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“Just point me in the right direction.”
I’m not sure I would ever have imagined Owen Palmer fitting in at the Cobb Dairy Queen. He was so shiny and handsome, like a movie star, and even if you didn’t know he was a powerful wizard, you couldn’t help but sense that there was something special about him. But amazingly enough, he blended in almost as well as I did. The women all noticed him, of course, but no one seemed to regard him as an outsider. I supposed he was a small-town boy himself, even if he was from another part of the country.
Steve and his gang showed up not long after we’d ordered and found a table, and I couldn’t help but enjoy the look he gave when he saw Owen with me. Having a man with matinee-idol looks sitting across from me was quite a personal coup. I hoped Steve would accept his defeat and move on, but he came over to our table after he placed his order.
“So, Katie, who’s your friend?” he asked, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops and adopting a challenging stance.
“This is Owen, who’s visiting me from New York, and Owen, this is Steve. We went to high school together.”
They called our number from the front counter, and Owen got up to go get our food. “I guess I’ll leave you two alone on your hot date,” Steve said. If he’d been an air quotes kind of person, he’d have put air quotes around the words “hot date.” Then he moseyed off. I could have sworn he was giving his behind a deliberate sway for my benefit as he walked away.
“Ex-boyfriend?” Owen asked as he returned to the table with two steak finger baskets.
“Hah! Back in school, I’m not sure he knew I existed, other than as the younger sister of my brothers.
I’m merely one of the few single women in this age range left in town, and the few others aren’t impressed with his type, either, so he’s getting a little desperate.”
As we ate, we assessed the other patrons for their magical potential under our breath, not entirely seriously. “Silver-haired lady at three o’clock—your three o’clock,” I muttered. “I know she’s got a heck of an herb garden. She’s probably brewing potions.”
“How about the junior vampire scouts on your right? If they could do magic, you know they would.”
I turned my head ever so slightly to see the group of teens dressed all in black with white makeup and black lipstick—boys and girls alike. “Nah,” I whispered. “If they’re dancing in robes at the courthouse, they’re doing it at midnight, not broad daylight, and they’d be doing it in a group.
Nonconformity is no fun unless everyone else is doing it.”
He grinned, and I felt for the first time since he’d shown up that he really was my Owen, the guy who’d become one of my closest, most trusted friends even while I had a huge crush on him. I’d always been at ease with him, in spite of the shivers he sent up my spine with every touch. That’s what had been different about him when he walked into our store today, I realized. He’d been closed off from me.
“You know, I really did leave because I thought it was best for both of us,” I said. “I didn’t want to put you in that kind of situation again.”
“I know. I got a lecture or three about it.”
“So you understand?”
He paused for a long moment, his eyes searching mine as if trying to find the exact words to say.
Finally he said, “I can see why you felt you had to do it.”
That hadn’t quite answered my question. He was still sidestepping the issue, and I still couldn’t tell what he really felt about me. But maybe I wanted too much, too soon. He was barely off the airplane.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, trying to pour all my sincerity and all my feelings into my words.
He turned an almost purple shade of red and shrugged. “Any time you need me, I’ll be there, you know that. No matter what.”
His intensity was enough to take my breath away. “I do,” I managed to whisper. Then, as much as I wanted to stay in that moment, I couldn’t help but be distracted. “Don’t look now, but one of our prime suspects just walked in.”
“I ’d like to talk to him,” Owen murmured. “See if you can get him over here.”
I waited until Gene finished at the counter, then called out as he passed, “Hey, Gene! What’s up?”
He looked around as if trying to figure out who was calling to him before he focused on me. Then he looked suspicious. “Why?” he asked, a defiant, challenging tone in his voice. I made a mental note to ask Teddy if their friendship had actually broken up or if they’d just drifted apart over time. He hadn’t seemed too hostile with us the other day in the store, but the glare he gave me now made me wonder if he had issues with the Chandlers, with Teddy, or maybe even with me.
“Just saying hi,” I said with a shrug. “Oh, this is my friend Owen from New York. Owen, Gene and I were in high school together.”
Owen stood and stuck out a hand as if to shake it, but Gene ignored him. “I was way ahead of you in school,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, he and my brother Teddy were big-shot seniors when I was a lowly freshman. But we were all in marching band together.”
“Yeah. Well, see you,” he said with a grunt and wandered off.
