by Debora Geary
Romy laughed. “Take your time—then I won’t have anyone fighting me for the rest of the bread.”
The woman could put away enough food to please even Franco. He clicked on the Skype button to open video chat. “Hi, Mom. What’s the emergency?”
“Hi, sweetheart. Who’s the pretty redhead?”
Like Jolie, his mother could see bits of the future. There were so many ways this could end badly. Jake cursed whatever insanity had made him answer the call and tried to avoid catastrophe. “Just a new friend, Mom.”
“I don’t think so, my son. I saw her kissing you on a big rock, with more than one kind of magic in the air.”
Jake looked over at Romy, apology in his eyes. She was a fascinating mix of embarrassed and horrified.
“Jacob Stanley Hayes, is that girl there right now? Call her over where I can see her.”
He shrugged helplessly and waved Romy over. She looked ready to impale him on her fork, but she came.
“Oh hello, dear,” said his mother. “I’m Deva, Jake’s mother. You are indeed a pretty little thing. Good for you, kissing my son like that. He needs a little excitement in his life.”
“Mom.” Jake growled, but he didn’t expect it to do any good.
“He’s a bit of a daredevil, but I imagine that’s half the fun. He’s also one of the most steady men I know.”
To his amazement, Romy grinned. “Somehow, I don’t think you like your men steady and predictable.”
His mother was delighted. “Indeed I don’t, darling, but I think that maybe you do. I won’t keep you. You go back to eating and contemplating whether you want to kiss him again. Jake, call me soon, so I don’t have to embarrass you again.” With that, she was gone.
Jake badly wanted a bag to pull over his head. “I’m so sorry. My mom can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.”
Romy shook her head. “You have a mom who loves you, Jake. Don’t apologize for that.”
Okay, now he needed a hole big enough to crawl in. “She’s always been this big force in my life, and especially growing up, that could sometimes be really embarrassing. My mom, the fortuneteller.”
“Like a real one?” Romy looked fascinated.
“Yeah. No one sees more than a few bits of the future, but she gets more than most. I always swore growing up that she only got the parts where I was going to get into some kind of trouble. Wreaked havoc with my dating life as a teenager.”
He reached out to tug on Romy’s hair. “Apparently, it still is.”
She went absolutely still, and he was suddenly very unsure of his next move. Nothing moved, not breath, not thought. Just the touch of her hair on his fingers, and a fierce need for more.
“I didn’t thank you for earlier today.”
She wanted to talk? Jake tried to get his verbal brain back in motion. “Thank me for what?”
“I’m actually not entirely sure what you did.” She looked away for a moment, as if trying to remember. “While you were touching my face, there on the rock. I was fighting to tamp my magic down, the way I have my whole life. I’ve never believed I could handle it—but you did.”
He nodded. The memory of her face glowing with hope and power unleashed was shutting down his verbal brain again.
“I could feel some kind of flow coming from you. Was it magic—were you helping me?”
He shook his head slowly and closed his eyes as truth hit. He was such an idiot. His mother hadn’t called about a kiss. She’d called because she’d seen the moment he’d fallen in love.
“No,” he said softly. “It was just me, believing in you.”
Her smile trembled. “Why?”
Words failed. He tugged again on her hair and pulled her in close. The kiss shook his world.
Then he realized his world really was shaking. “Shit.” He cupped Romy’s head under his chin. “Sorry, give me a moment.”
The plates on the table started rattling. He hadn’t lost control of his magic this badly since he was sixteen.
Romy looked up, eyes huge. “We don’t get earthquakes in New Mexico.”
“Nope. That’s me. You spark, I make the ground shake.”
He’d managed to get the shaking down to mild tremors, but the tears that sprung to her eyes set the shaking off again. “Please, don’t be scared. Just give me a minute.”
She shook her head and put her hands up to his face. “Not scared. I thought I was the only one.”
Misbehaving magic made conversations hard to follow. “The only one what?”
