That Touch of Magic by Lucy March

otherwise. No way was I taking him inside only to have no place for him to stay.
    “Loving you isn’t something I did for a while, Leo. It’s something I am. I can’t change it any more than I can change the color of my eyes.”
    His jaw tensed and his lower lip quivered, and I knew what was coming. In two minutes, we’d both be blubbering helplessly like a couple of stupid kids, and this was all going to get to be too much very soon if I didn’t put a stop to it now.
    “I love you.” I felt the relief in the words for just a moment as I said them; then I pulled myself together and pushed through the rest of it. “But that matters so much less than you’d think.”
    His face froze, and it took a moment, but he nodded.
    I swallowed, willing the tears back.
    “Go back. Go to the wedding. Get on your plane. Then don’t ever darken my fucking door again.”
    I stood there on my stoop and watched while he slowly walked to Nick’s truck. A moment later, he drove away, leaving a trail of dust kicked up in the air behind him. I don’t know how long I remained there, staring, but it was long enough for the dust to settle, and for a silver Honda with Canadian plates to pull in and park next to my Bug. A moment later, a long, lean Desmond Lamb stepped out, cutting a fine figure in a classy black suit.
    I barely noticed. I was still staring at the dust Leo had left behind.
    “Well, Stacy, I must say, I didn’t have you pegged as the rustic sort…” That must have been when he caught the look on my face, because he stopped talking.
    “Stacy? Are you all right?”
    The sight of Desmond went hazy through my tears. Without a word, he relieved me of my dress and shoes and matching clutch, and ushered me inside. He sat me at my kitchenette and dispensed the Anwei Xing potion into a glass of Diet Coke.
    I drank it down without a word and went to take my shower.
    *   *   *
    “I don’t know what you did to Mom,” Nick said as we danced to Harry Connick Jr. on the parquet floor the wedding planner had set up in the middle of the town square, “but thank you.”
    “Me?” I smiled up at him and batted my eyelashes. “I didn’t do a thing.”
    “Yeah, right. Was it that magic stuff? The stuff you and Liv have?” I’d explained how the magic worked to Nick a few times, but he never really understood. Kind of the way I never understood when he explained to me how a carburetor worked.
    “Liv has magic,” I said. “I have potions.”
    “It’s all the same to me,” he said. “Did you hocus-pocus her or what? She told Peach she was beautiful twice, and didn’t follow it up with for a whore or anything.”
    “I didn’t do anything magic to her,” I said. “I just explained things in a way she could understand.”
    “Good for you.” He tried to twirl me around, and ended up stepping on my toe. My big, bald brother was good at his landscaping business, and he was good at making Peach happy, but he couldn’t dance worth a crap.
    “Sorry,” he said, and I rubbed the top of his head.
    “Twinkle lights were a bad idea,” I said. “They’re all reflecting off the top of your shiny pate.”
    “Yeah, cut it out,” he said, and pushed my hand away. Next to us, Desmond twirled Peach around with perfect grace and she hollered out, “Is it too late for returns? I want this one instead!” and a bunch of nearby guests laughed.
    Nick shrugged. “It was only ever a matter of time before she got wise and left me for someone better looking.”
    “Oh, shut up,” I said. “You’re a catch and you know it.”
    Nick shrugged and smiled. “I know.” His eyes clouded a bit, and he said, “Hey, you okay?”
    I blinked in surprise. Nick had once accidentally knocked me off the monkey bars. I’d landed hard and he’d carried me, bleeding from the head, to the school nurse’s office. Not once in that entire fifteen minutes had he asked me if I was okay.
    “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
    He bopped his head back and