Page 107 of Flirty Fall Fling

“What happens if you pick wrong?”

I think about his question as I take more bites of eggs. It’s a fair thing to ask.

“Then I’d take it as a sign.” I shrug.

“For?” He picks up his coffee mug and sips.

“Maybe to rethink things. That maybe it wasn’t as deep as I thought.”

He sets the mug down without drinking from it again.

Out past the glass, his brother walks the length of the balcony in the cold with one hand in his hair.

“You don’t do that,” I tell him.

“No?”

“Not that I’ve ever seen.” I continue eating.

When I’m finished, I slide off the stool and set my plate in the sink.

“Do you think you guessed right?”

“I know I did.”

“Prove it,” he says.

I cross the kitchen, take a fistful of that charcoal sweater, and kiss him.

He has me backed into the counter before I finish. One hand slides into my hair. The other one settles low on my back and stays there. Nothing about this is careful. When I come up for air, my hip is against him with a leg around him, and I have no memory of getting there.

The balcony door slides open, and cold rolls in ahead of his brother.

“Oh, for the love of God! I was gone for ten minutes!” Patterson says. “Did you tell her?”

“Didn’t have to,” Jamie says without letting go of me. “I’m sorry he’s here to fuck things up.”

Patterson tucks his phone into his pocket. “Actually, if anyone fucked up anything, it was you. That was Nick. Your statement went out this morning, and nobody bought it. There’s also been a new development.”

I put my foot back on the floor. “Which is?”

Patterson picks up his mug, discovers it’s empty, and sets it down again. “They figured out who you are.”

Jamie freezes.

“Blaire Wardwell. Owns Charmed Cauldron on Main Street in Pine Haven, Colorado. She lives in the Wardwell Manor. Thirty-one years old. Only child. Generational witch and woo queen.” Patterson reads it off like a report.

“Woo queen?” I ask.

“You’re an only child?” Jamie asks.

“You didn’t ask her about her family?” Patterson turns to him. “Rude.”

“This isn’t good,” I whisper. “Shit. I’m supposed to open today.”

“Do you believe that’s a good idea?” Jamie asks, searching my face.

“Do you?” I meet his eyes.