Charmed Read Free Page A

home."
    "We can check her cell phone," I said. "See who's number one on her speed dial."
    "Don't bother." We all jumped at the sound of Liv's voice. "There's nobody to call."

Chapter Three
     
    Even though I'm magick I don't have extra-sensory perception and yet somehow Liv’s confession didn't surprise me at all. Her loneliness was palpable to me. I felt it deep inside my bones, familiar as the sound of my own voice.
    "I didn't come here to make trouble," she said. "You know how much I love Sticks & Strings. I just wanted to take a few more design classes but this time--" She stopped dead and fell silent again.
    "But something happened when you saw me, didn't it?"
    She nodded. "I told myself I was going to stay away but it was like I was hearing voices telling me I had to see you and as soon as I did I just knew you were pregnant and--" She stopped abruptly, face flaming redder than her scarf. "I sound crazy. I swear I'm not. I normally don't go around feeling pregnant women's bellies."
    "You said something about danger and the baby," I prodded gently.
    "I don't know any more about the future than you do. I only see the past."
    "You did say it, honey," Janice chimed in. "I heard it with my own ears."
    "No," she said, shaking her head vigorously. "The baby's not in danger. Don't say that."
    They were the words I wanted to hear but for some reason I still wasn't feeling the love.
    "Do you have a blood sugar problem?" Lynette asked. "That would explain the passing out."
    Sometimes there was simply no explaining Lynette.
    "This room is so noisy." Liv looked past Lynette and into the middle distance. "Why is it so noisy in here?"
    Noisy? We didn't even have the music system up and running. The only sound was Penny's rumbling snore from her favorite spot deep in the basket of self-replenishing roving.
    "Too many people talking," Liv went on. "I can't understand anything they're saying."
    Behind her Lynette circled her index finger next to her temple in the universal "this chick is crazy" sign.
    My good friend was wrong. Liv Jenssen wasn't crazy. She was here for a reason and I needed to find out what that reason was before it was too late.
     
    **
     
    What was the point of living with the chief of police if you couldn't take advantage of his position every now and then?
    Luke MacKenzie is the 100% human love of my life and the father of my unborn baby. Six months ago he showed up in Sugar Maple to investigate the murder of a politician's mistress and sparks flew when we met. Literally. Dazzling white and silver sparks sizzled in the air between us when our hands touched and in that moment our mutual fate was sealed.
    Now he was our top cop as well as the only resident full-blood human in town. Not everyone is thrilled with adding more homo sapiens to our collective gene pool but in my experience love is even stronger than magick. Slowly but surely the villagers were getting used to the stranger in their midst and I wanted to believe that one day soon he would be fully accepted as one of our own.
    I dashed next door to the former pet shop that served as the Sugar Maple police station and let myself in without knocking. Luke was on the phone and typing two-fingered on the computer keyboard in front of him. He shot me the kind of smile that made my bones melt and moments later the phone and computer were both forgotten and I was in his arms as silvery sparks of dazzling light radiated from us.
    "So workshop week is finally over," he said, pressing warm kisses along my throat. "I feel like I haven't seen you since the whole thing began."
    "And you're not seeing me now," I said, laughing as I extricated myself from his embrace. "We have a bit of a ...situation and I need your help." I asked him, very casually, if he would run a background check on Liv Jenssen while I waited.
    "For what? Mismatched dye lots?" Clearly living with a knitter had rubbed off on him.
    "Not funny," I said. "Would you just do it for me, please?"
    He fixed me