“The only one with stupid leaky magic.”
“Heck, no. When I was a teenager, the ground shook every time I kissed a girl. Apparently that’s not as romantic as the books make it seem. Hasn’t happened in a long time, though.”
She grinned. “I bring out your inner teenager?”
No. She flattened him, and he hadn’t let that happen in a very long time.
Chapter 11
Romy resisted the urge to throw something. It was time to rehearse the big fire-escape love scene, and her two lovebirds were spitting at each other.
“Tina, you’re supposed to be in love with him.”
“Maria’s smarter than that,” snapped Tina. “She would never fall for this little weasel.”
“That kind of disrespect doesn’t fly here; you know that.”
“Sorry. But I can’t act what I don’t feel.”
“Sure you can. That’s the whole point of acting.” Romy grabbed a hat off a nearby kid’s head and plunked it down on the ladder standing in as the fire escape. She sang Tony’s part of the “Tonight” duet, going just a little bit over the top. It was the ultimate young-love-about-to-turn-tragic song, and she knew how to milk a good tune.
When she finished, everyone applauded, including Jake, who had just come in the door.
Romy ignored him, placed the cap on a chair right about where Tony would stand, and motioned to Tina. “Sing to the hat. Make me believe you.”
It started a little flat, but by the time Tina hit the finale, every guy in Delinquent Drama wanted to be the hat.
Romy dropped it on the head of the kid playing Tony. “Now, do exactly the same thing with Rizzo.”
Tina scowled. Long experience told Romy now was not the time to pick a fight, which left humor or bribery as her choices. Nothing funny popped into her head, so she opted for a bribe. Knowing Tina well, she picked a big one. “You pull this off, you get a freebie.”
That got pretty much everyone’s attention. She didn’t give out freebies often; they were hard on her ego. Skate had scored the last one, and he was making her twirl and kick in the back row of his dance number.
Tina smirked and drew a finger along Rizzo’s cheek. “You’re not going to know what hit you, lover boy.”
Rizzo had a pretty good voice, but Tina carried the duet on her stunning vocals. She leaned over the fire escape and melted star-crossed teenage love over the entire room.
Romy wondered if any of her theater connections knew someone in New York. Tina had the kind of voice that deserved a chance at the big leagues.
Tina looked over at Romy when she finished. “I earned my freebie.” It wasn’t a question.
“You did. That was seriously good.” Romy was well aware there was plenty of insecure girl hiding in Tina’s darker corners. “What do you want?”
Tina grinned and pointed at Jake. “I want you to sing ‘Tonight’ with him.”
She’d never, ever welched on a freebie. There was a first time for everything. “Illegal ask, Tina. It’s got to be something I can do. No innocent bystanders.”
Tina waltzed over to Jake. “Can you sing, hot stuff?”
Jake shrugged. “What are you going to do for me if I do?”
“I already got the freebie.”
“From Romy. You want me to sing, I get a freebie from you.”
Hello, no taking advantage of a minor on her watch, Romy thought. Then she mentally backpedaled. Jake had been nothing but awesome with her
kids. There were good reasons she assumed the worst of most people, but he’d earned a free pass. A permanent one.
Tina was still eyeing Jake with serious suspicion. Smart girl.
“So long as it’s not nothing illegal, okay.”
Jake walked over to Rizzo, grabbed the hat, and plunked it on his own head. He hit Romy with a total bad-boy smile. “You ready?”
Maria started the duet, so Romy kicked into the first lines on autopilot. When Jake started to sing, her legs turned to goo. She knew classically trained when she heard it. He had the kind of voice that could travel from West Side Story to opera and back again.
He winked, and she realized he was cycling back through his verse. Oops. Even a totally gobsmacked actress wasn’t supposed to miss her cues. She found her voice somewhere and let the first half of the song pass back and forth between them.
Then they hit the second part of the duet, the part Maria and Tony sang together. Romy sang, and Jake wove around, above, and below her. Every word punched into her heart.
