Interrupted Magic Read online

  She waved around the store. “It isn’t as if you had customers to go back to, or after what you told me, a business to run.”

  This was what he wanted. I was the villain in this story. “He didn’t want me there.”

  “What’s going on with you two, anyway?”

  Cassandra swooped in to save me. “That isn’t any of your business.”

  Yvonne raised her eyebrows, but continued to study me. “Indeed, it is not, but as your mother’s best friend I’m only looking out for your best interests.”

  My mother had been dead fifteen years. I hadn’t known Yvonne existed until I’d arrived in Hillendale five years ago. The best-friend status was a weak argument, at best.

  The bell over the door rang and I became aware of Ian’s presence. My skin tingled. My heart pounded.

  “Can I help you find something?” Cassandra asked.

  “No, thank you. I’ve already found her.” He offered me a smile.

  My responding smile was automatic. “You cheated. You’ve been to the boutique before.”

  “I was worried. We can see where I’m led later.”

  I shot a nervous glance at Yvonne. I’d offered Kyle an out, and here it was, standing in front of me.

  “If you’re done harassing Brynn...” Cassandra said, moving toward Yvonne.

  The gossips wanted something to talk about and I was ready to give it to them. I set Ash on the counter and approached Ian. I rose to my tiptoes, cupped the back of his head and inhaled his woodsy scent. He filled my senses, calmed my soul. I kissed him, and Yvonne gasped behind me. A year ago, I might have been worried about the repercussions I’d invited, but today, I saw only possibilities standing before me.

  Yvonne stormed out of the shop. Cassandra cleared her throat.

  “I can step into the backroom,” she said. “Or would you rather?”

  I laughed, took Ian’s hand and turned to face her. “My business partner, Cassandra Larson. This is Ian.”

  Ash raced across the counter. She leapt through the air and landed neatly on Ian’s shoulders purring loudly. He chuckled and scratched her chin.

  Cassandra’s eyes darted between us. She held out a hand to me. “Can we have a moment?”

  “Will you excuse me?” I asked Ian.

  He released my hand and kissed my forehead.

  I followed Cassandra into the backroom.

  “What the hell?” she asked.

  I shrugged.

  She shook her head. “It isn’t that I’m not happy for you... I’m not sure what you see in him, but if he’s who you want...” She shook her head again. “Wait a minute. You kissed that guy in front of Yvonne Boyle. Are you not aware of the rumor mill in this town?”

  “Which is why I kissed him.”

  “I can’t... I thought we had a couple more months...” She sighed. “No one’s going to shop here now.”

  “Our customers have only been tourists for a month or so,” I reminded her. “If the locals had been coming in, we wouldn’t be closing our doors.”

  She straightened. “I guess you kind of threw me for a loop. When you said you’d met someone, I didn’t believe you.” She gave me a sheepish smile. “Unless you hired him to be the bad guy.”

  I set my hands on my hips. “What do you mean you don’t know what I see in him? Aside from the connection he and I seem to share, he’s gorgeous.”

  Cassandra shrugged. “Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, I guess.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “Well, he isn’t ugly, but most handsome? Really, Brynn. Even Kyle’s better looking than that guy.”

  I took a step back and shot a glance over my shoulder. Was I bewitched? No. How had Nora described her relationship with Fletcher? She knew they were meant to be together, and yet they’d hidden their relationship for years to avoid gossip in town. She’d also told me not to make the same mistake.

  I believed with my whole being Ian and I were meant to be together.

  The bell over the door rang again. I squeezed Cassandra’s hand. “If nothing else, we’ll get the gossips in the store. We’ll tell them they’ll have to buy the merchandise if they’re hoping for any kind of a story.”

  She laughed and shook a finger at me. “Okay, but you owe me the real story.”

  “Me? I tried. You didn’t believe me,” I said as we headed to the front of the store, where Lisa stood staring at Ian.

