Chapter 16 Practical Magic
PRACTICAL MAGIC
Summer
Bright and early, I drove to my doctor’s appointment.
My period was two weeks late, and it was time to know for certain.
According to Marni, a false positive pregnancy test was very rare, so she worked tirelessly to help me wrap my head around the most likely result.
I’m carrying a baby. It was too overwhelming to imagine car seats and strollers and tiny fingers wrapped around mine.
Would it be a boy or a girl? Would I be a good mother?
I grazed my hand over my abdomen, but it was hard to let myself feel anything in my heart.
I couldn’t let myself get attached to the idea, because it could still be ripped away from me.
Everything else that mattered to me had been, after all.
In a small place like Tarrytown, there was only one women’s health doctor.
I sat in Dr. Dorothy Brown’s waiting room with a million thoughts running through my head.
Mostly about Thaddeus. We were getting along.
Really well. Yesterday, at the Spooky Hayride, I sat with someone different, not the man who killed my dad.
It was an older version of the Thad I used to know.
The one who used to make me laugh and give me butterflies.
“Summer Cohen?”
“Yes.” I stood and followed the nurse, who held the door open.
“This way.”
I followed her, peed in a cup as directed, and sat back down in the waiting room to be called. Finally, after thirty grueling minutes, Dr. Brown called my name.
I sat down across from her.
“Well congratulations,” she said.
Oh God, the at-home test was right. I was going to be a mother. Instinctively, I wrapped a protective arm around my stomach. I’d do everything I could to protect this baby, unlike my mother.
“Summer, are you listening?”
I shook my head. “Not really.”
Dr. Brown patted my shoulder. “Let’s make you some follow-up appointments.”
Tears prickled my eyes, and I nodded. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
Suddenly, the tears overwhelmed me. I hadn’t wanted this to be true, mostly thanks to the baby being Thaddeus’s, but now .
. . It felt right. On one hand, he’d taken away the most important person in my life, but with this, he’d given me another life—one I’d wanted for so long.
I’d always dreamed of being a mother, but being thirty-one and single, I didn’t know if it would ever happen.
Dr. Brown was sympathetic and asked a nurse to see me out of the room.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, then tried to wipe my face clean and compose myself before I exited into the waiting room.
Just my luck, Brit Jonas was there, waiting to be seen.
“Well, Summer Cohen, I never thought I’d see you here,” she said.
Even in my emotional state, I looked at Brit Jonas, confused. We were in a doctor’s office. Maybe she’d decided that since I didn’t earn as much money as she did, I shouldn’t use the same doctor.
“Summer, come on, I’ll help you to your car. Are you sure I can’t call you a cab?” the nurse beside me said.
My hand trembled, and Brit’s eyes widened as she stared at me.
“Yes, maybe,” I said.
“I’ll call a cab.”
“Brit Jonas?” a nurse called.
Brit looked at her, then back to me. “Seems you aren’t the prude I always thought you were.”
“Huh?”
I shook my head at the weird interaction. I had more important things on my mind. Now everything was pretty definite. I had to tell Thaddeus I was pregnant with his baby.
Thaddeus
When I drove to get coffee this morning, even more homes had put out jack-o’-lanterns.
Which made sense; carving pumpkins at the start of the month and putting them out meant by the time the actual day came around, you’d have a decaying, stinking, disfigured, collapsing orange structure.
Halloween was four days away, and every single house now had a pumpkin outside.
As I parked the car outside my house, I spotted Mimi leaning against the door.
Instantly, my good mood vanished. I had to give it to Mimi: she had the rare ability to ruin your mood without uttering a word.
Just seeing her arms crossed, leg pointed to the side, and hips slanted gave me the vibe she was looking for trouble.
A crushing weight gripped my shoulders as I got out of my car. Let this be quick, I prayed to myself. Before I could think how to handle the fiancée I didn’t want, she approached.
“You’re not answering my phone calls or texts.”
I’d been clear. Why wasn’t she getting the message? “Melissa. You’re no different from another employee to me now. Talk to me at the office.”
She grabbed my arm. “Your father said the wedding is still on.”
I pursed my lips. “Then I wish you two a happy life.”
Melissa glared at me. A muscle pulsed in her jaw.
I leaned away from her, and my feet followed, taking a step back.
Nothing came out of her mouth, but it was clear I now had one more woman who wanted me dead in Tarrytown.
Actually, maybe only one. Summer and I got along unexpectedly well at the Spooky Hayride.
“This will embarrass not only me and you, but Fitzgerald as well,” Melissa said. “You have to think about the business.”
She was right. Everyone would be affected, but that’s what we got for not thinking clearly in the first place. “Everyone in this town already has an unfavorable opinion of me. I’m a murderer, after all. A little gossip about a canceled engagement I can handle.”
“What about your inheritance?”
We were going around in circles, so I stepped away and spoke firmly. “That’s none of your business.”
My phone rang. I was grateful for the interruption. “Hello?” I walked into the house and shut the door behind me, leaving Mimi alone outside.
“Damn, your golden goose isn’t the sparkling princess I thought.” Brit always referred to Summer with that nickname. I never fully understood if it was a compliment or not.
“What are you talking about?” I frowned, wondering if Mimi was still hanging around outside the door.
