A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,15
just to get your attention.”
“And you learn this stuff how, exactly?”
Jamie grinned. “Witch school.”
Lauren pictured a line of kids on broomsticks and laughed. The kid at the front of the line carried a steaming cauldron and looked suspiciously like Jamie.
“I thought Nell said you don’t do cauldrons anymore.” Lauren stopped dead, suddenly totally unamused. “Wait, I wasn’t thinking that. You didn’t say it. How am I seeing it? Get the hell out of my head!”
Jamie held up his hands. “Don’t shoot. I’m not in your head. I just added some power to projecting my thoughts. You read them. Not everyone can, even with me boosting the volume some.”
“You’re telling me I read your mind?”
“Close enough. You read an idea I pushed out, which is a little different. You’re welcome to try grabbing something else if you want.”
Lauren had never been able to hang onto a good mad when she was amused. She couldn’t stop the snicker. “I bet you use that line on all the girls.”
Jamie looked puzzled, and then laughed. “Didn’t mean it that way, but I’ll have to remember that line; it’s a good one.”
She saw Jamie surrounded by swimsuit models. Her temper fought a losing battle with her sense of humor. “Hey. Cut that out.”
“Sorry, that was probably overkill.” Jamie looked down at her hands, and Lauren realized she was holding her chopsticks like a weapon. Against a witch sending visions of Playboy bunnies. Yeah, that would work—good job, Lauren.
Jamie grabbed another plate of cream puffs and handed it over. Apparently she’d demolished the first one. Well, at least he hadn’t floated it over. Then he just sat and watched her.
“What?”
Jamie shrugged. “Waiting to see how freaked out you are.”
Oh, pretty freaked. “I don’t meet guys who can float plates every day.”
“There’s that. But I meant about maybe being a witch yourself. I guess you have no good reason to believe me, but you clearly have at least some mind magic.”
She might, after a good night’s sleep and a lot of ice cream, wrap her head around Jamie being an actual witch. But she was damn sure she’d never levitated plates, and she warmed her food up in a freaking microwave.
“I don’t know what mind magic is exactly, but you’re the first person I know who can put thoughts in my head. If you’re the witch, it seems like that’s on you, not me.”
Jamie stayed in the line of fire. Brave man. “I’m intentionally making those thoughts easy for you to read, but with training, you could do that without help. Mind magics can be subtle. You might experience them as really good intuition, or something like that.”
Lauren shook her head. Sorry, Jamie, not buying it. “Intuition isn’t magic.”
“No. Not always. But someone with unusually good intuition might have some mind powers. You’re a realtor—are you good at what you do? Ever have a sense for what a client might do before they do it?”
Lauren’s automatic denial died halfway out. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d had lunch with Nat and predicted the Greenleys would buy the brownstone they’d never seen.
Dammit, those were just good realtor instincts. Weren’t they?
She shook her head. “Floating plates, maybe that’s magic. Good instincts—I say those are just good instincts.”
Jamie looked at her for a long moment, and then started stacking their plates. “I don’t think talking’s likely to convince you. We can do more to test where your talents might lie, but here’s not a great spot. Is there a nearby park or something where we might have a few less people in the immediate vicinity?”
She could still laugh after all. “It’s the middle of winter out there. The parks are totally empty. Feel free to go for a walk in one, if you want. I’m heading home. Sorry, this has gotten a little too weird for me.”
She knew Jamie was watching her as she walked out of Sushi Station. Why did she get the kind of blind dates where the guy levitated plates? Seriously, what were the odds?
…
Moira: Hello, girls.
Sophie: Hello, Aunt Moira. Nell, have you heard from Jamie yet?
Nell: No, but his plane was running late, so he hasn’t had much ground time in Chicago yet. He’s crashing with his friend Nash from college. He promised to check in when he got to Nash’s place. Oh, hang on, he’s instant messaging me now. I’ll tell him to join us in here.
Jamie: This is Jamie, here to report on ‘first contact’ as ordered.
Nell: Smart ass… how are you? Did you find Lauren?
Jamie: