Charming Blue (20 page)

Jodi knew that Blue would sense the attitude and would attribute it to his real past, when actually, the maître d’ was ignoring him because he believed Blue to be a nobody in the entertainment world.

“We’d like a bell, please,” Jodi said as the maître d’ set the remaining menu on the empty place. Blue’s frown got deeper. He didn’t know what she meant.

But the maître d’ did. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small paging device. In the past, Echoes had used an actual bell, but that meant that the waitstaff had to listen to see what was happening. This worked better; she could summon a waiter when they were ready for one so that no one hovered.

“Do you like meat?” she asked Blue.

“Yes, but—”

“Good, then we will order now,” Jodi said. “Two prime rib sliders, one large watermelon salad, lots of bread, and ice tea.”

“And for your third party?” the maître d’ asked as if he was used to taking orders—which he was, in this circumstance. His hand hovered over the menu on Tank’s place.

“We’ll figure that out if she gets here,” Jodi said in her most dismissive tone.

“Thank you,” the maître d’ said, then he picked up the menu and left, closing the interior door behind him.

“What the hell was that?” Blue asked.

She took a deep breath. She hadn’t realized that she had been nervous too. “You wanted discretion. This is discrete.”

“But the people out there, they saw us,” he said.

“And immediately dismissed you. This is the most mortal of mortal worlds,” she said. “It’s a place where if you haven’t done something last week, then you’re not important. And importance is all that matters—their kind of importance. Right now, you’re an unknown.”

“But you aren’t,” he said.

“I’m not known to the paparazzi, and I can guarantee there were some paparazzi ringers out there letting their employers know who was having lunch with whom in this place. They don’t care about me because I’m a talent wrangler. If I had come in with a studio head, then maybe they’d pay attention, but probably not. Because I’m a problem-solver of a kind they don’t care about. But the studios do, which means that I have a lot of clout in this town. Carlos and guys like him know that, so they stay on my good side. And part of staying on my good side is not talking about my lunch partners or the deals that I’m working on.”

She held up the pager, and Blue followed her fingers.

“This thing works both ways. They’ll let me know when they’re bringing food, and I’ll let them know if I need them.”

“Wow,” he said, “I thought the rules in my father’s Kingdom were strict.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “It’s a different kind of royalty in Tinseltown, and fortunately, you’re not part of it. Which means that we won’t get interrupted at all.”

Famous last words. Because at that moment, Tank flew in from the terrace and landed on the back of the empty chair. She had changed from her black dress into something pink and gauzy that matched her wings. It also made her less conspicuous. She could actually stand in the middle of the table, and the unobservant would think her part of the floral arrangement.

“I
love
this place,” she said. “Do you mind if I sit on the table?”

“Only if you stay inside your place setting,” Jodi said.

“Then how’s a girl supposed to eat?” Tank asked.

“Don’t worry,” Jodi said. “I’ve taken care of it.”

Tank rubbed her little hands together and hopped from the back of the chair to the table. “Okay,” she said. “Where do we start?”

“I don’t know,” Jodi said. “Maybe at the beginning?”

Chapter 26

Starting at the beginning put it all on him. Blue was nervous enough. He hadn’t been to a restaurant like this in years, except to cause a scene. He didn’t believe he had caused one here, or they never would have let him back in, but he wasn’t sure. He did look different when he was sober. And Jodi seemed to have a lot of pull, which surprised him.

It shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did.

He wondered if she had enough pull to get him past the maître d’ if indeed he had trashed the place and didn’t remember. Probably. And he probably had done something wrong here, given the coldness the maître d’ had shown him. There was probably some kind of gossip network among maître d’s at places like this, spreading the word about people who were trouble.

And he had been trouble.

He adjusted the silverware, noting how heavy it was. Real silver. And he supposed the water glass was real crystal and the tablecloth real linen. He hadn’t even looked at the prices here, but he imagined they were high.

He could afford it. He’d brought a lot of gold with him from the Kingdom, and he never spent it, not even during the worst of his drinking. But he didn’t have any money on him. He only had one credit card and he doubted a place like this would take it.

“What do you remember about your chatelaine?” Jodi asked.

Blue shook his head. He was nervous enough, unsettled enough, that going back to his past right now would upset him further. He needed to grab on to something, and this restaurant wasn’t it. This restaurant made him more uncomfortable than staying at the rehab center had.

“Do you have—did you bring—do you have the papers?” he asked.

Jodi gave him an odd look, then said, “Yes. In my briefcase.”

She stood and picked it up, and then opened it on the unused edge of the table. Her movements were smooth and graceful. He could watch them forever.

Then he made himself look away, caught himself at it, and sighed. His heart was pounding. He didn’t know how to be. He didn’t know
who
to be. He’d never experienced anything like this before.

Tank was sitting cross-legged in front of the linen napkin. Someone had folded it in a cap-like shape, and she was leaning against it. Apparently the fabric was sturdy enough to keep her up.

She was watching him like she had never seen him before.

“Why don’t you want to figure this out?” she asked.

Jodi sat down, the papers in her hand. She set them in front of him. “Leave him alone, Tank.”

“Well, seriously,” Tank said, her little face turned toward him. The pink in her cheeks matched the pink in her dress. If her blue eyes weren’t so full of mischievous intelligence, she would look like Tink. “The only way to figure out what’s going on is to know how it started. You both know that’s how the magic works. We can’t unravel it without knowing the cause.”

