Page 76 of Summer L.A.W.

He stepped closer, gentle now. “For the record, I wanted to talk to you.”

Her heart sprinted. Wally leaned back like he was watching a soap opera.

Magda straightened her spine, doing her best impression of a professional adult. “Well. I’m available. Scientifically.”

Sebastian smiled. “Good. Because I think I understand what happened yesterday, and I’d like to help.”

Her breath caught, and the ferns swayed as if gossiping to each other.

Wally nudged her ankle.

Magda ignored him, eyes on Sebastian. “All right. Let’s talk.”

She tried not to think about the almost-kiss. Tried very hard.

The ferns rustled.

“You know what?” she said. “Maybe we should just get back to work.”

He looked a little sad but nodded and followed her into the conservatory.

Magda stood at the worktable in the greenhouse, the glass panes glowing gold with afternoon sun. Sebastian rolled up his shirtsleeves, revealing forearms that had no business being that distracting. Don’t scientists sit in a lab all day? Shouldn’t they have lab flab? Magda chuckled at her own clever rhyme.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Umm, maybe?” she said, and measured out the first ingredients. “Because emotionally, spiritually, botanically… I’m not sure any of us are prepared.”

Wally hopped onto a stool, already supervising.

Magda uncorked a small vial and held it up. The liquid inside shimmered shades of pink, purple, and red, like a bottled sunrise. “Heartsease. Only harvested at the moment of first light.”

Sebastian leaned in. “That’s beautiful.”

“It stains everything permanently,” she warned, pulling it away. “Ask Joell’s favorite blouse.”

Next, she drizzled a drop of morning dew gathered from her maple tree. Then she reached for a tiny tin.

“What’s that?” Sebastian asked.

“Affection dust,” she said. “Family formula. My grandmother invented it to keep her husbands docile.”

“Husbands?”

“Plural.”

Sebastian blinked. “Should I be afraid?”

“Probably.”

She sprinkled a faint swirl into the cauldron. The mixture brightened instantly, shifting from soft peach to glowing rose-gold.

Sebastian stepped forward with his contribution: a sleek infusion system calibrated down to the milligram. “If we want to measure the resonance effects, we should introduce catalysts slowly.”

Magda stared. “Do you bring controlled infusion systems everywhere?”

“Only on dates.”

She choked. He smirked. Wally thumped the table in delight.