Page 57 of Christmas Magic

The store. Mayhap she’d run into a problem she couldn’t resolve herself. Lucian was, after all, the manager, with his grandfather out of town.

Glancing up, Lucian saw Cora studying Santa. His lordship had resumed chatting with the child on his lap.

“Was that Molly?” asked Cora, her attention returning to him.

“Yes. I should return to Black Cat Antiquities.”

“What a shame,” his lady love cooed. “At least we accomplished what I—I mean, we—wanted, though.”

Lucian frowned. “I didn’t get to speak with his lordship.”

With a coy laugh, she linked her arm through his again. “Don’t worry. We’ll definitely come back another day.”

Petunia, Daisy, Rose, and Marigold hunched beside the shallow cardboard box Molly had placed on the lowest shelf under the store counter. Tim, curled up on one of Molly’s cardigans in the box, was sound asleep after demolishing the whole can of wet food.

“Look at him! He’s just so cute,” Petunia meowed.

Marigold shook her head. “Shh. Don’t wake him.”

“The poor baby needs his sleep,” Daisy insisted. “Rest is the best thing for his hurt paw.”

“Gre-eat,” Galahad grumbled. “Tim’s sound asleep and he still manages to hog everyone’s attention.” With an indignant flick of his tail, he stomped toward the left front window.

Standing at the counter and sticking price tags on some Limoges china cups and saucers, Molly smiled at the fluffy feline. “You aren’t going to be neglected, Galahad.”

“I’d better not be. I am, after all, part of the reincarnated badass package.”

Molly’s eyebrows rose. “There’s a reincarnated badass package?”

“You get Lucian, I’m the awesome bonus gift that goes with him.”

“I see. Thanks for pointing that out.”

“Yeah, well, I thought I’d better. Don’t want you losing all common sense because you’ve gone gaga over that kitten.”

After affixing the sticker to the final cup and saucer, Molly took her phone out of the front pocket of her handbag to see the time. She needed to take Tim to the vet soon, and Lucian hadn’t shown up yet, despite all of her texts and phone calls.

A dull ache settled in her belly. He hadn’t even called or texted her back.

What kind of enchantment would render her so unimportant to him?

If only she’d found something of use in the files or William’s books, but so far, nothing.

Just as she slipped her phone back into her purse, it pinged.

Her pulse kicked. Lucian?

No. A message from a friend, who was working as an elf at Coquina Castle. When Molly opened the attached photo, she gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Marigold, who was still near Tim, asked.

Rose growled. “Bad news about Lucian, I’d say.”

Her eyes stinging, Molly showed the female cats the photo of Cora, pressed against him and kissing his cheek.

“Wha-at?” Petunia yowled.

“The picture was taken less than five minutes ago.” Molly typed a quick reply to her friend, who’d expressed concern in her message.