Read Online It Must Be Magic by Jennifer Skully - Free Book Online Page B

to leave her kept him rooted to the spot.
    “Is there something else you wanted to tell me not to do? Speak now or forever hold your peace and all that stuff.”
    What he wanted to do was spend the evening with her instead of his date, Anna, an accountant. “I have a date.”
    She tipped her head. “That seems like a non sequitur.”
    It was, as far as Lili was concerned, not being privy to his inner thoughts. At least she couldn’t read them as she claimed she could read animal thoughts. “I’ve got a date tonight, but I want to make sure you’ll be okay by yourself before I leave.”
    “I’ve been living on my own for a while now. And I can scream very loudly, so if the bogeyman or Bigfoot shows up at my door, I’ll be sure to wake the dead.”
    As long as it wasn’t the body lying out there somewhere in the woods. Next thing you know, she’d be saying
it
could walk. Yet he still didn’t leave.
    After a beat of silence, she asked, “Did you get flowers for your date? Women love flowers.”
    “She’s not that kind of woman.”
    “Every woman is that kind of woman. Wait here a minute.” She skipped around him in those hiking boots, puffs of dirt floating up and getting caught in little eddies by the breeze.
    “I need to get out of here,” he told himself as the screen door banged behind her. Yet he didn’t want to. He’d known Anna for a little over a year. He’d dated her three times and slept with her once. He wasn’t in love with her; she wasn’t in love with him. He wasn’t looking for a replacement for Karen or a mother for Erika. Not that he was afraid of emotional attachment as Roscoe often claimed, but neither was he into celibacy.
    Yet being around Lili made him feel casual sex should be a little more than casual. And that was the scariest damn thought.
----

CHAPTER FIVE
    L ILI BOUNDED BACK OUT the door with a flower vase stuck in the center circular frame of a cardboard holder.
    “I made them this afternoon during a lull,” she said.
    “They’re…” Tanner couldn’t think of an appropriate description. “Interesting?” It sounded like a question.
    “I’m not a designer, but I like to tinker.” She held up the vase for his inspection. “I’m a good tinkerer, don’t you think?”
    “Absolutely.” He’d never seen the like. A profusion of color, the blooms themselves were exotic and unidentifiable.
    “They’re wildflowers. I picked them myself.” She shrugged. “My boss, Kate, says I’m going to be arrested one day for picking contraband, but I didn’t take any California poppies. Now that would be illegal.”
    “What are they?”
    She clucked her tongue. “Looking up the names would take the fun out of it.” Light sparkled through the green glass and water as she held it up to the fading sun. “Analyzing takes away from the pure enjoyment. This way it’s artistic.”
    “Very artistic.” The arrangement, though some people could say she’d simply plopped a bunch of blossoms in water, was like Lili, imaginative, unusual and vibrant. He didn’t think Anna would fully appreciate it. “Ah, thanks.”
    She placed his hand flat beneath the cardboard and tinkered with the flowers. She didn’t look up, but her touch robbed him of speech and sent a flash of primal heat rushing through his body. She certainly had an effect on his base nature. He needed to get his head out of his —
    “There. Perfect.”
    Oh yeah, she was. He had forgotten why he’d been angry when he’d seen her entering her backyard. Rather, he didn’t give a damn. Two stickers were trapped in her hair. Balancing the flower vase, he plucked the first one from her silky locks. Her pupils changed, grew slightly larger. The other sticker took longer to pull free, and her breath sighed from her lips. His own was stuck in his throat.
    “Thank you,” she said with a hint of huskiness.
    “How much do I owe you for the flowers?” It seemed the safest thing to say.
    She flapped her hand. “Don’t be