Love Potion #9

by Claire Delacroix

  But it seemed that just her endorsement was enough to have all those star-struck men sipping like obedient puppies. They lifted their pinkies in the air as they held the delicate cups, their gazes locked on Lilith as though they couldn’t bear to look anywhere else.

  Mitch certainly didn’t imagine that the “potion” would work, even after Cooley’s and Kurt’s responses. He wasn’t nearly as ready as Lilith to draw a line between those points.

  But he was curious. The mark of a good journalist, Mitch told himself, refusing to acknowledge that he had any interest in seeing these guys move along.

  He watched them drink, not a word from any of them, and felt as though he had stepped into a foreign film with incomprehensible sub-titles. The scary thing was that this wasn’t the first Truly Weird thing Mitch had witnessed since he moved. Or even, the first Truly Weird thing he had done in Lilith’s company.

  He tried not to think about that.

  He tried not to think about Lilith’s new certainty that he was her champion, much less the warm feeling that gave him inside.

  He tried not to think about the way she kissed him, or the scent of her perfume, or even to notice the contrast of her bare feet against the grass.

  He really tried not to be charmed by a woman who chided him for not using good solid logic to make conclusions, even if her assumptions were a bit out of this world.

  And most of all, Mitch tried not to worry about any of these men responding to Lilith’s potion the way Cooley supposedly had. Lilith had refused to hear anything about the possibility, but Mitch watched them sip dutifully and wondered.

  Of course, what Mitch should have been doing was trying to find out about Lilith’s nefarious schemes. He should have been ferreting out the truth about Andrea’s cruise. He should have been focused and diligent and concentrating on the job he had made his own.

  But instead, after the men had drained their teacups, he stood with Lilith, holding the empty tray and his breath. And Mitch watched as, one at a time, they each got that look of confusion, as though they had just awakened from a long dream and weren’t quite sure where they were.

  They looked at Lilith.

  In obvious uncertainty, they looked at Mitch, the house, each other, then back at Lilith again. They looked down to the cups in the hands, then at Lilith one more time. Several checked their watches, one looked at the sky as though unable to fathom where the hours had gone. The cable guys frowned at the parking tickets clustered on the windshield of their truck.

  Then without a single word, the men turned and left as one.

  They dumped their cups back on Mitch’s tray, studiously avoided his gaze, and stepped away without a backward glance. It was incomprehensible, it was illogical, it was whimsical.

  But it seemed that Lilith’s potion was working.

  And even more oddly, Mitch couldn’t quell his relief when the last of them rubbed his brow and wandered away. When Lilith hooted with delight and threw herself into his arms, Mitch decided it would be rude to not catch her.

  And even more rude to not kiss her.

  Although he suspected that he invited her for dinner for an entirely different reason than he should, Mitch did it anyway. And even though his heart took that strange double-skip when Lilith accepted the invitation, he knew that couldn’t mean anything at all.

  It wouldn’t have been logical, after all.

  * * *

  When Mitch ushered Lilith into the house and announced with no small measure of triumph that she was staying for dinner, Andrea was certain she couldn’t have planned things better herself. Mitch didn’t look nearly as grim as he had recently, which could only be a good sign. And Lilith was flushed like a girl in love.

  Perfect.

  “About time you showed up,” Andrea chided, having no intention of revealing how much this development pleased her. “Dinner’s going to be burned to a crisp.”

  “Cooley had an altercation with Lilith’s storm door,” Mitch supplied amiably.

  Lilith’s eyes twinkled. “The door lost.”

  Andrea smiled. She could just imagine. And from the look of these two, there were no hard feelings over the matter.

  “Lillit, where’s your kitty?” Jen demanded, her fair brow tight with concern. “Is he all alone?”

  “No, Jen, he’s okay.” Lilith crouched down beside the little girl and shared that smile. “He’s just asleep.”

  “In the furthest corner of the attic,” Mitch muttered. “It’ll probably be days before he -“ Mitch paused and looked at Jen “- uh, before he wakes up.”

