by Tegan Maher
“There’s my beautiful girl! Raeann, look how the sun glints off her hair!” he said, his eyes wandering over my face.
Rae glanced at me, half amused and half grossed out. “Uh, yeah. Why don’t you park and come into the shop?”
I craned my neck to keep an eye on him while he pulled to the back and winced when he hit a garbage can because he was looking back at me.
“I don’t think you have to worry about him going anywhere else,” Rae said, her tone wry. “I’m pretty sure he’s gonna be attached to your hip until we undo whatever’s going on.”
A car backfired from the street and scared the crap out of me, and I caught a glimpse of Keyhole Lake’s water tower when I whipped around. I squinted to get a closer look because there was something written on it in huge, glittering gold letters. Cody ♡ Shelby. I tugged on Rae’s arm and pointed.
“Oh crap,” she huffed. Shelby was my little sister, and Cody was her boyfriend—her boyfriend who was deathly scared of heights.
I pulled up Shelby’s number on my phone, and while I waited for her to answer, Hunter grabbed me from behind and nipped me on the neck.
“Okay, there Romeo,” Rae said. “Down boy.”
Though we were affectionate, neither of us was big on PDA; we tended to keep it to hand-holding and the occasional peck. His open lovey-doveyness was disconcerting. Thankfully, we were the only ones in the shop.
Shelby picked up after several rings. “Hey. I just finished the stalls. What’s up?”
“Have you by chance seen the water tower?”
“Nooo,” she drawled. “Why? Did somebody steal it?” The tower wasn’t visible from the farm, so I wasn’t surprised.
“No, smarty pants. You’ll be delighted to know that your name is there in shiny gold paint.”
“Wait, what?” she said, confused.
“Cody hearts Shelby is written in giant gold letters on the water tank.”
“Aww,” she said in typical teenage fashion. “That’s so sweet!”
“Yeah,” I said. “So sweet I’m getting a stomachache. Let me ask you this though—have you ever known Cody to be one for defacing public property, especially from a hundred fifty feet in the air?”
“Oh,” she said as it sank in. “Yeah, probably not. Definitely not.”
I gave her a rundown of what was going on. “Track him down and call me as soon as you do. We have to get this straightened out, and right now we have no idea how it even happened.”
We disconnected, and I shrugged out of Hunter’s grasp again. The man was like an octopus.
“I just can’t seem to keep my hands off you today, sweetie pie. You’re irresistible.”
I smacked his hand and led him to a table. “Try harder. Trust me when I tell you that you’ll regret it later if you don’t.”
His face fell and I growled in frustration. “Ugh. That wasn’t a threat—you’ve gotten into a love potion somewhere along the line.”
Rae joined us, handing us each a cup of coffee. “Yeah, loverboy. Where all you been?”
He scowled at her. “Nowhere. I went to the diner for breakfast, then started to go to work, but just had to see Noelle first.” He turned his expression to me, hurt. “Why would you think I’ve drank something, magical or otherwise, just because I’m a little affectionate?”
“Oh, c’mon, honey,” I said. “It’s not like that. It’s just that I know you. You’re not exactly an emoji kinda guy. And you’re definitely not one to act like a hormonal sixteen-year-old in public.” I smiled to take the sting out of my words.
He crinkled his forehead. “Now that you mention it, I do feel strange. I can’t focus on anything but you.”
I arched a brow and turned up a corner of my mouth.
“You know what I mean. I always think about you, but I can usually multitask and control my impulses.”
That made me feel better—and hopeful that the potion was wearing off. Until he opened his mouth again.
“But you’re just so beautiful ...” His eyes had glazed over again.
“You didn’t really think it was going to be that easy, did you, sugar?” Rae nudged me with her elbow. “This one’s a doozy. I checked my supplies. Nothing you’d use in a love spell is missing, so it had to have come from somebody else.”
Cheri Lynn, a friend and recently deceased exotic dancer—stripper’s a rude description, even if it’s accurate—popped in beside me, and I sloshed my coffee. She usually gave a little advance notice by fading in rather than popping, but she was excited. “Is it true? Have the guys been dosed with a love potion?”
