"Sounds great." He thought about flinging his arms around Maurice in gratitude--but that brought up that image of Maurice and Phill clinging to each other, sitting on that videotape rack, when he walked into the room just a few moments ago. Phill had gone to the trouble of shrinking herself down to Maurice's size when she found him. That had to mean something, didn't it?
He gave himself a mental shake. So what if Phill felt some emotional tie to Maurice? She belonged to him, and he was going to let her know. Somehow.
Tuesday, December 11
Harry had enough control over the invisibility spell--in theory at least--that he and Bethany could go out in public and interact with people, and she would remain unrecognized.
"It's along the lines of a "Don't look at me" spell, mixed with a "Don't remember me" spell," he explained. He gave her a sheepish look when she knew her confusion showed. "Standard spells every Fae child learns when they're old enough to go out into the Human world. Little kids' ear points are much more pronounced until they hit adolescence, and they don't have the knack for covering their ears with their hair. Leads to trouble. Especially when people are prone to believing in elves and leprechauns that are half their size. There's something about Human brains that lets them ignore oddities in adults."
"To a point," she offered with a giggle, and was delighted when he laughed with her.
Harry decided they needed to experiment and test the control he had over the invisibility before they picked up her father at the airport. Ostensibly, Mr. Miller's visit to Vegas was a test run, to see how closely the paparazzi were monitoring his activity. If he was able to move around without being trailed in the hopes that he would lead the media to Bethany, then phase two of the plan would be implemented. It would include Bethany getting on a plane for Europe, stepping into Harry's invisibility field, and then getting off the plane and taking another one for Cleveland.
They visited two casinos, and got thrown out of the second when Harry calculated a system for betting and told Bethany what he was doing. She was too delighted at the proof that people could hear and see them without recognizing her to be indignant at the abrupt treatment. And really, it wasn't fair. Harry wasn't cheating. He was just using math, in his head, without any gizmos or electronics to influence the machines.
"You weren't using any magic in there, were you?" she asked, as they strolled down the strip. She had grown so used to people bumping into her without recognizing her, it wasn't a game anymore.
"What's the fun in that?" Harry looked so confused by the suggestion of cheating, Bethany felt her heart turn a couple somersaults. How could anybody be so smart and so innocent, and such a hunk? She hooked her arm through his and shook her head.
"Stupid question. You don't need to cheat. It's the game, not the money, right?" She envied him. Somewhere along the line, the balance between fun and the need for money had changed, when it came to her acting. She had done community theater for fun, and acted in commercials for money. Now, it was more work and less fun, and while she had a tidy sum tucked away that she could certainly live on for the rest of her life back in Ohio, it wouldn't last her long in L.A. or Vegas or anywhere else she went. Certainly not if she wanted to keep in the limelight, so other directors and producers saw her and offered her jobs.
Vicious cycle, she decided with a jolt. She had a choice of leaving it all behind and going home, getting her college degree, maybe becoming a theater teacher or acting coach, and living comfortably as a has-been. But Bethany realized with an unpleasant dropping sensation, she had become addicted to the bright lights. Even if she complained about being hounded, and needed to go to extremes to ensure some privacy over the holidays, she liked being recognized, popular, in demand.
"Hey, it's okay," Harry murmured, leaning close enough his warm breath brushed her cheek.
She turned to him, and their noses almost touched. What would he do, she wondered, if she wrapped her free arm around his neck and pulled him close for a kiss?
Harry turned red and swallowed so hard she could hear it, and his eyes got wide, almost panicky. Could he hear what she was thinking? Or maybe it was more a matter of picking up the images in her mind?
"Uh, Bethany--"
"It's okay. If you don't want to, you don't have to," she whispered.
"Hey, you two." A man coming up behind them laughed. "Get a room!"
"We're not--we don't--" Harry jerked back, turning even redder.
The pleasant tickling buzz of the invisibility field flared and died.
