Hot Spell

  Oh, no you don’t, he threw the thought at her. You made your choice. You need to stop messing with me now.

  Her eyes turned an icy shade of blue. “I’ll see you inside, David.”

  She brushed past them and entered the club without another word.

  “Sorry,” David said, a confused expression on his face. “I’m not sure what’s with her tonight. She’s acting very preoccupied.”

  Jacob pressed his lips together. “Yeah, well, I guess she has a lot on her mind right now.”

  “I guess she does.” David got a faraway look in his eyes and then he smiled. “I think she’ll love it in Manhattan. She was never meant for small-town life.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Where are you from, Jacob?”

  “Seattle, originally. I moved to Mystic Ridge two years ago.”

  “To work for PARA?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Amanda’s worked there for six years.” He shook his head. “I’m amazed that after such a long time with such an unusual company she is still one of the most well-adjusted and ordinary girls I’ve ever known.”

  “Amanda’s not ordinary.”

  David’s lips quirked. “I meant it as a compliment, of course.”

  “Amanda is not ordinary,” Jacob said again. “She’s extraordinary.”

  David frowned. “I meant no offense.”

  “Of course you didn’t.” Jacob willed himself not to get angry. He counted to ten and then twenty until the compulsion to punch David went away.

  “I’m simply saying that working in a field such as paranormal investigation brings with it certain experiences that must be difficult to shake off,” David continued. “Strange sights, scary situations and the like?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “If I didn’t feel that Amanda wanted a change from that life, I never would have suggested that she move to be with me.”

  Jacob cringed. “She’s a big girl. She knows what she’s doing.”

  “She really has no idea how wonderful she is, does she?”

  “I thought you said she was ordinary.”

  “Ordinary isn’t an insult, like I said. Amanda herself wants to be ordinary. To move away from the strange world of so-called paranormal phenomena. To be a regular, taxpaying citizen.”

  “I’d be willing to debate that,” Jacob said.

  “Would you?”

  He forced a smile. “Maybe another time. But you’re right. Amanda does seem to know what she wants, and she wants you, so congratulations.”

  “I’m a lucky man.”

  Yeah, you sure as hell are.

  He forced any malicious thoughts away. It wasn’t David’s fault that Amanda was the way she was.

  “I’m still not sure how she even came to work for PARA in the first place,” David said.

  “Could be because she’s the most talented clairvoyant I’ve ever met,” Jacob replied.

  David blinked. “Clairvoyant?”

  Jacob frowned at the other man’s confused expression. “Yeah, clairvoyant. Medium. Able to talk to ghosts and perform exorcisms.”

  “She can?”

  “Well, of course—” Then Jacob stopped talking. It became suddenly obvious to him that Amanda had never told David exactly what she did at PARA.

  And why was that? For fear that he wouldn’t approve?

  Of course that’s what it was.

  Jacob gritted his teeth. Amanda only dated so-called normal guys so she could feel normal. She’d never dated anyone at the office before, at least, that’s what he’d heard. Maybe if she had, she would have realized a lot sooner that she didn’t have to work so damn hard to be accepted.

  David was silent for a moment, deep in thought. Jacob expected him to get angry at the news that his girlfriend was a closet ghost-whisperer.

  But he didn’t.

  “This must be why she wants to move away and quit her job,” he said softly. “So she can leave this bizarre life behind her.”

  “You’re very insightful.” Jacob tasted the acid on his tongue.

  “If she’s kept this from me, it’s for a very good reason. I trust her. Even though it disturbs me, I’ll keep this discussion we’ve had between us.”

  “Great.”

  “I’m just so glad she’s had friends like you to help ease her way,” David said. “Quite honestly, when I saw you last night, I was a bit intimidated.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  David nodded. “I thought you’d become a rival for her affections. But obviously there’s nothing like that between you.” His previously tense face now held a smile. “If there was, you’re certainly not giving me much of a fight, are you?”

  If Jacob hadn’t felt true emotion coming from David toward Amanda when he’d shaken his hand and gotten a mild empathic read on him, he’d probably have punched him in the nose.

  “I only want what’s best for her,” Jacob said after a moment. “And if moving to New York and forgetting about her psychic abilities is going to make her happy, then I support her decision a hundred percent.”

  And it was true; despite Amanda being incredibly stubborn and frustrating, he did want her to be happy. If being “normal” was going to do that, then more power to her. Jacob would stay behind with the freaks in Mystic Ridge where he belonged.

  David pulled a small blue box out of his jacket pocket and opened it up to reveal a diamond solitaire ring. “Do you think she’ll like it?”

  A wave of nausea swept through Jacob. It was an engagement ring. David was going to propose to Amanda.

  “You’re going to ask her tonight?” he asked weakly.

  David nodded and put the ring back into his pocket. “I am. Even after learning she’s kept secrets from me, I want us to be together.”

  Jacob’s jaw tightened. “Well, then, if you’re really the best man for her, I wish you every happiness in the world.”

  David shook his hand. “Thank you.”

