Interrupted Magic Page 3

  Starr Christenson, our seasonal help, arrived at eleven. By eleven-thirty, we had a break in the action, and Cassandra offered to run out to buy lunch. I told her about my lunch plans with Kyle, and as she walked out the door, a couple walked in, one of whom was my cousin, Jeannine.

  I crossed the shop to greet Jeannine with a hug. “What brings you to Hillendale today?”

  She clutched her friend’s hand. “We thought we’d get out of Milwaukee and do a little day tripping, so I had to stop in and say hello. This is Travis Freeman. Travis, this is my cousin, Brynn.”

  He gave me a dazzling smile, shook my hand, and then draped a proprietary arm across Jeannine’s shoulders. They were a study in opposites, my cousin with her long blonde hair and blue eyes, and Travis with his rich brown skin and soul-deep brown eyes. His curly dark hair was neatly trimmed.

  “Pleasure to meet you,” I said. “How long have you two known each other?”

  “We work together,” Jeannine replied. “I guess you could say we’ve known each other a little over a year.”

  “We’ve been dating almost six of those months,” Travis added. “And you’re the first of her family I’ve met.”

  I breathed a sigh. Jeannine deserved happiness in her life. “I’m honored.” Jeannine was close to her brother, who lived nearby. “You haven’t met Jason?”

  Jeannine blushed. “I was considering stopping by his house this afternoon.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be happy to meet you,” I told Travis.

  “Can you get away for lunch?” Jeannine asked. “Give us a chance to catch up?”

  The bell over the door announced Kyle’s arrival. He shot a guarded glance at Jeannine before he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Jeannine. Nice to see you.”

  She did brief introductions and the two men shook hands.

  “She was just asking me to lunch,” I said.

  Kyle’s head snapped back. “I thought we had a date.”

  “Oh, I don’t want to impose. I just thought since we were here...” Jeannine’s words faded away.

  Kyle’s smile looked forced. “Of course. Since you’re here, why don’t you join us?”

  Points to him for asking, but I sensed it would be a topic for discussion later.

  Chapter 5

  Ever the gentleman, Kyle was engaging and pleasant as we learned more about my cousin’s boyfriend. We discussed the four of us going to a concert in Milwaukee. I was happy to have regained what family I could, and pleased Kyle and Travis seemed to get on so well together.

  Jeannine and Travis left from the restaurant, and Kyle’s mood shifted to sulky and silent while we walked to Windfall.

  I tried to tease him out of his mood. “You could give a girl a complex. I’d thought you were unhappy about inviting Jeannine and Travis along, but you seemed to enjoy their company. Now that we’re alone again, you seem disappointed.”

  Kyle remained silent.

  I was determined to get him talking. “I know I’m not as fashionable as my cousin. I mean, my hair is outgrown and it’s this dull shade of brown.” I took a long strand between my fingers. “And I have this great big nose smack dab in the middle of my face that screams Jimmy Durante.”

  Kyle chuckled. “Your nose isn’t as big as you think it is.” Outside the shop door, he stepped in front of me and took my hands. “I’m going through some stuff. We should talk. That’s why I asked you to lunch. Tomorrow, I guess.”

  I smiled and nodded. Nora usually came to visit on Sundays, but he and I should have time before she arrived.

  “What are we supposed to take for game night?” Kyle asked. “I can get it ready while you’re working.”

  “Cheese curds and sausage bites. You sure you can handle it?”

  He raised his eyebrows, a glimpse of the personality I knew so well. “I don’t know. Sounds like a challenge, but I’ll see what I can do. See you at six?”

  I leaned in to kiss him goodbye, but he didn’t seem to notice and turned away.

  Four months of this.

  Our relationship couldn’t go on this way. We were going to have to talk this out before he left for Door County on Monday. I heaved a sigh and went inside the shop. Starr rang up customers while Cassandra straightened her clothing line. Ash trotted across the counter to welcome me and I scooped her up to pet her, needing an extra dose of comfort.

