“Will do,” she said.
“Good-bye,” he said. “Good-bye,” he repeated more loudly and waved. It echoed back at him.
“Good-bye, Agent Westley,” Alethea said with great emphasis. They smiled at each other, and then he walked away.
Just that moment, her brother showed up from behind her. “Damn, he’s leaving already? And here I was thinking you found someone that enjoyed being boring as much as you do, sis.”
Alethea turned around to Braden, and put a hand on his shoulder. “With my newfound knowledge of criminal investigation and my connections to the FBI, the next time you’re framed for murder, you’ll know who did it.”
He gasped exaggeratedly. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“No fun allowed,” she stated quite clearly.
“That puts a damper on my beef storm,” Robby said, who had just wandered in on the both of them with a huge platter of meat in his hands.
Alethea sighed. She’d had enough of all the silliness, so she just wandered off, planted herself on one of the logs around the fire, and looked up at the sky. A thin pillar of smoke disappeared into the far distance, the moon and stars beyond it.
She wondered if she should believe in coincidence or in magic.
That’s what it seemed to come down to.
~~~
Table of Contents
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX