Ruby snatched the hat off his head in a second. Beneath it was a familiar hair shade, and it wasn’t Max’s. “I see you took the time to dye your hair red.”
Faux Max turned around and grabbed the hat from her fingers, slapping it back on top of his head askew.
Milo frowned. “Wait a minute. How did you do that, Max? You didn’t have time to dye your hair.”
Faux Max turned and ran toward the nearest airport exit. A large figure moved to intercept, and he bounced off Sheriff Merrow’s chest before he could get through the automatic sliding doors. The fugitive sprawled on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” the burly Sheriff said. “I have some additional questions I need to ask before you take your sudden trip out of state.”
“No. I don’t want to answer any.”
“Too bad.” The Sheriff reached a hand down to help him up. Faux Max ignored the hand and tried to scramble away. Ruby rushed over to stop him, Milo on her heels.
Suddenly, Faux Max didn’t look like her Max anymore. He looked like someone else. A small circle of observers gaped at the change in his physical appearance. Luckily, the onlookers didn’t include any of the humans in the ticketing area.
Milo said, “Hayward! How did you do that! What are you?”
Ruby put a hand on Milo’s arm. “Those are great questions, but I think they should be answered at the Sheriff’s office.”
“Good answer,” Sheriff Merrow said as the sliding doors at his back opened to admit someone new. The real Max. He scowled at Hayward and searched the area with his sharp gaze until he found her.
“Ruby!” he shouted, moving in her direction. The sound of his exuberant voice echoed off the airport’s tall ceiling and walls. Everyone in the lobby area, ticketing persons included, turned to look at them.
He swept her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “I missed you.”
Her arms tightened around his neck. “We were only separated for a few minutes. Besides, you know exactly where I was, hiding until the Sheriff got all the airport exits blocked so Hayward wouldn’t escape.” It had been part of her plan. The one she created quickly once she arrived at Matilda and Helen’s home and discovered what had upset them so much.
Matilda had called in a tizzy, blabbering ninety-miles a minute about a clawfoot tub, an untucked shower curtain and the dead body she’d discovered when she tried to tuck the crimson curtain back inside where it belonged. Ruby ran all the way to their gothic gingerbread house to find not a dead body, thankfully, but instead an unconscious Max crumpled at the bottom of whatwasa clawfoot tub in that back bathroom.
The puzzle pieces clicked into place. The back door had been ajar. Max had his eyes closed for fear of not following their spell instructions to the letter. Hayward must have followed them to Helen and Matilda’s home and taken the opportunity to knock Max out and shove him in the bathtub before taking his form in order to fool everyone, even her.
She’d been easy to convince because it was her very worst fear. Losing Max.
He’d remained out cold for over ten minutes as they tried to wake him. They’d even dropped water on him. Nothing. Then he popped awake like he’d never been asleep. “Don’t spray me again—” he had started to say, but when his eyes opened, he looked at Ruby and finished with, “Oh, it’s you. Well, I still love you and want to marry you.”
Ruby helped him out of the tub, trying to keep her cool and contain her elation. “Even though the spell is gone and you don’t have to say it anymore.”
“Yep. That was the first thing I wanted to say to you because I wanted to, not because I was compelled.”
Sheriff Merrow arrived a few moments later and Ruby outlined the plan she’d conceived as she raced to Matilda and Helen’s home.
An announcement over the loud speakers informed passengers the flight to Arkansas would be boarding soon. They had foiled Hayward’s plot, even though they weren’t quite sure what he’d been up to.
“I’m glad your plan worked.” Max squeezed her.
“So am I.”
“I still missed you, Ruby.”
“I wasn’t gone for very long.”
“I hated every moment we were apart.”
“I did, too.” He dipped his head and kissed her. She kissed him back.
“Break it up, you two,” Sheriff Merrow said with half a smile as he put handcuffs on the redheaded Hayward, valet to a very shocked Uncle Milo and a rare chameleon shifter who’d caused so much trouble.
“Time to go.” Sheriff Merrow pushed a sullen Hayward toward the sliding doors.
