Interrupted Magic Read online

“They have a buyer,” I told her.

  “And don’t let the door hit you on the way out?” she joked.

  “Something like that.” I forced a smile. “You could buy me out. Open a tailor shop.”

  She barked a sarcastic laugh. “With these people? I’m better off sticking with my clients at the mall in Meadow Hill.”

  “I’m sorry if our friendship has affected your business.”

  She reached for my hand. “I’m grateful for your friendship, Brynn. It’s these poisonous townspeople who have affected my business. That’s why I moved out of town and why I worked at the mall before. Your internet store will do better without the overhead. Right now, I want to know all about your new man. The whole town is buzzing about him.”

  My cheeks warmed. “I probably shouldn’t have kissed him in public.”

  Cassandra laughed. “The buzz about the kiss was nothing compared to the overnight guest.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “How did they...?”

  “Small town. Gossips watching your every move. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Kyle shared that little tidbit.” She leaned her elbows on the counter and cradled her chin in her hands. “Tell me it was worth it, that this guy is legendary.”

  I wrapped myself up in the way Ian made me feel. “Like you and Lucas legendary.”

  “Without the pause to grow up, I hope.”

  I pursed my lips. “Lisa’s going to be pissed. I haven’t told her anything.”

  “She got the ‘on the street’ version yesterday. I’m surprised she didn’t hunt you down last night.”

  “She might have tried and backed off when she saw I wasn’t alone.”

  “You’ve got a point. Should we expect any customers today?”

  I pursed my lips. “Which takes us back to the offer on the shop. I told Yvonne we wouldn’t leave until the end of September, even though she hinted tomorrow might not be too soon.”

  Cassandra laughed again. “Let’s wait for the offer. Then we can decide.”

  I waved at the clothes racks. “What about your inventory?”

  She shrugged. “Not like I’m selling anything anyway. People know how to find me if they want something, and who knows? I could look into opening an internet store, too.”

  My phone rang. I checked the display and grinned. “There’s Lisa now.” I answered the call.

  “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on when I was there the other day? And Dylan’s freaking out on Kyle’s behalf.”

  “I didn’t say anything because I’d only just met him. I wasn’t sure what to say,” I said.

  “Dylan’s dumbstruck that you actually cheated on Kyle.”

  I gasped. “You’re kidding, right? Is it cheating when we’ve broken up? I mean, you were there. You saw that Kyle had moved out.” I set a hand on my hip. “What about when Kyle cheated on me? Where was the moral outrage then?”

  She sniffled. “Can we have lunch?”

  “That depends,” I said. “Are you going to break up with me?”

  She laughed. “No, but I don’t know what to do. Kyle’s really upset, and Dylan’s loyalties lie with him.”

  Speaking of Kyle, he shoved the front door of the shop open and nearly dislodged the overhanging bell.

  “I gotta go,” I said. “I’ll see you at lunch time.”

  Kyle glared at me, his expression thunderous.

  “I’ll just step into the backroom,” Cassandra said. “Yell if he tries to kill you.”

  He waited until she’d disappeared before exploding. “I thought you were joking, that you were trying to do me a favor by sacrificing your reputation to save mine. How long has this been going on?”

  “Does it matter?”

  He rolled his eyes. “What about this business with Daria?”

  I considered what Ian had said. I couldn’t enlist someone else to help me in case there were unintended consequences. Did I have enough magic left to perform the spell? “I said I’d see it through, and I intend to honor that.”

  “What’s the point? This spell, or whatever it is, isn’t real anyway.”

  I struggled to maintain my composure. “I have the ingredients we need. It’s a simple matter of drinking the mixture and letting things return to the way they should be.”

  “And take the chance you might poison me? Do you want me dead? Is that what this is about?”

  I gasped. “Why would I want that?”

  “If you want me out of the way, you don’t have to kill me.”

