“I love you and I want to marry you, Ruby,” Max said.
Sheriff Merrow paused and turned back. “I thought Matilda and Helen took that spell off already.”
“They did.”
“How come you still have to say that?”
“I don’t have to say it. I just want to,” Max said, looking deeply into Ruby’s eyes.
She grinned. “I might start saying it back.”
“Awesome.”
The Sheriff sighed. “Here comes the gushy part. Now it’sreallytime to go.”
Uncle Milo patted Max on the back. “I’m glad that you two are back together.” He frowned and added, “Although I guess the trip in an airplane is canceled now.”
“I’m afraid so, but one of these days I’m sure you’ll get to take a flight in an airplane.”
Max watched as Sheriff Merrow herded Hayward out of the airport. “Why do you think he did it?”
“Unfortunately, I have a guess,” Uncle Milo said.
Ruby looked at the big clock on the wall of the airport lobby, and realized the weekly dinner at Aunt Vilma’s house was this time tomorrow. She’d call her aunt and tell her to have Rochester set a couple more places at the table.
“Would you be willing to go to a family dinner with me tomorrow night?” she asked Max.
“Sure.”
Uncle Milo perked up. Ruby said, “You are also invited, if you’d like to join us.”
“Dandy. I’d love to come for dinner with a family.”
Ruby looked from Max to Milo. “You twodohave a strong family resemblance.”
“Is that good?” Uncle Milo asked.
Ruby nodded and grinned as another splendid plan formed in her head.
Maybe she’d play matchmaker for a change and set Uncle Milo up with Aunt Vilma. Turnabout was fair play.
Epilogue
Ruby held the men and women gathered around the dinner table spellbound with her tale of treachery, a quasi-evil twin, and a plot to subvert a vast fortune into the wrong hands. “You see, it turns out that alien shifters from Alpha-Prime are very rare. In fact, everyone thought they were extinct. But Uncle Milo’s valet Hayward had hidden his abilities for decades.
“After over twenty years of faithful service, he apparently got tired of being a poor valet and traipsing around planet to planet, following Milo to the far corners of the galactic realm. So he came up with a diabolical plan to steal the Vandervere family’s wealth after framing poor Max and almost sending him to a gulag, thereby forcing him to lose his birthright.
“Then he planned to impersonate Uncle Milo and return to the fold after spending years as the long-lost prodigal outcast and worm his way back into succession for the family’s wealth. But when Max was exonerated, Hayward had to change his plan and come to Nocturne Falls.”
“Wait a minute.” Warrick asked, “Why did he have to come all the way to Nocturne Falls to steal their money? Why didn’t he just pretend to be Max, march into his parents’ living room and demand his inheritance?”
“Because of the kind of alien shifter he is. He had to meet Max in person and come in physical contact to be able to imitate him. That’s one of the reasons he approached Max at work and sprayed him with the knockout stuff. He needed to touch Max for several minutes to get a good link for the imitation process.”
“I thought that was so he could go plant the bauxite fuel bomb by the fountain,” Viktor said from his seat beside her. “And I’m still very unhappy to discover I’m allergic to that stuff.”
Ruby punched him in the arm. “Don’t be such a big baby.”