  Her head pivoted to me. “Dylan told me to let you know Kyle went home. Kyle said he isn’t moving until you’re ready to do your thing, whatever that means.”

  I nodded.

  She pointed at Ian. “This is the guy?”

  Clearly, the gossips had caught up with her. I nodded again.

  Lisa folded her arms. “What the hell, Brynn?”

  Chapter 20

  Cassandra put a hand beside her mouth and whispered to me. “I’ll catch Lisa up. It isn’t gossip when it’s friends who care about you. In the meantime—” she cocked her head, “—I think you need to make yourself scarce.”

  I glanced at Lisa. “I’ll call you later and fill in the blanks.”

  She huffed, glancing from me to Cassandra, then shook Ian’s hand. “Lisa Frazier. Brynn’s best friend. I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.”

  “Ian Oliveiro.” He shot me a nervous glance.

  I grabbed Ash’s cat carrier and my purse. “We’d better go.”

  Ash leapt into her transport and we left the boutique.

  “Okay, which way?” I asked him. “Your turn to find my house.”

  He closed his eyes and inhaled before glancing at the treetops. “I always loved this town. Straight out of a history book.”

  “That it is.”

  “To be fair, you stopped to ask for directions,” he reminded me.

  “True. In Hillendale, we get around via interconnecting footpaths. I’ll get you started.”

  As we walked along Broadway, shopkeepers stood on the sidewalks, hands on hips.

  Ian leaned in to whisper. “Why do I feel like I’m on display?”

  “Small town life. You are.”

  “I’m not used to calling attention to myself.” His tone indicated he wasn’t happy.

  I steeled myself for an uncomfortable conversation. “Time for that long story. I’ve already told you how I ended up in Hillendale, right?”

  “I’m sensing you left out a critical detail.”

  I had. Kyle. If Ian and I were the real deal, I had to trust him. “I told you I was engaged.”

  “And that the wedding was called off.”

  I nodded. “I was engaged to Kyle.”

  “The man who nearly got run over.”

  Again, I nodded. We walked on in silence and at the trail that led from the footpath to the weeping beech tree, he stopped.

  He pointed to the tree. “We were here in our dreamwalk. The enchanted tree.”

  “Yes.”

  He wandered off the path and I followed.

  “You can feel the energy.” He faced me. “I’m guessing the fact you kissed me in front of that woman in the shop has something to do with Kyle.”

  I swallowed my fears. “I may have mentioned this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody else’s business. I do my best to keep my personal life private, but sometimes gossip is the quickest way to spread the news.” I hesitated, and then dove in. “The town knew about the broken engagement. They didn’t know we’d gone the extra step and ended things permanently. They do now.” I went on to explain how business had suffered the last time Kyle and I had broken up.

  He frowned. “I’m not sure I appreciate being a visual aid. Why would you make matters worse?”

  “Right now, they can’t get any worse. Cassandra and I are planning to sell.”

  He returned to the footpath, stopped at the next fork in the road. He took one step the wrong direction, then righted himself as he glanced at the chimney decorations. “Too easy,” he said, pointing out the triquetra.

  �
��It does call attention to itself. Although not like a castle.”

  He held his palm up. “Hand me your key. I’ll unlock the door for you.”

  I reached into my bag and gave him the key. He turned the lock, then scooped me and Ash up to carry us over the threshold.

  I laughed. “What was that about?”

  “Getting you alone again. It seems we have a few more things to talk about.”

  I shot a glance at Kyle’s house. The warm sun and gentle breeze would have taken me to the patio normally, but discretion called for our conversation to take place inside where no one would see us. I let Ash out of her carrier and she again crawled up Ian’s legs until she sat on his shoulders.

  “My cat seems to be taken with you.”

  He stroked her gently. “She’s letting you know she approves.”

  “Or softening you up for an uncomfortable conversation.”

  He took my hands. “You didn’t get married. That’s all that counts. You said the spell you want to reverse traveled to Kyle?”