"Hey," the man said, his eyes widening with shock and amazement. "You're Bethany--"
"Run!" Harry barked, and grabbed hold of her hand, nearly pulling her off her feet before she could get them moving.
He was faster than the best sprinter on her high school track team, and Bethany was grateful.
* * * *
"It was just like when I knocked myself out with that explosion," Harry mused. He sat on the balcony of the suite they had taken in the center of town, so they could test the shielding more easily, and didn't see the multicolored light show of Vegas spread out before him. His thoughts kept spinning back to that afternoon, when he thought, hoped, Bethany wanted him to kiss her.
That tickling buzz all through his body hadn't been terror, like he had felt the three--count them, only three--times a desperate woman in Need had turned her attention on him. And then a moment later dashed right past him, to ambush some poor unsuspecting guy whose bachelorhood had suddenly come under attack, like the Plains Indians who woke up one day to find themselves in the way of the railroad. No, that feeling had been anticipation, touched with hunger. All his senses were swamped with Bethany.
That, he suspected, was why he hadn't realized it when the background whisper, like wind constantly brushing against his bare back, vanished. He had lived so long with the feeling of the magic that wrapped around him and kept him invisible, he should have been shocked when it abruptly cut off like that. But no, everything had been focused on Bethany. He had even let go of his concentration on blurring their images so they could interact with people and not be recognized.
Running had been the stupidest reaction he had ever had. Common sense said that if he had re-established the blurring around them, they could have easily convinced the passerby that he had been mistaken. Running only confirmed the man's glimpse of Bethany's face.
"What explosion?" Bethany's quiet question yanked him out of his musing.
That was the problem, he decided with a grin and that funny, warm, hollow feeling that jolted through his chest when she settled down next to him on the lounge chair. Bethany distracted him. The haze of magic or power or whatever it was that surrounded her interfered with the invisibility spell, canceling it, as well as canceling all his discipline and control over his magic.
She still sat there, watching him, waiting for an explanation with that soft, innocent smile on her face. Optimistic, he decided. Bethany still expected the world to be nice, even with all the nasty surprises that dogged her steps since she had shot to stardom. He had never felt old, at the age of two hundred thirty-seven, but she made him feel worn out and cynical, and it wasn't just because she was a sweet young thing in her twenties.
"Alexi explained about my invisibility spell, didn't he?"
"It malfunctioned, so it sticks to you all the time, and you have to consciously make yourself visible." She nodded. "That's about it. What explosion?"
Haltingly he explained some of his experiments, his inventions to do things the Human, non-magical way. Bethany leaned closer, eyes widening, sometimes forgetting to breathe, all physical evidence that his story fascinated her. When had a woman ever been fascinated by him? She wasn't amazed or turned off or freaked out by the fact that he was Fae and he had to use a separate blurring spell for his ears. So it wasn't the alien factor that caused this interest. Could Bethany be interested in him, Hargrove, the man?
That was almost as fascinating a concept as Bethany herself, and the mystery
of the magic that soaked into her flesh and bones and yet wasn't actually a part of her, at her disposal or command.
"Okay, you were unconscious, all your control over counteracting the spell turned off, but you were visible." She frowned, nodding slowly, and her gaze seemed to turn inward. "I wish Daddy was here. He loves puzzles like this."
"Umm, maybe you shouldn't tell him about me. Being Fae," Harry hurried to add, when she gave him a confused little frown.
"My dad's the original philosopher, or quantum physicist," she said with a chuckle. "It's not hard to believe at all in Fae and magic and other dimensions of reality all pressed together into one space, living side-by-side, because of Daddy and the things he taught me. Just because he owns a diner doesn't mean he's--"
"I'd never say dumb or ignorant or anything like that." He pressed two fingers over her lips, to stop her before the words came out. Both of them froze for several frantic heartbeats as that zing jolted through their bodies again. Harry didn't want to lose contact with her, but he knew it would look pretty silly to keep sitting there with his finger against her lips.