  I huffed. “You are out of the way. Do I need to remind you that you canceled the wedding? That you moved your things out of my house? We’ve hardly spoken to each other over the past four months. Why all the drama? Why on earth would you think I’d poison you?”

  Tears welled in his eyes. “This isn’t what I wanted.”

  “Well, you have a funny way of showing that.”

  Kyle bowed his head. “Are you trying to get even with me? For what happened with Narcy?”

  “How is it getting even when we’ve already broken up?” I asked.

  He set his hands on Cassandra’s sewing table and bowed his head. “This has been one hell of a year.” He glanced out the window. “Does this new guy know about your hobbies?”

  I bristled, refusing to rise to the bait, and crossed my arms.

  “Forget I said anything.” He shook his head. “I don’t need your help. I’m working on my own solution. If that doesn’t pan out, I’ll look you up.”

  “You do that,” I replied.

  He stormed out and Cassandra sidled to the front of the store. “You okay?”

  I nodded.

  “Can I be honest with you?”

  Again, I nodded. Cassandra always had been.

  “Keeping the shop open subjects us to more abuse from everyone in town. Assuming the offer Yvonne told you about materializes, I say we abandon ship as soon as they sign the deal.”

  “Will you be okay?” I asked.

  She scoffed. “I’m always okay. If I’m not...” She paused with a sideways grin.

  “If you’re not?”

  She showed me her phone. “Lucas offered to, quote, marry me and rescue me from all of this nonsense. Unquote.”

  I hugged Cassandra. “Congratulations!”

  She backed away laughing and shaking a finger. “No, no, no. I told him he doesn’t get to propose over the phone. Not that I need to be rescued. I want a romantic, candlelight dinner and a proclamation of love, not some lame attempt to save me.”

  “You go, girl.”

  “And I’m not going to ditch you, like Lisa did.”

  I laughed. “Technically, Dylan ditched me, not Lisa.”

  “Right. Wait to see what she has to say at lunch and get back to me, ’kay?”

  My best friend wouldn’t turn her back on me, would she?

  She might. Hadn’t I learned that lesson repeatedly?

  Chapter 22

  When I arrived at the hamburger stand on the corner, Lisa was waiting at one of the patio tables. She stiffened and offered a half-smile when I waved to her. I placed my order at the take-out window and approached her table.

  “Okay if I sit here?” I asked.

  Her laugh was forced. “Of course, it’s okay. I did invite you to lunch, didn’t I?”

  “Just checking.”

  She bowed her head over her cup of Coke. “Why didn’t you tell me about this new guy when we were together the other day?” she asked.

  “I already told you. I’d only just met him. There wasn’t anything to tell.” Which wasn’t precisely true, but I hadn’t yet come to terms with what had happened between me and Ian. I was still dizzy with the speed at which we’d come together.

  She pressed her lips together. “You sure got cozy in a hurry.”

  “It happens that way sometimes.”

  The kid at the pick-up window called my name and I retrieved my hotdog and fries.

  I couldn’t shake the memory of how Lisa had withdrawn f
rom my life the last time Kyle and I had broken up, when Kyle had cheated on me. With me shouldering the blame this time, things promised to get worse. Lisa had been my first real friend but, I reminded myself, some friendships weren’t meant to last forever. People grew apart. Life took you different directions. At least that’s what the psychology books said.

  I’d thought she and I would be BFFs. Forever didn’t appear to be as long as I’d imagined.

  I squirted ketchup on the paper beside my hotdog and dipped a fry. If she had something to say, I’d let her say it, even as my heart hurt.

  “It’s just that this complicates things,” she blurted.

  I nodded.

  “Who is this guy? Where did you meet him? Aren’t things moving a little fast?”

  They were, but she was my friend and she deserved an answer. “I met him in a grocery store.” I ate my fry, took a sip of Coke and folded my hands on the table. “Kyle and I haven’t done more than share an occasional meal for four months. In retrospect, he bailed on me when he called off the wedding. I was just too stupid to notice.”

