“Bye.”
She hung up. Damn. She really did need Darrak feeding her smoother, more confident lines. Was she always such a doofus when it came to talking to men? She had managed to get engaged to ass-face. But he’d been a friend of a friend who helped ease her into things with a lot of double dates. There wasn’t this awkward “getting to know you” phase.
But she did want to get to know Ben. He was perfect. She needed a little bit of perfect in her life.
“Eden,” Andy called. “You have to look at this! Hurry!”
Oh, God. Now what?
She crossed the room in five steps. Andy held out a piece of paper to her and she looked at a precisely detailed sketch of a beautiful woman with long dark hair drawn in blue ballpoint pen.
“That’s her,” Darrak said, pointing at the picture.
“He’s an artist,” Andy said. “This is really good. And the crazy thing is he says he’s never drawn before. How is that possible?”
Eden gritted her teeth. “He’s very special, Darrak is.”
“Thanks, sis. You’re the bestest.” He grabbed another donut. “And so are these.”
“It’s not a lot to go on, but it’s a start.” Andy took the page. “I can work on finding Darrak’s old friend here and you can take care of the cheating husband case.”
She pointed at herself. “Me?”
“Sure. She wanted you to do it. And I don’t want to piss off a new client. Especially one who seems to be bleeding money. You can start on it tomorrow.”
“Why wait until tomorrow?” she asked.
“Got to make sure this check is good.” He grinned. “If you don’t hear from me, don’t even bother coming in here first. I’ll call you if there are any emergencies.”
“But I don’t have a license.”
He waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that.”
“Don’t worry about that? It’s the law. We could get in trouble.”
“Honestly, Eden. Leave that sort of thing up to me.”
She opened her mouth to protest some more, but closed it. Andy was going to search for the witch, and he seemed surprisingly positive about it. That was good. She wouldn’t say anything to disrupt that. While she didn’t feel comfortable with Fay’s case, she’d do her best.
She was really a fairy? Other than the painfully tight hug there was nothing to indicate she was anything other than human. But she was a fairy who would be tried as a deserter of her people and possibly killed if her marriage was a failure. Talk about a good deterrent for divorce.
It was all very, very wrong.
“Fine. If you say so, then so be it,” she finally said. “Cheating husband. No problem, right?”
“No problem,” Andy agreed. “Grab my camera. Just jot down everything the husband does, who he’s seen with. Take tons of pictures. Easy as pie. I’ve done a million of ’em. And I hate to say it, but 99 percent of the time the client is right about their husband or wife. The gut rarely lies. They just need us to confirm it so they can use the evidence in the divorce case. I say, keep it coming. Infidelity has always been Triple-A’s bread and butter.”
Eden’s ex-fiancé cheated on her at a Valentine’s Day party, of all things. As far as she was concerned, 99 percent of all men were born to cheat. The challenge was finding that 1 percent that wouldn’t.
However, searching for that elusive needle in the haystack usually resulted in finding a whole lot of other pricks.
Ben might be part of that tiny percentage. He was so perfect in every other way, from his looks to his job performance; he had to be the potential perfect husband as well.
Not that she was planning that far ahead. However, it did make for a nice mental image.
“Eden, why don’t you take the rest of the day off? After talking to Mrs. Morgan and getting that nice juicy check you’ve totally earned it,” Andy said. “Show your brother around the city. Have some fun.”
She eyed him skeptically. “This is so unlike you.”
“I’m feeling generous toward my favorite employee.”
“Not that I’m looking the gift horse in the mouth, but you’re actually not my boss. We’re equal partners here.”
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting that.”
“Except he does own 1 percent more than you,” Darrak added, now on his fourth donut. “So that does make him the controlling partner.”
“That’s right, sport.” Andy nodded. “You’re paying attention. You’re totally awesome.”
Darrak sighed. “I want to leave now, Eden. Please.”
They left.
—“I heard you on the phone with the cop,” Darrak said in Eden’s car as they pulled away from the office. “Everything’s on for tonight?”
“It is.”
“Thought you might cancel.”
She eyed him sideways. “Well, I didn’t.”
He pressed back against the headrest. “I guess you really like him.”
“I do.”
“What’s so great about him?”
“Everything. Now just try to stay quiet.” She had to accept the fact that she had someone with her constantly until she figured out how to get rid of him. She’d never appreciated her now long-lost moments of silence before.
“You don’t like me very much, do you?” Darrak asked, but he sounded amused.
“Do you blame me?”
“A little. You need to loosen up a bit.”
“I’m loose enough.”