One Potion in the Grave: A Magic Potion Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

fixin’?”
    Glancing over her shoulder, she turned back to me and said, “Kind of.”
    Ainsley, never one to willingly be left out of a juicy bit of gossip, leaned on the counter. “Wedding day jitters? You need a calming potion? Carly can whip one right up. You’ll be positively Zen in no time at all.”
    Gabi sighed and slipped off the sunglasses. “Poor excuse for a disguise, I suppose. You know who I am?”
    “Your wedding’s kind of a big deal round these parts,” Ainsley said, putting it mildly.
    Gabi stared at the counter for a second, then looked me dead in the eye. What I saw in her gaze near to broke my heart. The sadness was all-consuming.
    Gabi rubbed Roly’s head and took a moment before saying, “I need one of your magic potions.”
    “What kind?” I asked. “For the wedding jitters?”
    “It’s not jitters, I have,” she said.
    Ainsley patted her arm, consoling. “What is it you have, sugar?”
    From the way Gabi was acting, I expected an answer along the lines of an STD or somesuch. Tears filled her big green eyes and pooled along dark lashes.
    “What I have,” she said, “is a man who doesn’t love me. I need a love potion. The sooner, the better.”

Chapter Three
    A insley
tsk
ed sympathetically. “What do you mean he doesn’t love you? Of course he loves you, sugar. He’s marrying you Saturday in front of God and everyone, ain’t he?”
    Gabi sniffled and mumbled, “He doesn’t love me. But that’s okay. For now I love him enough for the both of us.”
    Ainsley tipped her head. “Is he gay?”
    I shot her a look.
    “Well, I mean, look at her!” Ainsley said.
    I rolled my eyes.
    Gabi snuffled—she even did that prettily. “I—I don’t think so.”
    “Is there another woman?” Ainsley asked,
tsk
ing again. She turned to me. “Remember that time Widow Harkins started sweet-talking Carter? Asking him over to help her with this, fix that, stay for some fresh-made cinnamon rolls? And him being a pastor and all couldn’t rightly say no, could he? Lordy be. She was lucky I didn’tpull her hair out by their bleached roots.” She harrumphed
.
“And I still can’t abide looking at cinnamon rolls to this day.”
    “You did pull her hair out by the roots,” I pointed out. “Left her with a bald patch the size of a MoonPie.”
    “Oh, that’s right. I did.” Ainsley winked. “
Accidentally
, of course.”
    Gabi’s eyes went wide.
    I said to her, “Widow Harkins took to wearing wigs and suddenly started going to church in Huntsville.”
    Ainsley said, “You just don’t go stealing another girl’s man without consequences. Know what I’m sayin’?”
    Gabi laughed nervously and nodded. “Why are women so sneaky? It just ain’t right.”
    “Well,” I said, “sometimes wanting something so badly makes you forget right from wrong. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart.”
    “Kind of like knowing it’s wrong to slip Landry a love potion, but I’m going to do it anyway?”
    I smiled. “Kind of. But there is a hitch with my potions that you should know about.” I hated to tell her about the Backbone Effect, one of the supernatural rules that governed my potions. It prevented someone from being duped by a potion by taking their free will into consideration. Whoever the potion was intended for had to want—consciously or unconsciously—the potion’s result. It was especially important for love potions.
    Twin vertical lines creased the smooth plane between her eyebrows as I explained, but then disappeared by the time I finished saying my piece.
    “That won’t be an issue,” Gabi said. “He wants to love me . . . he just doesn’t.”
    “Is there another woman?” Ainsley asked again. “You never did answer.”
    Gabi blinked as though never truly considering the notion. “I don’t think so.”
    Ainsley slid me a
what-the-hell-is-going-on-here
look. “Then why is he marrying you if he doesn’t love you?” she said, sounding truly puzzled by