Page 75 of Soft Flannel Hank

“Sorry. Mom likes to keep it warm,” Jamie said, almost automatically and certainly apologetically. As if he said this to everyone who walked in.

“Well, forgive me for not producing my own body heat anymore, Jamie,” Magda said, coming around the corner wearing a white butcher’s apron over a tracksuit. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and she looked as if she’d been baking, with flour dusting her cheeks. “Come in, come in!”

They filed into the living room, which opened into the kitchen. The walls were white, and there were rustic wood accents everywhere. Dick Van Dyke stood in the center of them, staring mournfully up with his drooping hound eyes. Esther took pity upon him and crouched to pet him.

“Thanks for helping us, Magda,” Esther said.

Magda waved her hand. “Psh, it’s nothing.” She turned sharp eyes on Hank. “Hank, you stink to high heaven.”

“Your dog smells worse.”

“Dick’s supposed to smell like a dog. You’re not.”

“I didn’t have time to shower.”

“This week?” Magda said, poking him in the chest. “Go. You know where the towels are.”

“Fine,” Hank sighed, picking up his bag. He winked at Esther before walking down the hallway and disappearing into what must have been the bathroom.

“That’s new,” Jamie murmured behind her.

Magda was beaming ear to ear. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?” Esther asked, but Magda had already started for the kitchen. Dick Van Dyke lumbered after her.

“Take off all those layers before you die of a heat stroke, girl,” she called out before she opened the oven.

Esther helped Magda set the table and was just bringing a basket of bread over when Hank came into the kitchen. His cheeks were pink from the heat. He wore jeans again and a gray T-shirt. His dark hair was damp from his shower and tucked behind his ears, leaving wet spots on top of his shoulders.

It occurred to her that she’d never seen Hank’s arms above the elbows. It was such a small, innocent patch of skin, and yet it felt almost intimate to see for the first time. She wanted to go to him and slide her hands up his arms and into the sleeves of his t-shirt, to feel the power of his biceps under her fingers.

Magda cleared her throat loudly, and Esther jumped, startled by Magda’s closeness, to which she’d been oblivious.

“Unless you plan to make a meal of him, let’s get dinner on the table,” Magda said, bumping her shoulder into Esther’s arm.

Hank coughed into his fist, and Esther was sure that her face was the same color as her hair. Magda pinched her cheek affectionately before turning to Hank. “I made your favorite, Dovey.”

“Bolognese?” Hank asked, his eyebrows pinched close together.

“What else?”

“But that takes all day. How did you know I was coming?”

Magda face lit up with a Cheshire Cat grin and she winked. “I had a hunch.”

The Bolognese was delicious, and Esther marveled at how deftly Magda managed the table, passing bread and butter and refiling drinks before anyone even asked without breaking stride or conversation. Hank looked more comfortable at this table than Esther had ever seen him look at his own, and she remembered him telling her that he’d known Jamie since birth. He’d been eating at this table for his entire life.

After dinner, Hank and Jamie did the dishes while Magda took Esther back into her office. The package from Shannon sat unopened on the desk.

Together, they pored through the grimoire, turning page after page of her grandmother’s handwriting, finding recipes for tinctures, elixirs, potions, and spells. But they found nothing that could help Esther beyond the basic protective charms that she already performed for herself every night before bed.

Esther slumped in her chair. “I don’t know what I was expecting. My grandmother was an herbalist, a kitchen witch. She never got into trouble a day in her life. Not like I managed to, anyway.”

Magda sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m not much different, girlie. There’s a lot of agents at play in this part of the country, but as long as I’ve lived here, almost everyone has had a decent respect for one another. I ward the property because it makes me feel better living here alone, but I’ve neverneededto. Well, not until tonight,” she said.

“I’m so sorry for dragging you into this, Magda. I never wanted to put anyone at risk for my sake.”

“Oh, honey,” Magda said. She pulled Esther into her arms and started playing with her hair. “I’m due for a little trouble. Besides, I’m not afraid of your little Savannah stalker.”