She giggled. “I was in the doctor’s office earlier. I had to have something taken care of, if you know what I mean, and saw your girl coming out from her own appointment in tears.”
Was this supposed to clear things up? I was still confused. “Brit. Can you stop the riddles?”
“Men. Fine. I had too much fun, and Daddy would kill me, so I had to see a doctor about a problem that I needed to get rid of.”
My chest tightened. Oh fuck. I did say Summer looked to be glowing. It had to be that damn bartender.
My feet had a mind of their own. I was now back in the car.
I hung up the phone and hurled it onto the seat beside me.
I had to find the one person I could get information from.
I didn’t even care that this was none of my business.
Why wouldn’t Summer have a baby? She’d always wanted to be a mother.
I pulled up at the yarn shop and shoved the door open.
Daisy’s eyes widened. She knew I wasn’t here to buying any fucking thing.
“T-T-Thaddeus?”
“I need some information. Summer. Is she pregnant, or was she?” Everything in front of me was red. I locked myself onto one goal, and I didn’t care what was in the way of my reaching the truth.
Daisy’s jaw now opened as wide as her eyes. “Summer went to Dr. Brown . . .”
“Brit saw her,” I said, and a fire grew inside me. “Is it that bartender? Did he force her to have an abortion?” My voice cracked.
The woman ran toward me. “What? Summer did what?”
Daisy shook her head, clearly hearing this for the first time. Damn, I had really ruined Summer’s life. Through the most difficult times, she was all alone, not a single soul to confide in. No wonder she hates me.
“Damn, it’s impossible for you to be a decent friend, isn’t it?” I spat.
A look of regret filled Daisy’s eyes. “I’m a good friend to Summer . . . Believe it or not, I regret phoning you all those years ago.”
Sometimes I wish she hadn’t too. If it weren’t for that phone call, I’d have lost only one person: my mother. After the call, I’d lost Summer too.
I sucked in a sharp breath. At the time, I’d been so deep in grief that I was charging full force into every decision. The pain was so overwhelming, I couldn’t fully see what surrounded me—the relationship I could’ve clung to.
Maybe I couldn’t have let Summer off easily for what she’d done, but did I have to swing all the way in the opposite direction? I set out to hurt her. Give her a scar she’d never forget, because anger had blinded me.
I hated that she’d betrayed me. Hated that the one woman who’d been a pillar of strength had tried to cover up my mother’s murder. I wanted her to pay for that. In the end, I lost someone who’d turned out to be a big part of my happiness.
“Summer’s my best friend. I don’t want to lose her,” Daisy continued.
This was all good and sweet, but I came here for answers, and so far, I’d gotten none.
“So, you didn’t know she was going to have an abortion?” My heart was thumping hard in my chest. It felt like it would explode. My thoughts ran wild.
Daisy lifted an eyebrow and stepped back.
“Of course not. When we spoke last night, it was all about how she’d tell you about the baby if the doctor confirmed what we suspected.
She went on and on about almost blurting it out at the hayride.
But she didn’t know how to do it, since things are still so complicated between you two. ”
My frown deepened as my head spun, trying to make sense of her words. “What?”
Daisy stopped speaking and stared. “Wait, I’m confused.”
So the fuck was I. Why would Summer need to break the news about her pregnancy to me? It wasn’t like I was—
“Wait. Am I the father?” My voice was weak, hesitant.
Nothing came from Daisy’s mouth. She rubbed her temple and avoided my eyes.
She didn’t need to say a damn thing. Her silence spoke a thousand words.
Shit! I had my answer. Summer is pregnant with my baby. No, she was pregnant with my baby.
It felt like a rope had tightened around my neck, and each gulp of air was like biting glass. Fuck, I was the one who burst in here for answers, and now I was about to lose it.
Get it together. I ground my jaw back and forth, weighing the news that’d smacked me like a boulder. The glow, her behavior at the farm, it all made sense now. I was the father.
Would’ve been the father. The baby wasn’t here anymore, and I never would’ve known that they’d even existed.
Slow and sharp breaths slipped out of my mouth. I was ready to explode. I curled my hand into a fist, then slammed it through the nearest wall in the yarn store. Daisy jumped further back.
“She killed my baby? First her fucking dad murdered my mother, and now Summer erased my baby.”
Daisy paled. “I thought you knew all of this. What did I do this time?” she yelled, but she was talking to my back.
Seething, I jumped into the car and took the familiar drive off Main Street and down Broadway.
The rage inside me grew. Only once before had I ever felt this way.
It was the night I killed Clive. Summer was smiling in my face just last night, ready to deliver the ultimate payback.
Park Avenue was a few lights ahead. Skeletons, pumpkins, and witches covered the houses to my left.
I sped past them, knowing that in one house on Park Avenue, the biggest witch in Tarrytown lived.
To think of all the times she and I talked about having children when we were younger.
Yes, we weren’t on the best of terms but—
My hands tightened on the wheel. I rolled into Summer’s driveway. It all felt so familiar. Here I was again after hearing news that shattered my core, a part of me hoping it wasn’t true. I exited the car, marched up the three steps, and pounded on the door.
“Summer.”
It flew open soon after. Her eyes widened. Of fucking course, I could always depend on Summer to look innocent. She’d curated this look.
“You call me a fucking murderer but killed our child?”