I still hadn’t touched the massive pile of bras and underwear covering my bed like a second comforter. They needed to be sorted, donated if possible. Only ten percent of it was remotely close to something I would wear, and I was comfortable wearinga lot. Or little. But . . . not those.
Leland knocked at the door.
I opened it to him standing there alone, holding a large plate. I stayed behind the door, in the short hallway with a shoe rack and a floor-to-ceiling mirror before the room opened into a wide square.
My stomach growled as I surveyed the plate in his hand and inhaled aromas of sliced honey-baked ham, sausage links, gravy-drizzled turkey, meat balls, meat squares, and half a roasted chicken.
“I wanted to bring you this,” Leland said over the laughs carrying up from the arcade. His navy polo popped against the red-rock arches of the hall.
“Why?” I tilted my head. “Is it Thanksgiving?”
It was July 13th. Summer solstice season.
“It’s your dinner,” he said. “What’s Thanksgiving?”
“A holiday. It’s for . . .” Did they teach witches American history? It didn’t matter. “Honestly, it’s for eating. Turkey and ham and . . .” I took the plate, glanced down at the heavy portions, and then back up at him. “You made me a Thanksgiving plate?”
“Belinda,” he said. “She’s really excited you’re here.”
“Belinda.” My lips pressed together in a straight line as I wildly imagined him prying the plate from her hands, then I had to remind myself it washis job.
He lifted his chin, looking over my shoulder at the broader space behind me. “Can I come in?”
“Sure,” I sighed, waving him in, taking three steps before —
Leland froze, but too late. He was already blinking at the mountain of lingerie on the bed.
The latex, the Sexy Healer costume.
Then he stopped blinking, his hazel eyes as frozen as his posture. I set the plate down on my desk and covered my face with my hands, privately turning the color of a ripe tomato.
“What is that?” he asked sharply.
“Skye said it would help me pass my classes?”
A beat of silence passed. Then another.
The red flush spread down to my chest.Pass my classes? The ones where Leland was going to be my teacher?
“You realize I was assigned to teach you?”
I spoke from behind my hands. “Uh huh.”
He slowly approached the bed, gripping the end of it with flexed forearms. His eyes moved in memorization, the kind I knew he needed for Refresh and Vanishing spells.
“What drawer do you want it in?” he asked.
None, I thought. Because I was donating it. “I have a system — ”
“System’s not working for me. What drawer?”
“Dresser.” I peeled my hands from my face and waved broadly at the one closest to the mirror.
All of it Vanished in one go, presumably to where I’d indicated, though I didn’t care to check his work. I’d do it later. When I wasn’t in the same four hundred square feet as him.
His eyes dropped to my wrists. “Cuffs still working?”
“Yep.”