When the last note died, she was terrified and in love. And she was pretty sure it wasn’t temporary stage madness.
The man who’d just sung straight into her heart turned his back on her and spoke to Tina. “You have any free time in this joint?”
She nodded in slow motion. “Yeah. Right before dinner.”
“Good,” Jake said. “I’ll come tomorrow.”
Tina hardly breathed. “Why?”
“I’m collecting on my freebie. We’re going to make an audition tape.”
Romy felt the tears coming and cursed. Quietly.
“You know a record label?” Tina was frozen in an agony of hope.
Jake shook his head. “Nope. But I know the head of student admissions at Julliard. I can’t promise you anything, but I want him to hear you sing.”
Tina frowned, mystified. “What’s Julliard?”
“It’s a school where they train performing artists. A lot of the best singers in the world have trained there.”
“Is that where you learned?”
“Yup.”
Tina nodded once. “Okay. You sing pretty good. I’ll make a tape for your Julliard man.”
Jake’s reply got drowned out by the dinner bell. Tina stared at him a moment longer and then headed for the door.
Romy pulled Jake down the hall after the exiting herds. “She has no idea what you just offered her.”
“I know. I think they’ll take her. She sings like a demon angel.”
Romy laughed. “I won’t even ask what that is. I was hoping to hook her up in the theater. She has a voice that could do Broadway.”
Jake tweaked her nose. “Theater snob. She can do Broadway after Julliard, if that’s what she wants.”
Romy opened the door of the Center and walked out, lacing her fingers in with his. “So why aren’t you some famous singer?”
He shrugged. “Not quite good enough. Tina is.”
“Repeat that performance from inside, and I know a community theater group that would fall at your feet.”
Jake cupped her face, his eyes fierce. “That was for an audience of one, Romy.” The kiss was almost frantic in its demands.
Fear and longing tangled inside. The words he’d sung into her soul rose up in welcome. She wanted this.
As she reached for his face, sparks flew out of her fingers.
Romy watched the angry welts rising on his face in absolute horror. Then she turned and fled.
Chapter 12
Firebolts from Romy’s hands crashed into the rubble strewn on Tabletop Rock. Maybe if she fired enough of them, whatever magical well that existed inside her would run dry.
She’d run out of tears long ago, but the magic showed no signs of weakening.
A lifetime of fighting for control had taught her a lot about what set off her freaky powers. Fear and anger were the two worst, or so she’d managed to convince herself. Twenty years of distance from the birthday bounce house had allowed her to forget the most potent trigger of all.
Joy.
Throwing her hands high, she raged at the sky.
“That’s a pretty impressive temper tantrum, cara mia.”
Romy spun around. “Go away, Carla. I didn’t climb up to the top of this rock to have company.”
Carla raised an eyebrow. “I’m not company. I told you once that most can learn to work with their magic in an hour or two. Seems like you need that second hour. You let me know when you’re ready to start. I’ll just sit here and read a book until you’re ready.”
Romy felt some of her temper drain into sheer confusion. “You came to give me a magic lesson?”
“You don’t think you could use one?”
“He kissed me and I sparked. I burned him. I don’t think there’s much you can do to help me fix that.”
Carla tossed over a bottle of water. “Already did. I put a little aloe on, and he’ll be good as new. Franco’s done worse to himself making tomato sauce. As for the rest, we’re not going to have ourselves some kissing practice, but I’m pretty sure I know a thing or two that can help you.”
“No.” Just thinking about the marks on Jake’s face made Romy’s stomach slick with guilt.
“He loves you.”
Apparently her tears weren’t done after all. “He’s going to have to love me from a distance. I won’t touch him again.”
Carla snickered. “Good luck with that.”
And now panic was seeping in through the guilt. “You don’t understand. I didn’t just lose control. I lost it without any warning. I won’t put either of us in that position ever again.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Romy.”
