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He thought she’d simply stick a finger or two into that plastic flute and capture one. He definitely didn’t expect her to drain the entire glass and catch one with her teeth. This was clearly a very bad date.
Trying not to laugh, Sky accepted the strawberry and placed it in the palm of his hand. He covered it with the other and closed his eyes. This wasn’t a spell so much as a directing of his natural dark energy into the poor, innocent strawberry. He didn’t need much to rot the piece of fruit from the inside while maintaining its pretty red color.
After a couple of seconds, Sky opened his eyes, grabbed the strawberry, and dropped it into the flute. He snagged the glass from Nolan and swirled the pale-yellow liquid around a few times, watching as the strawberry danced with the others. Now there was no telling them apart.
“There,” Sky said, handing the glass back to Jennifer. “He’s going to get a little ill from a bad piece of fruit. That’s all. It’ll take about ten to fifteen minutes for it to kick in after he drinks it.”
“Did you just poison-apple her date, my evil queen?” Nolan drawled.
“Am I your queen?” Sky replied, fluttering his eyelashes.
Jennifer squealed softly and accepted the glass. “You’re amazing.” She glared at Nolan. “And he’s not an evil witch. He’s my white knight!”
Sky almost choked on the air he sucked in, but Jennifer didn’t seem to notice. Nolan also looked as if he were struggling to not choke.
Nolan playfully shooed Jennifer away while at the same time wrapping an arm around Sky’s shoulders, pulling him in closer to his big, sturdy frame. “Go find your date. We have reservations for dinner. We don’t want to get sucked into any more of your drama.”
“Are you okay to get home by yourself?” Sky inquired.
She nodded. “I’m good. We drove separately, and this has been my only drink.” Jennifer held up her now-empty glass.
“Okay, well, if you need us, we’re going to be having dinner at Mario’s. It’s just a block from here. Feel free to join us if you want.”
Jennifer threw her head back and howled with laughter. “Oh, my God! Invade your date? That’s a guaranteed way to get Nolan to strangle me. Nope. Not happening.” She walked off, still shaking her head and chuckling.
Nolan lowered his head to whisper directly into Sky’s ear. “I can’t believe you invited her to join our dinner.”
“She’s your best friend, and she seems like fun. Plus, she’s had a bad night already. Of course, I invited her.”
Soft lips brushed against his temple. “You are a white knight.”
“But I’ll be an evil queen for you.”
“Shameless,” Nolan murmured.
They walked briskly through the art festival hand in hand rather than the slow amble Sky had hoped for, but between Maddox’s interruption and now Jennifer’s, they were nearly out of time to reach the restaurant. The soft smile on Nolan’s lips claimed that the distractions didn’t really matter.
“Sorry about Jennifer,” Nolan said as they drifted past a display of landscape paintings filled with colorful autumn leaves.
“Sorry about Maddox.”
“Friends, huh?”
“They make life an adventure.”
As they reached the corner and prepared to turn, Sky’s phone vibrated. “Shit.”
“What’s wrong? Just realize you forgot your wallet?” Nolan teased.
Sky squeezed his eyes closed and dropped his head against Nolan’s shoulder. “No,” he whimpered. “My phone is ringing. Someone is calling me.”
“It could be the restaurant,” he suggested, and Sky prayed he was right as he reached for his phone.
He wasn’t.
Redstone’s name and the goofy picture Sky used for his avatar filled the screen.
“Answer it.” Nolan’s voice was gentle but firm.