  Jen bit her lip with consternation. “Is Dartaggin sick?”

  “No, no.” Lilith shook her head. She seemed to exude a soothing calm and Andrea noted with approval that Jen was not immune to its effect. The little girl visibly relaxed. “He’s just tired.” Lilith’s lips quirked as though she couldn’t stop them. “He had a busy, busy day.”

  “Lots of running around,” Mitch contributed. The pair looked at each other for the first time since they had walked in the door and started to chuckle.

  Andrea didn’t understand why and she didn’t much care. It was good to see Mitch smiling in a woman’s company again.

  The timer went off and Andrea flicked on the oven light, trying to discern without opening the door whether the frozen french fries were cooked or not.

  “Well, my bug is sick,” Jason piped up.

  Lilith immediately looked as though this was the mightiest problem confronting the free world. Andrea smiled to herself, then decided to leave those fries just a few minutes longer. She hated when they were mushy inside.

  “Oh, what’s wrong with him?”

  “I dunno.” Jason entrusted Lilith with his mayonnaise jar and they peered through the fogged glass together. “He hasn’t moved much since I caught him.”

  “Mmm. Do you know what kind of bug it is?”

  “A cicada. His name is Bob.”

  “Bob the Cicada?” Lilith echoed.

  Mitch cleared his throat suddenly and Andrea caught the glint in his eye. “Bob,” he mouthed silently as he came to Andrea’s side, then shook his head as he bit back his laughter. Andrea was very relieved to see his eyes sparkle like that. Mitch reached into the fridge for the hamburger patties. “Is the grill on?”

  “Yes, it’s ready,” Andrea confided. “So are the fries, just about.”

  “Fries?” Mitch grimaced. “What happened to salad?”

  “Oh, we won’t waste your nice salad. Now, shoo. And hurry up.” Andrea flicked her hands and Mitch shooed, both of them content to leave the kids talking to Lilith.

  “There’s Bob!” Jen cried.

  Jason tapped a finger on the jar. “See? Right there.”

  Lilith frowned with concern. “He’s awfully still, Jason.”

  “What’s the matter with him?”

  Lilith pursed her lips in thought. “Do you know what cicadas do when they’re happy?”

  Jason shrugged, Jen watched Lilith with wide eyes.

  “Well, they’re not so different from us,” Lilith confided and dropped to sit cross-legged on the floor between the children. “They like to sing.”

  Jason shook his head, daddy’s little skeptic. “Bugs don’t sing!”

  “Not really. But they can rub their wings together and make a sound that we call singing. Crickets do it, too.”

  “I thought that was when they wanted to find a lady cricket and make babies.”

  “See? Just like us.” Lilith smiled. “People sing when they’re courting, too. And they court when they’re happy. Has Bob been singing?”

  “No.” Jason was solemn.

  “Then, maybe, he isn’t very happy.”

  “But why not? I put lots of grass and stuff in the jar for him!”

  “Maybe it’s too hot. Or maybe he just doesn’t like being stuck in the jar.” Lilith made a face. “Do you like when you have to stay in your room?”

  “No.”

  “It’s kind of
the same, isn’t it?”

  Jason shuffled his feet as he considered that.

  Mitch strode back into the kitchen and put the dirty plate in the sink. “Five minutes a side.”

  “Can’t I have mine rare?” Andrea asked.

  One look from Mitch answered her question. “You do remember our microscopic friend E. coli bacteria? And that article I did about all those people who were so sick last summer?”

  Andrea rolled her eyes and soundly cursed little invisible things that took the fun out of life. But Mitch had already begun listening intently to Lilith’s conversation with Jason.

  “But if I let Bob go,” Jason reasoned carefully, a tiny version of his father chasing down a solution, “then I won’t be able to look at him anymore.”

  Lilith smiled sadly. “If you don’t let him go, Bob will stay sad. He might get so sad that he dies.” Jason frowned, but Lilith leaned closer to him. “You know, a long time ago, I knew a very wise woman and she told me a magic rule that just might help you decide what to do.”