Cheri was a true southern belle, despite her former less-than-ladylike profession. She’d been dealt a raw hand in life, but since her murder, she’d proven to be a loyal friend.
“So it seems,” Rae said.
Cheri was staring at Hunter’s goofy expression, amused. “Looks like he got a double dose. So who all got into it? Have you figured out who done it yet?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. So far, it’s Hunter, Buddy, and—we suspect—Cody.”
“Ah,” Cheri Lynn said. “Yeah, I seen the water tower but just figured he was making a grand gesture of his undyin’ love since it’s their first Valentine’s Day together and all.” She sighed and dropped her chin in her hand. “Young love.”
She’d recently met a fine gentleman when we girls had gone on a cruise after our greedy, no-good sheriff was murdered. The funny part of the story was that the sheriff had paid for it, post-mortem. It was probably the nicest thing Hank ever did for anybody, and if he hadn’t already been dead, just the thought of spreading joy—or spending money on other people—would have killed him. At any rate, Cheri Lynn was looking at life through some seriously rose-tinted glasses right then.
“Sorry to burst the little heart bubbles floating from your eyes,” Rae said, “but the water tower thing was because he’s stoned on liquid love. My guess is he’s gonna be mortified when he’s put back to rights.”
“Speaking of”—I stole a quick glance at Hunter to see if I needed to wipe drool off his chin—“don’t you just have something here you can use to fix him?” I wanted my motorcycle-riding, manly-man cop back. Frankly, I preferred him a bit less in touch with his feminine side.
She shook her head. “I can’t give him anything until I know what he took. We need to go to the diner.”
I turned to Hunter. “You didn’t go anywhere else other than the diner and work?”
“I did stop by Sam McCauley’s, just to see the airboat everybody’s talkin’ about. But that was only for five minutes.”
Huh. So he and Buddy had both been to Sam’s too. It seemed a call to Callie McCauley was in order, though I wasn’t sure I had her number. I was pulling up my contacts when my phone rang and Shelby’s face popped up on my screen. She’d found Cody at the animal shelter/vet clinic he helped his uncle run, tying red bows around the necks of an entire litter of puppies. Apparently, he was taking the “more is better” approach to Valentine’s Day gifting, between the water tower and the puppies.
I’d have been okay with one puppy, but Max, our donkey, had already threatened barnyard rebellion if we brought home another dog. Yes, he talks, but that’s another story. Matt, the guy who rented the apartment above our barn, had a big German Shepherd named Wiz. Even though he was friendly and mannerly, one dog was all Max was willing to tolerate.
“Did you find out where he’s been today? Who he’s talked to?” I asked her.
“Yeah. He met Hunter at the diner for breakfast, then apparently lost his mind, because Will said he never showed up to work.”
“He didn’t go to Sam McCauley’s?”
“Nope. Not that he mentioned.”
Well, it seemed like we had a starting point: the diner it was. I told Shelby to keep track of him until we figured out what was going on. According to her, the odds of him leaving her side were about the same as the odds of Hunter leaving mine, so at least we had that going for us. She must have h
eld the phone away from her ear because her voice became muffled. “Get off me! Go sit down and watch TV ... no, we are not watching Sleepless in Settle! What’s wrong with you? Put it on FX or something.”
Her voice became clear again. “Hurry up, Noe. He’s seriously freakin’ me out; I think I’m gonna take him to Bobbie Sue’s. At least a rack of ribs will keep his hands busy.”
I smiled, until I noticed Hunter had drawn a big heart on his napkin, with Hunter N Noe written inside. I rubbed my forehead; whoever was responsible for this was gonna have hell to pay when I caught up with them.
We stood to go, but Hunter continued to sit there, staring at me like the sun rose and set on my backside. I took his hand and tugged on him. “C’mon Cassanova, let’s go see about getting your stones back.”
Chapter 4
On the way to the Starlite, I called the Clip N Curl to check on Buddy. He must not have been any better because when she answered, Coralee sounded thoroughly perturbed. “For the love of god, Noelle, hurry up before I lose all respect for him. This ... blubbering fool ... is not the man who takes me to truck pulls and beats my pants off at pool every weekend. It’s like he doesn’t even have a man-gene anymore!”
