Page 39 of The Jilted Jinn


Font Size:

Hank grinned, stood, and followed me as I showed him around the yard. Twenty minutes later we were finished and Hank already had an idea of exactly what he wanted to do for her. Dude was a gardening genius and Katie was going to love it. I shook hands with him and opened the door to show us backinside.

I pondered Hank's words of wisdom for the rest of thenight.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I was being too nice for my owngood.

Story of mylife.

15

Martin

One monthlater

Hank's advicewas still bothering me an entire month later. Of course I didn't take it. I wasn't about to sell myself to Katie. If she liked me, she would saysomething.

Wouldn'tshe?

I ground my teeth together and fought to keep from kicking the paint can over. It couldn't seriously be that easy, could it? I shook my head. Hank and I weren't best friends, but we knew each other pretty well. There was no way on Earth he paraded in front of Helen like a male underwear model. Hadhe?

I shook my head. No. No way. But Helen was a different woman. Maybe he didn't haveto.

Shit. I should have asked him more questions. I glanced out from behind one of the posts I was painting in the now almost completely finished sunroom. I only had to touch up a bit more paint, then I could move on to the smaller leftoverprojects.

And then I would be finished and it would probably be too late. I noticed she'd been seeing more of Kristoff. What pissed me off was I couldn't find a single thing wrong with him. He appeared to be respectful, intelligent, decent looking for a vamp, an all around good guy. But seeing him and the warmth in her eyes when she looked at him set my damned teeth onedge.

Did I own any white tank tops? I glanced down at myself. Practical jeans splattered with paint, good, thick socks, regular work boots and a checkered, short sleeved collaredshirt.

I couldn't even believe I was thinking aboutit.

I swallowed hard and keptpainting.

The only chance you missed was the one you failed totake.

I was going to punch Hank in the kidney next time I sawhim.

16

I'd just finishedup with a client who wanted a guaranteed win for her daughter in the Midnight Cove Teen Pageant. When I informed her that was cheating, the woman stood up and demanded to see my boss. When I reminded her that I was the only Jinn within a five hundred mile radius, she screamed she wasn't paying me. And then when I pushed over the contract she'd signed and highlighted the passages where she'd promised to pay and that it was enforceable in court, she threw a massive wad of cash at me and stormedout.

I took a few deep breaths, grabbed my sage stick, and hoped I never met her daughter. Few girls raised with a parent like that would grow up to be humble. I said a little prayer for her as I thoroughly saged every nook and cranny of my office trying to get that woman's bad jujuout.

When I was satisfied, I stubbed out the sage, and sank back down into my desk chair. I had 45 minutes before my next customer arrived. I put my aching feet on the massage roller I kept under my desk and pushed hard on the sore tendons, wincing when the plastic spikes hit a particularly tenderspot.

"I could do that for you, you know," came a deep, unexpectedvoice.

My eyes flew open to see Kristoff standing in the doorway. His soft blue eyes were full of amusement. I waved him in. He sat his lanky frame down in the chair and smiled at me. "Sorry to barge in. You weren't returning mycalls."

I opened my mouth to give him a bunch of excuses, but he shook his head. "You don't have to tell me anything. There's been some...rumbles about the Lupin pack lately. I think I've gleaned a lot of it from just that. I'm sorry to hear what'shappened."

My heart softened. Kristoff was good. Kind. I studied his angular face and his generous lips. A lock of dark hair fell over his eyes and his shirt pocket held a pair of eyeglasses in it. Why he had those, I had no idea. With vamp DNA he didn't need them. I'd never askedhim.

"You're adorable," Isighed.

His lips quirked in a half smile. "Oh yeah? Fancy another date? I mean, I'll have to check my calendar. Bookworms like me are very socially in demand, so I think I'm booked up for the next six weeks, but I can try to pencil youin."

"Oh yeah? Fifty Shades of Grey taking up most of your sparetime?"

He winced. "You have a wretched, wicked tongue, Katie. You'll have to wait at least three more weeks after that then." His eyes glittered with amusement. "Because Fifty Shades is atrilogy."