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And all right, I couldn’t deny that the thought had crossed my mind of putting a little jinx on her own festivities. Nothing that would cause harm to anyone, but something like making sure all the wood she’d ordered for her Litha bonfire would be damp enough that it wouldn’t burn properly, would smoke everyone right out of the clearing.
In the end, I’d pushed those negative thoughts aside. I didn’t want to stoop to Lilith Black’s level. Also, putting bad stuff out in the universe like that invariably had it come shooting right back at you, like a negative-energy boomerang. Better to take the high ground.
Besides, she’d be gone in a few days. And honestly, I’d begun to seriously consider whether I should get rid of my Instagram account once this was all over and done. It seemed to be far more trouble than it was worth. Yes, a bunch of people had been attracted to Globe — and it sounded as though they were shopping and dining and spending money in the area, which was the whole point of this little adventure — but I hadn’t signed up to be the town’s one-woman Chamber of Commerce. Miriam Jacobsen could handle that sort of thing. It was her job, after all.
Better to be done with the whole affair. If I deleted my Instagram, I was sure people would forget all about me sooner rather than later. After all, that was sort of the point of social media — people were always chasing the shiny new thing. Soon enough, I wouldn’t be even a blip…and I thought I’d be just fine with that.
I pulled up by the main house at Chuck’s ranch. Even as I was getting out of the car, he emerged from the front door and came down to meet me.
“Hey,” he said as I got out of the car.
“Hey,” I responded, glad he was keeping things casual.
“Let’s put your stuff in the house,” he told me, one hand lifted to shield his eyes from the sun, which had slipped to the west but was still plenty bright. “I’ve already got tables set out in the clearing, but we should go check to make sure they’re where you want them.”
Not for the first time, I wanted to kick myself for being so obsessed with Calvin Standingbear — for no good reason, as far as I could tell — that I couldn’t even see when something great was right in front of my face. Some psychic I was.
But chemistry wasn’t something you could turn on and turn off like a faucet, so I knew there wasn’t much I could do to change the situation, no matter how much inner chiding I might inflict on myself. Instead, I sent Chuck a grateful smile and said, “Sounds good.”
I slipped my weekender bag over one arm, and then the two of us extracted the trays and food from the back of the car. The cheese and meat were pre-sliced, the Litha honey cakes sitting on their own plates, but I’d left cutting up the fruit for the last minute, since I didn’t want anything to get bruised or dried out.
“Right this way,” Chuck said.
He led me into the house, which was a big two-story ranch-style home with a little too much knotty pine paneling for my taste. Still, it suited the property, with its big roughly carved beams, leather furniture, and a large stone fireplace that took up most of one wall in the living room.
I didn’t have much time for more than that one glance, however, because he headed straight for the kitchen. It was a large, friendly space with green tile counters and a big stainless-steel refrigerator — good thing, because my goodies took up most of the shelf space.
Once all the food was safely stowed away, Chuck took me up to the second floor where the bedrooms were located. Just off the landing was a guest room with a queen bed in an iron bedstead, a plain pine dresser, and not much else.
“You can put your things in here,” he said. “And there’s a bathroom down the hall.”
“Perfect,” I replied as I put my little weekender bag with my change of clothes down on the bed.
“Want any water or anything before we head out to the site?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m good. But thanks.”
After that, we went back downstairs and out the back door, Chuck leading me through the pasture and into the wooded area just beyond. The cows were conspicuously absent; obviously, he’d already moved them out of harm’s way. A series of wooden stakes with blue fabric fluttering from them marked the path from the open spot by the garage where the cars would park through the pasture and on into the woods, guiding us all the way to the clearing.
He’d actually done much more than merely set up tables. Yes, they were there, placed off to one side, but in addition, he’d already put out the wood for the bonfire, and made a neat stack of extra logs not too far away so it would be easy to add them as needed. The tables were covered in dark blue cloths, and there were also several rows of chairs set out in addition to the tables.
I looked at the setup, more and more impressed. Chuck must have picked up on my vibe, because he said, “I figured people might want a chance to sit down at some point. There’s not enough for everyone, but I thought it would help.”
“It’s great,” I told him. “I should have thought of that myself. But where did you get all this stuff?”
I really hoped he hadn’t gone out and spent money on supplies from an event company or something. To my relief, his next words disabused me of that notion.
“Oh, my parents had a big fortieth anniversary party here before they moved to Queen Creek. I’ve had all this stuff stored out in the garage ever since then. It’s kind of nice to be able to use it for something.”
“Well, thanks,” I said, knowing even as I spoke that the words were totally inadequate. “This is really going above and beyond.”
He grinned then, blue eyes crinkling with what appeared to be hidden laughter. “Well, I wanted to help you show up that Lilith Black chick. She’s really a piece of work.”
Since I couldn’t exactly argue with that statement, I just nodded and gave him a smile of my own. “I don’t even know what she has planned. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a contest. Besides, I gave away almost all of my tickets, so it’s not like people are abandoning my celebration in droves so they can go to hers.”
Chuck nodded, relief clear in his expression. “That’s good to hear. But if everything here looks good to you, we might as well head back to the house.”
Since I couldn’t really improve on the setup, I agreed that we were done in the clearing until it was time to bring out the food. Despite being shielded by the trees, the sun beating down from the west was still pretty fierce, and I was fine with staying inside until it had disappeared behind the horizon. That wouldn’t be for a few more hours, but I needed to get the food trays set up.
