Healing Hands

Chapter 2-2

“You seriously get to go to Lake Tahoe?” Laurel’s cousin Autumn Garnett asked.

“Well, I hope so,” Laurel replied. “Jake hasn’t given me the go-ahead yet. He has to talk to Connor first.”

Because she knew that waiting to hear Connor’s verdict on the Lake Tahoe plan was going to drive her crazy, Laurel had decided the best thing to do would be to meet Autumn for some coffee in the interim. And since Autumn was off from college for the summer and was only working about fifteen hours a week, she’d been available to drop by the coffee shop that was located directly under Laurel’s loft apartment in downtown Flagstaff.

Autumn waved a hand. She had the same night-dark hair as most of the Wilcox witches, but her eyes were a startling dark blue. When they were little kids, Laurel had always imagined her cousin as Snow White any time she read the fairy tale.

Unlike Snow White, Autumn had a pretty take-charge attitude.

“Oh, you know Connor will say yes,” she said, then lifted her iced coffee to take a sip. “He’s not exactly what you could call a hard-ass.”

That was true. Connor was pretty much the diametrical opposite of his late brother, who’d ruled the Wilcox clan with a heavy hand. “Unfortunately, it’s not all up to him,” Laurel replied. “He has to get permission from the Delmonicos before I can go anywhere near Tahoe.”

Autumn considered that complication for a moment. However, it didn’t seem to faze her much, because she said, “Connor’s pretty good at sweet-talking people. I’m sure it will be fine.”

Maybe “sweet-talking” wasn’t exactly the phrase Laurel would have used, because their cousin wasn’t the sort of smooth-tongued person who could get anyone to agree with them. However, she had to admit that most people generally liked Connor, and because he was so easygoing and unruffled, they found him easy to work with.

Would those qualities be enough to get the Delmonicos to agree to their plan? She knew absolutely nothing about the Nevada family, since, like most witch clans, they kept to themselves and minded their own business. Laurel supposed they probably were more used to working with civilians — nonmagical people — than most, simply because there were so many tourists going in and out of Las Vegas all the time that they didn’t have much choice but to deal with them.

Whether that would make them more open to allowing a Wilcox witch to come into their territory and start poking around, she wasn’t sure.

“It’s not like it would be the first time a Wilcox was in their territory, anyway,” Autumn went on when Laurel didn’t reply right away. “Jeremy went there when he was chasing after Sloane. And actually, didn’t Jake and Addie head to Las Vegas when they were running away from Kanab?”

That was true. After Laurel’s cousin Jake had rescued Addie Grant in the nick of time from being scooped up by Randall Lenz, the head of the Daedalus Project, Jake had thought it safer to detour to Vegas rather than head straight to Flagstaff, just in case anyone was pursuing them. A wise maneuver, since Lenz really had been hot on their trail — or at least, as hot as he could be, considering Jake had clocked the man in the head with a carefully aimed flower pot before beating feet out of Kanab.

The Delmonicos didn’t seem to have had much of a problem with either of those forays, but then again, neither Jake nor Jeremy had hung around long. Laurel’s mission would be something entirely different, an open-ended trip with no conclusion in sight.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Even if she hadn’t found the mysterious healer by next Friday, she’d have to head back to Flagstaff or miss Jake and Addie’s wedding. Since she was the maid of honor, Laurel guessed that wouldn’t go over too well. The bridal shower was over, and Addie had stated emphatically that she didn’t want a bachelorette party, and so the only thing left to do was show up for hair and makeup on Saturday morning, but even so, she didn’t have unlimited amounts of time to play with.

If she even got to go at all.

“They went there,” she admitted, and reached for her own neglected cup of chai. The afternoon was warm enough that she probably should have gotten something iced, like Autumn had, but she’d compromised by letting it cool down to just lukewarm. “But they didn’t stay long. I’m sure I’ll need to be in Tahoe for at least a few days. It all depends on what I find.”

Autumn gave a sympathetic nod. To Laurel’s relief, she didn’t ask about getting back in time for Jake and Addie’s wedding, probably because she knew that her cousin had already done the necessary mental math and knew that the whole thing would be doable…if barely.

Just as Laurel was taking another sip of her lukewarm chai, her phone let out a small bing. At once, she set down the mug and reached to dig the phone out of her purse so she could look down at the screen.

A text from Jake.

Connor says it’s a go — the Delmonicos are on board. Come back for a meeting, and then you need to get packed.

She unlocked the phone and quickly typed back, Awesome. I’ll be right over. After replacing the phone in her purse, she looked across the table at her cousin’s expectant face.

“Well?” Autumn asked, blue eyes shining with curiosity.

“It’s happening,” Laurel said with a grin. “I’m going to Lake Tahoe.”