Fire Dancer (Spellbound in Sedona #2)

Chapter Six

PIPPA

At seven o’clock the next morning, my phone rang its Ragtime tune. I glared at it. Who called at such an hour?

I was consuming breakfast — and the previous day’s news, courtesy of a paper Erin had brought home.

Sad news. The dead hiker had been identified as Janet Sullivan of Denver, just twenty-four years old. Police hadn’t yet determined the cause of death, but they seemed to be leaning toward an accident.

I could picture Ingo’s scowl as he read that.

Meanwhile, the jaunty Ragtime tune of my phone went into its fourth repetition.

“Will you get that already?” Abby said while rushing around the kitchen to get Claire’s school lunch ready. Claire was upstairs, changing into yet another different outfit.

On the ranch, we sisters each had our own little area. Erin shared a cozy cabin with Nash, while Abby and Claire had the upstairs of the main house, and I lived in the converted barn. The conversion wasn’t quite finished — okay, barely even started — so I ate most meals at the main house, where the ground floor was shared territory.

I made a sour face, showing the phone my displeasure before answering it.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Pippa. It’s me,” Erin said, sounding breathless.

Uh-oh.

I steeled myself. My sisters and I lived within shouting distance, and we saw plenty of one another. We could also mind-talk, as most related supernaturals could. We only really used a phone if we needed something right away — and Erin’s tone was urgent.

“Hi,” I stretched the word out warily.

She came right to the point. “I need a favor.”

“I figured.”

Erin broke into a long, complicated story about a tear in a basket at Desert Skies Balloon Adventures.

“We need to fix it by tomorrow. And the parts we need are in Phoenix…”

Subtext: almost two hours away, each way.

“…and it will take a couple of hours to actually weave the wicker…”

I rolled my hand in the air. “What do you need, Erin?”

She dropped the overly careful tone. “Nash promised to show a friend around the back roads of Sedona, but I need his help on the repair. So we need someone to show his friend around.”

That didn’t sound so bad.

Then it hit me. Nash wasn’t exactly a gregarious, I’m off to meet my dozens of friends kind of guy. In fact, I only knew of one friend of his.

“What friend?” I growled.

Abby looked up from cutting apple slices.

“Ingo,” Erin admitted, rushing right into, “Please!”

I’d never told my sisters about how serious Ingo and I had been, way back when, and I hadn’t talked to them about my conflicting feelings now either. But my sisters could read me like a book — one they’d already read cover to cover many times, like Black Beauty — or, more recently, Fifty Shades of Grey.

I shook my head. “Nope. Can’t do it.”

Won’t do it was closer to the truth, but hey. The less time Ingo and I spent together, the better.

“Please, Pippa. I need you to do this.”

I balled my hands so tightly, my fingernails cut into my palms.

“It’s just for a few hours,” she went on.

Plenty of time for my body to betray me. And as for Ingo… He liked to give the impression of zen-like master of self-control, but I knew better.

“I don’t have time. I’m behind in the shop…”

I looked at Abby, who shook her head in a vehement, Whatever it is, I don’t have the time for it motion.

Which was totally legit. Abby worked long days at the metal shop, stopping only for a quick lunch and to pick up Claire from school. Even after that, the two of them headed back to the shop for another few hours until dinnertime.

“Please, Pippa,” Erin pleaded. “If the basket’s not fixed, we’ll have to cancel the guests who booked for tomorrow.”

Subtext: money neither she nor the balloon company could afford to lose.

“What time were you supposed to meet Ingo?” I asked.

“Four.”

I made a quick calculation. “You could make it to Phoenix and back and still have a couple hours for the repairs.”

“If we break every speed limit, yes.” She waited a beat, then went on. “But if we’re down in Phoenix anyway, we could run some other errands. And Nash and I could finally try that pizza place everyone is talking about.”

Aha. Now her ulterior motives were clear.

I sighed. My sister’s courtship with Nash had consisted of meeting at work, hating each other for a while, fighting off a criminal warlock and a ruthless vampire, and surviving several near-death experiences. A sure formula for a happily-ever-after.

My thoughts strayed to Ingo, but I yanked them back. Not going there.

I was happy for Erin — really, really happy — and for Nash. They’d both needed someone to put a little spark into their lives.

Sparks. I chuckled at my own pun. Both were dragon shifters, and boy, did they spark. Not just in the flames they could spit — only slightly jealous, I swear — but also when their mojo got up and demanded a little bow chick a wow wow. And believe me, a dragon shifter’s mojo got up a lot .

Again…only slightly jealous.

Anyway, I truly wished them the best, and they definitely deserved a mini date, even if it was just pizza between errands. But the last time Ingo and I had gone exploring in a Jeep, we’d ended up exploring in the back seat. And that was one trip down memory lane I really didn’t want to take.

“Just tell Ingo you have to reschedule,” I said.

“We already have. Twice. And Nash says it’s really important.”

Ha. Birds of a feather, those two agents. Okay, former agent, in Nash’s case — one who’d finally settled down into a quieter, happier life.

If only Ingo had it in him to do the same.

And as for important… I didn’t doubt it. Law enforcement was a crucial and often thankless job, and I was grateful to the people who did it. I just preferred that not to be the man I loved. I knew all too well what that meant, having a firefighter father.

