Over Hexed: The Hex Series

by Thompson, Vicki Lewis

  “I think you should take that call,” Ambrose said.

  “It can wait. I still want to know if you can help me predict when I’ll change from looking good to looking nerdy.”

  “Take the call,” Dorcas said. “Then we’ll talk.”

  “I can’t get good reception in this house.”

  Ambrose waved a hand in the air. “That may have changed. You know how those transmissions vary.”

  With a sigh, Sean answered his phone, expecting static and breaks in the conversation. To his surprise, Clem came through loud and clear.

  “Sean, Clara took a notion that she wants a sunroom. A big sunroom. I want you to build it, and because of my tax picture this year, I want to pay you now, before you do the work.” Then he named a figure that made Sean gasp. “Can we make a deal?”

  “Uh, sure, Clem. I’d be happy to do that work for you.”

  “Can you come up here this morning and talk to Clara about it? She’s real anxious to start the planning.”

  “All right. I’ll be there.”

  “And don’t park by your place. Come up the main road to the big house. I just went down to the cottage looking for you and the place is crawling with women. I guess the word’s out about your doings last night.”

  Sean groaned. “Thanks for the warning.”

  “No problem. See you soon.”

  “Right.” Sean closed the phone and stared at it, still not quite believing the offer Clem had made. The women converging on his little place would be a hassle, but it might not be his place much longer, anyway.

  “Good news?” Dorcas asked.

  Feeling a little dazed, Sean glanced at them. “I guess you could say that. Clem Loudermilk is about to give me enough money to make a counter offer on the property Maggie wants.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Maggie should have known that her night with Sean would be all over town first thing this morning. She’d done the crime, so she’d have to do the time, or, in this case, brave the embarrassment.

  Her cheeks felt hot, but she made herself look Denise in the eye. “He’s not the enemy. He’s just a guy who wants to buy his childhood home.”

  “And he’s using sex to try to get it?”

  “Maybe, but as you can see, I’m still planning to buy the property for SaveALot. If that was his plan, it failed.”

  “If he was his old self, it wouldn’t have failed. I don’t know what’s happened to him, but he’s lost that extreme sexiness he used to have.”

  Maggie didn’t think he’d lost anything. Sure, his hair misbehaved sometimes and his glasses weren’t very attractive. But she had a vivid picture of how he’d looked last night, his biceps taut as he braced his arms on either side of her, his eyes bright as emeralds as he thrust deep. She’d never seen a sexier man in her life.

  “So you’re planning to love him and leave him?”

  Denise’s question interrupted her brief fantasy. “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? We’re both consenting adults. We can choose to have a little sex for its own sake.”

  Denise’s gaze filled with envy. “You know he’s never had a woman at his place. Never. Some have tried, but he wouldn’t invite them inside.”

  “He probably feels safer with me because I’m from out of town. For all you know he’s relieved to know I’ll be leaving soon.”

  “He’s not the only one. Now that the women in town know he’s back in the game, they’re lining up to take advantage of that.”

  Which irritated the hell out of Maggie. The thought of a parade of women cycling through Sean’s bedroom put her in a foul mood. She wondered if he’d allow that, now that she’d broken the ice by being the first girl in his bed. Would he have kitchen-table sex with them, too? She could still feel the smooth surface of the table against her bare back, still hear the thump of the table legs keeping time with their heavy breathing.

  “So it was good.”

  The best. “I don’t think you and I know each other well enough for me to answer that.”

  “It was good. I can tell from the way your eyes glazed over a second ago. I suppose it doesn’t matter what he looks like if he still has the moves.”

  “I really don’t want to talk about this any more.” No, she wanted to do it, which was insane.

  “Okay, but are you thinking of spending any more time with him while you’re here?”

  “No, not really.” Then again, she was meeting Harold Pierpont in the morning to close the deal, assuming the old guy arrived in one piece. Sean couldn’t change the course of events, now.

  Because of that, he might not want to have anything to do with her. That was a depressing thought. She might as well stay away from him and avoid a potential rejection that would crush her ego.

  “I wouldn’t try to see him if I were you,” Denise said. “It could get dicey.”

  “In what way?”

  Denise gestured to her computer screen. “There’s an email loop in town called Sean Watch. It’s been inactive for months because he wasn’t dating anyone. This morning I have ten emails with the subject line of Sean’s back! I predict you’ll have to fight through the crowd to get to him.”

  “No, thanks.” Battling other women to see Sean didn’t appeal to her. Besides, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t control her craving for him. She had twenty-four hours before she could see Harold. Surely she could stay away from Sean that long.

  “So what are you going to do with yourself until tomorrow at ten?”

  “Go back to Madeline’s.”

  “Not much to do there.”

  “Sure there is. I can help Abe document his laugh tracks.”

  But ten minutes later as she climbed into her car, she found herself driving back to the property. Her excuse was that she wanted to see it when the sun was shining. Her reason was that Sean might be there.

  * * *

  Sean stopped by Denise’s office on his way to Clem’s. If he had the money to bid on the property, then she had to allow him to do that.

