was the high point.”
“Yowch.” Darcy hung her parka and scarf on the antique hall tree, toed off her outdoor boots, and then slipped on her ballet flats before retrieving the bottle of booze. “Well, just FYI, the whole damn town is talking about you. Merna Fleming was in line in front of me at the grocery store and I heard her tell Doris Leech that she saw you leave the café before the lunch rush. And then I ran into Brandie Rutgers at the post office and she said Rodney Carmichael called the paper and put out a help wanted ad online. Want me to mince on down there and give him a knee to the old bait and tackle?”
She’d do it, too. Darcy was one of those short, blonde feisty types that got things done. No one ever saw her as a threat. Between her diminutive stature and preference for wearing pastels, she was the quintessential killer bunny rabbit. Maybe her way of busting balls first and taking no prisoners was not always the most diplomatic way possible, but I appreciated her loyalty.
Slowly, so as not to exacerbate the dull ache in my temples, I shook my head. “I don’t want to have to bake a cake with a nail file in it when you get yourself locked up for assault and battery.”
“So, are we gonna just fart around all night or are we gonna get our drink on?” Darcy didn’t wait for me to respond. She knew where we kept the goods and headed down the hallway to the kitchen. “Although from the looks of you, I’m guessing maybe you started without me?”
“What are you talking a—?” My reflection in the hall mirror stole the rest of the question directly out of my mind. It was a ghastly sight. Hair disheveled, grease smeared across my forehead and down my nose. Pants cuffs covered in mud almost up to my knees.
Wait, why was I wearing my interview suit?
It came back to me in a rush. Looking for a job online, borrowing Earl, getting stranded on Firefly Lane. The truck dying and my cell being dead.
How much of it had been real? I studied my ruined suit. So okay, I had obviously gone up to Firefly Lane and Earl had pooped out. And then…?
Magic. A house carved out of a tree. Robin Goodfellow—where did I know that name from—offering me a chance to be my own faery godmother.
But how had I gotten home?
The whirr of the blender pulled me out of my recollections and I stumbled into the kitchen.
Darcy paused the blender. “Salt?”
I pointed to the cabinet above the stove. Had it all been a dream? That would explain the magic and the fact that I had woken up on the couch. But not the suit. Or the mud.
Then it hit me. “Earl!”
“Who’s Earl?” Darcy made a hop and missed the salt by three inches. “Damn it all, people were my height when they built this house and I still can’t reach the top shelf. Little help?”
I moved to the stove and retrieved the salt. “Earl is Grammy B’s diesel truck. I drove him to what I thought was a job interview.”
And Earl’s location would let me know if my trip to Firefly Lane had been real or just a figment of my imagination.
I reached for the phone and dialed Grammy B.
“Hello?” She croaked into the receiver.
“Grammy, it’s Joey. Listen, did you see me drive Earl back to your house?”
“Sure did and I thought it was mighty strange that you didn’t stop in to tell me how your interview went.” She sounded hurt.
I gripped the phone until my knuckles turned white. I had no memory between drifting off at Robin Goodfellow’s house and waking up on the couch. But Grammy had seen me.
Grammy cleared her throat. “Joey gal? You all right?”
“Sorry, Grammy. Yeah, I’m fine. Interview was…odd. I’ll be by with cookies first thing tomorrow.”
“What was that all about?” Darcy had moved on to rimming the margarita glasses with lime juice. “You had an interview already? Oh, tell me it’s not for the Waffle Hut. You know they were shut down by the sanitation department again.”
I shook my head. “No, not the Hut. And you really need to stop eating there.”
“It’s the only place that serves food all my kids will eat. Mike says what doesn’t kill them will make them stronger.” Turning the prepped margarita glass upside down, she swirled the edge into the salt and then handed it