hello to the pretty dark haired witch. “What can I help you with?”
There was a teasing glint in her eye. “I actually came here to help you.”
Then she set my folded little black dress, Dylan’s jeans and button-down shirt on the table. She laid his cell phone and wallet and my slim purse on top of it.
I bit my lip.
“You guys seem to have lost some stuff by the springs,” she said innocently. “People drop things sometimes.”
“Yes,” I managed. “We must have dropped these when we walked through.”
A mischievous smile carved her lips. “I know how easy it is to lose your panties in the spring. They fall right off to all the…moisture down there…by the spring.”
“How’d you find them?”
“I was out for a walk when I saw this little black dress waving like a flag. A freak flag. Do you know Violet’s boyfriend, Liam?”
I shook my head no, and she went on, “He’s a cop, so I tried to give them to him.” Her smile widened. “Quite the coincidence. He had a weird call the other day… some kelpies were very annoyed that someone was fucking in their living room. Splooshing it up. Jizzing on their couches—do kelpies have couches?”
“I have no idea,” I managed.
She was definitely laughing at me. She added, “I didn’t know trolls could blush, but he looked very uncomfortable. So I volunteered to bring your stuff back.”
“Kelpies!” I said, shaking my head. I hadn’t even known there were kelpies in Silver Springs.
“It must have been some amazing fucking for the kelpies to go through the trouble of leaving the water and finding a phone. Congratulations!”
I closed my eyes. I wondered if the kelpies had watched our legs kicking around underwater as…nope. I was not going to muse on that one. That way lay madness.
“The police are more amused than pissed. So you’re good!” She patted my shoulder comfortingly. I wondered if she had a spell for freakouts. Although from what I’d heard about Juniper, she would probably offer me something that vibrated as a solution for whatever ailed me.
“Yes it is good,” I agreed. “For them. Whoever it was.”
My cheeks were hot. Kelpies. I had wronged the Kelpies.
And I had wronged my grandfather’s washing machine.
Blake chose that moment to walk through the door. Of course he did. He took one look at my face, and I could tell he knew something was wrong even as I tried to smile. Actually, from the raised eyebrows he gave me, the smile was just more suspicious.
His gaze fell on the clothes piled on the reception desk, and then he picked up Dylan’s cell phone.
His jaw tensed, but all he said was, “Hello, Juniper. How’s the shop?”
“Great!” she told him. “We have new flower underwear with leaves that tickle and stroke your cock and balls if you’re interested. It’s because of all that fuss about that Love Blooms book. I have a feeling that business is about to boom.”
“Mm,” he said. “Maybe another time.”
When she’d left, he regarded me seriously, his arms crossed. Tension seemed to ripple in the air between us.
“If this were an I Love Lucy episode,” he said, “I’d say you had a lot of ‘splaining to do.”
I shrugged with as much dignity as I could muster in the moment.
It was a pretty minimal amount of dignity.
“Let’s get to work,” I said, ignoring his commanding presence, his arms crossed over his chest, even though all of that sent a strange shiver of desire through me.
“Let’s.” He swept his hand toward the door to the bay. “Apparently I need to keep you busy enough to stay out of trouble.”
Every day, Blake had me help him with some project on my grandfather’s ancient, ailing convertible, too. I loved learning more about how to put a car together.
And I loved doing it with him. It felt like our thing, Blake and I working on the car in the afternoon. Blake definitely had a bossy, protective side, but when he was teaching it just felt…nurturing. Like he was putting his powers to use for good for once.
I stared at his sexy shoulders as he leaned over the engine and debated telling him just that, but I didn’t know how.
Maybe I shouldn’t encourage Boss Man, either.
On Sunday, the guys insisted on driving to the city with me. Blake had a pick-up truck, and we all piled into the cab for the trip. While we were insisting, I insisted we stop by Jewels Café.
Dylan and Archer stayed outside while Blake and I