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He pulled out a pair of his sister’s cotton pajama pants to fold into a neat square, and he chuckled to himself. She would sigh and ask which brother had folded her laundry when she found the basket of her clothes sitting in her room later. And she’d say she wished they’d leave her things alone, but it would be a half-hearted attempt to chide them, but the Brannigan boys knew she appreciated them pitching in around the house, even if it was supposed to be her domain. It was a responsibility her father had thrust upon her when he determined she was old enough. Damon thought that was somewhere around the time he and his brothers had gotten out of high school, and Natalie was only ten.
While Paul was happy to let his daughter bear the weight of trying to replace his missing wife, Sally, his sons were not. Their mother had raised them to be better than that.Mom, thought Damon as sadness filled him with a painful heaviness that threatened to overwhelm him. She’d disappeared without a trace when Damon was in grade school, yet twenty years later the pain of his loss still hit him like a ton of bricks.
He grabbed the last shirt of Natalie’s to fold and shook off his grief. He had a date with Kay Knight in less than an hour, and his mind would be better focused on where he was going to take her and how he was going to convince his witch that he was the man she should love.
He knew Kay was not about notoriety, and lately the appeal of being recognized and taking selfies or talking about his show with strangers was losing its charm. Dinner needed to be in a place where nobody would be asking him for a selfie or peppering him with questions about magic. But he wanted it to scream romance so Kay would have no doubt they were on a date. He had no desire to repeat the Tucker confusion.
He made his way up the stairs to his room and deposited Natalie’s laundry in her room as he passed by. He knew wherever he took Kay, it should be casual. He was wearing the jeans and T-shirt he’d put on as soon as he’d gotten home, and he grabbed a flannel shirt to wear as well. As he was dressing, he heard the sound of a family member entering the house, and he knew it was Natalie when her soft voice she used to talk to her cat carried to him as she walked up the stairs.
“Damon!” She cried when she got to her doorway.
He popped his head out of his room to look at Natalie, who set the cat down on the floor to pick up the laundry basket. “Yes?”
She sighed like he knew she would, and before she could scold him, he said, “You’re welcome. I bought the chicken pot pie you like from Good Foods. I got the big one, so you can give Dad some for dinner, too.”
His oldest brother, Will, who was an emergency physician, would be at the hospital tonight, and Eric— Damon smiled. Eric’s brewery was exactly where Damon needed to take Kay.
“Oh, thank you. I love their meals.” She tilted her head as her brow knit. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I have a date with Kay Knight. What do you think about me taking her to Eric’s bar?”
“Kay Knight is going out with you?” Natalie chucked. “She must not know about the cape.”
“What’s so bad about my cape?” It had definitely added a flair to his magic show at the fair.
Natalie grinned. “If you have to ask…”
Damon rolled his eyes. His sister might be only a decade younger than he was, but sometimes he felt like they had a generation gap between them.
“Eric’s bar is a good idea,” Natalie said. “Kay deserves your undivided attention.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Wrong flannel, though. You look better in the brown one.”
“Brown?” Damon frowned. He thought he was a good judge of what to wear but Natalie was his girl check, so he said, “Okay. Thanks.”
He ducked back into his room and his sister set down her laundry to follow him. “It makes your eyes look warm and kind. You want this girl to like you, right?”
He chuckled as he slid his arms into the soft cotton of the brown flannel shirt. “You’re saying I need help looking kind?”
Natalie gave him a smirk. “You’re a Brannigan. Last time I checked the Knights still hold a grudge against us.”
“That’s something I plan to fix.” Damon headed toward the hallway.
“Hmpf. I’m not sure dating one is going to fix a thing,” Natalie said, and she followed him as he walked down the stairs. “What do you think will happen when you break up?”
“Who says we will?” he asked as he moved toward the front door. As far as he was concerned, there would be no breakup because Damon had no intention of letting Kay slip through his fingers.
Natalie let out a snort and shook her head at him as she walked by to go to the kitchen. But Damon didn’t let her disbelief bother him. He knew Kay was his forever, and that was all that mattered.
He called after her, “Don’t wait up!” He grabbed his fleece from the hook by the door and laughed to himself as he made his way to his Land Rover. He knew two things for sure: Natalie would wait up to grill him about his date, and she was hoping it went well. His sister had what she thought was a secret obsession with the Knight witches. But her brothers knew about it; they just chose not to tease her. They all felt a sense of guilt for her being motherless, even if logic told them they shouldn’t. They hadn’t driven Sally away. Paul had.
His car door slammed shut and he pressed the ignition button. He figured Natalie’s fascination with the Knight women had to do with the fact she had grown up in a house full of men without any female witches around, and she longed for the camaraderie of sisters who could perform magic. There was also a mystery about the Knight witches and questions he believed Eileen Knight could answer about Sally.
She had been his mother’s best friend and had stepped in to help his father take care of them when his mother had first gone missing. In fact, Eileen had been the one who’d encouraged the Brannigan boys to partake in Night Meadow Island’s Halloween mischief. A fact his father liked to throw out anytime the subject came up.
She’d also been the one to quickly corral the boys to try to right the wrong they’d done that night. Unfortunately, his father hadn’t let them repair much before he whisked the boys off the island in a huff, saying the islanders were too sensitive and didn’t understand clever magic when they saw it.
