Free Making Magic by Donna June Cooper

focused on hammered dulcimers. Keep playing. I didn’t mean to stop you.” He nodded to her flute. “I need to get back to work. Got three I’m trying to finish for the festival.”
    “That’s right. It’s that time of year, isn’t it?” Her voice sounded odd. He wondered if her memories of the festival were tainted too.
    “You…” He almost asked her to play with them, but the other members of the group deserved to have a say first. “You should come. We play on Friday afternoon.”
    Thea looked uncomfortable at the idea. “I don’t know if I’ll still be here. I-I just came for the wedding.” She closed the case and stood, tucking her hair behind her ears.
    With all your worldly goods in your car. Right. “Seems to me you should get some more rest and recreation in before you head off back to the corporate world. You were pretty worn down, from what I saw.”
    He saw her eyes narrow.
    “But you look like you feel a lot better now,” he added.
    “For someone who throws himself in front of bullets, you look quite well yourself,” she said, sliding the case in its cover into the bag which she slung over her shoulder.
    He frowned. “I didn’t throw myself in front of it.”
    “Tripped then. And fell. Right in front of the mayor.” She smirked, clearly enjoying herself. “Klutz.”
    He glared at her but didn’t attempt a comeback. He was too glad to see her back in her usual sarcastic form. “What kind of dog is Bailey, anyway?”
    Thea looked down at the dog. “She appears to be some kind of half toy poodle, half who-knows-what. Whatever it is, it is small and very fuzzy, considering what Mel trimmed off of her.”
    The dog, aware that they were talking about her, started dancing around getting herself and Thea thoroughly entangled with the leash.
    “Seriously, I didn’t mean to stop you. I wanted to… I heard you playing and…”
    She stood with her hands on her hips, her chin thrust out.
    “It’s good to have you back,” he finished, knowing full well how lame it sounded. “Damn good.”
    Her teeth worried her bottom lip for a moment, as if considering her reply. Then she looked down at the dog. “Thanks for getting me home in one piece,” she said, her voice so soft and the words so rushed that he almost had to lean forward to hear her.
    “You’re welcome.” He looked at her feet, now thoroughly entangled, with Bailey still bouncing around her. He took a step away and grinned. “Would you like me to carry you back to the house again today, Matchstick ?”
    “Jake Moser.” She glared at him and took a step forward, almost tripping as the leash caught her.
    He stepped backward. “You know, Bailey’s a Woodruff now. You should let her off that leash.”
    Had she been holding anything, he suspected it would have been sailing in his direction by now.
    Jake backed up a bit faster. “She’s got the mountain’s song in her head. Even if they get lost, anyone who belongs on this mountain comes back to it eventually.”
    Thea stopped in her tracks, a confused look on her face.
    Jake spun on his heel and strode toward his truck, grinning.

Chapter Four
    “It was like a movie or something, the way he came up the porch steps carrying you and Bailey.” Mel took a sip of her coffee and gave Thea an innocent look.
    “Yeah. Tarzan of the Apes,” Thea groused. “Him Tarzan.”
    Mel laughed. She was perched precariously on the porch railing of her soon-to-be home while her soon-to-be husband crawled around on top of the gazebo in the garden. It was a misty, humid morning. Dust motes drifted through shafts of sunlight and a steady murmur of bird song and bee buzz droned through the hollow.
    “But did he really have a crush on Grace ?” Mel flashed an impish grin.
    “Yes,” Thea said at the same time Grace said, “No.”
    Grace grimaced at Mel. “Thea totally made that up.”
    “Did not,” Thea protested. “He was always finding reasons to hang around, and it certainly wasn’t for