Chapter 3

Charlie was suddenly very aware that he was being dragged under the table.

"What the fuck?" he cried.

"Shhh," Joanna put her hand over his mouth. "Guess who just walked in the door?" she asked in a stage whisper.

"Shit, Gretchen?"

"No, dumb ass, Linda Martinez. I don't know if she saw you swapping DNA with Acanthia or not."

"Fuck me," Charlie said. He stretched his head just barely over the table. He saw Linda smiling that smug smile of hers as she was making her way through the very crowded bar. "Fuck me," he repeated. "Why didn't you stop me? You know I don't have any brains when it comes to, uh, snogging."

"I'm not your mum, Charlie," she said in an irritated voice.

"Shit! I've been so good, I…"

"Hello, Charlie," a smooth sexy voice said.

"Oh, hi Linda. How's it going?"

Linda laughed as Charlie knew she would. She crouched down so she was eye level and smiled at him. It was more like the cat with the canary smile. "I'm good. You're looking well."

As gracefully as he could, he crawled out from under the table. Joanna followed him. "Found it!" she said, pretending to put on a diamond earring. "Charlie was helping me find my earring. Whew! Better not lose this one, Jordan would kill me."

Linda looked surprised. "Joanna," she said. "Don't you look…hmm. I guess all that marital trouble does a body good. You look fantastic. Really."

"Bitch," Joanna said under her breath.

"And I see Viktor Krum's here as well. Hmm," she said interestingly. "And where's Jordan?"

Joanna rolled her eyes.

"And look, is that Acanthia Wright? My goodness, she looks a little disheveled, wouldn't you say?"

Acanthia looked at Linda and blinked. The hex Joanna shot her before she dove under the table with Charlie was just wearing off. She shook her head trying to clear out the cobwebs. "Where am I?" she asked stupidly.

"Care to join us?" Jeremy asked pleasantly.

"I'm sure Linda is in a hurry and…" Charlie said.

"I'd love to," she said, pulling up a chair next to Charlie. She leaned in and cradled her chin in her hand as she gazed at him. "You've been a bad boy, Charlie."

He didn't pretend to be coy with her. He simply rolled his eyes and turned away from her toward Joanna and grimaced. Maybe if he ignored her, she'd go away. Not bloody likely, he thought sighing loudly. He turned back to Linda.

"You're really looking hot, Linda," he said finally letting his eyes wander to her very ample breasts. She was wearing her signature yellow low cut dress with a flared skirt and an arm full of yellow plastic bangles.

Linda atypically blushed at Charlie's assessment. She hated when he got to her like that. After all this time, he still had the ability to set her heart racing with a mere look or touch. He lightly pushed a strand of hair out of her face. She blushed again, but tried to recover.

"I don't buy your bullshit, Charlie."

Charlie laughed. "Of course you do, Linda. Why are you here when the sports editor could have sent a real reporter to cover the Quidditch camp?"

"In case you didn't know, your little Quidditch camp isn't sports, it's entertainment. And since I'm the leading entertainment reporter for Witches! and the USA Quidditch League, who else would they send?"

"Well, there's nothing to see here," he said. "I'm old news. Nobody cares about an aging seeker anymore. You should concentrate on up and coming studs like Jeremy here," he said pointing to a very drunk Salem Cat.

Linda turned her head and looked at Jeremy who grinned stupidly at her. She wrinkled her nose as she bit her little fingernail. "Nobody cares about Jeremy; my readers love you." She leaned in and patted his chest, lingering for a moment. Charlie took her hand and held it for a second before pushing it away.

"Give up, Linda. I'm still happily married."

"Oh, so you were just getting something out of Acanthia's throat with your tongue?"

Charlie reddened slightly. "Look, it wasn't what it looked like, okay? Can we just leave it at that?"

She cocked her head to the side. "I don't know, Charlie. What's in it for me?"

"Don't start with me, Linda. You owe me."

"Yes, well," she said remembering the unfortunate incident last December when Gretchen's wedding dress mysteriously turned up missing. "I'm sure my readers would love to hear about your escapades without the lovely and gracious Gretchen at your side."