Bethany solved the problem by taking hold of his hand in hers and keeping hold of it. She swallowed hard and a ragged little giggle escaped her.
"Daddy reads everything. He's a genius, but he never had a chance to get past junior college, that's all. He'll accept what you are, but I have to warn you, he'll bury you with a thousand questions within the first day of you two meeting. Think you're up for it?"
"Sure," Harry managed to say, vitally aware of her pulse in the little hand that held his. "Why not? It'll be fun. At least we'll have something to talk about."
Bethany's laughter was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.
Wednesday, December 12
Brick pulled up in front of the Neighborlee Arms and put his truck into park. The stately old brick building at one point in the town's history had been his family's home. He smirked, remembering the fight he had read about in his family's journals that took place about sixty years before, when one of the Gladstones came up with alleged historical documents that claimed a Gladstone had built the building, the first six-story building in the entire town. Of course, whenever a Gladstone tried to grab historical proof that they did something first or arrived somewhere first, it was usually followed by a battle to take back the property that allegedly had been stolen from the Gladstones.
The last attempt by a Gladstone to rearrange Neighborlee to suit his purposes had been just this past summer, when Reggie Gladstone tried to prove that the old factory that now housed Eden II had been illegally leased to the community center. At the time, Brick had been part of the committee that ran the center. Gina Sinclair had warned them they had a fight on their hands the minute Reggie Gladstone waved his first falsified document in the air. The battle had faded away before it really began. Gina never told the committee exactly what had happened, except that she had some legal help from an unexpected source. The fact that she was dating Conrad Wilson, new partner in Carr, Cooper and Crenshaw--the legal firm where Reggie Gladstone no longer worked--suggested quite a few scenarios in Brick's mind.
All that mattered to him right now was that Eden II was safe from the Gladstones. Reggie had left town with one of his idiot cousins, and there were no Gladstone males currently cruising Neighborlee, ready to latch onto the first beautiful stranger who visited longer than a day.
Lori was definitely the most beautiful stranger who had graced this town in years.
If Brick had his way, she wasn't going to leave any time soon, and she definitely wouldn't be a stranger. He'd never been attracted to a woman as strongly as he was toward her. Maybe because she wasn't throwing herself at him in the mistaken belief that he was wealthier than Midas and owned half the town. That might have been true when Granny first arrived, but not now. She had been smart, handing over businesses, chunks of land and responsibility to people who could take care of them properly. She had always maintained that the best way to maintain influence and power was to earn respect. That meant service. And serving meant--
His train of thought totally derailed when Lori stepped out the front door and looked around. She and Brick hadn't made any plans for today. However, the friends who had come to town with her had monopolized her for two entire days while he worked like a good little boy. It was his turn to indulge in some fun and show Neighborlee's most beautiful visitor what the town had to offer. Besides, she was his Christmas angel. Family tradition said Christmas angels only stayed on earth until Christmas Eve. That meant Brick only had twelve more days to convince her to shed her wings and stay earthbound and be his angel all year round.
That thought came out of nowhere, stunning him so much he nearly forgot to flag her down before she headed down the street to Hunky & Dory's, where she had gone for breakfast every day since she arrived in town.
Convince Lori to stay? What did he really know about her, besides the fact that she dressed with understated elegance, she didn't seem to care about money, and she treated Christmas like it was a totally new experience? Oh yeah, and he wanted to drop everything that meant anything to him to spend all his time with her and see her eyes light up with wonder and admiration for him.
Lori started down the steps of the hotel and the movement jarred Brick's brain out of neutral. He fumbled with the latch of his door--how could a man forget how to work a simple door latch, anyway?--and managed to fling it open before she came even with his truck. For a moment, he had a vision of opening the door right into her midsection and knocking her flat. Not his idea of sweeping a girl off her feet.
"Where do you think you're going this fine morning?" He leaped out and nearly lost his footing on some ice cleverly hidden under last night's dusting of snow. Fortunately, he still had one hand on his door and saved his balance without looking like a total idiot.
