speaking, I hope.”
“No, really,” Janice said. “Werecats bite.”
There was something wrong with the logic but I let it pass.
Luke had managed to group all of the MacKenzies together for photos and Elspeth wandered off into the crowd. I tried to keep my eye on her, but really, how much fun is it to stalk a troll?
Janice and I stood there watching and snacking as the MacKenzies continued to pass baby Laria around like a fluffy pink football. Everyone had to have his or her turn cooing over her, debating whom she looked like, and posing for pictures. Luke had snapped so many photos he had to swap out his battery for another one, and the party had only just begun. He must have been a shepherd in another life because he managed to keep his flock of family together and pretty much away from everyone else.
“So far, so good,” I said to Janice. “I don’t think they suspect anything, although his father did make a comment about the whole movie star thing. Maybe we need to take it down a notch.”
“We’re on our best behavior,” Janice said with a mischievous wink. “Besides, I think we’re all afraid of Luke’s mother.”
With good reason. Bunny was in full matriarch mode, focusing all of her formidable energies on her new granddaughter. She wasn’t magick, but she might as well have been. She generated enough power to light the entire town.
“Bunny gave me three books on breastfeeding,” I told Janice. “And two DVDs on early child development. I’m expecting a pop quiz by the end of the night.”
Janice’s eyes widened comically. “What about ‘Care and Feeding of Your Baby Sorceress, Stages One through Seven’?”
“Thank gods we have years before we have to worry about that.”
“I’ll be honest,” Janice said as we watched Bunny adjust the cap on Laria’s downy head while Luke snapped candid shots of his siblings. “I don’t know how you’re going to keep the truth from them. There’s no way that woman is going to be a hands-off granny.”
“I don’t know how, either,” I admitted with a sigh. “Maybe they’ll all decide to move to California and I won’t have to worry about it.” I could see some heavy-duty concealment charms would be needed before too long.
Bunny’s voice floated toward us. “Who’s the sweetest little girl in the world? . . . You are.... Grandma’s sweet baby dumpling ... you’re so beautiful ... yes, you are . . .”
“Yeah,” Janice said with an eye roll, “that’ll happen.”
I was definitely going to have to dig deep into the Book of Spells to find a way to keep Luke’s family close but still in the dark about Sugar Maple and their granddaughter’s true heritage.
Suddenly I realized someone was missing from the happy family group.
“Where did Meghan go?” I asked Janice, looking around.
“I thought she was with Verna and her boys.”
I tapped one of the baristas on the shoulder. “Have you seen Jeremy Griggs?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said with a grin. “He and Adam went outside with Luke’s sister to smoke.”
We exchanged glances. That was all I needed, for Luke’s sister to have a fling with one of Paul Griggs’s werewolf sons, no matter how cute they were.
I was out the door at the speed of light.
23
CHLOE
The Griggs boys were nowhere in sight, but Meghan was walking up and down the sidewalk in front of town hall, talking animatedly into her cell phone. She glanced over at me and raised her hand in the universal
just a second
motion and continued talking. I couldn’t make out her words, but I could tell by her tone that she was seriously pissed off.
I also noticed that two of the Souderbush boys were drifting right next to her, shamelessly eavesdropping on her conversation.
Fortunately they were both long dead. Otherwise we would definitely have a situation brewing.
I motioned for them to move on, but they refused. They both had been part of the human race many years ago and they relished contact with the living. Luke said they had taken to hanging out at the office with him, whittling and telling stories about New England during the Civil War. I wasn’t sure how they managed to be visible to Luke and not to other humans, but as long as they didn’t screw up today it wasn’t any of my business.
I was shivering in the cold and my breasts were starting to get the buzzy, heavy feeling that usually preceded Laria’s cry for milk. Time to herd this last MacKenzie back into the fold.
“Meghan,” I said, raising my voice in what I hoped was an authoritative manner, “we need you inside.”
She raised a finger and continued talking.
“Luke’s on his last camera battery. Come on in and let him take your picture with Laria.”
I don’t know if she had run out of words or my tone scared her because she stuffed the cell phone into her pocket and walked over to me.
“He said he’d meet me by the ‘Welcome to Sugar Maple’ sign and drive me back to New Jersey when I was done here, but no way that’s going to happen. He can bite me.”
“Good,” I said. Personally I hated ultimatums. They invariably brought out the worst in me. “No reason for you to be pushed around.”
I noticed a light splash of Fae glitter on her left shoulder, a pale leaf-green that I wasn’t familiar with. Probably one of the Salem transplants. I brushed it off and pretended it was snow.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “You think he was pushing me around?”
And you don’t?
“Sounds like it to me.”
She frowned, causing deep pleats across the bridge of her nose. She looked so much like Luke that I almost laughed out loud. “Well, he did apologize. I mean, we’ve only been together less than two weeks. He said the whole family thing was too much for him. And, let’s be honest, the MacKenzie family can be a little overwhelming.”
