Page 43 of Dream Weaver

“Ingo!” I stood for a quick man-hug, then introduced myself to the blonde beside him. “Cooper.”

“I’m Pippa, Abby’s sister. And wow. I thoughtshewas the one who ate like a horse.”

Yeah, I’d noticed that. Like a horse left to fend for itself in an arid pasture, in fact.

“Half sister,” Abby grumbled, though the looks they exchanged were packed with sisterly affection.

“Same mother, different fathers,” Pippa explained cheerily as she plonked down next to Claire.

“Very different,” Abby muttered.

“Heya, Claire. I missed you!” Pippa exclaimed, hugging her sideways.

“I missed you too.” Claire held up her pizza slice. “Do you want a bite?”

“Yum.” Pippa bit delicately. “Thank you, sweetie.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt,” Ingo said.

I opened my mouth, but Pippa beat me to it. “We’re not interrupting, are we?”

Abby’s eyes found mine, and I sensed her sighing inside, like I was. Yes, they were interrupting. But it wasn’t like this was a date. Was it?

I motioned Ingo to the chair beside me. “Have a seat.”

He thumped me on the shoulder. “It’s been too long, man.”

Yeah, it had been. We spent a few minutes catching up, explaining, marveling. Well, I did anyway. Ingo was a lot more settled than the last time I’d seen him — settled as incalmerand as inhappily settled downwith Pippa. As it turned out, they lived on the ranch Pippa owned with Abby and another half sister.

I’d never had reason to be jealous of Ingo, but suddenly, I was. And not for the ranch or Pippa, nice as she seemed.

Pippa was a glass artist. The third sister, Erin, was a hot air balloon pilot. Abby was a blacksmith…

“We all love working with fire,” Pippa chuckled, seeing me try to piece it together.

I smiled politely, but my mind was elsewhere. Were all three witches?

A week ago, the thought might have curbed my appetite. But having gotten to know Abby… Well, I was starting to think I ought to be suspicious of stereotypes instead.

We ordered a second pizza, and time flew. But when the topic turned to Ingo’s work…

As an agent for the ADMSA — the Agency for the Detection and Monitoring of Supernatural Activity — most of his work was classified. But the vortex disturbance was the talk of the town, so we covered that too.

“Abby said you two went up to Airport Mesa,” Ingo said, lowering his voice.

Pippa rolled her eyes. “Here he goes again. You’re off duty, remember?”

He kissed her cheek. “I am, but seeing as it’s hard to catch Cooper between fires…”

“Okay. You have a point there.” Pippa sighed. “And you’ll want to talk to Abby about it too, I suppose.”

“Talk about what?” Claire asked.

Everyone went very, very quiet.

“About really boring stuff,” Pippa finally said. “How about you and I go home and make some brownies while these guys talk about work? Your mom can catch up with us later.”

“Yay! Brownies!” Claire jumped up.

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