Portals and Puppy Dogs - Amy Lane Page 0,33

and Simon and Gabby both sucked air through their teeth.

“Poor guy,” she murmured. “I’m glad he’ll be at movie night. He’s been trying to drink and sleep his way through the divorce, and it’s not good for him.”

Simon nodded. The last few months had been worrisome, that was for sure.

“But now that he’s gone,” Gabby continued, standing to go back to her domination of the couch, “are you going to tell me—coherently—about Alex and how he ties in with that dog you found last night and all of the other things you’re not telling me right now?”

Simon stared at her. “Don’t you have work to do?” he asked helplessly.

“Nope. This place is a well-oiled machine, darling. I suggest you start at the beginning and cover every detail thoroughly.” She smiled, catlike, and licked a scarlet-tipped finger. “But before you start, give me that last cinnamon roll, because I think that would make this story perfect, and I know you’re not going to eat it!”

Simon laughed, appreciating her so very much, and leaned over the desk so she could grab the box.

And then he proceeded to tell her everything, witchcraft and all, because he didn’t keep secrets from family.

When he was done, he glanced across the office to see her eyes alight with excitement. “The dog just… disappeared? From his house?”

“From next to the recycle bin,” Simon told her. He’d checked the spot on his way out and had seen the remnants of several candles and a sweater’s worth of yarn. They really had been spellcasting their little hearts out trying to get the dog back.

“And you believe them?” She cocked her head, obviously skeptical, and he pursed his lips, trying to explain.

“Well, to begin with, Alex didn’t really have enough time to drive up to my house, drop off the dog, and turn around and come back,” he told her practically. “I live forty-five minutes away, and he and his friends have to do a sort of ritual, at sunrise and sunset, or….” He shuddered, remembering snakes and squirrels and juries of turkeys and flocks of starlings and a creeping darkness that—as Lachlan had said so colorfully—looked like the stain of alien blood.

“Or what?” Gabby insisted.

“Or the cul-de-sac goes to hell,” Simon said shortly. “And before you laugh, I’ve seen it. It’s not anything you could do with special effects, and everyone—I mean, almost everyone—who lives in that little cul-de-sac is terrified. So he had to be there for the sunset ritual, and then he had to drive, which, as you know, he avoids to do his part for the environment, and for what? To drop his friends’ dog off on my doorstep and run away? For one thing, I don’t think she would have let him do that—she would have followed either him or his friends—and for another, I don’t think he has it in him to do it either. Everybody in his group of friends is super attached to the little dog, Gabby. You should have seen how happy they were to see her.”

“And surprised to see you,” she pointed out.

He shrugged. “Well, yes. But… but not shocked. There was no ‘But that’s impossible!’ There was only ‘But why would the magic do that?’”

“Hunh….” She chewed her lower lip, which was something she’d avoided since prep school because it destroyed her lipstick. “I mean, magic. That’s a little far-fetched.”

He brought out the big guns. “Gabby, how did you feel after you ate that first cinnamon roll today?”

She smiled dreamily. “It was weird. It was like one minute I was ready to strangle Chris and then, while he was gasping for breath, go out and throw Jasmine off a boat wearing a concrete helmet, and the next….” She scowled. “Well, I could still throw Jasmine off a boat, but I’m remembering now how vulnerable Chris is. His parents passed away, and he really lost his moorings, you remember? And Jasmine was everything he’s a sucker for—rich, brash, sassy—he just couldn’t see straight. It was like those rolls sort of flipped a switch inside me. Made me a better person.”

Simon nodded. “And Chris took a bite, and suddenly he….” He made an as-you-can-see sort of gesture.

“Calmed the fuck down?” Gabby laughed.

“Yeah, that.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that was, well, it was a long time coming, but it was like he could finally think.”

Simon nodded. “I… I was really just trying to lighten the tension when I offered you guys the cinnamon rolls. But Alex’s friend made them, and his boyfriend shoved the