I reached up to touch my cheek, feeling the light sparkle of the magic that infused Noah’s handiwork. In the drama of the past few minutes, I’d forgotten all about it.
‘Do you need a mirror?’ she asked, pulling a silvery clamshell mirror from her purse. She flipped it open, and the image that Noah had painted came into focus.
A stunning hummingbird, in hues that perfectly matched my dress – and my magic.
Chapter 6
SPARKS WILL FLY
Lara found me over by the shelter animals, whose fuzzy little faces I was using as a distraction from the strange magical storm that had just kicked up out of nowhere. There’d certainly been nothing in the forecast about that. If there had been, Tiff would have said something: she was our resident human barometer, and delighted in telling us all about the plummeting air pressure and the subsequent storms that were about to come rolling in.
No, I thought, as I stroked a kitten with a half-black, half-white face, Lorraine was right. It was a case of magical feedback, and I knew the source of it: the tension between Noah, Finn and me. The back-and-forth of it all had created something very real that presently hung over Whisperwind Cove in a soft cape of shimmering magical angst.
There was literal sexual tension in the air.
And I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.
A glass of sparkling cider in hand, Lara made a kissy face at a tiny golden puppy before turning an accusatory eye on me.
‘Something magic just happened, didn’t it?’ she said, jabbing her glass at the starlit sky, at whose edge threads of blue and purple and gold still glimmered like the softest of cobwebs. Even if she couldn’t quiteseeit, she knew on some level that it was there. And Lorraine’s commentary had probably helped.‘Something connected to the way you and Finn and Noah were all ogling each other just now.’
How was she so drunk, yet soadroit?
‘Finn and Noah weren’t ogling each other,’ I protested, deliberately twisting her words.
Lara folded her arms emphatically.
‘Finn was serenading you. Noah had just finished painting you. We all saw it.Theysaw it. I don’t think it was a coincidence that a giant magical cloud came wafting in at just that moment. Not to mention like a thousand whisperwinds. I could fill a diary with the gossip I heard in the space of thirty seconds.’
‘I didn’t do anything though!’ I protested, fighting the urge to touch the hummingbird that tingled on my cheek. ‘I was just sitting on the picnic blanket thinking about apricot pie and minding my own business.’
And definitely not thinking about Noah’s dark-eyed gaze or Finn with his half-unbuttoned shirt.
Lara set down her empty glass and swigged from a can that had been sitting unattended. Brave.
‘Sure, babe. I’m just saying that I’m pretty certainyouwere behind that magical cloud just now. Or you focused it, or whatever. Magical nuance isn’t really my thing. But it was definitely aboutyou.’
She picked up the fluffy puppy, cooing at it. ‘Because it wasn’t about you, cutie, was it?’
Her phone buzzed, and she snuggled the puppy as she texted away. I couldn’t see what she was texting about, but I could see that there was a name at the top of the text thread:Jack.
Jack, hmm? This was notable not because Jack was a particularly distinctive name, but because Lara never put a guy’s real name in her phone. Her entire contacts list consisted of entries like ‘Biceps Guy’, ‘Wholefoods Pizza Guy’ and ‘Guy with Truck’. In her mind, there was no point in actually gettingto know a guy’s name, because by the time she got there, she was on to the next one anyway. Although ‘Guy with Truck’ had come in handy whenever we’d needed a large piece of furniture moved.
She glanced up from her rapid-fire texting as a sinewy guy with a lengthy beard and a moustache curled at the ends strolled past.
‘Is that the fireworks guy?’ whispered Lara. Which would be precisely how she’d put him in her phone if he were her type.
The fireworks guy trotted over to a section of the beach that had been carefully roped off. Whisperwind Cove had very strict fireworks ordinances. Fireworks Guy was absolutely a pro pyrotechnician, and more than likely a fairly accomplished magician as well. You had to be to light off explosions in the sky without serious damage.
The magical cloud was now largely forgotten, thanks both to the light breeze in the air and the collective drunkenness level, and the crowd was ready to turn its attention to the fireworks. Everyone shuffled around on their picnic blankets, jostling to get the best view of the display. A few pet owners and toddler parents took this as their excuse to take their leave, and one of the shelter volunteers ran around with thunder blankets and earmuffs for any remaining pets.
‘We’re going to have to take these cuties back to the shelter,’ one of the volunteers told Lara, who sadly returned the golden puppy to its hutch.
I gave my kitten one last head scratch and waved goodbye to my new friend. The kitten mewed grumpily as the shelter tech hauled it off in its carrier.
‘I think I’d make a good dog mom, right?’ said Lara thoughtfully. ‘Or maybe you could adopt him, and I could visit. I’d be worried about him needing to use the bathroom while I was at an event. Although there’s probably a service for that.’
Her phone buzzed again, and she was back to texting Jack. WhowasJack?
