Then we settled in for an hour or two of pizza and drawing up plans for the garage, and it was one of the best mornings I'd had in a while.
"I thought a two-car garage," I said. "One bay for her car, and one for her tools and maybe a workbench."
"And a smaller bay over here on the right that would just about fit your motorcycle," he said, adding pencil marks to the sketch. "No need leaving it out in the rain when you visit."
A warm feeling spread through my chest, and I tried to pretend to myself that it was indigestion from the pizza.
All this emotion stuff was wearing me out. I'd spent ten years fighting and leading the rebel army against the rogue vampires trying to take over the United States. I'd never had to worry about anybody'sfeelings.
To discover I had feelings of my own had thrown me off balance.
Mike answered his phone about midway through our conversation, and Ruby, sounding like she was an inch away from hitting someone with a rolling pin, started telling him about a problem.
I stood. "I can go sit out on the porch." Tess's family knew that with my tiger hearing, no phone call was private if I was in the room.
He waved me back down. "This isn't confidential. It's about those fool Santas."
Turned out it was about more than that. Ruby started out complaining about the Santas' fighting, but then sharply segued into a dire problem facing the town council. UltraShopMart, a huge corporate conglomerate that wanted to be the next Walmart, was trying to move into Dead End, and the reactions from local business owners were mixed.
More than mixed, apparently. People were dividing themselves into two sides of a battle, according to Ruby's side of the conversation. And all this after we'd all only heard about the USM outreach a handful of days ago.
"Honey, you can't solve all the town's problems in one day," Mike said soothingly, but concern creased his face. "I think you're right that a town hall meeting is the way to go. Can you set that up?"
Before Ruby could answer, my phone rang. I glanced down to see Tess's smiling face on the screen and walked out of the room so as not to bother Mike when he was discussing important town business with his wife, the mayor. At the doorway, I paused and looked back at him. He raised one white eyebrow.
"It's Tess. Remember, the garage is a secret, okay? I hope you're good at keeping secrets from her."
Mike grinned and asked Ruby to hang on for a second. "Jack, I've been keeping secrets from that girl since I had to hide her birthday presents when she was four years old."
I was still laughing when I answered my phone. "Hey, Tess. What's up? Did you hear about the Santas?"
"We have bigger problems," she said, and I could hear the resignation in her voice.
"Oh, no. What now?"
"Remember the enchanted music box?"
How could I forget? Tess had acquired a magical music box in a Fae Bargain, which meant she couldn't easily get rid of it. It liked to pop into a room unexpectedly and play weirdly appropriate—or inappropriate—music.
The first time I'd spent the night with Tess, romantically, we'd woken up to the box sitting on her bedside table playing "Love Train."
She hadn't let me throw it out the window.
"What about the box? What did it do now?"
"Not the box. Another enchanted object. You know the Christmas tree I took in pawn yesterday?"
I'd seen it when I'd stopped by. It was a sickly looking artificial tree whose best years were behind it. She'd said she planned to put lights and ornaments on it so it didn't look like a "Charlie Brown tree," whatever that meant.
"How bad can a magical tree be? Does it play Christmas carols? I can see how that would get annoying, but—"
"It steals presents."
"What?"
"From children in Dead End."
I leaned against the wall and lightly banged my forehead against it.
