скачать книгу бесплатно
I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Lena.
“I hate to interrupt, but Violet wants to talk to you,” she said with a polite nod towards Josh.
“Now?” I asked.
“I’m Lena.” She stuck her hand out towards Josh.
“Nice to meet you, Lena. I’m Josh.” He shook her hand. “I’m a friend of Susie’s from back home.”
She looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“So, we need to get going, huh?” I said.
“Right, yes,” she said.
“Bye, Josh. I’ll call you later.” I followed Lena inside, trying to ignore the guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach when I looked over my shoulder and saw him watching me go.
The chatter inside the pie shop stopped immediately when I came through the door. No doubt they’d all been talking about me. I ignored them and went back to the kitchen where Violet was waiting. My mother moved out front to help customers, clearly not wanting any part of this conversation.
I told Violet everything I’d overheard by the gazebo and what the people looked like. She thanked me and told me to keep my ears open and let her know if I heard anything else.
After she left, I thought about what Josh had said. Henry and I were having such a wonderful time, but Josh and I went way back. He was comfortable in a way that only someone you’d known a long time could be. He was like a thick warm comforter. But with Henry there was a spark. People always said the spark didn’t last forever – that you needed more in your relationship besides electricity – but the spark sure felt good right now. Maybe it would develop into the comfortable relationship I had with Josh. Maybe it would be even better. Plus, Henry knew about magic. There was a whole part of my new life that I wasn’t sure if I could share with Josh. The people of Hocus Hills were very private about their magic, and I certainly didn’t blame them. You never knew who you could trust, and if word got out that there were magic people in the world, there would be chaos.
***
The crowd at the shop was starting to clear out when Holly came in.
“I felt like I deserved pie after all my hard work doing trash pick-up,” she said, casually leaning against the display case.
“I completely agree. What can I get you?”
“I heard you had some hunky, curly-haired stranger show up today.” She was carefully reading the options on the chalkboard.
“Hunky?” I asked.
“My mother’s words, not mine,” she said.
“How did she see him?”
“Nadine texted her a picture,” she said, as though the answer were obvious.
“What?”
“I forgot you’re still new to this small-town living where everyone knows your business,” she said. “So, what’s the story?”
“Josh is a friend from back home,” I said evasively.
“Two men vying for your love, that must be tough,” she said. I let my chin fall to my chest with a groan.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said. “I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“That’s your problem,” she said. “You have to stop worrying about their feelings and think about what you want.”
“I want to learn how to windsurf,” I said, thoughtfully tapping my chin.
“Fair enough,” she said, and selected a piece of berry cream.
I quickly asked her about the latest book she was writing, and she was off telling me how she wasn’t sure if she should kill off one of her favorite characters or not. I was off the hook for now, but as she finished her pie we made plans for a girls’ night out on Friday, and I knew there would be more questions then.
***
Later that night I was bundled up in my very large new red knitted blanket watching television when Henry stopped by. I struggled to get out of the cocoon I had wrapped myself in.
“Did everything go okay?” he asked after greeting me with a long hug. I studied my reaction to his hug. Had anything changed after Josh’s confession? I still felt the sizzle in all the right places, I decided as I pulled away.
“I didn’t realize magic was such hard work, but, yes, it went fine,” I said. I was too tired to give him the details, and I was pretty sure he would have heard them already from someone in town. News spread fast. Especially the news that you wanted to keep quiet. Just yesterday I heard Mrs. Lansbury yell across the street asking Mr. Knight about his colonoscopy.
“Anything interesting happen after you saved the world?” Henry’s tone was strange, as if he was trying to stay super casual, but his voice was too high and too tight.
“Oh yeah,” I said, also trying to keep my tone light as though I were just remembering something that I’d actually been thinking about all day. “A friend of mine from back home stopped by.”
“Really?” He tried to sound surprised, but his acting wasn’t that good.
“Yeah, we were co-workers. He came to say hi.” I shrugged in what I hoped was a casual gesture.
“That’s an awful long way to come to say hi,” he said.
“He’s working on a job in Mavisville for a couple of weeks,” I said.
Just then Aunt Erma bustled in. “I’m so sorry to interrupt. Henry, how are you?”
Aunt Erma’s arrival saved me from an awkward conversation and her glance out of the corner of her eye told me she knew exactly what she was doing. Thank goodness for Aunt Erma.