Charlie let out an exasperated snort that sounded at lot like a curse. "Look, Ingrid's coming in tomorrow. We're going Christmas shopping. Why don't you come by and I'll let you take pictures." Charlie gritted his teeth; he didn't want Linda anywhere near his daughter, but as long as he gave her something MAYBE she'll forget about seeing him kiss Acanthia. "And you're the first to know that I'm going on a dragon expedition starting Monday."

"So Ingrid's coming without Gretchen?"

"We're buying Christmas presents for Gretchen, so no, she won't be here. That would kind of ruin the surprise."

"And an anniversary present?"

"Huh? Oh, shit, yeah, yeah, of course. First year anniversary." Charlie looked over at Joanna and made a face. Had he really forgotten their anniversary? One of the reasons he chose Christmas as their wedding date was because he wanted to be able to remember it.

Linda moved over to talk to Viktor, who grunted answered and told her to piss off in Bulgarian. She started had started to push him about why he was at the Quidditch camp, but he refused to answer any more of her questions. Zinnia sided up to him closer and was thrilled with Linda's photograph began snapping pictures of the two of them. He managed to get a candid picture of Viktor all doe-eyed watching Joanna, while completely ignoring Zinnia.

The other Quidditch players seemed to enjoy the intrusion, but Charlie was anxious to get out of there. He ordered another drink, and then downed it quickly, slamming the glass on the table. "Big day tomorrow folks, I need my beauty sleep. Excuse me."

He got up and Joanna jumped up after him. "I'll go with you, Charlie, I'm leaving, too."

The party pretty much broke up after that. Once Joanna joined Charlie, Viktor made his excuses and so did Zinnia. The only one who stuck around was Jeremy who was desperately trying to hit on Linda.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Charlie. We have a date," Linda said winking at Charlie's back.

The camp started early the next day. More drills and teams were picked for a Quidditch match. The younger girls showed off their flying skills and the moves they'd learned and after the awards were given out and pictures made, it was nearly noon.

The last of the girls were leaving when Charlie spotted Ingrid. He ran up to her and gave her a big hug. Minnie and Hercules were nearby, but she was very shy around people because not many American witches had ever seen or even heard of a house elf.

"How's my girl?" Charlie asked swooping her on to his shoulders.

Ingrid giggled. "I didn't tell her, Daddy."

"Tell who what?" he asked.

"That you were in Salem," a voice from behind him said.

"Oh fuck me," he said turning around. "Gretchen! How's it going?"

Gretchen stared at him with a look that if it had been included in a curse, Charlie was sure he'd be on the ground, either in excruciating pain or dead. Standing next to Gretchen was her sister Xan who gave him the same kind of look.

"Any reason you didn't tell your wife you were coming to Salem this weekend? We thought you were on some kind of expedition."

Charlie wasn't sure what he should say. Then he thought it was better if he didn't say anything at all. He held on to tighter to Ingrid while his mind was racing.

"Oh my," said another voice behind them. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Gretchen whirled around. "You want to tell me what Linda's doing here? With you?"

"Not really," Charlie said under his breath. "She's not with me per se. She's here with everybody."

Linda laughed. "I'm just doing my job, Gretchen. My, don't you look, um, comfortable?" Linda squinted her eyes and looked over Gretchen critically. "Hmm."

"Why did you lie to me, Charlie?" Gretchen asked, ignoring Linda.

"I didn't lie to you; I just didn't tell you I was coming here because I knew you'd get pissy."

"Pissy?" her voice shot up an octave. "You think I'm pissy now?"

"Uh, maybe that wasn't the right thing to say."

"Ya think?" Xan interjected.

"Look Ingrid and I were going to go Christmas shopping for you. It wouldn't have been much of a surprise if you'd come with us. I wanted to surprise you. Surprise."

"You and I have some talking to do. I'll see you when you get home. Xan, let's go."

The two of them disapparated in front of him. Ingrid looked down at her father. "Uh oh, you're in trouble now," she said shaking her head.