Free Tiny Glitches: A Magical Contemporary Romance by Rebecca Chastain Page B

behind him and snatched the ball with her trunk. Curling her trunk over her head, she flung the ball. It landed a few feet in front of her, but Dali tore after it like she’d launched it across the yard. He returned the ball to Kyoko this time, not Sofie, and my aunt burst out laughing. Seeing me watching, she came up to the pool house and let herself inside.
    “I’ve been replaced.”
    “Who can compete with an elephant?” I said.
    “Dali is going to be so upset when his new companion has to go.”
    “Yeah. About that. Thank you for being so easygoing about me showing up with a baby elephant.”
    She smiled. “That wasn’t all you showed up with.”
    I flattened my lips and gave her a stern look, which she ignored.
    “When are you going to stop dawdling and come over to the house so you can tell me how you met Hudson”—she raised her hands when I opened my mouth—“ and how you got Kyoko?”
    I rolled my eyes. Only my aunt would be more interested in Hudson than a baby elephant. Of course, she was right; I was stalling. I needed distance between myself and Hudson to see if I was reading my emotions correctly—and to cool my hormones. If we were going to figure out how to find Jenny and return Kyoko, I needed to think with my head, not my libido. Plus, I wanted to look nice when I emerged from the pool house. I’d frightened myself when I’d gotten a good look in the mirror before my shower. My pride needed a pick-me-up.
    “I’ll be right there,” I said. Sofie arched a brow at me. When she turned to leave, paintbrushes stuck out of her back pocket. Paint covered the ends, so I knew they were a divination. Sofie was content. That wouldn’t stop her from meddling, though.
    I placed the book on the nightstand, then hung my towel in the bathroom. My hair had dried enough to have wave again. I fluffed it over my shoulder and stared at myself. I was pale, with pale auburn eyebrows and pale pink lips. Only my eyes were dark. I reached for my makeup bag, then returned it to my satchel. I wasn’t going on a date or a consultation. I was going to sit in my aunt’s house and have dinner and talk about my day’s criminal activities. With a man who made my pulse race with one quirk of his sexy lips.
    “Hopefully he likes pale redheads.” The fact that I cared proved my dawdling hadn’t lessened my attraction to Hudson.
    Kyoko and Dali were back in the pool, splashing in the shallow end. I crossed the far side of the yard and darted up the patio steps and inside before Dali sprinted up the stairs behind me. I slammed the sliding glass door closed and stopped short.
    The vision that was Hudson sitting at the kitchen bar, Sofie’s laptop in front of him, shocked me motionless: Green, paint-stained sweats rode up his calves like cropped pants and a pink and blue V-neck Getty T-shirt strained across his shoulders and strangled his armpits.
    “Are you wearing my aunt’s clothes?” I asked.
    Hudson looked up, and a blush tinted his cheeks. “She stole my clothes while I was in the shower.”
    “I didn’t steal them. I put them in the laundry,” Sofie said from where she stood at the stove. “They’re almost done. Those sweats were the only pants I had that would fit you. I thought you’d prefer them to a wraparound skirt.”
    “ Fit isn’t the term I would have used,” Hudson grumbled, tugging at the tight collar of the T-shirt.
    I bit my lip to contain my laughter.
    “Yeah, yeah. Yuck it up,” Hudson said. His eyes snagged on my bare feet when I kicked off my flip-flops. I grinned and turned toward the living room.
    The open floor plan of the living room, kitchen, and dining room made a large L, with the kitchen at the center, visible from both rooms. Sofie had a gas stove so we could cook together, but the refrigerator and microwave were both electric. I curled up on the sofa cushion farthest from the kitchen. If it had been just the two of us, I would have helped Sofie, neither of us concerned with