  I explained how the grimoire had closed itself before I’d had the chance to finish reading about the hex, and how I’d been called to mix the recipe for Daria.

  “And now you want to send it back to Daria.”

  “I owe Kyle that much.”

  “I disagree, but I understand how you think so. If he hadn’t have been standing there, watching, the spell might have gone on to someone else,” he said.

  “I was the only other one there. Do you think it would have jumped to me?”

  “It might have.”

  I straightened, wondering if my recent failed products were fallout of the magic I had redirected.

  I led Ian to my workroom, where he inspected the oils in the cabinet in the corner and fingered the herbs drying from the ceiling. He picked up a jar steeping in the sunlit window and crouched to see the tray of soap curing on the shelf under the work table.

  “No one bothers you here?” he asked. “You don’t have curious people looking in the windows?”

  “No. Most people are afraid to get too close to the house. It’s that side-eye you get when there’s something different about you and they prefer not to know what it is.”

  He eyed the grimoires on their shelves and then found the bottle of the potion I’d made for Daria, with the fenugreek to reverse the effects still in the package beside it.

  “Are you sure the potion will work?” he asked.

  “The reverse potion? No.” Aside from the dreamwalk, my magic hadn’t worked since I’d made the potion for Daria.

  “Because you haven’t used fenugreek before?”

  I hesitated, took a breath. “Because my results lately have been unreliable, at best. Will you help me? Kyle said he knows where Daria lives, and considering it worked in proximity the last time, it makes sense that if he drinks the antidote while she’s close by, the spell would return to her.”

  Ian’s eyes shone. “This loyalty you feel for him. Is it something I should be concerned about?”

  I stared into his eyes, so hypnotizing. “I’m responsible. Once I correct my mistake, he and I have agreed our relationship has reached its expiration date.”

  Ian smiled and cradled my cheek in his hand. “I’m happy to hear that, but I can’t help you.”

  I took a step back. “Why not?”

  “Surely, you know the hazards of intentional spells.”

  “That they come with unintended consequences? Trust me, I know, but there’s also the ‘do what you will, but do no harm’ thing. Reversing the spell doesn’t hurt anyone.”

  “You interrupted someone else’s magic,” he went on. “I’m not comfortable stepping into an already murky situation, and if you’re suffering as a result of unintended consequences, you may need my intervention to help restore your talents.”

  I frowned, disappointed, but unable to fault his logic.

  He wrapped his arms around me. “Are you sure you haven’t cast a spell on me?”

  I laughed. “I have not.” I’d asked myself that same question about Ian hourly since I’d met him. I didn’t have the luxury of forgetting about Kyle, the way he’d forgotten about me when he’d been enchanted by that woman. I almost wished I could so I didn’t feel so guilty about moving on. “Have you ever known someone who was bewitched?” I asked. “Because I have.”

  “My question is rhetorical. I think you know that.”

  I did. I met his gaze, studied the handsome face Cassandra didn’t appreciate.

  He whispered into my hair. “Be the queen of my castle.”

  I closed my eyes, the temptation strong. Could I leave the only real home I’d ever known?

  Chapter 21

  Lying on my side, I tucked my hands under my head, studying Ian’s face, his straight nose, the hint of stubble on his cheeks. How could Cassandra think his looks were merely average? He turned his head, his dark eyes returning my scrutiny. He leaned across the pillows and kissed me.

  “Don’t you have to go back to Connecticut at some point?” I asked, certain he would leave, like every other person in my life that I’d come to care about.

  “I left my job at the lab. I knew the folly needed attention, whether I expected to live there or sell it. Coincidentally, I was offered a job as an environmental consultant in Pratt. The contract is for a year, while I decide how long I plan to stay.”

  “Have you decided? How long have you been in Wisconsin?”

