War-N-Wit, Inc. - The Witch (11 page)

Shit. Anderson shopped in
Kroger—the same one my mother used, of course—on his way home frequently, he
enjoyed food. He was prone to sudden cravings and always satisfied his cravings
as soon as possible.

"Stacy
knows all about it," I defended myself.

"Oh,
how nice to know how far Dad and I rank on your list of people who might be
interested! You absolutely cannot go off half-cocked and get married!
When
is this supposed to happen, because
I
insist
you have a long engagement!
And if you don't come to your senses, then we have to have time to plan—"

Oh, hell
no, not going there, no way! And besides, if there was one thing Chad Garrett,
and therefore myself, as the one who reaped the benefits wasn't, it was
half-cocked, though I figured I might not oughta share that.

"Mom,
that's enough! I'm grown up now, remember?"

"So I
thought but obviously—"

"Mom,
you have absolutely no control over what I do."

"
Excuse me?
What did you just say to
me?"

"I'm
sorry you heard it in the grocery store, I didn't intend for that to happen.
But I met him three months ago and—"

"When
you were still engaged to Scott?"

"Don't
go there either, Mom. I was never in love with Scott, I never even loved him.
Hell, I never even
liked
him! Now I'm
in love. Capital L, Capital O, Capital V, Capital E. His name's Chad Garrett.
I'm getting married. In two weeks. No fancy wedding. End of discussion."

"But—"

"End
of discussion. And you don't have to worry about any wedding plans
because—" I broke off as an idea flew into my brain from out of the blue.
"Because we're getting married in Vegas."

It was the
first time in my life I'd ever seen—well, heard—my mother completely
speechless.

The office
phone rang as soon I hung up. Anderson.

"Ariel,
I think I may have—"

"Don't
worry about it, Anderson.
It was my fault. I should have remembered just how small a town this really is
in some ways and I just didn't."

"So is
your mother okay?"

"No.
But she will be."

And this
time when I hung up, I hit Magic Man's speed dial.
Which was
two and would have been one had that not been pre-programmed as voice mail.

"Did
you have any plans as to exactly
where
we're going to get married?"

"Funny
you should ask. It's going to take me a few days to confirm this, especially
since I'm going to Cobb
County tomorrow, but I got
a parole skip I'm getting surer and surer is in Vegas. If it turns out she
is—"

"She?"

"Crime's
gender neutral, precious. So I was thinking, by Thursday I ought to be able to
fly out and collect her. And that—"

"And
that Vegas would be an absolutely perfect place for a telepathic witch and
warlock to get married."

"You
don't like it?"

"I
just told my mother I was getting married in Vegas. It just flew into my
head."

"But
is Miss Definition of Conscientiousness going to take Thursday and Friday off
in the midst of her two week notice?"

"Oh, hell yeah.
What are they going to do, fire me?
Is Mr. Definition of Impatience—"

"Hey,
that's not fair. I waited my whole life for you.
And then
another two months for you to agree to meet me.
Though not particularly
patiently, you got me there."

"Okay.
Is Mr. Definition of Semi-Patience going to be willing for me to finish up here
when we get back?"

"Baby
girl, I got a laptop and a Droid that go everywhere with me. Anything I can't
handle from that in your—well, guess now it's Stacy's apartment—I'll run back
and forth to do.
Already decided that anyway, this is
killing
me."

"Well,
that oughta get the Scott vibes out of the place for Stacy."

Okay. That
was handled. Anything else I hadn't thought of that I should think of? I
groaned. Of course there was. Anderson
ran into my mother in the damn
grocery
store
. Half of professional Macon
was in and out of Frick's all the time.
Including Scott.

I told
myself to toughen up. There were worse things than talking to Scott.
Being burned at the stake, for example.
Or
hung.
Or tortured.
Which I
probably had been at some time in the past.
Christ, I didn't even
remember his phone number, I'd just punched in his speed dial, now several
weeks deleted. Which had been eight, incidentally, Stacy being two, Mom being
three, Dad being four, Anderson being five, Ash being six, and Mark being
seven. It hadn't even occurred to me to reassign the numbers to make Scott top
dog. No help for it; I'd have to look up the office number and call him there.

"And
may I tell him who's calling?" asked the switchboard operator. I
detested
that and no receptionist at any
Macon law firm
would ever ask it. One of the judges, now retired, used to blast the ears off
any lawyer whose office asked him that should he happen to call, his theory
being that it didn't matter two hoots in hell who was calling, which it
certainly shouldn't.

For the
first time in my life, I answered that question exactly the way I wanted to.

"No,
you may not. If he's not in, I'll take his voice mail, please."

Dead
silence.
Then Scott's voice.

"Scott,
I felt I should let you know before you heard it through the grapevine.
I'm—"

"Engaged.
And sporting a diamond big enough to choke a
horse."

