Chapter 23
Alethea sat out on the balcony off the master suite. Since the renovations to the room were completely done, she might as well enjoy some of their hard work during the small amount of time they had left at the house. She held a copy of Wicca for Dummies in her hands but had only managed to reread the same page half a dozen times, her gaze being drawn to the driveway over and over. She was anxiously awaiting the locksmith’s arrival, despite the fact that he wasn’t due for another few hours.
With Aunt Scarlet avoiding her calls and Brent convinced that dark magic was at play, it made opening that trunk all the more urgent. If she really did come from a family of witches, maybe the contents of her ancestor’s trunk held clues about her magic. Whatever was in there, Alethea only had a handful of days left to find it before she went back to the city.
Sighing, she put the book down as there was no point in trying to read. She felt restless. It was time to get out of the house before she drove herself crazy. Wandering downstairs, she found Danica in the kitchen, dancing to the old school 80’s hip-hop coming out of her phone as she loaded the dishes in the dishwasher. Alethea giggled and joined in, singing along to Salt-N-Pepa and pulling out some absurd dance moves of her own that she knew would make Danica laugh. Being silly with her friend was a welcome distraction.
“Where’s Priya?” Alethea asked, once the song ended, slightly out of breath.
“In the cottage on a video call with Jake.”
“Gotcha. Any chance you’re up for a walk downtown?” Dancing had been just the release she needed and Alethea thought she could use to move her body a bit more.
“Actually, that’s perfect! I’ve got a flyer to put up on the community bulletin board.”
Alethea cocked her head to the side and looked at Danica quizzically. “Flyer?”
Danica’s face exploded into a wide grin, and she walked around to the other side of the counter, picking up a manilla file folder and pulling out the top sheet of paper.
Alethea took a look at the full color page, advertising a hiking + yoga class. The group was to meet every other Saturday at a trailhead at dawn for a morning hike, followed by a yoga session at the summit and then lunch. “Dani, this is an awesome idea!”
“You think so?” Despite asking the question, the smile spread across Danica’s face said she already knew the answer.
“I still can’t get over the fact that you’re staying here.” Alethea’s words were bittersweet. She truly couldn”t be happier for Danica, her heart warming at how much her friend had fallen in love with the small town, and she couldn’t deny how well Danica had fit right in, already making friends and starting up community activities. But that didn’t change the fact that she was going to miss her fiercely.
“I know, me neither, and I’m definitely feeling all the feels today! I sent my landlord my notice this morning so I’m sure I’ll be hearing from my roommates soon enough. They’ll probably throw a party when I’m gone.”
Alethea had been relieved that her friend had found her proposed living arrangement so appealing. Danica had jumped at the chance to live roommate-free, and not having a rent payment would mean that she could finally stop living paycheck to paycheck. It was the perfect arrangement, having her friend there to keep an eye on Queenie made the prospect of renting out the house to strangers much more bearable.
After taking a quick look for Dandelion who was nowhere to be found, she and Danica made their way out the front door, being careful to avoid the ladder and drop cloths spread around in the entryway. Brent must be getting the wall ready for the window installation, which would be any day now. The two women enjoyed their walk in the sunshine, the languid heat of midsummer was now well past, and the days were beginning to cool down a bit. A few of the leaves on the tips of the smaller trees had begun to yellow at the edges. The first signs of summer’s end were beginning to show, and it gave Alethea an odd, nostalgic feeling.
They waved to Joannie and Emma as they walked into the cafe, the front door propped open by a large rock to let the breeze in. The two women were deep in discussion over what looked like a heated subject. Joannie shook her head emphatically and then looked at them approaching. “She’s crazy!” she said, pointing at Emma accusatorily.
“Ha! She’s the one who’s nuts.” Emma folded her arms across her chest and made a loud scoffing noise.
Dancia looked back and forth between the two of them and arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow, in a way that only she could.
“She puts peanut butter on her eggs! Tell me that’s not the grossest thing you’ve ever heard!”
“Are you kidding me, I’ve been telling her for years that it’s delicious! You’d think someone with baking skills like hers would at least be willing to try an interesting flavor combination!”
