What a way to start the day.
* * *
3
The Empress
Lilith awakened to the sound of hammering.
D’Artagnan was on the foot of the bed, looking smug. She sat up, eying the cat warily.
“We have a deal,” she reminded him. “No jumping on the counters, no sneaking on to my bed.”
The cat didn’t even blink.
Nor did he move. Honestly, he was getting too cocky for his own good! Lilith moved her foot under the sheets and he bounded away, his nose in the air as though he was insulted.
That was hardly anything new.
Lilith took a deep breath, not liking the humidity in the air. The sun was streaming through her sheer draperies, but not a whisper of breeze lifted them away from the open window. It was stuffy and still, even so early in the day.
So much for hoping it would rain and clear the air. Lilith rubbed her eyes and knew she hadn’t slept that well. She reached for the deck of tarot cards beside her bed and drew a card, as she often did in the morning, to give her counsel for the day.
The Empress. Lilith rolled her eyes. A card of productivity, of getting things done, of harvesting what has been sown, of finding a glimmer of the divine in the mundane through simple labor.
Well, someone was being productive, there was no doubt about that, despite the hour. That hammering sounded close. And it just didn’t quit. Lilith frowned in irritation, wondering who would be building something so early in the morning.
Couldn’t they give it a rest?
Lilith’s window faced the back of the house and she loved to look out at her garden in the morning. It delighted her to see the sunlight glint off the dew, to watch the bumblebees meander through the flowers. It would ease her irritation this morning. She rose with a smile of anticipation, tugged back the drapes and gasped.
Because this morning, her perfect garden was a perfect disaster.
Lilith stared in horror at the damage. Everything along the fence line was smashed flat. Her sunflowers were broken, her columbines were trodden down, several zucchini’s were pureed on the garden path. There were leaves and petals from the roses cast on the ground, several beds were crushed beyond recognition.
A very grim Mitch was hammering a section of their common fence back into place. His shirt was off, a glimmer of sweat shone on his tanned skin. The other three sections of the fence lay on the ground in Mitch’s yard, obviously having been moved off her plants.
Mitch’s massive dog cowered guiltily against the garage in the far corner of his yard and Lilith recognized a prime mover when she saw it.
But big dogs didn’t just suddenly take it into their heads to be destructive. The dog’s current manner indicated that he had forgotten himself in the heat of the moment.
Lilith made a very good guess as to exactly what that particular moment had been.
“D’Artagnan!” She dropped the curtain and turned to confront the cat. D’Artagnan strove to look innocent, as sure a sign as there could be of his guilt. “You had something to do with this. Don’t think I don’t know it.”
The cat bolted so fast that he was no more than a silver blur in the hall. Lilith rolled her eyes, knowing she had all the answers she needed.
But her garden!
She turned back and found herself watching Mitch instead of looking at her once vigorous flowers. There was something about the sight of a handsome man out fixing things in her yard that made Lilith catch her breath.
Not just any handsome man either. Her one true love.
Whether he knew it or not.
Although this was hardly the kind of interaction she had hoped for the night before, Lilith had learned long ago that the great forces could be playful. A can-do kind of witch worked with what she had.
What Lilith had was a half-naked, grumpy Mitch fixing her fence.
She’d have to make that work.
Later, she’d deal with the darned cat.
* * *
Jason was feeling pretty important. He liked helping his dad just about best of all, even better than catching tadpoles. Dad had said they’d have lots to fix in this new house and he’d been right.
They were fixing the fence already.
Dad put out his hand for a nail. Jason picked one out of the old olive jar in Dad’s toolbox. He liked Dad’s toolbox. It was kind of a mess, but there were lots of interesting things in there, if you looked close. All sorts of bits and ends, things that Dad could put together to fix just about anything.
Like the fence.
Dad winked as he took the nail. “Thanks, sport. Don’t know how I’d get this done without you.” Jason grinned as his dad hammered that nail into the old fence.