  Jason immediately brightened. “What kind of magic rule?”

  “Is it a secret?” Jen asked in a hushed voice.

  Lilith smiled. “Kind of a secret,” she acknowledged. “It’s a rule to make sure you live a good life. Do whatsoever you will, but harm none.”

  Jason’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else.”

  That sounded like fine thinking to Andrea. In fact, it sounded like a variant of Mitch’s own code of ethics. She slanted a glance to her stepson and found his gaze fixed on their neighbor. He looked a bit surprised by Lilith’s rule.

  It was about time the man had a surprise or two!

  “Is this hurting Bob?” Jason asked, his little brow furrowed.

  Lilith looked at the jar and wrinkled her nose. “What do you think?”

  Jason bit his lip as he considered the matter. “Maybe I should let Bob go.”

  Lilith watched him carefully. “It’s up to you.”

  Jason’s face brightened. “Maybe I’ll be able to hear Bob sing again if I let him go.”

  Lilith smiled. “Maybe.” Andrea admired how she exerted no pressure on Jason, just expressed her point of view and let him make up his own mind.

  Which Jason quickly did. He took his jar back from Lilith and marched purposefully for the back door. “Come on, Bob,” he said, as though Bob had much choice in the matter. “It’s time to let you go. Maybe you can sing and find a wife. Then, you can bring lots of baby cicadas to see us.”

  “Will Bob fly out of the jar?” Jen asked in excitement.

  Lilith shrugged. “Let’s go see.”

  They followed Jason, hand in hand, Bun dragging behind. Mitch blinked and shook his head. A gasp of delight from the back porch a moment later revealed that Bob had, in fact, taken flight. The children began to chatter, Lilith’s low laughter underscoring their tones.

  “It’s amazing,” Mitch murmured. “Jen never takes to anyone that fast.”

  Andrea swung the spatula at him and decided not to push her luck by talking about kismet. “I told you she was a nice girl,” she hissed. “Even your kids can see the truth.” She pretended to chase Mitch across the kitchen. “Now, go get those burgers before we starve!”

  He grinned and bowed low. “Yes, ma’am. Right away, ma’am.”

  Andrea rolled her eyes as he ducked out to the porch and the kids clamored for his attention. She reached for the oven mitts and eyed the french fries again. They were never as good this way as when they were deep-fried, but she supposed it didn’t hurt to compromise with Mitch.

  Once in a while.

  Then, Andrea’s lips curved with the realization that there was one teensy detail about her trip she had forgotten to tell Mitch.

  Well, this was as good a time as any.

  She marched to the back door and peered through the screen. “Mitch?”

  “Uh huh.” He barely looked up from the grill. Andrea could hear the children chattering away to Lilith from further down the yard. They were speculating on whether one of the cicadas currently singing could be Bob. Lilith’s manner with them confirmed Andrea’s suspicions that her plan was a good one.

  “There’s something I should tell you, about the cruise.” That got her stepson’s attention, as Andrea had thought it would. She smiled broadly when his head snapped up. “Don’t fret, worry-wart. It’s just that the weekend in the middle of my cruise is the same weekend that you have that conference in Kansas City.”

  An expression of exasperation just had time to work its way across Mitch’s features before Andrea continued. “But you promised...”

  “I know, I know, and I’ve solved it, so you have nothing to be concerned about.” Andrea gave Mitch a smile that was supposed to be reassuring.

  But Mitch treated Andrea to one of Those Looks. “Why doesn’t that inspire great confidence in me?” he asked wryly. “I suppose it’s too much to hope you’ve bitten the bullet and cancelled?”

  “What a thought!” Andrea rolled her eyes. “Of course not! Lilith is going to watch the kids that weekend.”

  “Lilith!” Mitch’s lips tightened, he glanced over his shoulder to the silhouette of the lady in question, then leaned closer to Andrea. His voice was low, his gaze bored right through the screen mesh to lock with hers.

  “Didn’t it occur to you that we might be imposing? This woman is just our neighbor, Andrea. We’ve only known her for a week, Cooley keeps trashing her house. Did you ever think that she might not want to be swept into our chaotic household?”

