Waiting for Magic Read Free Page A

probably.” Kee was amazed her surfer-boy brother was a whiz at all the things that went into his passion for the sea. Such a whiz he’d gotten a McGovern Grant to continue his studies at the graduate level. Probably the only way he would have worked on his doctorate. He was getting touchy about depending on the Parents for support. “It’s so strange to think that someday I’ll have to call you Dr. Tremaine.”
    “Like you’d do that,” he snorted. The two walked into the kitchen. Devin opened the left-hand fridge and Kee sat on a stool at the bar that overlooked the food preparation area.
    She could tell Devin was mulling something over.
    “Kee, you can’t tell me no one’s asked you out.” Devin turned back, his arms stacked with packages of wrapped deli meats, blocks of cheese, and some tomatoes, all precariously balanced with a jar of mayo and one of mustard. “I wouldn’t believe it.”
    “You’d be right.” Her sister Drew strolled in from the office wing of the Breakers.
    “So who asked her out?” Devin grinned at Drew.
    Kee frowned at her, for all the good it would do. Drew was not as sure of herself as she’d once been, what with her power being so difficult, but she was still an older sister. Enough said.
    “The new curator at the museum.” Drew raised a supercilious eyebrow. She had their mother’s nearly black hair except with sea-grey eyes, and of course the pale porcelain skin the Tremaine women all shared. She wore a sleek red silk jumpsuit with a wide black patent belt and a tiny black lacy sweater as a gesture to the rising wind. How did she always manage to look so nonchalant and sophisticated?
    “Betrayer,” Kee muttered. She always felt either frumpy or way too flamboyant around Drew. Kee’s hair was pale in comparison, her eyes a so-so blue, even though she had the standard Tremaine good looks. She was a pale shadow of Drew’s dramatic presence. It grated. “We had coffee in the cafeteria. It wasn’t a date or anything.”
    “Do you like him?” Devin asked. He seemed particularly intent on slathering mustard on the load of protein he’d stacked on his poor slice of bread.
    “Yes. She likes him,” Drew answered. “Even though she only talks to him about old belt buckles. Which is why she must go out with him when he asks her out on an actual date. Which he will.…” Drew hovered over the kitchen counter. “Hmmm. Is that prosciutto?”
    “Yeah. Have some.” Devin pushed several packages wrapped in white butcher paper and the bread toward Drew.
    “I’m just a volunteer,” Kee said, through gritted teeth. “I’m not going out with my boss.”
    Michael came in through the terrace doors, looking tired. “At least I know how to find lunch.” He was big, six-five, and looked Italian, not at all like a descendent of Merlin. But the genes were in there somewhere. He and Drew acted like magnets across the kitchen and he put his arm around her waist.
    Michael’s decision to use his Finding sense to locate lost kids wasn’t easy on him. He needed a picture of something before he could Find it. His power worked even if they had grown older. But if they were dead his Finding sense didn’t work. Every failure hit him hard. He kept at it though. Sometimes the kids had been snatched and sometimes they’d run away because of physical or sexual abuse. Michael always found the bad guys too, but he and Kee’s father took special interest in prosecuting those who abused kids in their family. Incest was a trust betrayed, her father said.
    “Let me make you a sandwich,” Drew said, rubbing her palm over his broad back. “Help us pressure Kee to go out with the curator who likes her,” Drew invited.
    “I think I’ll sit that one out.” Michael grinned apologetically at Kee. “And here I always thought I wanted a big family.”
    *****
    The old woman sang softly to herself. Only she didn’t look that old anymore. Maybe sixty-five, seventy. Sure, she had gray hair and her