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Farley reached into his back pocket and pulled out a notebook. He flipped a few pages and then stopped to read. When he raised his head, he smiled at her and showed his fangs.

“Were you checking your notes about me?” I asked.

“Yes. And I have faith in you. You are good at this job.”

I chuckled softly and waved at my platters. “Yes, I’m a real whiz at chopping vegetables and putting them on a platter.”

Farley rolled his eyes.

“What was that eye roll about?” I exclaimed, laughing at his action. “I thought I was the eye-rolling person in our relationship.”

“You do a lot more than chop vegetables, Selene. People who come here all have serious issues going on in their lives. You solve them. You solved your own issues and Peace’s at the same time. You solved mine.”

I snorted. “What are you talking about? You didn’t have any problems when we met.”

“I was lonely and looking for you. Finding out you existed solved the biggest problem I’ve ever had that I couldn’t solve by myself. I’m finally able to move on to solving other important things.”

I grinned at him. “Like how to make cold fusion work?”

“Among other things... I also thought that maybe you and I could visit modern deserts and see if we could put my hedge witch magic to work making small areas of them green. The Amazon rainforests are shrinking. Someone has to do something to fix them before they’re gone.”

I stopped to stare. “I would love to travel with you. That’s a great idea.”

“When we’re done fixing the environment, I want to wrestle one of those giant anacondas to see if I’m stronger than it is. Harrison and Garrison have already put bets on it. Dad Charlie chose to abstain.”

I set down my knife to keep from cutting myself. “Do you really think you can fight a more than twenty-foot-long snake that weighs over four hundred and fifty pounds?”

Farley rubbed his jaw. “You’re right. I weigh more and maneuver better. Maybe I’ll wrestle a hippo instead. I’m about the same size in my bear form.”

I leaned on the counter, but no sensible or sane statements came to mind. Giving in to my urge to shriek and rage would do no one any good. So instead, I looked at the bear I adored and shook my head. “Farley, I think I understand now why your family worries about you getting into trouble all the time. You need a keeper.”

“I need you,” he said in his sexiest low voice while showing me his fangs again.

My panties nearly melted away as I stared at his knowing smile. He was learning about me... and learning to flirt. If he learned anything more, the bear would have me flat on my back all the time. That was too much power to give any man, and I had no intention of letting him know it.

I dropped my gaze and did some deep breathing, while visualizing myself mucking out Prince Robin’s stall. There was nothing like visualizing centaur poop to calm down a person’s libido.

Once I had my raging hormones under control, I blew out a breath and nodded. “I need you too, Farley. But I’m not sure I’m up to being your keeper.”

“Well, I’m sure up to being yours, but my brothers said that’s not a polite thing to mention to the woman you want to take to bed. They both said it would be better for you to discover that factoid on your own.”

My smile was wide. “Your brothers are right, but I’m not your average woman. I enjoy hard truths.”

“Then you’re going to love mine because it’s always that way around you,” he said.

I didn’t dare answer because that would lead to me laughing and jumping his bones, so I ducked my head and sighed. There was no way I was going to drag Farley to bed with an unfriendly stranger upstairs, a sad fairy in the basement, and a ghost-inhabited wand that didn’t want me thinking of sex, much less having any.

How had my own life suddenly turned to centaur shit? And I wasn’t talking about what I shoveled out of Prince Robin’s stall.

Carol would pay for my current misery, but revenge on The Not-So-Great Baby Yaga couldn’t happen until I’d helped Prince Peace and Harmony resolve her low self-esteem issues.

Damn the bear for being right. Helping people was the part I liked best about being here.

When the bullshit moved out of my way, I instinctively knew what to do to fix people’s problems. Could I see myself doing this for a living, though? Sometimes I could, but not if it came with a sexually repressed ghost making all the decisions for me. And that Puritan slash Victorian outfit would need a serious makeover before I would ever commit.

Was an innkeeper supposed to give up men forever and walk in Jezel’s sexless shoes? That bossy ghost was crazy if she thought I’d ever let that happen to me. If I stayed—and Goddess, I couldn’t be serious about this—at the very least, she would have to bring her 1800s sexual beliefs into the 2000s. I would invite who I wanted to my bed and I’d do it whenever I wanted.

Those were brave thoughts and braver words, but my heart knew staying wasn’t really an option.