Chapter Twenty-Seven
After packing up her room, Blair put on one of her favourite comfort mini-series, Anne of Green Gables, and watched from bed.
After her sister had compared Anne and Gilbert to Blair and Luke, she thought watching it might be painful.
But watching Anne and Gilbert figure out how to be in love comforted her like it always had.
Eventually, she fell asleep but was jolted awake in the middle of the night by a loud knock on her bedroom door.
When she opened it, both Bianca and Belinda were there with tired, red eyes.
Blair didn’t know if her sisters had been sleeping or crying.
‘Luke’s here,’ Belinda said blearily.
Blair blinked, not sure if she’d heard her sister. ‘What?’
‘Luke,’ Bianca deadpanned. ‘You know, tall guy. Hates spinach. Direct descendant of the witch terrorizing the town. You remember, we caused his mother to get possessed by an evil spirit yesterday?’
Blair rolled her eyes. Even now, Bianca was still sarcastic. ‘Why is Luke here?’ She paused. ‘What time is it?’
‘Three a.m.,’ Belinda said. ‘We were packing up the greenhouse, and as soon as we came back inside, he knocked on the front door. He’s downstairs, and we’re going to bed.’ Belinda walked straight to her own room and went inside, closing the door behind her.
‘Wait, Bianca, is he mad? Why’d you let him in the house?’
Bianca nodded. ‘Yeah, he’s mad. And we let him in because he wanted to talk to you, and even after everything, he’s Luke.
’ Bianca paused, then sighed, clearly exhausted.
‘It’s not too late for you, actually for all of us to rethink our priorities.
I know you probably won’t listen to me, but we don’t need your protection anymore.
You did an amazing job after Mom died . .
. and I’m not sure we’ve ever told you that .
. . or thanked you. You did so well that Belinda and I can take care of ourselves now.
It’s okay for you to put Blair first for a change.
’ Bianca turned and went inside her own bedroom.
Blair stood in her doorway for several long moments, heart racing, thinking about what Bianca had said. What did her sister mean when she said to put Blair first for a change?
But also, Luke was here. Right now. Downstairs. Why? She wanted to run downstairs and see him because he was Luke, but she felt sick to her stomach. She’d never forget the look on his face at the bakery. She didn’t know what it would do to her if he looked at her like that again.
Blair couldn’t stand there all night, so she grabbed her cable-knit cardigan and slippers.
She was halfway down the stairs when she saw Luke on the couch, clearly deep in thought.
Her heart skipped. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a dark blue university sweatshirt, and his hair was messy.
And when he noticed Blair on the stairs, he met her eyes with his bloodshot and puffy ones.
Was Blair the only one who’d gotten any sleep tonight?
But despite all that, there was no one in the world who Blair wanted to look at more than Luke Caldwell.
Blair still felt a hitch in her throat whenever he smiled.
He still made her skin tingle, her hands sweaty, and made butterflies in her stomach do backflips.
Her body had been reacting to him like this since the day he’d looked at her with admiration and awe after she totally trounced another classmate in a debate on cats versus dogs in grade six.
That was the day she realized that boys weren’t really that yucky at all, and that she liked the look of this boy best.
But Blair was most interested in the expression in his eyes right now. Yes, it was mostly tiredness she could see, but his expression was also guarded. Distrustful. At least it wasn’t hatred, like what she’d seen earlier. And he was here.
‘Hi,’ Blair said. Because she didn’t know what else to say.
He didn’t smile. ‘Hi, Blair. Um,’ he ran his hand over the back of his neck. ‘I was . . . out walking and saw the light on in your house. So I took a chance. I wanted to talk to you. I didn’t know you’d be asleep.’
Blair walked down the rest of the stairs. ‘My sisters were awake. They’ve gone to bed now.’
‘I can go,’ he said as he started to stand.
Blair shook her head quickly, sitting on the armchair across from him. ‘No. Stay. Talk to me.’
He nodded, but still didn’t say anything, just looked at Blair. Maybe he didn’t know what to say, either?
But Blair needed Luke to be the one to start this conversation – mostly because she had no idea what he knew about what happened yesterday. Had he heard Blair admit to being a witch? Or heard his mother? What did he believe?