  The empathic read Jacob got gave him the impression that David was filled with confidence and certainty.

  Two things Jacob wasn’t feeling at that moment, that was for damn sure.

  SINCE Amanda had entered the pub, she’d been hugged about two dozen times. Tightly. The outpouring of emotion from her friends who’d come out tonight to say goodbye to her was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

  “We’re going to miss you,” Lauren, a psychic who specialized in palmistry, said.

  “Thanks,” Amanda said, accepting yet another tight hug. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

  She was then shuffled off to Ben, tarot card reader extraordinaire, who actually lifted her off the ground with his bear hug and then gave her a hard kiss on her cheek.

  Then somebody shoved a chocolate martini in her hand and the entire place made a collective toast in her honor.

  And here she’d thought the night would be awkward. Her chest felt tight with emotion from the outpouring of best wishes for her future.

  She was on her second martini when she saw Jacob and David come into the bar. Had they been talking for that long? And about what? The thought made her nervous.

  Truthfully, she’d been nervous ever since she’d gotten home that day, had a shower, and started to get ready for the night. It had taken her an eternity to pick out her outfit and accessories. Then she’d burned her finger on her curling iron. Obviously she was distracted.

  When David had arrived in his Volvo to take them to the party she’d only half-heartedly kissed him. She felt horrible that the spark she’d felt between them had been all but extinguished. She wondered, frankly, if there had ever been a spark there in the first place.

  Jacob sidled up next to her at the bar when her head was turned in the opposite direction. She tried to ignore his thoughts. It was easy to do at the moment. It was very noisy in the pub.

  “Can I talk to you?” he asked.

  She swiveled around on her stool. “Talk.”

  “In private.”
r />   She tensed. “Not sure that’s such a good idea.”

  He slipped off his seat and took her hand. “Come on. I promise I won’t bite.” He grinned. “Not hard, anyhow.”

  She tried not to smile, but couldn’t help herself. “You know Patrick has given the okay for the exorcism and destroying the clock.”

  “He told me.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You want to make sure there are no rocks left unturned? No clocks left unburned?”

  “I didn’t know you were a poet.”

  “You bring out my inner Shakespeare.”

  She felt his hand then at the small of her back. The heat from his touch sank into her and she was very glad she was sitting down because it made her legs feel very weak and wobbly. She felt like a teenager around this guy, all awkward and vulnerable. All he had to do was touch her to make her want him. It really wasn’t fair at all.

  “Just five minutes of your time.” He leaned closer and she felt his warm breath brush against her ear. “Before it’s too late.”

  “Too late for what?” she replied, dismayed by how breathy her voice sounded and how good Jacob smelled.

  “Amanda!” Vicky ran up to her and pulled her right off her bar stool and into a fierce hug. “You look great! I love that dress! Very New York chic, I must say.”

  “Thanks.” She glanced at Jacob who looked unhappy that they’d been interrupted. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

  “Sure,” he said stiffly.

  Patrick moved toward her in his wheelchair and instructed the bartender to open up a case of champagne so everyone got a glass.

  “To Amanda,” he toasted ten minutes later. “Who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it, no matter what the price.”

  She cringed at the knowing edge to his words as he clinked his glass against hers. “I do know what I want.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “That’s exactly what I just said.”

  “You are a troublemaker, Patrick McKay.”

  He grinned. “Am I that transparent?”

  “Yes, you are.”

  She turned to her left to see that Jacob was gone and David now stood next to her.

  “Can I have your attention please?” David said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  She was surprised. She’d expected her very normal boyfriend to keep a low profile in the middle of a crowd of psychics, even if he wasn’t a true believer. She knew it made him feel uncomfortable. He’d told her as much on the drive over.

  “Are you going to toast me, too?” she asked.

  He smiled. “I am.”

  She scanned the bar to see that everyone was now paying attention to them. Even Jacob, now at the back of the crowd, looked at her. While everyone else had a smile on their face as they raised their champagne glasses, Jacob didn’t look happy at all.

  “From the very first moment I met Amanda,” David began, “I knew that this beautiful woman was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I knew that at heart we were the same and wanted the same things—such as security and acceptance—that we had the same solid and steadfast view on the world. I was pleased when she made the decision to come work with me at my advertising company. I think she’s going to fit in very well there.”

  He placed his glass of champagne down on the bar top and fumbled in his pocket. Amanda watched him curiously.

  “She fits in very well in my life, too,” he continued. “A perfect fit, I’d say. That’s why, in front of all of her friends tonight, I’d like to ask Amanda LaGrange to marry me.”

  Her wide eyes moved to the diamond ring that popped up in front of her.

  “David…” she began. “I…I—”

  He gave her a huge grin. “You’re speechless, aren’t you?”

  She nodded. The next moment she felt the cold metal of the ring as he slid it onto her finger.

  “See? What did I tell you?” he said. “A perfect fit.”

  The crowd of PARA agents who’d gathered at the bar to send Amanda off on her new life cheered at their engagement.

  An engagement she’d hadn’t exactly agreed to yet.

