Page 122 of Fairy Godmothers Aren't Cheap

Clearly, he wasn’t going to magically show up, but it hadn’t kept me from watching for him.

“I’ve been doing that payback chant thing while I’ve been working,” Tamara said, looking out over our progress. “You know, to send all of today’s good deeds toward your debt with Estelle.”

“Aw. Thank you.”

“I don’t think that would work,” Josie said sagely.

“Yeah, but there’s no harm in it,” Tamara protested.

“What happened to your arm?” I pointed at the dirt-stained bandage peeking out from Josie’s long-sleeve shirt cuff. I’d been meaning to ask since she’d shown up earlier.

“Oh?” She tugged the sleeve up, revealing a white bandage, then shoved it back down. “Burned myself.”

“It looks nasty!” The edge of the bandage had been stained green. “You should get that looked at. It might be infected.”

Josie’s cheeks turned pink. “No, no. That’s an herbal remedy from the medicine man.”

“Medicine man?”

“I work with him.”

“Doing inventory?” This was seriously not adding up. What was she and her LARPing friends up to in the mountainous woods, anyway? Things were getting weird.

She looked me dead in the eye. “Yes, inventory.”

I relented, something still feeling off about her wound. “Well, I hope it heals okay.”

“I’m sure it will.”

Samantha was nearby, arguing with someone on the phone, waving a hand around, looking like her usual million bucks in her poshly patched overalls. Gabby was near the street, joking with Lamonte and giving his dark arm a touch, push or tug whenever she had half an excuse. She was crushing hard. Obviously, living with the man hadn’t burst her bubble of infatuation.

“I think we’re going to get this done tonight,” Tamara said.

Done.

The word felt like a mirage after days spent in the gruelling heat of a desert.

A man was walking toward us, who reminded me of our old landlord, Randy. Except this guy didn’t have a bad comb-over and seemed slimmer. He was also carrying a shoebox.

“Ladies,” he said, stopping in front of us.

“Randy?” It was actually him.

“This is nice. A park so close by.” He gave me a sly look. “Now I can raise my rents.” My jaw dropped, and he laughed. “Just kidding.”

I didn’t think so.

“Randy, get out of here,” Gabby said, rejoining us. In the distance, I could see Lamonte getting into his Jeep.

“This came for Samantha. I thought I saw her when I drove by earlier.”

“You can leave it with us,” Tamara said, snatching the box.

We watched Randy move across the park, sliding an arm around the waist of a woman about his age, giving her a peck on the cheek.

We all screeched, falling over each other as we giggled and stole extra peeks at our old landlord, and what apparently was the new love of his life.

“Well, good for him,” Samantha said, coming back to our circle. She didn’t have a speck of dirt on her.

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