him, apparently waiting for him to react to her joke.
Laughing, he obliged her. “Good one.”
She shook her head, turning back to the skillet. “I’m serious. When I need protein, I turn to other sources like beans, nuts, soy and grains.”
Horrified, he eyed her. “It’s a wonder you’re not sick. Shifters need meat. End of story.”
“Really? You’re entitled to your opinion, but I haven’t had meat in over a year. And I’ve never felt better.”
Her black cat leaped up onto the counter, eyeing the sizzling food. Anabel shooed him off. “Get down, Leroy.”
Immediately, the feline obeyed, twining around her ankles and mewing.
“He’s hungry,” she said. “Just a minute, baby.”
Eyeing the cat, Tyler shook his head. “Please tell me he’s not a vegetarian too.”
“Of course not. He eats high-quality dry cat food. Tuna flavored, I think.”
Finished cooking, she turned off the burner and transferred her meal to a plate. Then she went to the cabinet and poured her pet a bowl full of kibble, placing it on the floor for him to eat.
She carried her plate to the table, sat and dug in. Even watching her eat was an act of sensuality. “Now, if we’re done discussing my diet, let’s get back to our plan of action. I was thinking about talking to some of your sister’s friends.”
“Since the police won’t?”
“Have they? Do you even know?”
“Since they’ve been treating her disappearance like she left voluntarily, I’m guessing no.”
She finished chewing before responding. He watched as she blotted one corner of her full mouth with a napkin, aching to put his tongue there instead. “I’ll find out. I’ll need a bit more information, like where she worked and lived. How about we start this afternoon?”
Gratified, he nodded. “I like that you don’t waste time.”
“Might as well do it on my day off. I have to go back to work tomorrow. On workdays, my time is limited.”
“Work?” He said the word as if it were foreign. “What do you do, exactly?”
“I used to be an executive secretary to the president of Leaning Tree Bank. I was well regarded and made good money. Best of all, I was respected, the competent wife of a military man. But that had been in another life, before David died and my entire world had been turned apart.”
Heart aching for her, he instinctively realized the last thing she’d want would be his pity. “What do you do now?”
“I cook,” she answered, lifting her chin. “In the diner. I’m on the morning shift. I have to be there at six a.m. I work until two.” She didn’t mention that the pay was minimal. If not for the life-insurance policy that David had taken out when they were first married, she’d have had to take a second job.
“Leaving your afternoons free.”
She shook her head. “I do have errands to run too, you know. But I’ll work on your sister’s case each day.”
“Each day?” Horrified, he stared. “Don’t you understand? She doesn’t have that much time. We need to find her now.”
Now. If only she really did possess some magical power that would enable her to help him. Anabel hated the idea of a young girl, trapped in some dark place, subject to the whims of a cruel and probably psychotic man.
“Tell me how,” she entreated. “I’ll do whatever I can. But I don’t know what else to do.”
“Find the warlock.”
“Okay.” She waited for him to say more, but apparently he thought that was enough. “And how do I do that?” she finally asked. “And don’t say ‘use your power,’ because I have no idea how.”
And furthermore, she wasn’t entirely sure she even had power to begin with. And if by some miracle she succeeded in finding the warlock, then what? Call the police? She doubted they’d even help. They’d already made it clear they regarded her as a dangerous eccentric.
He thought for a moment. “Maybe Juliet can give you a crash course in magic. She did offer.”
“Maybe. Though I have a feeling something like what you’re talking about isn’t simple.”
“Probably not.” He straightened, meeting and holding her gaze. “But we’re talking about my sister’s life. I’d hope you’d do whatever it takes to save her. We’re about out of time.”
Telling him she’d think about it, she finished eating her meal, concentrating on the food while trying to puzzle out some sort of solution. She wanted to help him find his sister; she really did. She just had no idea how.
When she looked up, her ghostly visitor had vanished.
Blinking, she looked around. Tyler was gone.
He didn’t reappear that afternoon, though when her phone rang shortly before five and it was her boss, Jeb, calling to tell her she wasn’t needed tomorrow and, in fact, could have a few more days off, she knew somehow Tyler had been working behind the scenes to clear the time she needed to help him.
Though she wouldn’t like the lost wages, she thanked Jeb and agreed, promising to be back by the end of the week. She hoped she wasn’t losing her job. While Jeb had never seemed to mind what the townspeople thought of Anabel, especially since she’d worked out of sight in the kitchen, she wouldn’t put it past some uptight haters to try to cause her to lose her employment. There were a few small-minded people mean enough to do something like that.
She kept waiting for Tyler to reappear, though she knew she should have been relieved at his absence. He fascinated her, though, and she was honest enough with herself to know part of that was because he was so ruggedly masculine. If he hadn’t been a spirit, she imagined her skin would sizzle if he were to touch her. Even the thought sent a bolt of heat through her.
Pushing the thought away, she occupied herself with weeding her garden and trying to gather up the nerve to call Juliet and ask her to help. But she couldn’t even imagine the conversation. How did you ask someone, even your best friend, to teach you how to use your magic like a witch?
At dinnertime, she took to the internet and tried to find information about magic. But the general weirdness put her off, and she stopped before she felt too alienated from herself. If the townspeople thought she was strange now, imagine if they learned she supposedly was a witch with magical abilities.
For a few minutes, she sat in her living-room chair, eyes closed, trying to concentrate. “Magic,” she whispered, feeling slightly foolish but going ahead anyway. “If you’re there, help me out. Show me where to find Tyler’s sister.”
But nothing