The two women were laughing hard now, obviously enjoying this long standing feud of theirs, and Alethea imagined this must be a debate they had frequently.
Joannie had made a rare afternoon appearance to work on some outstanding paperwork but didn’t seem to be in any rush to get back to it. Emma continued to chat while she refilled the register tape, switching the conversation to another topic. “Soooo, how are things going with the renovation? You getting good use out of that contractor?” Emma’s face was a picture of innocence, but it didn’t last long before she was cracking up with laughter, the others joining in.
Alethea felt her cheeks blaze.
“Oh, no need to get all shy on us, sweetie!” Joannie’s round cheeks shook as she laughed. “We’re all just wondering how you two are getting on, is all.”
“I’m sorry, who is wondering this exactly?”
“Well half the town, I suppose.” Joannie’s toothy grin let Alethea know just how adorable she thought all this was.
“Half the town!” Alethea was floored. “And why would half the town give a flying fig how Brent and I are getting along?”
Emma leaned forward. “Well my brother said Brent was so distracted that he lost every single hand at game night last week.”
Joannie nodded in agreement. “And Harvey said he won’t stop talking about your place. No matter what the topic, he steers it right back to the renovations he’s doing for you.” Her eyebrows bounced up and down. “Let’s just say he’s got a certain spring in his step that’s more than noticeable when you’re around.”
Alethea let her mouth hang open. Were these women serious? She was utterly mortified. “You guys are nuts, I’ve never seen Brent act abnormal around me.”
Joannie stood up on her tip-toes and leaned against the pastry case, getting close to Alethea, and looked at her in an almost scrutinizing way. “Maybe you’re just seeing what you want to see instead of what you need to see.” She sank back down onto her heels and walked over to the coffee station, pulling out a step stool to reach the top shelf of the cabinet. “I’m working on a new tea blend,” she explained.
Emma shot her a look. “You sure you want to share your new blend so soon, Joannie?” Her voice sounded a little tight as she spoke.
“Oh, hush.” Joannie waved her hand in Emma’s direction, dismissing her concerns, and began scooping the loose-leaf tea into a small French press.
Alethea’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. She checked her texts and was disappointed to see that the locksmith had to push the appointment to tomorrow due to car troubles. Having to wait one more day wasn’t so bad, she supposed, but why did she feel like crying? That trunk pulled at her, it had even been in her dreams the night before. Then again, so had Brent. Maybe these women were right. There must be something between her and Brent if apparently half the town could see it! But could he?
“Here. Try this and let me know what you think.” Joannie had poured the steeped tea into a to-go cup and added a small dollop of honey.
“Hey and what am I? Chopped liver?” Danica put her hands on her hips and gave Joannie a teasing grin.
“Yup. You’re officially a local now. No more special treatment for you!” Joannie winked at Danica and the group shared a laugh. They said their goodbyes and exited the cafe into the afternoon sunshine. The pair decided to enjoy the perfect weather by taking a leisurely walk through the park. Alethea sipped on the bitter tasting tea. She definitely wasn’t a fan and would need to think of a delicate way of giving Joannie her honest feedback before it ended up on the cafe’s menu. The river that wove its way down from the mountains, where the rapids turned into churning white caps of froth in the winter, tapered down significantly in the valley, turning into no more than a glorified creek as it meandered its way through the center of town. Alethea watched the sun sparkle on the slowly moving water, a pair of ducks quacking as they lazily drifted by, leaving small ripples of water in their wake.
Taking another large sip of tea, she realized how badly she wanted to tell her friends about being a witch. “Do you think something’s wrong with me?” She turned to Danica and looked at her friend apprehensively.
“What? Of course not, where is this coming from?”
Alethea let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, I just feel so out of control lately. Like there’s two of me inside that are always at war with each other.” It was hard to describe without being forthright about what was really going on, but she did her best to explain what she could.
“Oh please, there’s nothing wrong with you. That’s normal. It’s just your intuition fighting with your intellect. One’s telling you what’s right while the other is telling you what should be right. The hard part is knowing which one’s which.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Try to trust your gut. It can be scary but the more you do it, the easier it gets.”