  Cassandra sidled up to me and lowered her voice. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Kyle getting more comfortable with his new job yet?”

  Cassandra was dating Lucas, one of Kyle’s friends. I wasn’t the only person worried about Kyle’s struggle to adapt to civilian life. “He was hoping for a quiet lunch together, but he seemed to enjoy the company. Theirs.”

  “Without his police uniform, he seems to be in a free-fall. At least he has you as a parachute.”

  “One he refuses to open.” I frowned. “I think he’d rather lean on the guys than on me.”

  “Performance problems?” Cassandra whispered.

  I didn’t share certain aspects of my life, namely that Kyle and I hadn’t slept together in four months. I rolled my eyes, hoping that would be the end of the discussion. “Hanging with the gang always seems to lift his spirits. I’m sure he’ll be more like his old self with everyone tonight.”

  A sudden influx of people distracted me. The tourists must have finished their lunches, too. We scurried to help the rush of customers, which lasted the rest of the afternoon.

  Business thinned out around five, when Starr’s shift ended. Cassandra and I worked to straighten up and restock. Daria’s arrival at my house popped into my head. “What made you send that woman to my house?” I asked.

  “I hope it wasn’t a problem. For the record, I told her to look for the chimney and didn’t give her your address. I figured if she was one of your special customers, that would be enough. I take it she found you?”

  “She did.”

  “I don’t understand how all that stuff works, but it sure seems to.” Cassandra stopped to study me. “She tell you about her run of bad luck?”

  “She did. Do you know her? Have you seen her around before?”

  Cassandra tilted her face toward the ceiling. “Don’t think she’s from in town. Why?”

  “She said something about living nearby.” I shrugged. “Who knows? We might gain a new customer.”

  “Were you able to help her?”

  “Sometimes bad luck has to run its course. I’m living proof of that.”

  She laughed. “You’d better knock on wood before you jinx yourself.” She stopped straightening to face me. “What do you think about Chip’s bringing a girlfriend tonight?”

  Chip was the last of Kyle’s friends who wasn’t in a committed relationship. “I think she’s a fill-in,” I replied. “He didn’t want to be left out of game night. Now that you and Lucas are dating, he probably figured he had to be part of a couple, too.”

  Cassandra chuckled. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Are we being catty?” I asked. “Who’s to say he isn’t interested in this new girl? Maybe they’ve been dating for a while.” I pointed to Cassandra. “Maybe she lives in Door County, and that’s why we don’t know anything about her.”

  “Mrow.” Cassandra laughed. In response to the meow, Ash rose from her corner on the counter and arched her back in a stretch. “We’re just as bad as the old biddies in town, gossiping about friends this way.”

  I picked Ash up and cuddled her. “I guess we’ll learn all we need to know tonight.”

  Cassandra touched my arm. “For the record, I think Kyle’s being a dick. No one would blame you if you bailed on him.”

  She’d never been overly fond of him, and of all my friends, she was the one person who hadn’t defended him when he’d been bewitched by another woman—something I’d thought I’d put behind me. Apparently, I wasn’t over that episode.

  “I agree, and it doesn’t matter what other people think,
” I said. “The closest we get to acting like a couple is sharing dinner once in a while.” I’d shared more with Cassandra than I had intended to tell anyone, and yet I needed an outlet for my irritation. “We can’t keep going like this.”

  “I’m on your side. You know that, right? The fact I’m dating Lucas doesn’t change my friendship with you, unlike a certain other friend of yours...”

  I laughed at the reference to my best friend Lisa, who had married Kyle’s best friend, dividing her loyalties. “Thank you.”

  “It’s six o’clock,” Cassandra said. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll see you at Lisa’s in a bit.”

  We closed the shop and headed home to pick up our men.

  Kyle was waiting for me. He had our contributions to the party packed in a bag, ready to go. I fed Ash and within minutes, we started out. We didn’t speak along the footpaths, but when we arrived at Lisa and Dylan’s, Kyle tucked an arm around my waist—more for the sake of appearances, I was sure, judging by the way it barely touched me.

