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banana nut bread.” I boasted. Aunt Matilda was a
great baker and I’d learned a lot from her.
    I
always asked her what her special ingredient was that she used. Her standard
reply was a pinch of love .
    “Oh,
yeah?” Jill stopped mixing the batter, and put her hands on the counter. “Care
to share?”
    Anything
for a blue aura.
    “Just
a tad bit of nutmeg really does bring out the flavoring. And no one will ever
know.” I winked and looked through the spice rack on the counter. I handed it
to her.
    “No,
you do the honors.” She took the measuring spoons out of the drawer and handed
them to me.
    Quickly,
I measured out the single-tablespoon that makes the banana nut bread taste so
good and tossed it in Jill’s mixing bowl as she mixed away.
    “I
guess I better get going.” I patted my pockets for my keys, but they weren’t
there.
    “Are
you sure you’re okay to drive?” Jill asked.
    “I’m
fine.” I nodded and lied. “Like I said, I do it all the time. Low blood
pressure.”
    “At
least stay for lunch.” Jill put the banana bread in the oven and began filling
bowls with the chili she had cooking in a big pot on the stove.
    “No,
I have to get back to work.” After all, it was almost Valentine’s Day and I was
running a Valentine’s massacre special with half-off dumps.
    Besides,
if Joel was a rancher, I was going to need a pair of boots.
    Jill
reached into a pocket on her apron and handed me my keys and thanked me for the
secret nutmeg.
    “Joel
parked your car outside the front door.” Jill pointed the way.
    I
found my way to the front door and bolted down the porch steps, again. But this
time, my Toyota was going to make it out of the ranch and head straight to the
boot store.

 
    Seven
     
     
    I
was exhausted by the time I had dumped five people when I got home from the boot
store. Vegging out on the couch with Herbie was going to be my perfect night
in.
    “How
did the date with Buddy go?” Erin asked when she got home from work.
    “Are
you honestly going to ask me that question? Let’s say that you owe me. Big
time.” I propped my new boots up on the coffee table.
    Erin
laughed. “What are those?” She pointed to my three hundred dollar kickers.
    “I
read that boots are the rage now. So I went and got me a pair.” I shook my
feet.
    “Are
you feeling okay?” Erin picked up the empty boot box off the couch and sat down.
“Anyway, tell me about the date.”
    I
got up and went into the kitchen. If I was going to tell her how disastrous the
date was, she was going to need a glass of wine.
    “Are
you sure you want to know?” I asked, pouring the box wine into a Styrofoam cup.
    “Yes.”
She walked into the kitchen and picked up the cup. “Really, Olivia? Styrofoam?
Box wine? This is the stuff that put me out of business before.”
    So
maybe Styrofoam wasn’t the proper way to serve wine, but I hadn’t been to the
store and it was going to have to do.
    I
proceeded to tell Erin about Buddy and his orange bucking bronco experience. We
laughed so hard that we’d forgotten all about the Styrofoam cup issue and
proceeded to fill our cups up several more times.
    “Well,
I hope Jennifer’s date with Joel goes much better tomorrow.” Erin stood up and
yawned. “It’s been a long day. I’m going to bed”
    “Wait,
what happened to your car?” I had completely forgotten to ask her.
    “What?”
Erin looked a little confused.
    Maybe
she was really tired and hadn’t understood what I had said, but I thought I had
said it loud enough for her to hear.
    “Your
car?” I asked, hoping to jog her memory. “Obviously, you must have gotten it
fixed.”
    “Wouldn’t
you know it? I was just out of gas.” She waved me off as she walked down the
hall to the bedroom. “Thank goodness for Aunt Matilda.”
    Something
was off. Erin’s strange behavior made me think she was up to something. She always
forgets that when she’s lying, her crystal aura becomes muddy.
    “Huh.”
I rubbed my