Like hell it wasn’t. “What, he shouldn’t have kissed me? I’m a grown up, not a kid who needs some pretty lies. He kissed me, and my circuits blew with no warning. I could have done a lot worse than I did to him.”
Carla grinned. “Yup. He’s pretty glad your hands weren’t in his pockets.”
The humor hit Romy like a Mack truck. Even as she told herself it wasn’t remotely funny, the giggles would simply not stop. She collapsed against a rock, held her aching sides, and felt utterly drained.
“That’s better,” Carla said. “Now I want you to listen to me. We’re about to have ourselves a conversation about the birds and the bees.”
And that, thought Romy, would truly be the cherry on the worst day of her adult life. “You hiked all the way up here to tell me about sex? I spent three years in juvie; I don’t think there’s much you could add.”
Carla’s smile was awfully smug. “Fine. Then you tell me what Jake did wrong when he kissed you.”
What Jake did wrong?
“Never even occurred to you, did it? What do you think happens to a witch when his or her hormones get all stirred up?”
Romy tried to connect enough brain neurons to speak. “The magic gets stirred up, too?”
Apparently that wasn’t a terrible answer. “Exactly. Same thing happens if you stir up emotions, and double whammy if you’ve got both going on.”
So far, none of this was news. Romy could feel her frustration heating up again.
“Uh uh.” Carla cut her off before she could say anything. “This is the part where you just listen. So our boy Jake got you all juiced up—“
“I know, that, dammit! It’s not his fault—”
“Basta. Enough. Listen!” Romy knew better than to argue with a sparking witch.
“The problem is not the stirring up of things. Dio mio, my Franco has stirred me up plenty over the years.”
Carla reached for Romy’s hands. “You have to have someplace to put the magic, cara mia. The more it stirs inside you, the bigger the need to give it a place to go. I think that’s what you did. I think you pointed your magic at Jake.”
Romy spoke very quietly. “That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? I burned his face.”
“That’s not what I mean. My Franco isn’t a witch, so I speak now of something I’ve nev
er experienced. Power calls to power, mia cara. In your joy, and those first moments of realizing that you loved, I think your power reached for his.”
The tears were back. “And I hurt him. Why is my magic so awful, Carla?”
“Oh, child. It isn’t you that hurt him; it was his own fear. You offered him everything you were, and he ducked, just a little. Poor boy, he’s never been in love before. He faltered for just a moment, and your magic couldn’t quite reach his.”
Carla reached out and touched her cheek very gently. “And then you ran and broke his heart.”
“I threw fire at him.”
“No, my sweet girl. You offered him magic, and what flows in you is very strong. He will need to be strong to match it, and for just a moment, he wasn’t what you needed.”
It was hard to blame Jake for that. “So he can’t be human? He can’t hesitate at all?” Romy barely got her last words out. “Who would want that?”
Carla’s smile was slow and sweet. “Franco did. He’s not a witch, so it wasn’t quite the same, but it took some time for me to get a grip on what he stirred in me, too.”
“I bet you never left burn marks on his face.”
“No. But I did singe a couple of other pretty interesting places.” She grinned. “He still has the shirt with my hands imprinted on the back.”
Carla sobered. “You and Jake will need to find your own way. Just remember that your magic calls out to his as much as your heart does.”
“That seems like a good reason to stay far away.”
“If I thought you were that kind of coward, I wouldn’t have walked all the way up here to give you this little lecture. You’ve let your magic be the boss of you for far too long. It’s part of you, but it’s not in charge.”
Romy took a shaky breath and reached inside. The lines of magic wobbled, but they held for her as she sent power to her fingers. The ball of light was a little wimpy, but it would do.
Carla nodded in approval. “Now go find that boy of mine. He’s hurting, cara mia.”
They both turned at the rumbling in the sky. Jake was riding in at high speed. He landed in a slide of rubber that nearly knocked Romy off her feet.
“Molly called. Jolie is insisting there’s a little girl who is about to start a really big fire. She says you’ll be the one to find her, Romy. I need you to help me look.”