  He abandoned me as soon as he spotted Dylan and Chip. They were discussing Hillendale fire station politics, where they both worked. Dylan handed Kyle a beer, and while Kyle pretended to listen, his stiff posture indicated he felt left out of the public servant club.

  “You don’t have to babysit him,” Lisa whispered.

  “Is that what I’m doing?”

  “Those guys have been through it all together. If anyone knows how to make him feel better, it’s them.”

  Lisa drew me into her kitchen, where she introduced me to Chip’s girlfriend. Toni had bushy brown hair, thick, dark eyebrows and her build was, well, thick—not that I was skinny.

  I smiled at Toni. “Where did you meet Chip?”

  She seemed nervous, and I immediately felt remorse for the way Cassandra and I had talked about her earlier. “On a dating site.” She glanced from me to Lisa. “He talks about you guys all the time. It must be nice to grow up with so many friends who know you so well.”

  I wrapped an arm around Lisa’s waist. “I didn’t have any friends in school, and I didn’t grow up around here. I was lucky enough to bump into Lisa when I first came to town, and she took me under her wing.”

  Lisa nudged me with her shoulder. “More like you took me under your wing.” She tilted her head toward me as she told Toni, “I didn’t have friends in school, either. Something Brynn and I had in common, but we both knew we were going to be best friends.”

  “I think you’ll find Hillendale is a friendly place,” I said. “Are you from around here?”

  “I grew up in Sister Bay.”

  So I’d guessed right. Chip met her in Door County. “What’s it like living there year-round?”

  “The winters can be rough, but it’s a beautiful place if you like the outdoors.” Toni went on to tell us about cherry picking season, and fish fries and quiet autumn nights when you could see the Northern Lights shimmering in the sky.

  Lucas and Cassandra arrived and I rushed out to relieve Lucas of the food he was carrying. “She’s nice,” I whispered to Cassandra. Lucas joined the men, where the conversation had turned to the cottages Kyle and Chip were refurbishing.

  We set the food on a table, and Lisa called for everyone to fill a plate. Once everyone had something to eat, we gathered in the living room to play Pictionary.

  Dylan turned to Lisa. “It sounds as if Jude’s cottages will be nice when Kyle and Chip are done. We were discussing doing a group vacation, or renting them for a weekend and moving game night up there. What do you think?”

  “I think it sounds like fun,” Lisa replied. “Hey, then we’ll be in Toni’s neck of the woods.”

  “Oh, I don’t live there anymore,” Toni said. “I live just north of Milwaukee, now.”

  I leaned to Lisa and lowered my voice. “They’ve only just started dating. How about we table this conversation for another time?”

  Lisa blushed and redirected us to the game. “Cassandra, you go first. Girls against the boys.”

  Cassandra drew a card and looked off into the distance. Lisa and Toni and I gathered around while she drew on a pad of paper.

  “Dress,” Toni guessed.

  Cassandra shook her head and kept drawing, filling in details.

  “She’s a fashion designer,” Lisa told Toni.

  “Formal?” I guessed.

  Again, Cassandra shook her head, although she sent me a significant look.

  “Wedding dress!” Lisa said.

  Cassandra sat back and pointed at her. “Wedding.”

  “Speaking of which,” Dylan said, turning toward Kyle, “have you two set a new date yet?”

  Kyle rotated his shoulders and winced. “Do you think I wouldn’t tell you?” He took another slug of his beer, but didn’t glance my direction.

  Dylan raised his eyebrows toward me. “Just asking.” He pushed the deck of cards toward Lucas. “Your turn.”

  “We’re holding off until I find a new job,” Kyle added.

  “Aren’t you working with Chip?” Toni asked.

  “It’s a filler job,” Chip told her. “Like how I’m in Door County when I’m not working at the firehouse, except Kyle’s working on the cabins full-time while he’s between positions.”

  “Between positions,” Lucas repeated, wagging his eyebrows, which made the group laugh. The best I could muster was a half-smile. Kyle couldn’t even manage that.