All those nights I’d spent as a kid, praying he and his crew would make it home safely after another raging forest fire. All the holidays interrupted by sirens signaling the next big emergency my father had to rush away to, often for days at a time…

I loved that my father was a hero. But that didn’t mean I wanted to spend the rest of my life with another one.

I sighed. Selfish, I know. But at least I was honest.

“Please, Pippa,” Erin pleaded. “I could help you in the shop later this week to make up for it.”

I snorted. Erin had helped me once, and I had the shattered glass to show for it. Little known fact: even a badass balloon pilot/dragon shifter/wind whisperer did not necessarily make a useful assistant in a glass shop.

“That’s almost worse than being in a Jeep with Ingo,” I muttered.

“Hey! I did my best…”

Still, I stuck to my guns. “Really, it’s not a good idea for me to take Ingo.”

Spending time with him wasn’t just a threat to my heart. It risked my secrets too.

Erin, Abby, and I had decided to keep our little…um…vortex experience to ourselves. Even with Nash, we downplayed it. No one needed to know exactly what had happened the day we’d channeled the power of our ranch’s secret vortex to repel a warlock’s attack.

Hell , I wasn’t sure what had happened — or why I’d felt a little different since then.

As a wolf shifter, Ingo knew all about the supernatural. He also knew that I possessed very minor magic abilities, despite having two powerful supernatural parents.

But that was all he knew, and I was happy to keep it that way. Especially if we weren’t going to spend the rest of our lives together and thus share all our secrets.

My chest squeezed.

“Besides, Ingo is hot.” Erin’s voice dropped. “And you two have crazy chemistry.”

Exactly the problem. Could she not understand that?

“I’ve seen you look at him…” she continued.

Oh, I’d done a lot more than look, once upon a time. The point was, I had to move on. We both did.

I gulped away the lump in my throat. “Enough, Erin.”

“Okay, okay. Not my business. But I’d really appreciate your help. Just this once…”

My head said no . My heart said yes — to Ingo and to helping Erin. Did that count as two against one?

Claire came downstairs and twirled around, showing off her pink pegasus shirt and purple tutu. “How does this look, Mommy?”

Abby, to her credit, bit back her skepticism. The apple had fallen about as far from the tree as possible, at least when it came to fashion choices.

“Very colorful,” Abby said. “And I love the pegasus.”

I gave Claire a thumbs-up while Erin’s broken record skipped again and again.

“Please…”

No was on the tip of my tongue, but guilt held it back.

“What does Auntie Erin need, Mommy?” Claire asked, proving how loud Erin was. And I didn’t even have the speaker on.

Abby shrugged. “Some kind of favor.”

Claire brightened, eager as always. “Can we help?”

Abby shot me a pointed look.

Even as kids, we sisters had vowed to stick together, especially with three different fathers and without a devoted mother acting as the glue in the family. When Abby had faced becoming a single mother, Erin and I had renewed that vow, and all three of us had promised to model those values for Claire.

I gritted my teeth and forced a smile. “No need to, sweetie. I can do it.”

“You’ll do it?” Erin cried over the phone. “You’re the best! Thank you! He’ll be at the Desert Skies office at four o’clock today. Okay?”

“Okay, okay,” I sighed, already lecturing myself.

I was a grown woman. I could spend a couple of businesslike hours in Ingo’s company without jumping his bones. I might even be able to convince him Sedona wasn’t brimming with evil vampires at the same time.

“Four o’clock,” Erin repeated. “Don’t forget.”

“All right, already. I have to go.” Before I clicked the phone off, I threw in, “But you owe me. Nash does too.”

“We do owe you,” Erin agreed. “Thank you.”

“Bye,” I mumbled, ignoring the alarms ringing in my mind.

“Ready to go?” Abby asked her daughter as I hung up.

Claire rushed to the door. “I just have to say goodbye to the horses.”

Abby looked at the clock. “Three minutes. And don’t let them slobber on your nice new shirt.”

Claire hurried off, cheery as ever. Another example of the apple falling from the tree and rolling far, far away. She did have Abby’s creative mind, though.

“Okay, Mommy! Meet you at the car in a minute!”

Abby sat with a sigh and bit into her toast.

I went back to the paper, checking the sports section on the back page.

“Sad about that hiker, huh?” Abby murmured, skim-reading the front side.

I nodded absently, then stopped and peered over the edge of the paper. Abby was staring at an article on the front page, somewhere near the bottom. I half turned it for a peek. Something about a mining accident in Nevada.

Uh-oh. I narrowed my eyes on Abby. Was she worried about her father?

Not a What if he was hurt in the accident? kind of worry. More like, What if he’d caused it?

Erin and I had lucked out with amazing, doting dads, but Abby had never been on good terms with her father. I’d met him twice, and he didn’t seem like a bad guy. Just a bit overzealous about his “job” as an eco-warrior.

I sighed, thinking of Ingo. At least the mission he devoted himself to didn’t land him in the slammer every few years. But he would probably end up being just as much of an absentee father, and I refused to subject my kids to that.

Kids I would never have, if I couldn’t have them with Ingo.

I bit my lip, thinking, then looked back at Abby.

“Everything okay?” I asked her.

She pursed her lips, then shrugged. “What can I say? I hope so.”