Henry left after a little more small talk, saying he had some work to finish, which I knew meant his “Ask Elodie” advice column. I had asked him once if all the letters were sent in from people in town. He’d said some of them were, but on the days there weren’t any letters he would make them up and then answer them as Elodie. “So, you set up a problem you know you can answer?” I had teased him.
Then I’d begun to quiz him about which ones he had written. “I’m not going to ruin the magic for you by giving away all the secrets,” he’d said.
I felt bad for not telling him more about Josh, but I wanted to be able to process it more myself first. I hadn’t figured out how to present the facts because I hadn’t figured out how I felt about the whole thing.
The truth would come out eventually though.
Chapter 4 (#ua92752a4-d33e-5aa4-9524-bd000b219827)
Dear Elodie,
My sister recently moved back to town. She had lived out of state for the last fifteen years. I’m so excited about her return and want to invite her along to everything I do. My problem is the only thing she wants to do is square dance. She turns down all of my invitations and will only call me once a week to ask me to go square dancing with her. I’ll be honest, I hate square dancing, but I’ll go to be with my sister. I’ve tried telling her I would like her to come along to some of the things I invite her to, but she just dismisses me, saying she’s busy. Am I wrong to be upset by this? Can I quit square dancing without quitting my sister?
Sincerely,
Round Peg in a Square Dancing Hole
Dear Round Peg in a Square Dancing Hole,
It sounds like you’ve given your sister every opportunity to do something other than square dance with you, and you’ve made your feelings known. It’s possible she feels overwhelmed. If she’s been away from family for fifteen years, it could take some adjusting before she’s used to your invitations. Maybe she’s getting just as many invitations from other family members. Also, if you keep doing exactly what she wants, she has no reason to accept your invitations. Maybe you can square dance with her one week and the next week you can tell her you’re busy on square dancing night, but if she’d like to go to dinner with you a different night, that would be wonderful.
Ask and I’ll Answer,
Elodie
The next morning, I woke up to the smell of pancakes. I took a deep breath and stretched out on the sofa. Mitzy, so excited to see movement, catapulted onto my face.
I yelped, thinking for the umpteenth time that I needed to get my own place. I had been looking. Sort of. But part of me wasn’t sure it was worth the effort. Was this just a temporary move or a more permanent one? Life in Hocus Hills had been so crazy from the moment I got here that I hadn’t thought about my life in the city much since I’d arrived. Josh’s arrival reminded me of the simple comforts I had there – an apartment to myself, a job I was good at, and weeks on end without the threat of being attacked by some power-hungry magical person.
“Oh good, you’re up,” Aunt Erma said, peeking her head around the corner from the kitchen.
“Yup, thanks to the fuzzy alarm clock here.” I pointed to Mitzy, who danced around on the floor next to me. She was like that friend that everyone had. The one that thought you were best friends even though you weren’t. She never sensed my hesitation to reciprocate her affections.
“I made chocolate-chip pancakes,” she said, holding up a steaming plate.
“Yum.” I was off the sofa now. I poured myself a cup of coffee. “What’s on the agenda for today? Please tell me we’re not tackling a town who’s set on making the world’s largest pot-holder, are we? I’m still recovering from yesterday.”
“No, nothing like that,” Aunt Erma said. “At least, not that I know of,” she added.
“Look at this.” I pulled up the side of my shirt to show her two small bruises on my ribs. “Someone jabbed me with their knitting needles. I guess I should consider myself lucky that they didn’t skewer me.”
Aunt Erma inspected the bruises closely, her brow furrowed. She ran her finger over them, and I flinched.
“That’s not good,” she said. “They shouldn’t be able to hurt you.”
“What do you mean? Was I supposed to have some sort of magical shield around me? Because I definitely forgot to wear my armor yesterday.” I scooped a couple of pancakes onto my plate and slathered them with butter. “Do you think they make such a thing? Like giant thimbles for your body.”
“They shouldn’t have been able to hurt you because none of the magic from my spices should make people do that,” she said.
“But the Drakes changed them. Can’t they make the magic do whatever they want?”
She shook her head firmly. “Not my magic. Not like this.”
I stared at her, waiting for more of an explanation.
“I’m careful. Even if they redirect the power, they shouldn’t be able to redirect my original intention,” she said.
