Fairyville (Fairyville #1)(38)
Author: Emma Holly

"With my credit card. Corky will be needing toys."

Samuel trembled with his inner conflict, obviously bursting to come along. Shopping, toys, and kittens were practically the Holy Grail of fairy fun. If you added music and dancing, you could win their loyalty for life.

"I’ll join you at noon," Samuel finally snapped. "Possibly with a friend."

Well, that’s progress, Zoe thought, and rubbed noses with Corky to celebrate.

As Zoe had predicted, Magnus wasn’t at the gallery when she arrived, which left her both irritated and relieved. Since that snag in the fabric of her life was put off indefinitely, she settled Corky in her office with a pillow and a spool of thread she’d brought as a stopgap toy. The kitten seemed to think it was just as good as the store-bought kind, chasing it across her office like a small dervish. Seeing that he was happy, she composed herself for her first client.

Today that was Teresa Smallfoot. Blowing in with her usual brilliant smile, the cafe owner made herself even more welcome by plunking two tall mocha espressos on Zoe’s reading table.

Since Teresa was a friend, Zoe allowed herself to moan with pleasure as she grabbed the closest container and took a slurping hit. The caffeine ran into her like liquid gold. "Teresa Smallfoot, you are a lifesaver."

"Not me." Teresa sat in the opposite armchair and smoothed her denim skirt down her knees. At her waist, a handmade turquoise and silver belt showed off how curvy her figure was. Her hair was perfect, as always, a straight and shining fall of black. Zoe suppressed a twinge of envy. She knew better than to think that if she’d looked more like Teresa and less like herself things would have ended any differently with Magnus.

"Well?" said Teresa. "Aren’t you going to ask? Or is whatever happened to your hair this morning—which I only mention as a caring friend—affecting your usually sparkling wits?"

Zoe’s hand flew to the ball of frizz she’d tried to minimize by braiding it. "My little friends went on strike this morning. This was the best I could do."

"The coffee," Teresa prodded patiently. "Aren’t you going to ask about the coffee?"

"What about the coffee?"

Teresa laughed at her confusion. "The coffee comes to you courtesy of two secret admirers."

"Two secret admirers?"

Zoe hadn’t known she had any admirers, but Teresa grinned in acknowledgment. "One blond, one dark, both tall and yummy. They came into my cafe this morning. Asked if I knew the woman who worked next door. When I admitted that I did, they said they owed you coffee."

"Oh, them" said Zoe, her cheeks going a little hot.

"You’re blushing!" Teresa exclaimed. "This must be better than I thought. Just tell me you’re not interested in the dark-haired one. You know I love bad boys."

"Actually, I think he goes for bad boys, too."

"Well, shoot," said Teresa with a full-lipped pout. "That wasn’t showing on my radar. I was going to have Grandma Rose scope him out for me."

Zoe started to explain that Bryan might have no problem swinging Teresa’s way, then shut her mouth. She told herself it was nothing to do with her niggling attraction to the man. Bryan was gone on Alex, and nobody—least of all her—needed to get in the middle of that.

"What?" said Teresa. "Not going to lecture me on asking dead people to run my life? I know they’re not necessarily smarter than we are, but you gotta admit Grandma Rose’s record is good."

"Your Grandma Rose probably gave good advice when she was alive. And she can see more from where she is. People who are nonphysical always have a broader view."

"So I should ask her for the inside track."

Zoe smiled at her friend’s teasing. "She’ll only tell you the same thing I’m going to. Right now, Bryan is too interested in Alex to play around."

"Alex," Teresa mused, leaning back in the comfy chair. "You mean your Alex? The one from high school who seduced the coach? Oh, my God. That’s the devil’s spawn Mrs. Fairfax was muttering about this morning! Thank heaven they didn’t come in at the same time. That would have been a scene."

"We had the scene last night at the inn. When I went to banish Mrs. Fairfax’s poltergeist."

"Do tell," said Teresa, now back on the edge of her seat.

"Don’t you want your session?"

"Oh, no," Teresa said. "Your life is sounding way more interesting to me."

"It was interesting all right. I yelled at Mrs. Fairfax in front of a lobby full of her guests."

"You yelled at Mrs. Fairfax? That, um, fakely sweet old lady?"

"She’s okay most of the time. She just hit a nerve for me last night. Alex didn’t seduce that coach, not like people say. He’s a decent person. The rest is none of their business."

Zoe knew how defensive she was acting when Teresa’s expression turned sober. "You say that like you still have feelings for him."

Zoe grimaced. "I’m not sure what I feel about anyone today."

"Poor baby," Teresa crooned, her sympathy quick and free. "I take it things didn’t go well with Magnus, either."

Zoe blinked to calm her burning eyes. The last thing she wanted was to talk about that. She wasn’t certain Teresa would understand. As to that, she wasn’t certain she did. "Let’s just say it wasn’t the seduction of the century."

"Men are creeps," Teresa declared. "All right, they’re cute creeps, and they’re handy for opening jars and kissing, but other than that, they can all go hang."

Zoe had to laugh at that. "This from a woman who’d fall in love every week if she had the chance."

"Being in love is great," Teresa admitted, then reached over to pat Zoe’s hand. "At least Mr. Magnificent knows he has competition. He does know, right? That your old flame is back in town?"

"Oh, he knows," Zoe said. "And doesn’t like it one bit."

"Well, that’s good."

"Maybe. And maybe it just means everybody is going to get weird."

"This is Fairyville," Teresa reminded her. "If things didn’t get weird, we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves."

Late that afternoon, as Alex approached Zoe’s storefront, butterflies danced in his stomach. He knew his nervousness was a sign of trouble. He’d had all day to gird himself to face her—and never mind how gratifyingly eager Bryan had been to exhaust his "tension" the previous night. They’d slept the sleep of the dead afterward, waking refreshed and early to track down more hospital employees for interviews.