I was proud of myself for saying absolutely nothing. Human females were crazy. No doubt about it. I had never been more grateful for my magick blood in my entire life. I’d take flaming fingertips over this torture any day.
“I heard you exploded at brunch last week.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“Exploded,” she repeated. “Threw a fit.”
“I didn’t explode or throw a fit.”
“Jen said you told them off, then ran out of the room sobbing.”
“I was nine months pregnant. Believe me, I wasn’t running anywhere. Besides, I don’t sob.”
“But you were pissed off.”
“The questions were too personal for my taste,” I said, “and I told them so.”
Her grin was pure Luke and I warmed toward her despite my misgivings. “Jen’s a bitch—I can say that because she’s my sister. Kim’s not too bad. It took her forever to get pregnant so I’m really happy for her. She wanted it so much. Kevin’s an asshole, but his wife’s pretty cool. Ronnie’s our dad’s clone. Ronnie was already forty years old the day he was born. Patrick’s got his problems. Did Luke tell you he screwed around on Siobhan? That’s why she left him. Now he’s trying to win her back, but I think she’s moved on.” The grin morphed into a rueful smile. “For a while Luke was the black sheep, but now that he’s returned to the fold, I get my title back.”
“Wow,” I said with an answering grin. “All that without pausing for breath. I’m impressed.”
“Too much, right?” She shook her mop of curls. “That’s my biggest problem. Well, one of them anyway. I put it all out there, all the time. People don’t like that.”
“You mean men don’t like that, right?”
She nodded. “You know how it is. There’s this connection between you and some guy, and pow! Next thing you know you’re in bed and you don’t even know his name. It’s all great when you’re living the fantasy, but the minute it even looks like it might go somewhere they start running.”
I swear to you this was better than a Lifetime movie. I could have listened to her all day. I mean, we were the same age, but our experiences couldn’t have been more different. We spoke the same language, but we might as well have come from different planets.
“He looks happy,” she said, changing subjects without warning. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him look this happy.”
“He’s wonderful with the baby,” I said. “He bonded with her instantly.”
“And he’s in love with you.”
I felt my cheeks flame again. “Well, it’s mutual.”
“So are you two getting married? Just between us. I won’t tell the family.”
“I honestly don’t know, Meghan. We’re pretty happy the way things are.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “That doesn’t sound like my big brother. Luke is definitely the marrying kind.”
I was saved from having to think of something clever to say when two of the brothers MacKenzie joined us for a smoke.
“You don’t mind,” Kevin said as he lit up.
I gave him what I hoped was a sunny smile. “I’ll let you know if I do.”
Patrick bummed a cigarette from his brother and lit up, too, as he considered Meghan. “So why the hell weren’t you at the brunch last week?”
“I was snowbound.”
The two brothers exchanged glances. They also made that annoying snorting sound Luke made from time to time that was supposed to pass for intelligent commentary.
Meghan looked away, but not before I saw the vulnerable and lonely expression in her eyes.
“The wind is blowing the smoke my way,” I said in a pleasant tone of voice. “Maybe you could move over there.”
“No problem,” Patrick said.
Kevin looked a little testy, but he followed his brother around the corner of the old church.
“Thanks,” Meghan said. “I’m not in the mood for their crap today.”
It didn’t even occur to her that the smoke might really have bothered me.
She started tapping a message on her phone. I never saw a pair of thumbs move so quickly.
“He’s not answering,” she said. “What is his problem? I’m the one who should be pissed.”
I probably shouldn’t have asked, but I couldn’t help myself. “If you don’t go with him, how do you plan to get home?” It wasn’t like I thought she should go with him, but I couldn’t transport her or anything. I was keeping magick way out of the picture.
“I can hitch a ride with Patrick down to Connecticut or go back to Mass. with the folks.” She shot me a look. “Maybe I could hang out here awhile and give you a hand with the baby.”
Another houseguest? Time to change the subject.
“Come on,” I said, moving toward the door to the old church. “I want a picture of you with Laria.”
She shoved her phone back into her pocket and followed me inside.
The room felt different on a cellular level. The emptiness was palpable. My heart started to ache in a way that was totally unfamiliar.
Funny thing how quickly you can scan a room. Maybe it was living with a cop all these months or (more likely) watching cop shows like my life depended on it, but I had developed the ability to look at a room and take in all the salient details without even realizing I was doing it.
Luke, his father, Jack, and Kevin’s wife, Tiffany, were drinking coffee and chatting with Paul and Verna Griggs in the corner. Bunny was admiring Lynette’s wedding shawl while Midge regaled her with stories about life in a funeral parlor. His sisters were attempting to keep the MacKenzie grandkids from decimating the food table while the uncles and aunts gossiped and tried to pump the townies for info on what I was really like.