  Andrea hadn’t. She frowned. “But she said she’d be delighted...”

  “What else was she going to say?” Mitch demanded in frustration. “Andrea, I think you’ve really put Lilith on the spot here. It’s not fair.”

  Andrea smiled slowly as she realized just what Mitch was doing. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the counter to eye him.

  “What?” he asked impatiently. “Is it so bizarre to not want to impose on people?”

  “No, but it is bizarre that you’re suddenly worried about protecting Lilith from the rest of us,” Andrea retorted, not bothering to disguise her triumph. “I thought she was supposed to be the one with the evil plans for me.”

  Mitch tellingly looked away. “I don’t really know what’s going on,” he said gruffly.

  “Uh huh. But funny thing is, you’re not worried about leaving those two little ones in her care.”

  Mitch inhaled sharply and fired a bright glance at his stepmother.

  Andrea grinned, then tapped him on the screen between them. “I think you like her,” she whispered knowingly. “And I think that’s a very good thing. It’s about time you put the past where it belongs.”

  Mitch covered his surprise quickly, but not quickly enough that Andrea didn’t see it. He snorted, as though indifferent to Andrea’s claim, although that lady knew better. “Right. I think you’ve got love on the brain, Andrea. You’re only seeing what you want to see.”

  “And what are you seeing, eligible single father of two?”

  Mitch’s lips twisted wryly. “I’m seeing a woman’s life seriously affected by our moving in here and probably being changed against her will. A woman who’s probably too nice to argue about it.”

  “Ha! See? You do like her. That’s the only reason you care about imposing on her.”

  Mitch flashed his Death Glare but he was wasting it on Andrea. She didn’t even flinch.

  “I care about imposing on anyone,” he insisted. “Do unto others and all that jazz.”

  Andrea let her skepticism show.

  Mitch shook the barbeque spatula at her. “And I’m going to talk to her about this tonight. If you can’t watch the kids, I’ll find someone else, or I’ll cancel my conference.”

  “I thought you couldn’t do that.”

  “It would not be a good career move.” Mitc
h headed back to the grill again, his expression grim when he glanced back at Andrea. “But you’ve got to have principles, and you’ve got to live by them.”

  Andrea couldn’t think of a thing to say to that, so she just grinned back at Mitch. She could always count on Mitch to do the right thing and to take the high road, no matter what the cost to himself. As much as his career meant to him, it was nothing compared to those kids.

  Before she could think any further than that, the new smoke alarm started to screech.

  Mitch looked back through the storm door and lifted one brow. “Is that the french fry timer?” he teased and Andrea wished she had something to throw at him.

  But then he’d have two storm doors to fix, and the man had more than enough on his plate these days.

  * * *

  Andrea had hauled her dress box out to a taxi after dinner and waved madly as she went on her way. Mitch had asked Lilith whether they could talk after he put the kids to bed, and she quite contentedly sat on the back porch waiting for him.

  Jen and Jason had given her unexpected goodnight hugs before they were herded upstairs, the sweetness of their trust tugging at Lilith’s heartstrings. She stared at the sky, listening to the rumble of Mitch’s voice between childish squeals and giggles, splashes and noisy kisses. Lilith was well aware of the wolfhound keeping a vigilant eye on her from the far corner of the yard, but she’d figure out how to solve that problem later.

  For now, she savored the twinge of the twilight capturing the azure of the sky and the silence descending in the house behind her. It was still hot, still clear, and she watched the first stars appear.

  She heard Mitch’s footsteps in the kitchen but didn’t turn around, smiling to herself as he came to her, once more, in the twilight.

  “Could I interest you in some sangria?” he asked. “House brew?”

  Lilith cast that smile over her shoulder. “That sounds nice.”

  A moment later, Mitch joined her, two glasses filled with ice in one hand and a pitcher filled with red wine and bobbing fruit in the other. He sat down beside Lilith on the top step, stretching out his long, tanned legs and leaning his back against the pillar of the porch.