  “My uncle passed away in June.” He stretched his arms over his head with a strained intake of air. “Two months?” He flipped to his side, meeting my gaze. “And no, I haven’t decided. The folly isn’t your typical fixer-upper, and although it’s quirky, it’s fun. Don’t you think?”

  I grinned. “I do, although I expect it would be cold in the winter months.”

  “I don’t think Uncle Edgar ever intended to live there full time. Well, he might have, if he’d convinced his lady-love to move in. The folly was more an elaborate workspace with amenities he didn’t have to sacrifice if he didn’t want to. I wasn’t prepared for clients approaching the castle looking for potions from me when I got here. Somehow I always thought they came to see him.”

  “That was part of why Nora opened a shop in town, as a place for people looking for what she called special orders.” I snuggled closer to him. “When I moved here after college, she passed the reins to me. I can’t say I’ve had many people stop by the house, at least not until recently. I imagine that’s going to change.”

  “Why are you selling the shop?”

  I gave him the abbreviated version of how Nora had built the gift shop with support from the local consignments, to the small-town gossip that had interrupted the business during the transition in ownership, and ending with the new business model featuring Cassandra’s clothing line.

  “I still have contracts with local B&Bs for soaps and lotions, and my internet store has been a boon.” I rolled to my back and rested my arm across my forehead. “Now that my gift for alchemy is on the fritz, I don’t even have special order customers anymore.”

  He put an arm on either side to hover over me. “I have an untended garden at the folly. If you chose to, and I hope you will, you could take that over and continue to supply your internet store and your B&B contracts.” He smoothed my hair. “Pratt may be a small town, but I’m not aware of the constant stream of gossip you seem to suffer with here. Something to think about.”

  “I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today,” I breathed, mesmerized by the glow in his eyes. “I’m not sure I’m ready to walk away from everything I’ve built here.”

  “With your shop closing, I’m trying to offer you another option, but I don’t want to pressure you. I know this thing between us is new and doesn’t make any sense to a rational mind. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t believe with all my heart it was the right thing to do. For me. And, I hope, for you.”

  Saying yes would have been easy, especially with Ian’s body poised over min
e, and yet my life’s lessons refused to be unlearned so quickly. Instead of an answer, I leaned up to kiss him and took advantage of the physical sanctuary he provided.

  We spent the night alternating short respites of sleep interspersed with brief conversations spent learning more about each other, and taking advantage of the way our bodies fit together. When the sun woke us for the last time, we showered together and descended the steps to the workroom.

  The grimoires remained stubbornly shut. Ian worked with me in the garden and watched while I checked on my products inside.

  “I envy your ready access to the raw materials you need,” he said. “I have the basics at the folly, but nothing beats fresh from the garden.” He shot me a significant look which I interpreted as another entreaty to grow my garden there. I’d told him I’d consider his offer, but I needed time to work through the changes in my life.

  We walked to Ian’s car on my way to work. He hugged me tight and I clung to him, reluctant to let him go. His voice rumbled through me. “I’ll see you tonight at the folly?”

  I nodded, and with one last kiss, he got into his CRV and left.

  Cassandra hadn’t arrived when I unlocked the boutique. I fed Ash and set about opening for the day. I made a note to contact Sam Bluecrow about the silver jewelry we sold for him, the last of the consignments. I covered the bracelet he’d made for my mother, one which he’d expected her to pass on to me.

  Yvonne took one step inside the door. “I’ve talked to the members of the business owners’ association,” she said tersely. “They’ve approved the sale of the boutique. One of them knows someone who wants to open a specialty coffee shop. How soon can you wrap things up here?”

  Without a special meeting? I blinked, surprised at her vehemence. “It will take time to process an offer. Cassandra and I had planned to stay open at least until the end of September.” A little more than a month away.

  “I’ll have the interested party put together an offer. I’m sure it will be a fair price.” She turned on a heel and marched out, passing Cassandra on her way.

  “Do I want to know what she’s fired up about today?” Cassandra asked me.