  She glanced up from the screen of a laptop, a laptop that was obviously working. If he’d had any hope that Jeremy hadn’t come to her aid, that was gone. Jeremy must have loaned her the laptop.

  Denise regarded him with narrowed eyes. “She’s not sticking around, you know.”

  He didn’t have to ask who she meant. “I know.” If he thought he could change that, he would try, but the nerd herb effect could sabotage that effort.

  “Why her? Why go all this time not dating, and then end up with her?”

  “I didn’t come in here to talk about that.” He couldn’t answer the question without sounding like a dope, anyway. There was something about Maggie that stirred him up, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  “You want to know if I’ve found the owner.”

  “That’s part of it, and I—”

  “What’s it worth to you?” Denise gave him a once-over.

  That slow scan was enough to remind him of the horrors he’d faced before taking the nerd herbs. He didn’t want to resume that life. He only wanted to look good for Maggie.

  He cleared his throat. “I’m not going to play games. Clem Loudermilk just hired me to do a major addition to his house and he’s paying me in advance. I want to bid on the property.”

  Denise’s eyebrows rose. “I see. What kind of money are we talking about?”

  Sean named his figure, which included all he’d saved, the money Calvin Gilmore owed him, and the advance from Clem. “And I can go higher. That’s what I’ll have in cash, but my credit’s good. I should be able to borrow more if necessary.”

  “I’ll call Harold Pierpont and let him know we have another offer. Maggie needs to know, too.” Denise picked up the phone and punched in a number written on her memo pad. After a minute, she put the phone down again. “No answer from the seller.”

  “This Pierpont guy doesn’t have a machine?”

  “Not unless it’s a defibrillator. The guy sounded
ancient on the phone. I’ll be surprised if he shows up at ten tomorrow, like he said.”

  “He’s coming here?”

  “Supposedly. Let me try Maggie.”

  “Wait.”

  Denise paused, her hand on the receiver. “You want to reconsider?”

  “No, I want to tell her myself.”

  “That’s not how it’s done. You don’t have the competing buyers notifying each other. It has to go through me.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud, Denise. This is Big Knob, not Chicago. Let me call her. I need to be the one to break the news.”

  She studied him for a moment. “I’m beginning to think you actually care about her.”

  He shrugged, unwilling to comment one way or the other.

  “I never thought Sean Madigan would be in danger of having his heart broken.”

  “It’s not like that. Telling her myself is the decent thing to do, considering…”

  “Considering you’ve slept with her, you mean.” Denise scowled. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. You could have most anyone in town—or you could, before you started losing your looks. Maybe that’s it. You took stock and decided you’d better grab the first available woman.”

  Sean pulled out his cell phone. “I don’t have to listen to this. I’m calling her.” He punched in the number he’d memorized yesterday.

  “I’m warning you, she’ll be outta here by Monday, with or without buying the property. If you want my opinion, you’ll settle for someone else, someone who doesn’t mind so much if you have a double chin and weird hair.”

  Sean ignored her and waited for Maggie to answer.

  When she did, she sounded out of breath…and wary. “Hello?”

  “I got a sudden influx of money,” he said. “I’m in Denise’s office and I just told her I’m bidding on the property.”

  Silence.

  “Maggie, are you there?”

  “Yes, I’m here. Did MegaMart get to you? Is that who gave you the money? Please have the decency to tell me if it is.”

  “It has nothing to do with MegaMart. It’s my money. Clem Loudermilk’s paying me in advance for a construction job.”

  There was a sound as if she’d swallowed hard. “Sean, you’re making a huge mistake. Yesterday the light was dim and I didn’t notice all the defects, but today, with the sun shining, I can see all sorts of problems with this house. There’s a major situation with the foundation on the east side, and I don’t like what’s going on with the eaves on the west side, either.”

  “It sounds as if you’re out there right now.”

  “I…I am. I decided to take another walk around the place.”

  To hell with his nerdy looks. He needed to convince her that her future was here, with him, in that house. “Stay there. I’ll be right out.”

  He snapped the phone closed and glanced at Denise. “Let me know if you get in touch with Pierpont.”

  “If you don’t hear from me, just meet Maggie and me out at the house at ten. I guess we’ll be doing this the old fashioned way, face-to-face.”

  “Fine with me.” If he had any luck with Maggie, she’d withdraw her bid.

  As he drove toward the property, he remembered promising Clem he’d come up there and discuss the addition. Without Clem, he had no prayer of outbidding Maggie. Driving one-handed, he called Clem.

  “I’m running into a little situation,” he said. “Can I come up there in about an hour?”

  “Better not make it any longer than that,” Clem said. “When Clara takes a notion, she wants action. I convinced her to use you instead of some big outfit from Indianapolis, but if you don’t jump right on it, she might change her mind.”

  “I’ll be there in an hour.” Sean closed the phone and tucked it back in his pocket.

  On the way past his little cottage he glanced over and saw several vehicles parked there. About five women stood in the yard, talking. He recognized all of them. He should. He’d seen every single one naked.

