“You’d sabotage an HVAC system for me?” Riley whispered.
“Baby, you know I would.”
“That is the sweetest, most underhanded, biggest grand gesture any man has ever made for me,” she decided.
“Are you forgetting about the time I saved your life?” he teased.
She shook her head. “No, I am not.”
“Oh, crap,” Blossom interrupted. “Nick, did I mention that my mother needs you to pick up two of her guild friends at the train station tonight?”
23
8:46 p.m., Sunday, August 16
It was nine million degrees in the mansion. Nick had worked his magic on the air conditioning before leaving to pick up her grandmother’s associates at the train station, and the effects were sweat-lodgey. Burt was soaking up the air conditioning with her father, who was babysitting his granddaughters.
Riley embraced the heat. With every degree the temperature rose, it became less and less likely that she would have to face Bella freaking Goodshine.
There was a low rumble of voices coming from the front of the house where strangers and journalists were gathering. She’d prayed to every deity she could think of to cover her bases. The seance couldn’t happen.
“I look ridiculous,” Riley complained to the mirror they’d hauled out of Lily’s room and propped against the kitchen table. The second and third floors were too hot to be inhabited, so they’d turned the kitchen into a dressing room.
She’d gone with a short black dress for airflow purposes and topped it with the gauzy black cloak her mother had forced on her.
“I think you look witchy and very attractive,” Wander countered with her trademark sisterly support.
Her beautiful sister looked annoyingly cool in a similar style cloak. Wander had paired it with a long, flowing black skirt and a belly-baring tank. She looked like she’d just stepped off a yoga mat and was on her way to a jazz club.
“No.Youlook witchy and attractive,” Riley said accusingly. “I look like I’m about to drown in my own sweat. Wait. Why do you look so cool?”
Wander grinned and opened the freezer door. “Here.” She handed Riley a pair of chilled underwear.
“Seriously? You’re wearing frozen underwear?”
“A little trick I learned after childbirth,” Wander explained.
“These are mine,” Riley said, recognizing the tacos on the thong.
“I know. I put them in the freezer for you when you were getting dressed. Put them on.”
Skeptical but desperate, Riley stepped into the pantry and traded out sweaty briefs for an icy thong. “Wow. That helps.”
“Hello, Wander. It is lovely to see you again.” Gabe’s deep baritone carried into the pantry. Riley stuffed her underwear behind a dusty box of penis-shaped pasta and quickly rearranged her dress.
“Hello, Gabe. You look…good.”
Wander was never one to lose her Zen, so seeing her sister get tongue-tied around the gigantic teddy bear was adorable.
“I would have hoped to find you in meditation.” Elanora, Ruiner of All Fun, snapped.
Gabe and Wander both apologized profusely. Those two were taking the whole “honor your elders” thing a little too far.
“Come out of there at once, Riley,” her grandmother ordered.
Apparently Elanora Basil’s powers extended to seeing through walls.
“What were you doing in there? Snacking on processed garbage?”