I bit back a laugh, mostly because her sentiments echoed what I’d been thinking earlier. I looked over at Hunter, and he was making the heart symbol with his hands and blowing me kisses from the passenger seat. “Trust me, Coralee. I feel ya. We’re doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this.”
“Well do it quick, please.” She hung up, and I did my best to ignore Hunter as we pulled into the gravel lot of the diner.
The place was empty when we pushed through the double doors into the warmth. The smells of coffee and bacon grease permeated the air, and my stomach rumbled as Becki, the owner’s teenaged daughter, greeted us.
“Hey, Ms. Noelle, Ms. Shelby, Sheriff. Y’all sit wherever you want. Coffee?”
As much as my stomach screamed yes to both the caffeine and a plate full of greasy deliciousness, there was no way I was eating or drinking anything from there until we figured out the love-potion business.
“Thanks, Becki, but we’re not here to eat. Can you tell your mom we need to talk to her for a minute?”
Her eyes shifted between the three of us and settled on Hunter. “Is he okay? He looks drunk.”
Subtlety was an art she hadn’t quite mastered yet.
I smiled. “He’s fine, sort of. That’s actually what we need to talk to your mom about ...”
I let my words trail, and looked pointedly toward the kitchen door.
“Oh. Of course.” She looked away from Hunter, who was rubbing one of my curls between his fingers and looking at me like a bloomin’ idiot, and her cheeks pinked. “I’ll go get her for you.”
It only took a few seconds for Jeanie, her mom, to shoulder through the batwings.
“Hey Noe, Rae.” She pushed her eyebrows together and studied Hunter. “Sheriff, you all right?”
“Huh?” he said, then realized what he was doing and dropped my hair. He shook his head and cleared his throat. “Yeah. Well, sort of. The girls will explain.” He drifted back behind his loopy grin, and my love-struck lunatic was back.
“Okay,” Jeanie said, looking at him like he’d lost his mind, which, to be fair, he had. “What’s he talking about? And what’s wrong with him?”
Rae huffed out a breath, blowing her bangs off her forehead. “Apparently he managed to consume a love potion somewhere.”
Jeanie cocked an eyebrow. “Well, of course he did. That just explains everything. Silly me—I can’t believe I even had to ask.” She put her hands on her hips. “Seriously though. Is he drunk?”
I drew my brows down. “Of course he’s not drunk! You should know better than that. Buddy Hawkins and Cody are in the same shape. The only thing we can find in common so far is that they had breakfast here.”
Her face flushed. “Surely you don’t think they got into it here! They came in and had coffee and breakfast, that’s it!”
“Calm down,” Rae said, holding her hands out. “We’re not saying you did anything to them. We’re just startin’ here because so far it’s the one place they had in common. Were they here at the same time? If so, did they talk to each other?”
That seemed to smooth Jeanie’s feathers a bit and she furrowed her brow, thinking. “Cody was in first. Said he had to go help Will with a calving. Hunter came in about twenty minutes later, then Buddy about five minutes after that. Hunter actually sat down with Cody, and Buddy was sittin’ across the aisle from them, so he probably talked to them, too.”
“Okay,” I said, elbowing Hunter out of my space for the hundredth time. “That’s a start.”
He threw his arm back around me and squeezed me so hard I felt like one of those stress toys; I was sure my eyes were gonna pop out at any minute. “Isn’t she just brilliant, Jeanie? Can you make her some heart-shaped pancakes from me?”
“Oh, lordy,” she said, shaking her head. “He has it bad. Lemme ask Becki if she noticed anything off. She was serving so she saw more than I did, I’m sure.”
Becki must have heard her name from the bar where she’d been rolling silverware because she scooted right over to us without being called.
“It’s like Mom said—Hunter sat with Cody, and Buddy sat at the half-booth across from them. They were all talking.” She crinkled her forehead. “Mr. And Mrs. Spangler were sitting in the booth behind Buddy.”
