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“Well, have a good time, and in case you were wondering, you did the right thing. You made the right choice.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. I hope you are.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m sure.”
“‘Guess’ and ‘sure’ don’t usually go in the same sentence. But I bet when you see him, you’ll know, and there won’t be any ‘guess’ about it.”
I hovered in the doorway of Owen’s office when I got downstairs, watching him work. His dark hair fell across his forehead as he bent to study the document on his desk, and my fingers itched to go over to him and push it back. He looked so at home in the office cluttered with books and papers. He belonged there, and I belonged with him. Florence was right. Now I was sure.
I rapped lightly on the door frame. “Ready for dinner?” I asked.
“Just a second. I have some things to finish. I do still have a store to run, or at least look like I’m running,” he added with a crooked smile. “Come in, and shut the door behind you so we can talk.”
“Of course you’re running a store,” I said as I shut the door. “Why would you need to look like that’s what you’re doing?”
He glanced up at me then, frowning. “Katie? Is something wrong?”
“Josh showed up, demanding an explanation. That was about as pleasant as you might imagine.”
“Josh showed up?” he asked warily.
“Oh, you don’t have anything to worry about. I broke up with him definitively. He didn’t take it too well. He tried to talk me out of it, but I know he’s not right for me.”
“Is anything else wrong?”
“Other than that, things are fine, and I think I shouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“Do you think he knows anything?”
“Well, obviously he knows about us—he’d already figured that out. I didn’t think there was any point in hiding it.”
Owen got up from his desk and came around to stand next to me. “There’s nothing else you think he knows?”
“What is there for him to know? It’s not like it’s any of his business.”
He placed his hand against my cheek and leaned down to kiss me, then straightened and looked at me like he was waiting for something. “Mmm, that was nice,” I said. “I hope there’s more of that to look forward to this evening.”
“Katie …” he said, his voice sounding strained.
“Yeah? What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you remember the other plans we had for this evening?”
“We talked about dinner. Any other plans remain unspoken or implied, but if you want to spell them out, I’m game.”
I didn’t understand the alarm in his eyes. I’d never had a guy look that disturbed after a kiss before. Was my breath bad?
“Katie, check your pocket,” Owen said, his voice rough with emotion.
“Why?” He was starting to worry me.
“Just, please, do it. Check your pocket.”
He sounded so upset that I figured it wasn’t worth arguing about. With a shrug, I reached into my pocket and found a folded piece of paper. “Oh, that’s probably what I’ve forgotten,” I said as I pulled out the paper. “It must be my to-do list.”
When I unfolded the paper, I saw that it was covered with my handwriting, but it wasn’t a to-do list, and it wasn’t anything I remembered writing. “My brother Dean figured out he was a wizard, and he used his powers to break into all the stores on the Cobb town square,” it said. That was not was I was expecting to see, but even so, something clicked in my head, then everything went hazy and cleared again. As soon as my head felt clear, I started shaking violently in the aftershock. I looked at Owen and whispered, “Whew, that was a close call.”