"I'm
sorry the grapevine moved faster than I did."

"So it's
true."

"Yes.
On both counts actually."

Short, ugly laugh.
"You actually pulled that
'money doesn't matter to me'
line off
real good, Ariel. Never knew you were such a good actress."

"I'm
not. And money doesn't matter to me.
Nor the size of a
diamond.
He picked it, I didn't."

"Are
you kidding? You deserve the Oscar. How many months were you cheating on
me?"

Okay, he
was entitled to be hurt.
And pissed.
And I knew he'd
never really known the first thing about me. But he wasn't entitled to be
vicious
. What surprised me, however, was
the realization that I'd always known he could be; that in fact, the
viciousness lurked only slightly underneath the pleasant, dull surface.

"I
never cheated on you. I handed you back your ring the same day I realized for
sure I wasn't going to marry you."

"Was
that the same day you realized you were going to marry
him
?"

"Yes,
it was."

"Before
or after you saw the damn ring?"

"I'm
not talking to you anymore, Scott. I never meant to hurt you. And I called
because I didn't want to blindside you if you saw me—or us—around town before I
had a chance to tell you. I don't have any control over what you think of me or
what you think I did to you. That's your baggage, not mine. But I'll tell you
this and whether you admit it's true or not, you know deep down it is. We
really, truly, don't even
like
each
other. We both just figured it was time to get married. And things would have
been very bad, probably very quickly."

I hung up
before the waves of black rolled out over me from the receiver of the phone,
more shaken than I cared to admit. He'd have slapped the shit out of me if he'd
been in front of me. And it wouldn't have taken two weeks of marriage for him
to have slapped the shit out of me over something.

"God,
Stacy!" I thought. "You did everything to make me see that but come
right out and say it. And you'd have said it, first and last, before I actually
married him, wouldn't you, even knowing I wouldn't have believed you!"

I wasn't
surprised at the response that resounded in my brain.

"Damn
straight! That's what sisters
do
!"

Chapter Seventeen

He called
to alert me to his imminent arrival at about 11:15.

"Too early for you?"

"No,
I'm starvin'. Didn't eat breakfast 'cause I knew you'd be here around now.
Too early for you?"

"Hell, no.
Been up and on the computer since 5:00."

He was
telling me? I knew exactly when he'd woken up and I knew exactly the state he'd
woken up in, a state that seemed to be a condition precedent to waking up for
all males past puberty.

"Good.
Take the

"Baby
girl, it's called a GPS. Is Stacy coming, I hope? Not still trying to give us
privacy in the middle of a lunch crowd in the local diner hangout, is
she?"

I laughed.
"No, she's coming. We'll go ahead and start walking over. Parking might be
tight, that's our building garage on the corner of Second and Cherry. You could
whip into the second floor if you need to. Love you."

"Oddly
enough, I have very little trouble finding parking spaces.
Usually.
Love you."

I looked up
as I shut my phone to see Anderson
looking at me thoughtfully over my desktop credenza.

"I
never heard you say that to Scott, I don't think."

"Doubt
I ever did."

I collected
my sister and we went out the back door of the building to cut through the
alley over to the little diagonal formed by

"Note
to self," observed Stacy. "It's a little less crowded in here at
11:30 than at 12:00 but not enough to shout about."

"Hey!
Booth in back being vacated! Go grab, I'll go ahead and order."

Stacy and I
liked the slaw dogs, I'd get Chad
a chili dog and a slaw dog and fries for everybody, of course—that was when
somebody behind me grabbed my left hand and pulled it up and back. Not just
somebody. Scott.
Of course.

"Well,
well, for once the scuttlebutt didn't exaggerate."

"Hello to you too, Scott."

He didn't
release my hand and pulled back harder, ostensibly to convey to anybody paying
attention that he was getting a better view. In actuality, he was squeezing
hard enough to hurt.

"Oh,
yeah, that'd be enough to make anybody trade cars. Or men."

"You
don't want to do that, Scott," Stacy said from behind.

"Ah,
the cheerleader cheering from the back," Scott said. "And why don't I
want to do that?"

I caught
the vibration in the air and glanced back over my shoulder at the door just as
Magic Man walked through it, just as Stacy said, "I mean
,
you
really
don't want to do
that."

Chad
moved so fast I didn't actually see
the progression from door to counter and then his hand was squeezing Scott's
wrist.

"You
should learn to listen to the ladies, Scott. You
really
don't want to do that."

He'd caught
a few pressure points, obviously.
Scott's hand spasmed as he
dropped mine.
I turned and caught the glare in his eyes as he looked at
me, which didn't sustain
itself
but a second as it
moved to Chad.
He turned and walked out the door.

"Well,"
said Stacy, as she moved to put her arm around my waist. "That was some
lunch time drama. You sure know how to make an entrance, Magic Man."