gripped her.
Cautiously she peeked beneath the edge of the quilt. The skirt of the expensive cocktail dress was sadly crumpled. The hem had been pushed up almost to her waist. She noticed that she was not wearing any underwear.
Probably not a good sign, she thought.
Cooper appeared in the bedroom doorway. He was wearing his black-and-amber framed glasses, a black crew-neck pullover, and khaki trousers. He had a copy of the newspaper in his hand.
Instinctively, she yanked the quilt protectively up to her chin.
'What are you doing here?' she demanded.
'I'm your friend from out of town, remember? You're letting me stay with you.'
'That was just a story. I didn't mean it literally.'
'Unfortunately, I'm a literal kind of guy. At any rate, I checked out of my hotel. I don't have anywhere else to go.'
'Now hold on here just a minute, Cooper. I never said-'
'How's the head?'
'Terrible.' She massaged her temples with her fingertips. 'I don't feel very good. Maybe I'm coming down with the flu.'
'Don't think so. What you have is a classic hangover. Remember those Emerald Ghosts last night?'
She concentrated. 'I've got a vague recollection of a large glass filled with some sort of green stuff. It was delicious. Sweet and tart at the same time.'
'There were three large glasses, and they were obviously pretty potent.'
'Oh.' A few more memories floated back. A dark, intimate dance floor, sultry music, a kiss that had made her insides melt. She winced. 'Right. I remember now.'
His smile was slow and knowing. 'Yeah, I can see that. Got anything downstairs in your shop for that headache, or do you want something from the medicine cabinet?'
She marshaled her thoughts. 'Downstairs. First cabinet. Bottom shelf. There's a packet labeled Harmonic balm. Put a spoonful into a mug and add boiling water.'
He unfolded his arms and straightened. 'I'll get right on it.'
'On second thought, make that two spoonfuls.'
'Check.'
An uneasy thought intruded. 'Wait a second,' she said when he turned to leave. 'Where did you sleep last night?'
'On your sofa.'
'If that's true, what happened to my underpants?'
He smiled slowly. 'You know, I think I'm going to let you work that one out all by yourself. See you at breakfast.'
She heard him whistling in the hall.
*****
SHE WAS STANDING UNDER AN INVIGORATING SPRAY OF hot water, trying in vain not to think about the night that had just passed, when the bathroom door opened.
'What in the world?' She grabbed a fistful of the shower curtain and peered around the edge.
Cooper stood in the small space, enveloped in steam. He had a mug in his hand. Rose was perched on his shoulder, nibbling on a piece of toast.
'You, again,' she said, beetling her brows at him. 'Now what? I'm in the shower, for heaven's sake.'
'Sorry,' Cooper said. 'Didn't mean to scare you. Thought you might want to get going on your special tonic.'
She sniffed, inhaling the soothing aroma of the Harmonic balm. The promise of headache relief seemed a lot more important at the moment than trying to make Cooper aware of the fact that they were not on the sort of intimate terms that allowed him to wander in and out of her bathroom at will.
She took the mug from him. 'Thanks.'
'You're welcome. When you come out, we'll talk about what you said you sensed when you made your trip to the ladies' room last night.'
He departed, taking Rose with him.
She stood there for a while, sipping the tisane and forcing herself to relive the night.
She finally remembered what had happened to her panties.
*****
'WHEN DID YOU FIGURE OUT YOU COULD SENSE PSI energy from plants?' Cooper asked, scraping eggs out of the pan onto Elly's plate.
She shrugged, her attention riveted on the eggs. The tisane had done its job, and now she was ravenous. 'At about the same age that my brothers came into their dissonance-energy para-rez abilities. Shortly after puberty.'
He put the plate in front of her. 'The usual time when strong paranormal senses develop.'
'Yes.' She forked up a large helping of the eggs. 'The thing is, my kind of talent isn't supposed to exist.'
'Neither is mine,' he reminded her dryly.
'Correction. Yours may be a big Guild secret, but at least there are those who acknowledge that it exists. Heck, they've even gone to great lengths to conceal the information. But in my case, the experts would be strongly inclined to say that I was delusional. That kind of diagnosis would have killed my chances of leading a normal life. That's why Mom and Dad were so serious about keeping it a secret.'
'Humans have only been living on Harmony for two hundred years,' Cooper said mildly. 'That's not very long in evolutionary development terms. We've only identified a narrow range of paranormal talents. Who's to say that there aren't a whole bunch more just waiting to be stimulated in the population?'
She aimed the fork at him. 'The problem at the present time, as you and I both know, is that people tend to be very uneasy about parapsych talents that don't fit the normal profiles.'
'Can't argue that. Who figured out that your para-senses weren't coming in at the usual points on the spectrum?'
'Mom. She noticed that I seemed unusually fascinated with plants and flowers and herbs of all kinds. I spent hours hiking through the woods hunting for them, and when I found the ones I wanted, I brought them home and ran experiments with them. Started blending my own herbal concoctions. Somehow I could tell which herbs would do what for a particular person.'
He looked at her. 'That's what you mean when you say you custom blend the tisanes for your customers?'
She nodded and took another bite of eggs. 'I can sense what herbs will resonate best with an individual's parapsych profile. Take moonseed, for example. It's an old folk remedy for insomnia. But there are several different species and a dozen different preparations. Taking the stuff as a sleeping aid has always been hit or miss in terms of effectiveness.'
'Probably why it has always been relegated to the status of a folk remedy instead of a real medication.'
'True. But if I do a proper consult using tuned amber, I can match the right species, preparation, and dose to the customer. The dose, by the way, is critical with moonseed. The stuff is practically tasteless in liquids, so people are inclined to take way too much of it. If it does work, it can wipe you out for a full day.'
He looked amused.
'What's so funny?' she asked.
'I'm thinking about the lecture I got from your father.'
'What lecture?'
'The one in which he advised me that you were a delicate, gentle creature who had to be treated with great care.'
She glowered. 'Dad said that?'
'Uh-huh.'
