A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,13

face, followed quickly by absolute and stunning joy.

Lauren slipped out of the room, tears coming to her eyes. She could feel delight beaming through the whole house, an expanding of love already making room for the new life.

It made sense now. Babies changed everything, especially real estate wish lists. Yards, good schools, nice neighbors, stability. This place had it all.

Real estate was never done until the deal was signed, but it was a solid bet she’d found the Greenleys their home.

Chapter 4

Who the hell traveled to Chicago in February? Especially when they lived in sunny California. As Jamie walked out of the airport in search of a taxi, he wished he’d packed something a lot warmer than his leather jacket.

He loved Nell, but it would have been really nice if her latest project had sent him somewhere about eighty degrees warmer. What crazy person lived in a place like this? The cold was mean, and the wind was just plain cruel.

Putting his hands in his pockets, Jamie muttered under his breath and lit a couple of small fire globes. They didn’t help his face, which felt like the skin might be freezing off, but maybe his fingers would survive long enough to text a few choice curses.

Nell was going to owe him big for this one. Only his big sister would dream up an Internet spell to troll for witches, and then manage to hijack some poor, unsuspecting soul who probably wasn’t a witch at all.

As co-crafters of the gaming code for Enchanter’s Realm, Jamie had plenty of reason to respect Nell’s talent for complex coding and tricky spells. However, both could get out of control occasionally. The unfortunate recent episode where three beta testers were turned into actual frogs came to mind. They’d both been up all night reversing that particular misfire.

So unlike Moira and Sophie, he wasn’t going to be surprised if Lauren was just a nice girl without an ounce of witching talent, latent or otherwise. Non-hereditary witches weren’t very common. In all likelihood, she’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been grabbed by Nell’s spell. He gave her props for tolerance. Not everyone dragged into an online chat and called a witch would be so easygoing about it.

Normally he’d have admired Nell’s creativity, but right now he was pretty sure his own creativity was frozen. Where were all the taxis in this blasted city? He was hungry, cranky, cold, and had a possible witch to track down. She’d more than likely be a dud as far as power went, but Nell was unfortunately right. They needed to be sure.

…

It was only a matter of time before the little boy tried to climb onto the food conveyor belt at Sushi Station. Lauren watched the toddler in the next booth and waited for him to make his move. She saw it in his eyes first, and then his little body moved with shocking speed.

His dad caught him in midflight without even looking up. Lauren shook her head, amused. Parents must get secret special-ops training. The little boy shot her a mile-wide grin and sat down, at least temporarily, to eat his edamame beans.

Lauren picked a tempura roll off the conveyor belt, and then couldn’t resist helping herself to some edamame beans, too.

“If those are all you eat, you’re a cheap date,” said an amused male voice over her shoulder. Lauren swiveled around and took a good look at the man sliding into the booth across from her. “I’m Jamie. I’m totally famished, so I hope you don’t mind if I grab some food while I introduce myself.” He grabbed a couple of plates and popped a roll into his mouth.

Lauren stared open-mouthed. This was the kind of guy you’d definitely remember meeting. She had a client later this afternoon, but—oh, crap. Her realtor-trained name recall clicked in. The witch from last night. Her brother was a Jamie. Oh, holy God. They’d really sent her a guy.

Jamie looked up and must have read the astonishment on her face. He swallowed, grinned, and held out his hand. “Sorry, let me try again. I’m Jamie—Nell’s brother. You’re Lauren, no? Excuse my table manners. Growing up the youngest of seven, you learn how to grab food fast. This is a lot better than the stale pretzels we got on the plane.”

“I’m sorry,” Lauren said. “I had no idea they were serious. About sending you, I mean. Well, about all the other stuff too.” This was more than