Page 66 of Fairy Godmothers Aren't Cheap

“Your family seems really nice.”

“They weren’t too much?”

She laughed lightly. “Oh, they totally were. But they’re good people. The way they’re looking out for Mrs. Laven, and how you’re all still so close, it made me think of ancient civilizations and how the extended family stuck together. One close-knit unit.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I thought maybe you were wearing rose-coloured glasses when you described your family. But it’s real. And it’s really sweet, James.” Her smile wobbled. “You think I’m lucky, but I think you are.”

She tucked her hands between her knees, shoulders hunched forward, watching me shyly, and at the next red light I had to resist leaning over the console to kiss her. Instead, I simply stroked her cheek with the back of a finger, thinking how lucky I was that she’d been the one to show up at the museum all those years ago.

CHAPTER19

~ Char ~

James. Oh, that man. He was sending my head spinning today. His sweet family, his kiss, his gentle caress and the way he kept looking at me. It was a good thing we’d had to drive to Prince’s Island Park, because my legs were a bit weak with all the swooning I was doing.

“There’s a run?” I asked, reading the various signs posted around the island park as we parked his SUV and began walking.

“It’s to raise money for local animal shelters.”

“Are we running?”

James definitely looked like a runner, but me? Not so much. I had too much painful jiggling going on to make that sport any fun. A 5K would leave me black and blue and cranky for days.

“No, no. But I thought it would make a good distraction.” He grinned. His knuckles brushed against mine and I wished I’d reacted fast enough to hook my fingers in his. “There’s a DJ and beer garden. Figured we could crash it.”

I gasped, delighted. “You rule breaker!” I raised a hand for a high-five and he complied, but then twisted his wrist, capturing my hand, holding it while we crossed a footbridge over the Bow River. I tried not to skip along beside him, excited that he was holding my hand.

People were filing past us, many wearing cat or dog ears, as per the run’s theme of raising funds for the local shelters.

“I want ears,” I said, watching a man in a full black cat costume pass us.

“They have them at the registration table,” he called back to me.

I gasped and turned to James. “Think we can score some?”

He laughed at my eager tone, his hand tightening around my own. “Sure? My mom used to have some—that’s what I was looking for in the garage.”

“How did you know about this?” I asked him as I stretched to reach the stripped-down registration table and its pile of leftover headband cat ears. I asked the person packing up, “Can we?”

She nodded and I returned to James, releasing his hand to slide a pair of ears onto my head.

“The run?” James was standing close, like he wanted to still be touching me when we weren’t holding hands. “I was supposed to work security at the beer gardens.”

“Why aren’t you?”

“I was supposed to have the night shift at the museum this week.”

“But?”

“Schedule was changed at the last minute.”

“What drew you to security? It doesn’t seem like your thing.”

“Yeah.” He untangled a lock of hair that got caught in my ears. “I didn’t realize it would be so boring. I was looking for something fun, but would give me time to think.”

“Time to think?” I cringed automatically. Thinking was never a good idea in my case. It was as unhealthy as sitting around. The more I did it, the more I feared becoming my mother, or the more I whirled in my own toxic thoughts, blaming myself for selfishness that had ended our cozy little family dynamic. Although, thinking about now, with James snugged up close to me, I didn’t get that familiar old clenching in my gut or wash of spine prickling shame. Did that mean I was finally letting it go?

“So why don’t you get another job?” I asked.

“There’s this cutie,” he said affectionately, adjusting my ears again, “who keeps coming into the museum and bossing everyone around. I couldn’t possibly miss out on that.”

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