Jason was getting another nail out of the jar when the lady came out of her house next door. She looked at where the fence had landed on her plants and looked really sad. Jason felt bad that her flowers got smushed and felt a bit guilty that he had been so excited to see her yard when he got up today.
He’d been peeking through the fence the day before. Jason just knew she had better bugs over there and he had kind of been hoping to have a chance to look at them.
His dad stopped hammering. “Lilith, I thought you’d still be asleep.” It sounded as though Dad felt really bad too.
The lady looked at Dad. “Some hammering woke me up,” she said quietly. She had a nice voice, kind of low. And she was really pretty. She had her hair in a ponytail, but it was all dark and curly. It looked soft. She had a long dress on, like a princess, and it was blue like Jen’s Bun.
“I was hoping to get it fixed before you got up.” Dad’s ears got red. “I’m really sorry about the fence, Lilith, especially about your garden.”
She looked at the flowers, Dad fidgeted like he didn’t usually do. “I don’t know a lot about gardens,” Dad said quietly. He was looking really hard at the lady. “So, Lilith, please tell me what to do to make this come right.”
The lady stepped off her porch into the garden. She wandered along, touching a sunflower, then dropped to one knee beside Jason. She picked up a red flower that was broken right off and looked like she might cry.
Dad looked really worried.
Jason wanted to help. “That’s pretty,” he said.
The lady looked up at him, then very slowly she smiled. Jason smiled back. “And who are you?” she asked quietly.
“Jason.”
“My son,” Dad said.
The lady looked at Dad. “I didn’t know you were married.”
Dad got That Look, the one he got whenever Nana started talking about stuff that made Dad go shhh! “I’m not. Not anymore.”
“Oh.” The lady smiled at Jason again. “Hello, Jason. I’m Lilith.”
“Hi.”
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“Just Jen. She’s little.”
“How little?”
“Only three.”
Lilith smiled, then wrinkled her nose. Jason felt like she understood him. “Much littler than you.” She looked down at the flower again and her smile went away.
It was like the sun going behind a cloud. Jason wanted to make her smile again.
Good thing he had an idea.
“We could put it back on the plant,” he suggested. “We’ve got nails and duck tape and everything. Dad can fix anything.”
She did smile, but she shook her head. “That won’t work, Jason. You see, plants are different from fences. They’re more like people.”
“Oh.” Jason didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t think his dad did either.
The lady turned the flower in her hand. Suddenly, something fluttered through the air. Jason couldn’t see what it was, at least not until it paused in the air right in front of Lilith.
Then, she smiled, really smiled, as she hadn’t yet.
“Hello, Ralph,” she said softly.
It was a little bird, Jason realized, but its wings moved so fast that he
could hardly see them. He thought he could hear a hum coming from its wings. It was grey or dark green with a white tummy and a little red mark at its throat. The bird seemed to hang in the air, its long beak just a bit away from the flower Lilith held.
She looked at Jason and winked. “He wouldn’t tell me his name, so I gave him one.”
That made perfect sense to Jason. The bird moved forward and put his beak into the end of the red flower. Jason saw that it was actually a bunch of little red flowers all growing together. They were long and skinny, but the bird’s beak fit right into one.
Ralph moved to the next flower and the next, and Lilith held the flower very still.
“He comes every day,” Lilith whispered.
Jason was awed. “For the flowers?”
“For the nectar that’s in them. It’s like juice. That’s what Ralph eats and he knows he can find them here.”
Jason thought about that and wished he could see the little bird better. He didn’t want to move and scare it, though.
As though she knew what he was thinking, Lilith beckoned with her free hand. “Bring the honeysuckle,” she whispered and pointed to an orange and yellow flower on the ground beside him. It had the same kind of pointy shape as the ones she held. “And move very slowly.”
Jason looked up and his dad nodded. He picked up the flower and moved closer to Lilith, watching Ralph carefully. The sun sparkled on the bird’s red throat like it did on some cars.