  “He’s depressed after losing his job,” she said.

  She was defending him. I’d done the same for four months, until I realized I had been alone in thinking I was still in a relationship. Lisa knew the truth as well as I did. I didn’t have to explain.

  She leaned over the table and whispered. “Did this new man in your life really stay over last night? I’m your best friend. Why am I the last to hear about all this?”

  This conversation wasn’t about her, and she knew it. Why did I think she was digging for information for Dylan to pass on to Kyle? I fought the urge to call her out.

  “We spent a good portion of the night talking,” I said. “It’s nice not to have to walk on eggshells around someone. To be able to tell them everything and not be judged. Someone who gets me. Someone who shares himself with me until we discover we resonate on so many levels that we want to know more, to spend more time together.”

  “I thought you and Kyle...”

  She knew about me and Kyle, how he was always trying to rescue me from one thing or another. Her concern wasn’t for my relationship. “Kyle and I were friends. First. Always. There were a lot of things I was afraid to share with him, and he didn’t share much of himself with me. He helped me through some tough times, and I helped him through the business with his aunt—you remember, the one who tried to kill me?”

  Lisa blushed.

  “In the end,” I went on, “I think we both realized that wasn’t enough for a happily ever after.”

  “Happily ever after is storybook stuff,” Lisa said.

  “I thought so, too, until I met Ian.”

  “How do you know this Ian person isn’t putting you on? He could be a con artist.”

  I crossed my arms. “You really believe Kyle and I can move past this? Or is that Dylan talking?”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “I don’t want things to change. I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

  My throat tightened, too. “How does Kyle figure into our friendship?”

  She shook her head. “I hate this.”

  Proof Dylan was pressuring her. “I’d hoped you’d be happy I’ve moved on to someone who loves me for me.”

  “How can he love you if he only just met you? If he’s told you he loves you already, I’m even more worried he’s taking advantage of you.”

  “No, he hasn’t told me,” I said. “There are times when words aren’t necessary.”

  “Every woman wants to hear those words from the man she loves, assuming you’ve fallen for him.”

  Surprisingly, I didn’t need to hear words. Being with Ian felt right. Certainly, we were in lust, but the connection we’d forged went way past the physical. Unwilling to pursue the conversation at hand, I moved a different direction.

  “I suppose you’ve heard we’re closing Windfall.”

  “And that’s another thing,” she said, her voice breaking. “What are you going to do? How are you going to pay your mortgage? At least with Kyle there were two of you to share the bills.”

  “Maybe you didn’t hear? He’s not selling his house. He has his own bills to pay, and I don’t plan to go into debt with a failing business.”

  She frowned. “You never should have gone into business with Cassandra.”

  Cassandra, my other real friend. Jealousy? “The shop’s failure isn’t Cassandra’s fault.”

  “This feels so wrong.”

  Yes, it did, but she had a husband she had to live with, and I wasn’t going to come between them. Lisa deserved to be happy, and to have the life she’d found with Dylan. Her conflict was obvious, and it tugged at my heart. She shouldn’t have to choose between me and her husband. I reached across the table and took her hand.

  “We’ll always be friends,” I said. “You made my move to Hillendale so much easier, and for that I’m grateful.”

  She sniffled and nodded.

  I determined to change the tone of our lunch and avoid more heartburn. “How are things at the vet? You haven’t adopted any more strays, have you?”

  She laughed and wiped at her eyes. “As if two giant dogs and a three-legged cat aren’t enough. If I dared to bring another animal home, Dylan would evict us all.”

  I smiled. “He never would.”

  Otis from the five and dime stopped by our table. “Heard you’re closing your doors,” he said to me. “Looking forward to that designer coffee. How soon before you leave?”

  “Not soon enough,” someone from a nearby table muttered.

  Lisa dipped her head, letting her hair fall across her face. So much for best friends forever.

  Chapter 23

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when Yvonne showed up at the boutique an hour later with Barry Waterman, the local Realtor.

