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I shook my head. “It’s been taken care of. I hope you two will be very happy together. Would you like me to run to the pet store for you?”
“No, I’ve got it. Oscar will ride shot gun with me. I’ll take care of him from now on.”
Charlie and I said goodbye to Mr. Clancy and I stopped off at reception to give Beatrice the good news.
“I wouldn’t say Mr. Clancy had a change in personality,” I said with a soft smile. “But I think the dog will go a long way in improving his overall mood.”
“Glad to hear that,” Beatrice said. “See if you can do anything for Mrs. Stevens when you can, will you?”
“Next time,” I promised.
Charlie and I stepped out into the late autumn sunshine. The cold of the early afternoon had burned off and it was fairly temperate.
“Unbelievable,” Charlie said to me. “You really do have magical powers.”
“We all have magical powers, it’s just about finding them,” I said.
“Hmm.” Charlie frowned. “I’m still looking for mine.”
“Mexican for a late lunch?” I asked softly.
“Oh definitely,” she said. Her phone rang. She dug around in her purse for her cell. “Mommy dearest.”
“Are you going to answer her?” I asked.
“I just spoke to her this morning,” she said.
“On purpose or by accident?”
“Well, she came to the pool house. My territory. She wanted to remind me not to go through the house this afternoon because the floors are getting waxed. What does she think I’ll do? Slide across the floors in my socks? I only did that once.”
With a sigh, she answered her mother’s call. “Hello?”
We walked across the parking lot to the car as Charlie talked to her mother. “I have plans that night,” Charlie said. She paused for a moment and then said, “Well, you can’t just assume I’m going to be available. My plans? Hayden and I are working on a thing. Yes, Mother. I used the word work. Fine, I’ll be there.”
She hung up as we got to the car and I unlocked it with the remote clicker. It beeped and we stood there a moment.
I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. Her face was flushed and she clenched her cell so tightly I wondered if she’d bend it.
“What was that about?” I asked as I opened the driver’s side door.
“My parents are throwing a party this Friday, and she demanded that I be there. Naturally, I balked.”
“Naturally,” I said as I got into the car and latched my seatbelt.
Charlie threw herself into the passenger seat and huffed. “She’s constantly trying to pull me into her world and I’m doing everything I can to leave it.”
“Not everything,” I said, pressing the Start button on the dash.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you still live at home. Meaning you’ve done nothing to forge your own way.”
She blinked. “Are you talking about—wait, are you saying I need to get a job and move out?”
I shrugged. “They can’t pull strings if you cut them.”
“But I like my life.”
