Liftingthe lid, the aroma of hot bread steamed beside me. My mouth started salivatingas I pulled the wrapped loaf out and saw a paper container of butter beside acup of tea. Happily, I pulled out my treasures, took a sip of the tea from thecup made of ninety-percent recycled materials and set it beside me beforetearing off a piece of bread and dipping it in the whipped butter.
Heavenbecame a tangible place in my mouth. There were few things in the mortal realmbetter than hot, fresh bread and butter. I dipped my hand in the basket to graba napkin and my fingers wrapped around a small wheel of cheese. It wasofficially the best day ever. Aside from the part of being almost killed by anangel. That part sucked a little.
"Canyou fly?" The little voice behind me almost made me jump. I turned and sawthe girl who had waved at me, staring at me incredulously. Her eyes as big assaucers.
"Sometimes."
"Whywas the angel mad at you?"
Ichewed what was in my mouth and swallowed. I could manage one word with a mouthfull of food, but I didn't want to pepper her with chewed bread. "Well,that wasn't a real angel. It was a bad guy pretending to be one."
"Oh."She waddled around me and sat on the bench on the other side of my basket.
"Wouldyou like some bread? It's fresh."
"Mommysays I shouldn't take things from strangers."
Andmommies shouldn't let their children run around the park alone. I looked around for her, but shewas talking to another woman by the statue in the middle of the park. "Well.My name is Dot. What's yours?"
"Caroline."
"Well,Caroline, we're not strangers now, are we?"
Thelittle girl giggled and shook her head happily. I ripped off a hunk of breadand handed it to her. She greedily started munching on the corner, cute as abutton. "You're a real witch?"
"Yep.Does that scare you?"
"You'renot green. And you don't have any warts. So, you must be a good witch."
"Mostof the time. But my mother…"
"She'sgreen and has warts?" She blinked in astonishment.
"Yep.And a foul temper. She lives in a swamp and has long claws at the ends of herfingers."
"Whydoes she have a foul temper?"
"Somebodydropped a house on her sister!" I giggled.
Thegirl's mother waved goodbye at her friend and started heading toward us. Iwaited for the moment of panic when she realized I was talking to her child,but she smiled sadly, ignoring me right up until the moment she walked rightpast us. I looked down at Caroline and then turned in my seat. "Aren't youforgetting someone?" I pointed at the seat next to me when the womanturned around. She tilted her head.
"Who?"
"Thisgirl isn't yours?" I started to panic.
"Whatgirl?" She gave me a strange look and kept walking away.
Horrified,I looked down at Caroline who had a tear leaking from the corner of her eye. "Mommycan't see me," she said sadly and faded from view.
∞∞ ∞
"Nexttime you're going to use me as an excuse not to have dinner with yourex-boyfriend and my cousin, you should let me know beforehand," Jimmy saidwith a chuckle and opened the truck door.
"Well,how the hell was I supposed to know your cousin would have called you withinfive minutes. Hard to tell her that I can't make it because my date had otherplans when he already agreed," I said as I climbed up into the truck andsmoothed my dress beneath me to protect my backside from the cold pleather.
Jimmyshut the door and walked around the truck, getting in on the other side andstarting it up. "Good point. I'm sure I can come up with an excuse if youreally don't want to go…"
"No.It's fine. I can be a big girl for one night and suck it up. Plus, Sherryseemed really excited."
"Sheis. Even though she's the mayor, she doesn't have many friends or get out much,"he said thoughtfully.
"Why?She's super sweet and super cute. She could have more guys than me if shewanted to."
"She'snot a witch, Dot. But she's…quirky." He laughed and put the truck intogear, backing out of my driveway slowly.
"Quirky?"
"Intuitive.She can usually tell what people are thinking."
"And?"
"Ifyou were a guy, would you want your date to know what you're thinking?"
"Pervs?"
"Tosay the least."
"Oye."
"Butshe can't seem to read witches. She could never tell what I was thinking, so I'mguessing Derek is a nice change."
"Andthe Irish accent doesn't hurt."
"Orhis sad eyes," Jimmy added.
"Don'tget any fucking ideas. No."
Hechuckled.
"Andyou behave yourself tonight. No funny business."
"Infront of my cousin? I don't think you have to worry."
"Thisis you we're talking about. Of course, I'm worried."
"Ewww.That's just gross. I don't even want to think about it." He made a fewgagging noises to top it off. "It was a month before she could look me inthe eye after the pencident."
"Whatthe hell is a pencident?"
"Youknow."
"Enlightenme."
"Theincident. With the pen."
"Oh.That pencident." I blushed.
"Justremember, payback's a bitch."
"Blahblah blah. Talking pretty big for a man without his wingman." Just to makesure, I checked the back seat. "Where's Dennis?"
"Pullingan extra shift. One of the guys was…sick."
"Sick?"
Hesighed. "Scared shitless. Even the fire department has its share of racistassholes in OWL T-shirts…"
"Oh."
"Yeah.Kind of ironic that he asked his good buddy Dennis to take his shift."
Ichuckled. "I'm surprised he said yes."
"Hewanted the OT. He has grand designs on buying a Corvette."
"Dennis?"I was a little shocked by the revelation. I always saw him as a truck kind ofguy. Not a sports car fanatic.
"It'sbeen his dream since we were kids. He's getting close, too." Jimmy didn'tsound too impressed.
"Whatevermakes him happy."
"Youmean besides you?" He grinned at me.
"Ihope I do."
"Don'tdoubt it for a moment. You have that effect on all of us." He reached overand rubbed my leg reassuringly until we pulled into Bunyan's packed parkinglot.
Luckily,Sherry and Derek had already gotten one of the larger booths, wide enough forsix people, but perfect for the four of us. I slid in across from Sherry andJimmy sat next to me, across from my ex-boyfriend. The only way it could havefelt more awkward would have been if Chief had shown up and pulled