I nodded slowly, not sure I completely understood. “But aren’t some people inclined to hurt other people? Maybe it was the person, not the magic.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Aunt Erma said, but I could tell she was still concerned.
“Have you heard anything more from Violet?” I asked.
She shook her head. “And today we’re not going to think about it.”
“We’re not?” I asked, my mouth full of chocolate-chip pancakes. I knew if my mother was here, she would remind me that she raised me better than to talk with my mouth full, but the pancakes were just so darn good. They were light and fluffy, and the chocolate chips were melted just right. Aunt Erma had even topped them with whipped cream and shaped them like animals as she used to do when I was a kid. I was eating the ear off a dog when I noticed Mitzy giving me a disapproving glare.
“How does she know I’m eating the dog pancake?” I wondered under my breath.
“Magic,” Aunt Erma said with a wink. “Now today, instead of focusing on the evil plot to take over our beloved town, we are going to decorate for Christmas.”
“Decorate? Even more than we already have?” I asked. I thought about all the tinsel we’d hung and the cardboard Santa cutouts in every corner of the shop downstairs.
“Yes, we’re just getting started,” she said, sitting down across from me with her own stack of pancakes and a cup of coffee. “We have paper snowflakes to make for the snowman-building competition. Last year I cut out three hundred tiny snowflakes and hung them all over the square. It was beautiful, if I do say so myself. I used this glittery paper that was thin, slippery, and a little hard to work with, but it was worth it.”
I tried not to cringe at the thought of cutting out paper snowflakes. It sounded like just the kind of project I would normally try to find an excuse to escape.
“Don’t you need me to run the pie shop? We’ve been pretty busy lately,” I said. I felt proud of my valid excuse to avoid this task.
“Don’t worry, your mother is coming, and we can all take turns serving people as they come in. The Morning Pie Crew is coming too. Flora has a project she thought we’d all enjoy as well. I think it has something to do with folding paper flowers out of book pages. I think to make garlands to hang around trees.” I tried to hold in a groan. “But anyway, they’ll be able to help while they’re here too.”
“Don’t they have their own shops to run?” I asked. Now I was desperate to get out of this. Mr. Barnes was a yoga teacher, so I knew he had some free time depending on his schedule, but Lena ran the hardware store, and Flora owned the bookstore. Didn’t people need to fix things and buy books this time of year?
“All their holiday employees are up to speed and can do without them for a few hours. Plus, today’s going to be quiet. Lots of people are getting ready for the snowman-building contest,” she said. “Which reminds me, we probably need to practice a few more times.”
Wow, this day just kept getting better and better.
***
It turned out my knitting injuries weren’t a good enough excuse to get out of snowflake making. Two hours later I could barely feel my fingers. Lena, Flora, Mr. Barnes, my mother, Aunt Erma, and I all crowded around two of the three tables at the front of the pie shop. Customers were wandering in here and there, and I always made sure I was the first one to leap out of my chair to serve them. In between Aunt Erma explained the importance of the paper snowflakes.
“We’ll use them as part of a protection spell in the town square,” she said.
“Isn’t there some magical way to cut them out?” I asked as I held up yet another disappointing snowflake. Aunt Erma kept assuring me that they were good.
“Every snowflake is supposed to be different, and yours sure are different,” Lena said.
“Thanks,” I said, glaring at her a little.
“You can’t magic away everything,” Aunt Erma said. “We aren’t in a children’s movie.”
“In order for them to have power, we have to cut them out by hand,” Flora explained.
I sighed and folded another piece of paper. A customer walked in and, of course, I was the first one behind the counter. I took my time serving them. So much so that they began drumming their fingers on the counter. The nerve! Hadn’t they ever heard of small-town charm? Where the service was slow, but the people were friendly, and your mailman was also the barber?
“So, tell us about that fella I saw you with,” Lena said during a lull in the conversation.
All eyes turned to me. There was no getting out of this now.
“Oh, you mean Josh?” I asked, buying time, trying to figure out what I was going to tell them.
My mother’s eyebrows shot up. “Josh was here?” She had speculated many times that Josh had feelings for me, and I had repeatedly reassured her that she was imagining things. The smug look on her face grated on me.
“He just came to say hi. He’s working on a job nearby. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to him,” I said.