  Apparently the news that he’d slept with Maggie had been like throwing chum in the water. The sharks were circling and eager to leap in the boat. The women all remembered what he used to look like, though. They might scatter once they saw he’d become a nerd.

  Unfortunately one of them spotted his truck. Good Lord. They were piling in their cars and coming after him. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Maggie. “Change of plans. I’ve picked up an escort. I need to lose them.”

  “Who?”

  “Some women.” He glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the first vehicle, Angie Jankowsky’s silver SUV, was gaining on him.

  Maggie drew in a breath. “So Denise wasn’t kidding about that.”

  “Guess not.” He stepped on the gas. “Listen, I really want to talk to you.”

  “That doesn’t seem possible.”

  “It is, but I need to handle this, and I really have to talk to Clem and Clara. How about if I meet you in two hours out in the Whispering Forest where we left the skunks? I wanted to check on them, anyway. You can drive there, but I’ll be on foot.”

  “On foot?”

  “Yeah. It’s the only way I won’t be spotted.” Closing the phone, he floored the gas pedal. As a guy who’d had countless make-out sessions in the woods, he knew the back roads better than anyone in Big Knob. He was as good as gone.

  * * *

  Maggie spent most of the next two hours wandering around the old house and wondering if she dared meet Sean. On the one hand, she might be able to talk him out of throwing away his money on this rickety old place. On the other hand, he would have an opposing goal, to talk her out of buying it for SaveALot, and she didn’t want to take a chance on losing her focus.

  On the third hand—and she ignored the logic that there was no such thing as a third hand unless you were an alien—she might never have another chance to be alone with him. She wasn’t fooling herself, either. If they were alone, they’d have sex. Whichever way things went tomorrow, she doubted there would be sex after the deal was closed. One of them would not be feeling charitable enough toward the other to get sweaty and naked together.

  Before the deal was closed, however, was a whole different thing. There was wiggle room before the deal was closed. She would love to do some more wiggling with Sean before she had to give him up forever. But she couldn’t let it influence her decision.

  In the end, she let curiosity about the skunks tip the scales. The Whispering Forest didn’t seem scary in broad daylight, and she’d like to find out if the skunks were sleeping quietly in their den. She thought she’d be able to peek in without disturbing them.

  And because she didn’t know what kind of evasive action Sean had been forced to take, she drove back to the Hob Knob and picked up two orders of homemade vegetable soup and two coffees. The sun might be shining, but the air was still brisk. If Sean was on time, the soup would still be warm.

  She found the road leading into the forest without much trouble, but the trees and underbrush all looked different during the day. One wide spot in the road seemed like the right one, but after tramping around in the woods nearby she found no fallen log with a skunk family living under it.

  What she found was a stump with footprints around it. Maybe this was where Dorcas and Ambrose had been before they’d appeared so suddenly the night before. Maggie wandered around the clearing, curious as to whether she’d find any clues as to what Dorcas and Ambrose had been up to out here.

  Eventually she came to a print in the moist earth that made her pause and study it. It was the sort of impression that would be made if someone had a large claw-footed table out here. That was unlikely, unless Dorcas and Ambrose had set up a banquet. But if they had, where was this table? Where were the chairs, the plates, the knives, forks and spoons?

  Searching the ground nearby, she found more of the same impressions. Strange, very strange. She’d have to bring Sean here and see what he made of it. He knew the residents better than she did. He cou
ld probably come up with an explanation.

  She drove further down the road and ended up at the base of Big Knob. She’d gone too far. Turning around wasn’t easy, but she managed eventually to point herself in the right direction. Then she retraced her path past the area where she’d seen the large impressions and finally found another wide place in the road that she’d missed the first time through. This had to be it.

  A quick check of the surrounding woods proved that she was in the right spot. She found the fallen tree and the den she and Sean had created. Crouching down, she peered into the dark little cave.

  “I wouldn’t startle them if I were you.”

  Gasping, she leaped to her feet and turned to find Sean standing there, a backpack slung over one shoulder. For some reason he’d ditched the glasses again.

  She didn’t notice whether his hair was messy or not. She was too busy looking into his eyes, which burned with the same lusty intent she felt racing through her body.

  “I’m here to talk you out of buying the property,” he said.

  “What a coincidence. I’m here for the same reason.”

  He unhooked the backpack from his shoulder and set it on the ground. “Then let’s get to it.” He stepped toward her.

  Her heart hammered with anticipation. “Yes, let’s.” She tucked her glasses in the pocket of her trench coat.

  A split second, a blink of an eye, and they were on each other.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Thank God he’d brought condoms. Sean hadn’t been sure what kind of a reception he’d get, hadn’t even known if Maggie would show up. She’d shown up all right. In spades.

  He’d wondered if he’d ever kiss her again, and here she was opening her mouth for him, using her tongue, moaning as if she couldn’t get enough. Metal rasped as she unzipped his leather jacket so she could get her hands under his shirt. He’d already untied her coat and unfastened the buttons.