Be Careful What You Witch For (A Family Fortune Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

unlocked the door and released the dogs from their leashes.
    “I think I better go to bed,” he said.
    Tuffy was at his side in an instant. Baxter threw an apologetic glance in my direction and slumped off after his friends.
    I sat on the couch alone, wondering what to do with a runaway nephew.

6
    A few minutes later, Mac’s signature knock sounded on the door. “Great,
now
he’s here,” I muttered to myself. I had hoped for a romantic evening at home before I acquired a teenager. Mac and I hadn’t had much time together since we decided to try again with our relationship. Our plan for secrecy made it all the more difficult. Seth was the only person who knew we were dating—he’d seen Mac giving me a good-bye kiss one evening and straight-out asked me about him. Then in the fall, Mac got involved in a murder case in Grand Rapids. An extended stay in Saginaw followed while he wrapped up old business before resigning from that force for good and joining the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department full-time. We’d been on a couple of dates in the past few weeks before the festival duties had sucked me back in. We were elevating the “taking it slow” idea to a whole new level.
    Mac didn’t wait to be invited in but drew me into a long kiss on the front porch. My knees started to feel like liquid as he steered me inside toward the staircase.
    “Oh man, this again?” Seth said from the landing.
    Mac jerked away from me and I almost fell backward onto the bottom step.
    “Seth?” Mac peered up the stairs.
    “Hey.” Seth raised one hand and let it drop. It had taken a long time for Seth to not snap to attention in Mac’s presence. A few moments like this one had led him to believe Mac was just a guy after all and not someone to be feared.
    Mac looked at me.
    I shrugged. “Surprise?”
    “I didn’t know you were expecting Seth,” Mac said, a formal note creeping in.
    “It was a last-minute thing—”
    “I wanted to surprise—”
    Seth and I began at the same time. I held my hand up like a traffic cop.
    “Seth wanted to come to the last day of the festival. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.” I looked at Seth as I said this so he would know it was my rapidly cobbled cover story. As usual Seth caught on right away.
    “Huh. Well, it’s good to see you again, Seth. Is that Tuffy up there with you?”
    “Yeah, he’s here.” Seth gestured behind him where the dog was cowering.
    “He did okay on the plane? I thought he freaked out when you flew home with him in August.”
    Leave it to Mac to remember every detail I wished he would forget.
    “They came by car,” I said, and tried to steer Mac back into the living room. I hadn’t prepped Seth about not telling anyone, especially Mac, that he had basically run away. Law enforcement officers take that sort of thing seriously.
    “Well, I’m going to bed. Night.” Seth and his companion retreated down the hallway.
    Mac craned his neck to be sure they were gone.
    He put his arm around my shoulder and leaned in to whisper, “This kind of puts a dent in my plans for the evening.”
    His proximity and scent of pine trees had me cursing Seth’s timing.
    “Mine, too.” I turned toward him and was just settling my arms around his neck when the doorbell rang. My porch hadn’t seen this much traffic in one night since Mom, Vi, and Diana had marshaled the neighbors to do a smudging to remove any traces of the old owner’s spirit after I moved in.
    I opened the door to Tom Andrews. Tall and lanky, with dark hair and brown eyes, he flashed a sheepish grin.
    “Clyde, sorry to bother you so late but I . . .” He trailed off as Mac stepped into the doorframe.
    Tom
did
snap to attention when he spotted his boss.
    “Detective McKenzie! I didn’t know you were here.”
    “What is it, Andrews?”
    “Oh, well . . .” He looked from me to Mac and back again. “I wanted to ask Clyde about something.”
    “You know I don’t want you including civilians in