“Do people eventually learn to drown out all the chatter and noise that competes with their intuition?” Alethea certainly hoped so but Danica just shrugged.
“Maybe the Dali Lama, who knows. That’s why they call it meditation practice.” She smiled and gave Alethea a hug. “There’s nothing wrong with you other than you being a perfectly normal human being with perfectly normal human emotions.”
Oh, if you only knew the truth of it. With no need to rush back in time to meet the locksmith, they took their time walking home, stopping to pick some honeysuckle flowers and drink the tiny drops of sweet nectar. A yellow swallowtail flew in loop-de-loops around them like a biplane at an air show. Alethea was going to miss these walks into town with her friends.
As they neared the house, Danica spotted Priya sitting on the front porch swing. Her nose was buried in the third book of the high fantasy romance series she was reading. She was determined to get as far as she could before she went back home to the city. She looked up when she saw them coming up the drive and waved. “Brent asked me to stay out here and stand sentry. He’s installing the window and wanted to make sure the entryway stays clear.”
Alethea was surprised, he had the window ready faster than she had thought. She had expected another day or two, at least. After the installation, the contracting work would be done, Brent’s job fully complete. Despite how anxious she had been to get back to the city, suddenly she wasn’t ready to say goodbye. “Were you able to lock up Dandelion in the cottage?” Alethea was worried her cat might be underfoot while the delicate installation job was going on inside.
“Nope. Brent insisted she was fine to leave in there with him.”
Of course he had.
Danica took the opportunity to fill Priya in on her idea for the hiking + yoga outings, her friend sharing her own enthusiasm about the idea. They chatted about things they needed to remember to pack and how excited Priya was that she was going to see Jake again so soon. As she stood there chatting with her friends, a strange sensation began emanating from her chest. It was warm and comforting, the feeling that her insides were more solid, more stable, clicking into place like puzzle pieces.She tried to analyze the feeling as she listened to her friends talk, but it was hard to put into words. She felt stronger somehow. More alive. A few more minutes passed before they were interrupted as Brent opened the front door and hurried out onto the porch.
“It’s done!” He was beaming as he made the exclamation. The excitement was contagious and the three women all jumped to their feet, anxious to go see for themselves.
“Wait!” Brent raised his hands in the air, his palms facing them. He stepped forward and took Alethea by the hands, electricity shooting up the length of her arm to her shoulders. “Close your eyes,” he instructed, unable to keep a giddy smile from his lips.
She thought her knees might buckle, but she steadied herself and did as she was told, sucking in a breath of anticipation. Brent gently led her by the arms over the threshold and into the house.
“We’re right behind you!” Danica called out and then after a few whispers Priya followed up. “Oh yeah, um, right behind you!” Alethea heard the sound of their giggling fading. They were embarrassing her but she was actually glad for the space. The broken window had been an emotional event for Alethea, even if it didn’t make sense why, and for some reason the thought of sharing this moment with Brent alone just felt right.
“Ready?”
Alethea thought she could detect nervousness in his voice. She hoped the window had come out alright. Why was he so jittery? He led her to the base of the landing, turning her gently so she was presumably facing the window above.
“Ready!” She could hear the anticipation in her own voice.
“Okay, open your eyes!”
She looked up and gasped at the sight of it. A rainbow of colors sparkled in the sunlight, the shading of the flowers done in impossibly intricate detail, surrounding a portrait of a face. The face from the front of the hope chest. Her face. Only she looked like a stylized Greek goddess, her tight curls cascading down into a bouquet exploding with flowers. Brent had made sure to include every type of flower that had been in the original work of art, the bouquet spilling out roses, peonies and tuberose, mayflowers and violets on top of mountain laurel and yellow jessamine. He captured them all exactly as she remembered them, and there in the center of it all was a calla lily.
“Brent, it’s beautiful!”
Brent turned his gaze from the window to look at her and take in her reaction. “You’re beautiful.”
She was taken off guard by his comment, already overwhelmed by the stunning artwork, the sun shining through the window making the detailed colors blaze like they were glowing from within, but she turned and met his gaze.
