“No one. But this incident makes me think of the Black and Orange Ball.”
“What happened there? You didn’t set that fire that cleared the place out, did you?”
“No! Of course not. But that was also the night I was very popular with babies and little kids. And I couldn’t control that, either.”
Thinking about the two witches casting their spells on Max made Ruby consider, yet again, spells and drunken witches.
“There weren’t any, let’s say, well-oiled witches who put a spell on you at the Black and Orange Ball, right?”
Viktor’s eyebrows raised up. “I don’t think so.”
“Think back. What were you doing right before noticing that babies were drooling over you, literally?”
“I went to the bathroom. That’s it. Then on the way out all of the babies and little kids I saw giggled as I went by and cried if I tried to leave their presence.”
A text came through her phone, making a noise and distracting her. It was from Max.
I’m off work now and on my way to your office.
See you soon. SLYAWTMY
Max
SLYAWTMY? Wait…still love you and want to marry you?
He was so funny.
“What should I do?” Viktor asked.
“About what?” Ruby looked up to see both brothers staring at her. She momentarily forgot what they’d been discussing.
“Who was that?” they asked in unison.
After a brief pause, she said, “Just a client.” Foolish heat bloomed in her cheeks as she fibbed. Maxwasa client. So what if she liked him quite a lot. She certainly wasn’t going to tell Viktor or Warrick about him yet.
“Look at that. She has a guilty look on her face,” Warrick said, and grinned.
“Yep. Totally guilty look right there.” Viktor lifted his palm to her face, swirling it around once with a nod.
“Oh, I do not! I’m leaving. Try to stay out of trouble, you two.”
Ruby flipped a wave at them over one shoulder and headed down to her office. She hid the grin shaping her lips.
Back in her office, she finished up the paperwork showing a paid balance for finding and delivering the message to Max and filed it. Next, she opened a preliminary file for Max’s request to find the two witches who’d bespelled him and have the spells removed. She added a notation to discover if anyone named Howard was messing with her man.
Ruby didn’t intend to charge him, of course. This could be her first pro-bono work. Get drunken spells removed and find out the intended plot of the blue aerosol-wielding menace named Howard. She made a few notes detailing what she’d done at the Pinehurst Inn and hers and Max’s coming appointment with Matilda and Helen.
Patting herself on the back for being generous, she puttered around her office while she waited for Max, cleaning and straightening things.
After half an hour, she wondered what path he’d taken to get to here. Even crawling on his hands and knees, he should have been here in less than fifteen minutes from the main Bubba’s Psychic Readings location.
She texted Max to get an update on his arrival. Another seven agonizing minutes was as long as she could wait with no response. Grabbing her bag, Ruby headed toward Bubba’s on Main Street, hoping to find out where Max had stopped along the way.
Perhaps he’d had a last-minute reading and had to stay at work, but she doubted it.
Halfway to Bubba’s, she decided to pop into the Sheriff’s office. Maybe they’d called him in to meet with the sketch artist, since there had been an explosion today. It had likely thrown everyone’s schedule off.
Ruby entered the station expecting to see Max at Deputy Jenna’s desk with the artist doing a rendering of the perpetrator, but no one was there.