"Breakfast. I'm dying of starvation." Lori's eyes sparkled, cold kissed her cheeks, and she tucked her hands into the deep pockets of her simple black coat.
"Can't have that. How would that make Neighborlee look to the world, if our visitors were strewn all over the streets, passing out from starvation?" He slammed the door of his truck--then thought to check to make sure he actually had the keys in his pocket, along with his wallet. Fortunately, both were where they belonged. He bowed and offered Lori his bent arm. She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and they strolled down the sidewalk together.
"So, have you thought about where you want to go today? Or maybe I should ask what you did yesterday, so we don't repeat it," he said.
"I'm sorry. I completely forgot we had plans for today." Lori blushed delightfully.
"We didn't, but I'm shanghaiing you, so you can tell your friends they're out of luck."
"How about we make it a foursome?" Will said, appearing seemingly from nowhere. Brick nearly lost his footing on another patch of ice. He could have sworn the very air split apart, letting Will and Phill catch up with them.
"Do you know Lori?" Brick asked.
"They're the ones who brought me here," Lori said. "Since I was kind of down and blue with nothing to do, they decided to finally share their favorite place on the entire planet with me." She hooked her arm with Phill's without loosening her grip on Brick's.
"Ah... That's good." Brick flashed onto the warning he had carried in the back of his mind since the day he started school: Coincidences usually aren't, and people who seem too good to be true definitely are. Just the fact that Lori had never mentioned she was with Will and Phill made Brick suspicious.
And that hurt.
"Something wrong?" Will said, falling into step on the other side of Phill, so they strolled down the sidewalk boy-girl-boy-girl.
Brick nearly stumbled--when had they started walking again? He was losing his mind, a crumb at a time.
"No. Just wondering how come nobody mentioned you knew each other. How good of friends are you, anyway? Are you, like, staying together?" He wanted to cut out his tongue the momen
t those idiot words left his lips. He knew it was none of his business--though if his plans for him and Lori moved any further down the road, it most definitely would be his businesses.
"Phill and I are sharing a room. Will is somewhere in the dungeon," Lori said with that delightful giggle like chiming bells on a snowy night. "It'd be okay if Will and I shared a suite--although he's such a slob, who would want to?--because we're distant cousins. But Phill definitely isn't his cousin, although she is one of mine, too, on another side. It's all complicated. I never paid attention during the family tree and genealogy discussions in school."
"Cousins." Brick's sigh of relief caught in his throat. Somehow, knowing they were related didn't make the situation any better. Calming one worry just raised more. "How come you two never mentioned Lori to me?" he asked as they reached the doorway of Hunky & Dory's and paused to let a group of early diners walk out. Christmas music poured out through the open door.
"The same reason we never mentioned Neighborlee to her. We're kind of rebels, where we come from," Phill said with a shrug. "People say we're feckless, always gallivanting all over the world. So we kind of keep quiet about things when we're home, so nobody accuses us of tempting and corrupting the young."
"You're ridiculous," Lori said with a sigh and a grin.
"And we don't talk about things and people back home while we're out roaming free because we just don't want to remember. Kind of ruins the buzz," Will added. He sniffed loudly as the door slowly swung shut. "I'm starving. Can we please go in? Or are we going to have snowballs for breakfast?"
"Definitely going in." Since Brick had a free arm, he reached out and caught the handle of the door before it quite latched, and pulled it open. Lori laughed when he bowed, refusing to let go of her arm, which forced her to semi-bow with him.
Will grinned evilly, hooked his arm through Phill's, and stepped through the door, pulling her along with him. They were all four laughing as Phill pulled Lori, who pulled Brick, who pulled the door shut. The people in the small restaurant looked up as the four made their way to the ordering counter along the left-hand wall of the deep storefront. Most of them smiled. A few stared, eyes wide.
Have Yourself a Faerie Little Christmas Page 9