Mistress of Magic by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online

the remainder of the day.
    She had been convinced at first that he had meant to drag her away to dinner then and there—before they’d even had lunch!—but after making sure that she wasn’t going anywhere, he had suddenly turned to leave the room.
    “I’ll meet you in front at seven,” he had said. She’d been tempted to cry after him that she wouldn’t be there, but he had spun around before she could do so. “Seven!” he’d repeated, as if daring her to make the statement she was longing to give.
    She didn’t have to say anything at all. She could just not show up!
    “Was that seven you said?” she’d inquired sweetly.
    She’d seen the quick tightening of his facial muscles, and she’d been glad that he didn’t walk toward her then. For if he had, she might have taken a few cowardly steps back.
    “Seven,” he’d said once again. To her irritation, she’d remained still. As he turned to leave, she’d been startled to realize that he moved with a little limp. One that was almost imperceptible. But there.
    “Damn him!” she’d said the moment he was out of the room.
    Now she reminded herself that he had helped to save Max and her—and Dierdre’s DinoLand. He wasn’t helping because of her, she knew. He was helping because of Max. So he should have dinner with Max!
    Stand the man up … could she do it? Should she do it?
    Something in her said that he had come through when they needed someone to come through. Something else inside her said he was far too arrogant, and that he expected to have his every command obeyed. Yet something else told her that he was having an effect on her whether she liked it or not. He was making her feel things, think things. Things she hadn’t thought about since …
    There was work to be done. She didn’t dare think about those things now. And maybe she wouldn’t see Wes again. Maybe she would stand him up and she wouldn’t have to wonder about the man and the effect he had on her.
    Actually, she was never sure if she intended to show up for dinner or not. As it happened, she was called into a meeting with Niles, another of their character performers called in sick and a replacement couldn’t be found, and in the end she had to help make sandwiches at Dierdre’s Deli.
    It was now eight-thirty, and the park—still on late spring hours even though temperatures made it seem like summer—had been closed for an hour and a half. The last of the gift shops was closing when she took off her shoes and walked barefoot over the cooling asphalt to her office. The night crew was sweeping up wrappers and cigarette butts and whatever hadn’t been cleaned up during the day.
    Even the cleanup crew was short of workers. She knew just how short when she came across her brother sweeping the broad expanse of entryway to the main cave. He looked up, frowning, as she appeared from the shadows of the cave.
    “You’re supposed to be at dinner,” he said, pointing a finger at her. He was so accusing! As if she had failed to appear for royalty.
    Or a financial backer, she thought wryly.
    But Wes Blake was a friend Max cared about—that much had always been obvious. “Max! He’s your friend—you should have gone to dinner.”
    “You agreed to dinner!”
    “He was just helping me get out of dinner with Rick Player!”
    “I don’t think so, Reggie.”
    “All right—he means to give me the third degree. He means to dig into our lives.”
    Max was silent.
    “Well?”
    “Maybe.”
    Reggie sighed. “Well, at least he’s on your side,” she murmured.
    “He believes in me,” Max said. “But …”
    “But what?”
    “If he did find skeletons in the closet, he’d drag them out.”
    “Wonderful. I didn’t mean to stand him up, but maybe I’m glad that I did!”
    “Why did you? What are you still doing here?” he asked accusingly.
    “What are you still doing here?” she demanded in turn.
    She heard the grating of his teeth and knew that Max was annoyed with her.