He picked up her hands in his again. “Alethea, I…”
His words were cut off by the sound of Danica and Priya coming in through the front door, gasping as they did. He dropped her hands and shoved his into his back pockets.
“Oh my god, it’s Alethea!” Priya exclaimed, pointing up at the window.
Danica sucked in her breath. Alethea thought this might be the first time she had ever seen her friend at a loss for words. It was only a quick moment until she found them, though. “Brent, honestly, it’s incredible.” Her tone was reverent.
Priya couldn’t stop marveling at the similarity between Alethea and the woman on the stained-glass window. “You captured her so well.”
Brent shifted his weight to his other foot and ran a hand through his hair, tousling it a bit. “You guys like it?” He was too modest to not be uncomfortable by their praise.
“It’s perfect.” Alethea voiced what they had all been thinking.
“Brent, you have to stay for dinner tonight. We insist!” Priya made it clear she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. At the mention of food, Alethea realized just how hungry she was. They all filed into the kitchen behind Priya and took up different positions based on Priya’s instructions. She was used to teaching a room full of students, so a few novice sous chefs were easy for her to handle. They had a simple dinner of pasta and salad ready in no time, Priya and Danica peppering Brent with questions about stained-glass window techniques and his internship at a posh design studio right after college.
The evening was so enjoyable that Alethea managed to forget all about her random and potentially dangerous outbursts of powers, her evasive aunt, and the fact that she’d be leaving in a few days, and the night of perfect company and a delicious meal seemed to pass all too quickly. They ate and laughed, Priya and Brent getting into a lively debate over which Pink Floyd album was the best. After the dishes were cleared, Priya and Danica both coincidentally had lame-sounding reasons they needed to excuse themselves, and Alethea rolled her eyes but didn’t protest.
“Did you want a coffee?” she asked Brent, hoping for an excuse for him to stay a bit longer.
“I’d love one.”
“I’ll make a pot and we can drink it on the front porch.” Before she had even reached the kitchen, the distinctive chocolatey aroma of Jamaican Blue Mountain filled the air. Alethea walked in to find the percolator full and Dandelion sitting on the ground in front of the counter. She blinked at Alethea. “Meow!”
Alethea narrowed her eyes and sized up her cat. “You did this, didn’t you?”
“Meow!”
“It was you making the coffee this whole time, wasn’t it?”
“Meooooooow!” Dandelion sauntered over to where Alethea stood, winding around her legs and rubbing against her ankles.
“Hmmm.” Alethea scanned the counter top. “Or do you just want this smoked salmon?” She ripped off a tiny edge and bent down to give her cat a little treat. Lox was too salty for Dandelion to have normally, but a tiny taste wouldn’t hurt.
Alethea walked over to the coffee pot and poured two mugs of the heavenly brew, splashing some oat milk into hers. As she was putting the carafe back into the fridge, Brent came into the room.
“Wow, that was fast!” He looked at the full mugs in her hands.
She tried not to grimace. “Brent, did your grandmother have a familiar by any chance?”
“Not that I know of. Gran was allergic to fur so she never had any pets as far as I know. No one in my family ever mentioned anything about animals being magical, just humans.”
Alethea gave her cat one more scrutinizing look before following Brent out of the room towards the front of the house. They took a seat on the porch swing, both laughing, trying not to spill their mugs as the swing moved beneath them, Alethea rearranging the bright pink and yellow throw pillows to get more comfortable before leaning back.
Brent took a tentative sip of his hot coffee before he spoke. “I’ve been thinking about the spell you read me from Nan’s book and how it keeps directing you back to it. Alethea, I don’t think it’s a coincidence. That spell is to break some kind of curse, which might be what’s happening to you.
“Okay great, but what the heck am I supposed to do with it, Brent? I have no idea how any of this works or how to use my powers, if I actually even have any. What if something goes wrong? Performing spells without knowing what you’re doing could be dangerous! I’ll probably just make things worse.”
Brent shook his head. “Doesn’t the timing of all this seem odd to you? You happen to find a single spell right as you discover that you’re a witch? Alethea, I looked up the moon calendar. The Sturgeon full moon is tomorrow night. That’s just too uncanny for me to believe it’s a coincidence.”