Ralph suddenly darted back and seemed to face him for a long moment. Jason understood that the bird was checking him out. He offered the flower very slowly, just like Lilith said.
He held his breath.
In the blink of an eye, Ralph zoomed closer. He was right there! Jason could have touched him, but he was afraid to even move. Ralph stuck his beak into the flower, then pulled back.
“Breakfast!” Nana called, slamming the kitchen door behind herself. “Who’s up for chocolate cake?”
Ralph zipped skyward.
Jason spun to face his grandmother and yelled as he almost never did. “Nana! You scared Ralph!”
Nana looked confused. “What?”
“Jason was feeding a hummingbird,” Dad told Nana and she bit her lip.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry...” and then Nana gasped. She jumped back and Jason almost laughed.
Because Ralph was hovering beside Nana’s shoulder, giving her the same look he had given Jason.
“It’s the flowers on her shirt,” Lilith whispered with a smile. “He’s not sure if they’re real.”
And it seemed he wasn’t. Nana was wearing one of her bright shirts from Hawaii, this one covered with big pink flowers. Ralph took only a moment to decide they weren’t worth the trouble, then zinged over the house and disappeared.
“That was neat!” Jason declared.
Lilith smiled. “Yes, I like Ralph.”
“Does he really come all the time?”
Lilith nodded. “Every day.”
“Can I come see him again?”
“Jason!” Dad objected, but Lilith just nodded.
“Of course you can!” She leaned closer. “But you know what you might like even better?” Jason shook his head. “What if Ralph came to your yard too?”
Jason looked at their yard and didn’t see anything like the long pointy flowers Ralph liked. “But we don’t have any flowers for him.”
“Not yet.” Lilith turned the red flower. “This is called beebalm. Ralph looks for bright flowers and ones that are long with nectar at the bottom.” She handed it to Jason. “If you put this in water, it will probably root. Then you’ll have a whole new plant for your garden.”
“What about yours?”
Lilith touched the spot where the plant came out of the ground. “Beebalm is a perennial. That means the top dies but the root lives through the winter and it grows again every spring. It just gets a little bigger every year. My beebalm will come back.”
Jason frowned. “But it wouldn’t be fair if Ralph stopped coming to your flowers.”
Lilith smiled. “I don’t have enough flowers for Ralph. He needs to eat a lot of nectar, so that he can keep flying so fast.” She touched Jason’s arm with one fingertip. “You can help make sure that he gets enough to eat.”
Jason liked the idea of that. He decided it would be pretty neat if Ralph came to his yard every day. He turned the plant in his hands and it smelled a bit sweet.
No wonder Ralph liked it.
“Do you like birds?” Lilith asked.
“I like Ralph.” Jason nodded. “And I like bugs. A lot.”
“Well, bumblebees like a lot of the same things that Ralph likes. What do you say we get your garden started?” She looked at Dad. “If that’s okay with you?”
Dad grinned. “That would be more than okay.”
“Well, then, that’s that. Jason, if you go back there” - Lilith pointed to the end of her yard - “you’ll find some plastic buckets. We’ll put some water in them, then some of these flowers.”
This was so neat! He was going to have bugs and Ralph and everything, right in his own backyard! Jason set out for the back of Lilith’s lot with purpose.
“But please don’t step on the toad!” she called after him.
Toad? She had a toad?
Wow!
Beebalm clenched in his fist, Jason inched toward the back of Lilith’s yard. He frowned at the path, determined not to miss the toad or anything else of interest.
He liked their new house already.
* * *
Mitch cleared his throat. Here he was supposed to be apologizing to Lilith, he was expecting her to be furious with him, yet she was being nice to his son.
“Look, Lilith, it’s really nice, but you don’t have to do this.”
She smiled at Mitch and his heart took a little flip-flop. The sapphire dress she wore swirled around her ankles as she stepped closer. Her hair was in a ponytail, the way she had it tied up revealing the graceful curve of her nape.
