Page 55 of Deadly Misfortunes

“Swimming in my pool. But only after hours to protect your sensitive skin from the sun.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’re redheads, you know.”

After stuffing her suitcase with multi-colored skirts and blouses, she turned to Gregory. “I’m done here. Let’s check out your computer.”

“For?”

“Online dating. It’s time for me to find my soulmate.”

So that’s what she was so cheerful about. He’d fought saying anything much about it earlier, figuring she would forget she'd had the notion to do something like that. But he wasn't going to let her get involved with dating some guy online.

“You don’t need to find anyone online.”

“Says you, Gregory.” She pulled her suitcase by the handle toward the front door. He tucked her safe under one arm and grabbed the suitcase, and encircled her free hand with his other. “I also need to find out who this menace is.”

“You’re not going to find him online.”

“He emailed you. He’s online.”

“Okay, what if you started corresponding with some guy in a dating service and it turns out to be the maniac?”

“Then I would have to look longer for my soulmate, but I would catch the bad guy in the interim.”

He didn’t mean to sound so possessive or tell her what to do. But the next words out of his mouth were sure to rile her. “No, Sascha.”

She smiled at him as he opened his car door for her. “You know, I like it when you act as though you want me for your very own. It kind of dispels the idea that I was after you.”

She climbed into the low-slung seat as he shook his head.

“You’re not a gypsy fortune teller, Sascha.”

Her eyes twinkled in the sunlight with mischief as they studied his.

“You’re a willful sprite.”

She chuckled. “Get in, Gregory. We’ll have lunch at your mother’s home, but don’t you dare let your parents think I’m your girlfriend. I wouldn’t want to disappoint them when they find out I’m looking for someone else who’s my soulmate.”

How could she have twisted things so? First, he was sure she was after him, though his desire for her was mutual. But now she didn’t want him, and he couldn’t live without her? He took a ragged breath. The gypsy woman was undoing his sanity by leaps and bounds.

He climbed into his seat, then looked over at Sascha. “You really weren’t upset about how the maniac tore up your place?”

“Sure I was. But I’m getting all new furniture for my place now. Oh, and Aunt Meg cast some kind of spell on him. I can’t wait to learn what she did to him.”

“What?”

“If he returned to my apartment, she was going to cast a spell on him. But she wouldn’t say what.”

“Okay.” Gregory said it in a way that said he didn’t believe anyone could do that. “Can you always know what I’m thinking?”

“Sure,” she said, her impish face sparkling with amusement.

“You can’t.” He smiled back. She couldn’t. He just hoped anyway.

“That will keep you guessing.”

Chuckling, he switched the car’s engine on. “Okay, so you can’t.”