Her eyes widened as she processed this new bit of information. “I’ll admit, that is pretty strange. I’ll give it some thought, okay?”
He looked relieved. She looked out over the front lawn into the darkness, contemplating how much her life had changed in such a short span of time. “It’s going to be so much harder to leave than I thought.” She couldn’t bring herself to say that it was going to be hard to leave him.
“So stay.” His eyes burned into hers and she had to break away her gaze from the intensity of it.
“That’s crazy, you know I can’t! This place will be an Airbnb rental by next week and I need to be fully cleared out of here by then.”
“Why does it have to be an Airbnb? Why can’t it be a regular BB?”
She looked at him like he was out of his mind but his expression was serious.”What on earth are you talking about?”
He picked up her hand and gently held it in his, a hopeful expression lighting up his handsome face. “If you turned Queenie into a BB and lived here, you could stay.”
The thought had never occurred to her to make a full time living off of the house. The hope had been for the supplemental income to help defray the exorbitant cost of city living. She pictured herself sitting on the fairy-tale balcony in the master suite every morning, sipping her perfect percolator coffee and reading, maybe Brent would be by her side. No! She had to stop it with these ridiculous fantasies of hers! So instead she balked at his suggestion.
“You may not know this about me yet but I’m a terrible cook. Like, terrible with a capital T. There’s no way I could make people breakfast for a living.”
He grinned. “Nah, that’s just a minor detail. I’m sure you could work out a deal with Joannie and get a delivery of fresh pastries every morning. Put out a spread with some fresh fruit and juice and coffee and you’re golden!”
His smile looked excited but Alethea remained dumbfounded. It was such an unexpected and odd thing for him to suggest, even if the idea tugged at her heart. “That’s ridiculous. Anyway, I need to get back to my real life, back to the city.”
“You’re real life?” Brent looked wounded.
“Yes, my real life, with a real job.”
“So running a BB isn’t a real job then, just because it’s not slaving your life away in a skyscraper somewhere?”
She crossed her arms over her chest defensively. “Look, this time off restoring Queenie has been wonderful but I need to think about my future and get back to work.”
“Oh, right, renovating isn’t actual work, of course.” Now his tone was sharp and held offense.
“That’s not what I meant.” Alethea couldn’t understand why he was being so sensitive about this.
He said nothing for a moment, studying his fingers. Finally he looked up slowly, his eyes meeting hers. “I thought maybe you had found something here worth staying for but I guess I was wrong.” His eyes were somber. “Well, a man knows when to stop chasing.” The corners of his mouth lifted into a sad smile as he stood up and walked toward the front steps. “Take care, Alethea. I really hope you find the answers you’re looking for.” He looked back over his shoulder at her and opened his mouth as if about to say more but then thought better of it and turned and walked down the steps.
Alethea debated calling out to him but hesitated. It was too dark to see down to the driveway, but she heard his boots on the gravel and the sound of his truck door open. “Brent?” she called out. “Brent, wait!” but it was too late, his truck was already backing out of the drive and into the street, the taillights fading red in the distance. She watched until the lights completely disappeared.
Had he been chasing her? That seemed a bit dramatic, she hadn’t even been sure of how he felt about her. Then her thoughts went to the window. He had called it a welcome gift for her. He had called her beautiful. She rubbed her forehead with both hands. How had she been such an idiot? All of the kind gestures he had done for her started replaying in her mind. The boxes of pastries, the picnic lunch, weeding out the herb garden. These were all things he had done to show her he cared. He had put in effort to get to know her better, asking her questions about the details of her life. But she had ignored all of these things, pushing down her awareness, convincing herself it was just a little attraction, irrelevant because she was leaving. And now she had pushed him away for good. She hadn’t meant to sound judgemental about his line of work, but now she realized she had sounded like a pretentious snob. Well, this had been what she wanted anyway, right? What she had been trying so hard to achieve. To stay as far away from Brent Cornerstone as she could. Tears began pooling in her eyes. If this was what she wanted, then why did she feel so miserable?