  She looked out at the beaming crowd to see Jacob’s reaction, but he was gone. Her heart sank.

  The very next moment Vicky ran up to her and gave her another hug. “Wow, I knew it was serious, but I didn’t think it was this serious! That is a hell of a rock you have there. I’m so jealous!”

  It was a solid five minutes of more well-wishers and hugging, but this time she was too stunned to say much. She was engaged? To David?

  It was more than she’d anticipated. Moving to the city, working for him in a normal job, spending more time together—that had been one thing.

  But marriage?

  “I think she’s going to fit in very well,” David had said as part of his proposal.

  She could see that life with David in his world would be the fit she’d always been searching for—the one she’d convinced herself she wanted. But now that she was trying it on for size, she found that fit more than a little bit tight and uncomfortable.

  At her first opportunity, she grabbed David by his hand and pulled him out of the crowd and into a private alcove of the bar.

  “Do you like your ring?” he asked.

  She looked down at the two-carat engagement ring. Judging by the blue box it came in, it was from Tiffany’s. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Not as beautiful as the woman who wears it.”

  She closed her eyes and let out a long exhale. When she opened her eyes, David didn’t look quite as pleased by whatever expression he saw on her face.

  “Is there something wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid there is.”

  “Doesn’t the ring fit properly?”

  “That’s the problem. It fits too well.”

  He frowned. “Why would that be a problem?”

  She chewed her bottom lip and tried to figure out how to properly word what she wanted to say. “It fits well on the outside, but it doesn’t fit well on the inside.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Amanda felt ill. “I don’t want to hurt you, David. Honestly, that’s the last thing I want to do. But…but I can’t marry you.”

  There. She’d said it.

  His eyes widened. “What?”

  She shook her head. “I care about you so much. I think you’re a wonderful man, really. But I’m not in love with you.”

  David looked genuinely shocked. “I can’t believe this.”

  She swallowed hard, her heart pounding a mile a minute in her chest. “I’m so sorry, David. If I’d known you were going to do this tonight I probably would have said something earlier.”

  “So your decision not to be with me has been a work in progress, has it?” There was an unpleasant twist now to the words.

  “No. It’s just…it’s…it’s complicated.”

  The corners of his mouth turned down. “Is there someone else?”

  “What?” Her mouth felt dry. “Of course not.”

  “So this doesn’t have anything to do with Jacob?”

  She blanched. “He has nothing to do with this decision.”

  “Sure he doesn’t.” David’s face soured. It was the first time she’d seen him look at her that way. “He told me about you, you know.”

  “What?”

  “That you can talk to ghosts. That’s why you work for PARA.”

  Her stomach sank. “He said that?”

  “I can’t believe you never told me the truth.”

  “I…” She swallowed. “I’m sorry. I should have.”

  He shook his head. “I find it all rather strange, but I would have accepted this unpleasant aspect of your life. You never even gave me the chance.”

  “Strange and unpleasant?”

  “Of course. What else could it be?”

  “And that’s exactly why I never told you. Because I knew that’s how you’d feel abou
t it.”

  He hissed out a breath. “You’re making a mistake, Amanda.”

  She pulled off the ring and held it out to him. “You’ll find someone else. Somebody who can fit into your life perfectly and not think twice about it. Someone who’s not strange or unpleasant.”

  His lips twisted as he accepted the ring back from her. “Is that a psychic prediction?”

  She shook her head. “It’s a promise. Goodbye, David.”

  He pocketed the ring, then with a last glare at the woman who’d turned down his offer of the perfect normal life, he left O’Grady’s.

  12

  AMANDA TRIED HER BEST to go back to the throng of happy people and pretend everything was okay, but it was impossible. Finding the bar increasingly stifling, she went outside to the well-lit parking lot, sucked in great gasps of fresh air and tried to calm down. A couple of people brushed past her to get to their car and she forced herself to smile at them.

  Then, arms crossed over her chest, she walked around to the back of the building. She wanted to be alone for a moment so she could collect her thoughts. An alleyway ran behind the pub and the other downtown businesses—all closed for the day—that it backed on to.

  Other than the slight throb of music she could hear coming from inside the pub, the alley was silent. She felt a warm breeze move over her bare legs.

  What had she just done? A part of her was mightily pissed that she’d turned down David’s proposal. Being married to a man like him would give her a solid, secure foundation for the rest of her life. It sounded good enough in theory.

  But it wasn’t. She didn’t love David. If there was one thing she believed, no matter what, it was that love and marriage went together. Despite what had happened with her mother and father, she held on to that particular fairy tale with a very firm grip.

  “Congratulations on your engagement,” a voice pierced through her thoughts.

  Her eyes widened and she looked up to see it was Jacob, who stood a dozen feet away from her in the otherwise empty back alley—just far enough to be out of reach of her mind-reading ability. She hadn’t realized he was there until he spoke.

  The moon was full that night and it shone down on them with a silver light. The area was empty except for the two of them. She noticed his black Mustang was parked to the right in a small, vacant employee parking area belonging to the local bookshop.