“You assume I can remember,” Blue said. His voice was shaking.
He
was shaking, inside and out.

“Yeah, I am,” Tank said.

He was starting to panic, and for the first time since he got out, he wanted a drink. Maybe he did have a problem, since he wanted a drink to quell the panic. Normal people didn’t drink for that reason. Or at least, that’s what Dr. Hargrove told him.

Doctor Hargrove wouldn’t lie.

Would he?

Did they?

“Tank,” Jodi said in that voice the brooked no disagreement. “We’re going to take our time on this. If you don’t like it, I can brief you on our conversation later.”

Tank made a little face and crossed her arms, as if that made a difference.

Then Jodi smiled at him. The look made his breath catch. He wasn’t going to turn away. He wasn’t. He needed to make changes, and looking at a beautiful woman was one way to do it.

“Blue,” Jodi said with real warmth. “Let’s just go over the work you did last night. I’m sure it’ll be useful.”

He nodded and reached for the papers just as Jodi started to hand them to him. Their fingers brushed, and something so electric shot between them that Blue thought for an instant there should have been sparks.

His heart was pounding, and his breath caught. Jodi looked at him in surprise. She had felt it too.

Or maybe she had just been startled that they touched.

Surely she had just been startled.

There was no way a woman like her could be attracted to a broken-down ruin like him. Not unless he had turned on the charm, which he most decidedly hadn’t.

He wasn’t sure he was ever going to try to charm a woman again.

He held her gaze, though, then nodded just a bit, as if acknowledging her. Then he slipped the papers out of her hand.

He was shaking violently, but he managed to control it enough so that the papers didn’t vibrate. He set them on the table quickly.

“You kept them in order,” he said with surprise.

She smiled. “Of course I did. You worked hard on it.”

Somehow that sentence didn’t sound patronizing. It should have sounded patronizing. Doctor Hargrove would have made it sound patronizing.

She made it sound like the most logical thing in the world.

“Thank you.” Blue separated them back into their piles, and as he did, the pager buzzed.

Tank cursed and flew upward without uncrossing her legs. “What the hell?”

Jodi glanced at the pager. “Our drinks and some bread,” she said. She tapped it, apparently letting them know it was all right to bring everything in. “Just turn over the top pages for a moment.”

He nodded, his heart pounding. But differently now, a fear-based pounding rather than one based on a surprise connection.

Only it hadn’t been a connection. He couldn’t presume to have a connection. Once they figured out what was going on, he would probably never see Jodi again. The thought made him sad but relieved at the same time.

He didn’t want to hurt her, but all he had ever done with women was hurt them. Whether he meant to or not, whether it was a curse or not.

He was the kind of man that women shouldn’t trust. Because he didn’t even really trust himself.

Chapter 27

The waiter set down two glasses of iced tea, a pitcher, and an extra empty glass for the person who (supposedly) hadn’t yet arrived. He also gave them some bread and a complimentary hors d’oeuvres just because Jodi was a valued customer.

She was glad for the interruption. She hadn’t been able to catch her breath since her fingers brushed against Blue’s. His touch had sent shivers through her.

The man radiated charm even when he wasn’t trying.

She didn’t want to be attracted to him. Intellectually, she knew what a disaster that would be. But her body wasn’t listening. She wanted to brush against him more often (she wasn’t even sure that touch was a complete accident), and she wanted to sit much closer to him, maybe lean against him.

It took most of her self-control to prevent herself from putting a comforting (yeah, right) hand over his or patting him slightly on the shoulder (to see if those muscles were real).

She felt her cheeks heat. She didn’t want to think about this, so she smiled at the waiter as he set down the empty glass right near Tank and nearly put an appetizer plate on top of her.

Tank didn’t move. She was used to this. Instead she huddled against her napkin as if she was part of it.

Apparently the waiter thought she was.

Blue had moved the paperwork slightly to the side so that the waiter wouldn’t set anything on it. Blue kept his head down, as if he didn’t want to be recognized. So far as Jodi knew, no one had recognized him, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the problem was.

The waiter left, and instantly Tank grabbed a roll nearly as big as she was. She staggered a little and set it on her bread plate. Jodi wasn’t sure if Tank was actually going to use the gigantic butter knife or not. Jodi shouldn’t have wondered about it. Tank was already tearing the roll into tiny bits.

“I
love
this place,” Tank said, her mouth full.

Blue actually smiled. A real, amused smile. His eyes twinkled and he looked at Jodi, and then the smile faded. He looked down, adjusting the papers.

“I, um, organized everything last night,” he said.

Jodi nodded, pretending that he hadn’t made her breath catch yet again. She grabbed one of the rolls, and she used the butter knife to cut it in half and spread some butter on it.

“I noticed.” She sounded absurdly formal. “It looks like you found something.”

He nodded. “I recognized the pattern, even before you two mentioned a curse.”

He thumbed through the papers, then set the ones with yellow Post-its on top. They had been paper-clipped together.

“See, the first thing, what happened here, it’s what happened before.” Then he glanced up, his gaze meeting Jodi’s, before he looked down again. “It’s what happened to you.”

His voice was soft, almost hesitant, definitely apologetic. Jodi set the butter knife down, feeling odd since he was so upset.

“Except I think there might have been one difference.”

“Just get to it.” Tank sprayed crumbs as she spoke. She had actually tunneled into the roll and was pulling out the soft yeasty center.

Blue smiled a little, but the smile was distracted, as if he hadn’t been able to control it. The smile was just a bit sad.