Hunter piped up. “Yeah, nice couple, but he talked about his new tractor so much nobody else could get a word in edgewise. I tried to tell them nice things about you, but he just wouldn’t stop.”
I jerked my gaze toward him. “Wait, you had the urge to talk about me by the time you were eating breakfast?”
He reached out to touch my face and I pushed his hand away. “Knock it off, sweetie. Seriously. Now, answer my question, please.”
“Hmm,” he said, stuffing his hand in his pocket. “I can’t imagine not wanting to talk about you, but now that you mention it, I was thinking more along the lines of what to do for Valentine’s Day and—can you believe it—all I was gonna do was take you to the movies to watch the new Marvel movie, then grab a pizza on the way to your place because the restaurants would all be packed.” He wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe I was so unromantic.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. That was more along the lines of the normal Hunter—and definitely more up my alley than gooey, flowery text messages or standing in line for an hour waiting to eat an overpriced dinner that wouldn’t have been half as good as Duck’s pizza anyway. That was good info, though, because now I knew he hadn’t gotten into it at that point.
“What about Cody?” Rae asked. “What did he say he was going to do?”
Hunter scoffed. “He didn’t mention Valentine’s Day at all. Just said he was gonna help Will with a calving, then go hang out with Shelby and watch movies because it’s cold. He asked me to pick up a pizza for them when I got ours.”
Okay, so that was two out of three who hadn’t lost his mind to the love bug before breakfast.
“And Buddy?” I asked.
“He wasn’t doing anything at all for Coralee!” He looked appalled at the idea. “Said they’d been together too long for such nonsense, and he’d already taken her to the truck pull and the Golden Corral last night.”
So three normal guys came in. But did three normal guys leave?
I was about to ask Becki if she’d noticed anything unusual about them when she left, but Hunter’s phone rang. He answered, then frowned. “Yeah, she’s right here. Hang on.”
He handed to phone to me and I answered.
“Noelle? Oh thank god! This is Callie McCauley, and there’s something bad wrong with Sam.” She lowered her voice. “Something of the ... witchy variety, if you know what I mean. Or at least I think so. I think maybe ... well, I think he’s possessed or somethin’!”
“Callie, I’m here with Rae, Hunter, and Jeanie
from the diner. I’m putting you on speaker.”
She agreed, then went on to describe the same symptoms the other three had. “He went to breakfast, then when he got home, he was actin’ all weird and had a big, mixed-bag bouquet of lilies and carnations for me.”
“Aww, that’s sweet,” Jeanie said.
“Yeah, you’d think so,” Callie said, “’ceptin’ the card attached to the carnations said, From all the guys at the station: you put up one hell of a fight. We miss you already.”
I bit back a snort and Jeanie’s coffee came out her nose; they lived right up the road from the Keyhole Cemetery and the potion had apparently taken effect on his way home.
Or at least I sure hoped so.
Chapter 5
Jeanie scratched her head. “That don’t make no sense if they got into somethin’ here. Sam took two breakfasts—one for him and one for Callie—to go. Only thing he got was the coffee, and it couldn’t have been that, seein’ as how the diner was full at that point. At least five or six other people got coffee, at least top-offs, from that pot. We’d have a whole batch of other folks declarin’ undying love in whatever way they’d see fit.”
Becki nodded. “That’s the truth.” Her eyes got wide. “Good grief. Old Ms. Simmons was here then. I filled her cup up right after I filled Sam’s.”
“Oh dear,” Jeanie said. “That coulda turned ugly, fast.”
They were looking at each other, wearing identical expressions of horror and humor mixed together.
“Why’s that?”
Belle chose that minute to pop in. “I’ll tell you why! Cuz the old bat’s a donut shy of a dozen. She was into that free-love-and-peace, hippy mumbo-jumbo. Spent most of the sixties topless following the Grateful Dead and hittin’ so much LSD her brain’s et clear up. You go givin’ her a love potion and you’re gonna be seein’ a whole lot more of her than you want, I guarantee. And lemme tell ya, as a well-endowed woman myself, some things just ain’t supposed to swing free in the wind, ’specially after a certain age.”