  “I guess we know what you and Cassandra will be doing later,” Chip joked.

  Cassandra blushed and pushed the cards closer to Lucas. “You guys are just trying to distract us so we don’t notice how badly you’re going to lose. Again.”

  “Them’s fighting words,” Dylan joked. “Our honor’s at stake, Lucas. Make it good.”

  Lucas drew a card and the game went on.

  In spite of the uncomfortable start to the evening, the laughing and kidding lightened the mood. When it was time to go, Dylan clapped Kyle on the back. “Didn’t mean to stir up trouble asking about the wedding. As your best man, just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something more I should be doing to move things along.”

  “Not unless you know a police department that’s hiring.”

  “Keeping my ears open anytime we go to the extra alarm fires. Not sure why you’re waiting to get married, though. You don’t want to let this woman get away.” He gave me a wink.

  I knew Dylan was trying to tease him, but the sullen look on Kyle’s face indicated it wasn’t working. Dylan knew Kyle as well as I did, if not better. I gave Dylan a hug and shook a finger at him. “Don’t give him new things to worry about.”

  After hugs all around, Kyle and I followed the footpaths home, again in silence. Ash met us at the door and I scooped her up. I carried her to the workroom and checked on the essential oils steeping on the shelves by the windows. No books lay open on my work table, but then, tomorrow was Sunday—my day off from the boutique. I set Ash on her favorite perch in the window. Kyle hovered in the doorway.

  “Too bad you can’t whip up a spell to get me a new job,” he said.

  “Want me to try?” I asked.

  He scoffed. “At the end of the day, the magic you do is all the power of suggestion, isn’t it? You can’t manufacture a job out of thin air.”

  I’d tried to reveal myself to him a little at a time. If we planned to build a life together, he had to accept me for who I was, including the awkward talents I possessed. The way he discounted them now made me grind my teeth.

  “I guess I’ll head home,” he said.

  “You do that,” I said under my breath.

  “What?”

  I forced a smile. “I can make breakfast tomorrow. You said you wanted to talk. Unless you want to take the time now?”

  “I’m pretty tired.”

  I met Kyle in the living room, taking his hands in mine. “I know you have this manly thing going on, where you think you need to protect and provide and all that macho BS, but I hope you know I don’t need
that from you.”

  “It’s who I am. I’m old fashioned that way.”

  I pursed my lips. “I want to marry a partner. Not a bodyguard.”

  He pulled away. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  There was no point going through the whole better or worse thing again. Tears stung the back of my eyes. After all the times he’d pressured me, insisting I commit to a wedding date, now he had conditions on what happily ever after looked like. “Maybe we don’t want the same things anymore.”

  His eyes blazed. “We can talk about it over breakfast.”

  Leaving me to wonder what was left to say. I watched him leave and retreated to my workshop.

  Chapter 6

  I glanced out the window Sunday morning. Kyle paced his front sidewalk. He was obviously working through whatever conversation he wanted to have. I opened the door, an invitation, and he looked up. Symbolic or literal, I’d offered him a way in.

  He walked inside, his head bowed. “I’m all sorts of messed up and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  “Some challenges you just have to work through.” An adage I’d adopted from Nora.

  “Tell me you understand where I’m coming from.”

  I set my hands on the counter and looked out the window. “I think I have. Repeatedly. The problem is we weigh this problem differently. For you, it’s a deal breaker. For me, it’s a hurdle we’ll get over.” I spun to face him. “Life is full of hurdles. If we were already married—and we nearly were—would we still be having this discussion?”

  He stared at me. “I don’t deal in hypotheticals. Are you telling me to get over it?”

  Inside, I screamed yes, but this was Kyle spoiling for another fight. Instead, I took a steadying breath. “What do you think about couples counseling?”

  “Are you saying we can’t work this out on our own?”

  Another deep breath. “I’m saying I don’t know how to help.”

  His gaze shifted over my shoulder, toward the window. “Your friend is back. I’m not comfortable with strangers showing up at your house.”