But maybe there was a way to get him to start talking without divulging anything. ‘I hope . . .’ Blair hesitated. ‘I mean, I hope your mother’s okay?’
‘She’s fine,’ he said curtly. ‘We both are, thankfully. It’s amazing no one got hurt yesterday.’
Blair did get hurt. Her arms were covered with red welts and scratches. But she wasn’t going to mention that now. ‘I’m glad. And the bakery . . .’
‘It’s a mess. It’s going to take a while to fix everything. We’ll need new furniture, and some of the equipment is toast. Iris and I can probably fix the walls. And our insurance covers weather damage, so we should be okay. I’ve already started the claim.’
Blair exhaled, relieved both that the bakery would survive this, and also relieved that Luke seemed to think the damage was caused by freak weather, not a vengeful witch. At least, she hoped he thought that.
‘I’m really sorry about what happened, Luke.’
He looked at Blair for several long moments, expression unreadable. ‘I don’t exactly know what did happen. That’s why I’m here.’ His eyes narrowed. He was angry. ‘Be honest with me, Blair, what did you and your sisters do to me and my mother yesterday? And why?’
Blair exhaled, looking down. What could she say?
A part of her wanted to spill it all out, to tell Luke every secret she’d kept from him, and then beg at his feet for forgiveness, but she didn’t know what he would do with the truth.
Would he laugh at her? Call the authorities? Or worse, expose them to witch hunters?
When Blair didn’t speak, he continued. ‘My mother tried to convince me that it wasn’t your fault.
She thinks she said all those weird things after trying your sister’s food because of new prescriptions and exhaustion.
She said you’d never intentionally do something to hurt us, and that I should trust you.
But Mom wasn’t here on Monday when similar weird shit happened, also after eating your sister’s cooking.
’ He sighed. ‘Honestly, for an insane second, I was sure that it was part of a grand plan to get me and Mom to leave Moonbeam Hollow. And then I realized that maybe that wasn’t that far-fetched a thought after all.
Did you put something in that food to . .
. I don’t know, get Mom and I to leave town? Make us hallucinate or something?’
Blair looked up at him. He thought Blair had poisoned him with a psychedelic agent of some sort, and didn’t think Blair was a witch? ‘Luke, do you really think my sisters and I are capable of poisoning you to make you leave Moonbeam Hollow?’
‘I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking!’ His face was reddening, angry.
‘When I first got here, all you did was accuse me of sabotage. You made it clear so many times that this town couldn’t support both our businesses, and you wanted me gone.
You didn’t want me in the festival! And now look!
My bakery is in shambles! There is no way we’re going to open on time, and our festival booth is a complete write-off. Who should I accuse if not you?’
Blair tilted her head. ‘Luke, I would never intentionally do something that could hurt you or your mother. Ever.’
‘But you would destroy our bakery,’ he said.
Blair didn’t know what to say. It was Hecate who destroyed the bakery, not Blair or her sisters. But telling him that now was too dangerous – he was hurt and angry and if he knew that Blair and her sisters were witches, he would have every reason to tell everyone.
‘I know we played pranks on each other when we were kids, but I thought we grew out of that,’ Luke said.
He looked . . . sad. Heartbroken. ‘I know you’re a private person, Blair.
You always have been. Years ago, I chalked it up to you being young and not ready to be fully open.
’ He looked down. ‘But now . . . I don’t know what I’m trying to say.
I knew you were keeping me at arm’s length again.
But I told myself that we had something real, and in time you’d be more open.
I was so far gone all over again, that I ignored what was right in front of me. ’
They did have something real. Or as real as Blair was able to have.
Blair closed her eyes, feeling tears forming.
As much as she hated lying, she had to protect her sisters and her family.
And that meant making sure Luke Caldwell didn’t know Blair and her sisters were responsible for what happened in Shirley’s Sugar Mountain yesterday.
‘Luke, my café was damaged, too,’ Blair said. ‘Not as badly as the bakery. Do you think I have the ability to control the weather?’
‘No, of course not,’ he said quickly.
‘It was the weather that destroyed the bakery – not my sister’s ravioli,’ Blair said.
He stared at Blair for several long seconds. Blair wished she knew what he was thinking, what he was feeling inside that beautiful head of his.