The woman was so lethally sexy that Mitch just wanted to eat her up with a spoon. A night’s sleep had done nothing to diminish her appeal.
“But I want to show him!” she protested with a smooth smile. “He’s so interested and it’s nice to share what you know with someone who wants to learn.”
Mitch couldn’t argue with that. “Well, yeah. Jason will listen to you for as long as you keep talking to him.” He grinned at her. “Forewarned is forearmed. Just send him home if you get done with it.”
“He’s just like a little sponge!” Andrea interjected pertly. Mitch blinked, having forgotten his stepmother’s presence. Andrea peeked around the end of the fence that Mitch was fixing and smiled sunnily at Lilith.
Lilith smiled back. “Well, hello.”
“Andrea Davison. Mitch is my stepson.” She shook Lilith’s hand and practically bounced in anticipation.
“Pleased to meet you.” Lilith’s gaze slid to Mitch and her eyes danced with mischief. “You must be the one interested in having your fortune told.”
Mitch opened his mouth to interrupt, but neither woman was listening to him.
“Oh, yes! Tarot cards, tea leaves, it doesn’t matter to me.” Andrea giggled, then leaned closer to Lilith. “Can you really predict lovematches?”
“Of course.”
Mitch stifled his snort of disdain. Of course?
The women ignored him.
Andrea bounced with impatience. “Do you think you might have time to do a reading for me this weekend?”
That was enough.
“Andrea! Cooley has just trashed Lilith’s fence and Jason is moving into her yard.” Mitch threw out his hands in exasperation. “I think we’re wearing out our welcome.”
But Lilith laughed. Her low laughter coaxed that ember lingering in Mitch’s belly back to a flame. Had he ever met a more attractive woman?
That thought led naturally to the recollection of their first meet and Mitch had a hard time keeping his thought
s straight after that. It didn’t help that Lilith was watching him as though she knew what he was thinking.
And smiling that seductive, secretive smile that made his ears feel hot.
“It wouldn’t be any problem at all,” she conceded. “How about this afternoon?”
“Oh! That would be perfect!” Andrea playfully punched Mitch in the shoulder. “See? I told you.” She rolled her eyes and smiled back at Lilith. “He worries so much about everything. I’ll just pop over when the kids have their nap.”
“I’ll look forward to seeing you.”
A plaintive cry came from the second floor and Mitch suddenly realized that Jen was not only awake but confused.
He stepped away from the fence, but Andrea was on the porch in record time. “I’ll get her,” she said quickly. “I shouldn’t have even left her, but I just – well, I just had to meet you.” Andrea beamed. “Well, I’ll see you this afternoon.”
As Jen began to wail, Andrea ran.
Mitch had a hard time staying put, even knowing that Andrea could manage. He really didn’t like hearing his little girl cry. He fidgeted and glanced anxiously to the house.
“Two kids?” Lilith asked softly. She was beside him again, her eyes impossibly wide and dark.
“Yeah. Five and three.” Mitch managed to smile. “Busy, busy, busy.”
Jen stopped crying and Andrea’s dulcet tones carried through the open upstairs window. Mitch felt relief slide through him just as Lilith leaned against the restored fence. “I’ll bet.”
To Mitch’s relief, she seemed disinterested in the whole sordid story of how he had ended up with kids but no wife. Lilith’s gaze ran over the chunks of fence scattered across his yard, then paused on the banished Cooley.
She glanced back to Mitch, her eyes dancing. “Am I right to guess your dog finally coaxed these old fence posts to break?”
“Oh yeah.” Mitch lined up a final nail and hammered it home, welcoming the change of subject. He tested the fence. The shims around the rotten posts seemed to be holding well enough.
At least for the short term.
“He’s like a freight train once he gets moving,” Mitch acknowledged.
Love Potion #9 Page 6