  Barry cleared his throat. “Yvonne mentioned you might be interested in selling your storefront. It just so happens I have a buyer who is looking for a place. I took the liberty of drawing up an offer for you to consider. When would be a good time to sit down and look it over?”

  Cassandra gasped and Barry folded his hands.

  “Unless I’ve misunderstood?” he went on.

  Cassandra glared at Yvonne. “We’ll have our Realtor call you,” she said.

  Yvonne bowed her head before she cast a sad little smile my direction. “Having you here has been like having your mother back. I miss her so much.”

  I bit back a sarcastic retort, but after I’d told Cassandra about the comments directed toward me at lunch, she had no such compunctions.

  “Is that why you’re so eager to give her the boot?” she asked.

  Yvonne stiffened. “As I recall, Brynn approached me.”

  “Yesterday, and here you are with a signed contract. Fast work.”

  I put a hand on Cassandra’s arm, grateful for a champion, but this was a fight we weren’t going to win. “Let it go.”

  “You’ll let me know what you decide?” Barry said.

  “We’ll be in touch,” I replied.

  He nodded, and escorted Yvonne out of the boutique.

  Cassandra groaned her frustration. “They make me so mad. I hate judgmental people. What makes them better than us?”

  “We need to evaluate the offer,” I said. “As long as it’s fair, we aren’t doing ourselves any favors holding out.”

  Cassandra threw the garment she’d been working on to the counter. “I do piecework for a client in Meadow Hill who’s a Realtor. She’ll give us a fair assessment.” She pulled her phone from her pocket, scrolled and made the call.

  I checked the cash register. No sales so far today. I doubted we’d get much before the weekend, when the tourists showed up. Prolonging the inevitable meant bleeding more money. I looked around the store, hit by a wave of nostalgia. The cupboard of botanicals in the corner and the table of bath salts were all that remained from when Nora ran the business. Years of the rich scents of sage and lavender along w
ith dozens of other subtle undertones had infused the woodwork and the walls.

  My cell phone buzzed in my pocket with a text, shaking me out of my reverie. I had to dab my eyes before I could read the message.

  Jason: Dinner. A week from Saturday. Can you be here by six?

  I typed a hasty ‘yes’ and returned the phone to my pocket.

  Cassandra looked around the store, hands on her hips, the way I’m sure I had moments earlier. “I guess that’s that.”

  “What did your Realtor friend say?” I asked.

  “She said she’d run comps so we know what would be a reasonable price. No time like the present, eh?” She, too, swiped at her eyes before she smiled.

  “I’ll hold down the fort if you need to meet with her to put things in motion.”

  She nodded, gathered her purse and took off.

  I scooped Ash up and settled her in my lap as I sat on the stool behind the counter, stroking her silky fur. “More new beginnings,” I whispered.

  Be the queen of my castle.

  Ian’s offer was tempting, and yet I’d always chosen my own path. Was moving in with him the easy way out? And what about my house? With the prying neighbors—including an ex-fiancé across the street—having Ian at my house invited more trouble. They’d want to burn me at the stake, or run me out of town on a rail. I gave way to a smile. People might not do those things anymore, but the citizens of Hillendale would make my life uncomfortable.

  I carried Ash to her rug and wandered the store, straightening Cassandra’s fashions and merchandising my products before I stopped by the window and watched people walk the sidewalks. One person checked the signs hanging on the eaves along our stretch and stopped in front of Windfall. Her bushy brown hair was pulled into a ponytail today, but I recognized Toni, the woman Chip had brought to game night. She smiled and walked into the store.

  “What brings you to town?” I asked.

  Her cheeks turned rosy and she shrugged. “Dinner with Chip tonight. I’m early, so I came to look around the shops. I thought I’d check out Cassandra’s stuff, and I’d heard your products were—what was the term Lisa used?—magical.”

  Not anymore. “Feel free to look around.”