Page 38 of Clearly Charmed

The more I tried to act calm, the quicker my breaths came. An image flared in my mind. A quiet summer evening outside the house, the smell of rain fading from the air. Aster begging for s’mores. Grandpa Beau complaining about the wet kindling in the firepit. I remembered Grandmother Clo sent us into the house with Grandpa for more marshmallows, even though we had a full bag. The way I hesitated at the door. Turned my head back to see my grandmother snap her fingers. Bright red flames igniting in the firepit.

Too many jumbled thoughts swirled through my head making me dizzy. I’d always written off the memory as a trick of the eye. Convinced myself that Clo had lit a match without me seeing. But after reading about Ambrosia, I was beginning to question every truth in my life.

Chapter Thirteen

Knocked Sideways

After four consecutive yawns, Bryce convinced me it was time to stop for the day. He hinted at dinner, but after hours of research, and what I’d discovered in the journal, I wanted to head home, take a long shower, and figure out how I was going to handle this new revelation.

Bryce hid his disappointment well, saying he’d call me tomorrow so we could discuss when we’d meet up again.

When I pulled into the driveway of my clinic, a familiar white sedan was waiting.

Aster.

Of course she was here. I’d been avoiding her calls. I wasn’t mad exactly. More like knocked sideways by her revelations about Max and Bryce. How it reframed what I’d believed about my life for the last seven years.

The day Max left, he sat me at the table in our kitchen and held my hands lovingly. I was sure he was going to propose. Say we could move back to Harvest Moon and start a practice together. Instead, he delivered a blow that knocked my entire world off its axis. He admitted he’d been having doubts about us for a while. That he wanted to see what else the world had to offer. He really meant who else the world had to offer, but at least he had the decency not to say those words.

I’m not sure how long I disassociated after that. Hours? Days? All I knew was that the person who was supposed to be my forever left me. What did that say about me as a human? Sure, I could be closed off sometimes. Belladonna had made me that way. But I still had a tender heart. What I thought was a lot of love to give. At the time it made me doubt my entire life, and now, well, I didn’t know what the hell to believe anymore.

Aster hopped out of her car, took determined steps toward me and threw her arms around my waist. ‘I wouldn’t blame you if you never spoke to me again, but I had to repeat how truly sorry I am. After what Mother put you through all those years, I wanted to be the one to make you happy, but I should have been one hundred percent sure before I said a word.’

Mother.

Aster was the only one of us girls who called Belladonna that. She’d seen her in a way Lia and I never could. Both of us believed Belladonna should have stayed put in Harvest Moon. Been a real parent to us. Aster thought Belladonna was a free spirit who’d lose her ‘effervescence’ if we tied her to our small town, even though Ast cried every time she took off.

I loved Aster, so I never argued about the responsibility that came with being a parent. How even though Clo tried to be a rock for us, what we really needed was the stability of our mother in our lives.

‘I get why you did it, but you have to give me time to process. What you told me about Max being my one true love. The way I believed it heart and soul. How it crushed me when he left. It messed with my head, and now…’ I let out a low breath, the weight of it all taking hold. ‘I have to figure out what to do with your newest revelation.’

Her twin dimples made an appearance. ‘You mean with the hot journalist?’

‘Yeah, I’m not having that conversation with you, especially right now.’

All right, he was too damn handsome for words, but half of me wondered if my attraction to him wasn’t just the fact that it’d been way too long since I’d been with a man.

I turned on my heel and unlocked the door to the clinic, refusing to let my mind wander to the cute way Bryce worried his full bottom lip when he narrowed in on a specific passage in a book. The rhythmic beat of his pencil against the page like he was singing a song only he could hear. How when he stretched, the edges of his T-shirt pulled up, revealing a line of hair that dipped into his waistband.

Aster, of course, wouldn’t let it go. ‘What does that mean? I know you were with him at the library today. Did you find something in the archives?’

‘How the hell do you know that?’

She gave a coy shrug. ‘You know this town. People talk.’

Before I could press her for more details, she had her phone out, her fingers flying across the keyboard.

‘Who are you texting?’

‘Lia. When you look like that’ – she swirled her fingers in front of my face – ‘it means you’ve discovered some kind of info that you’re going to try your damnedest to hide from us.’

I reached for her phone, but she turned her back and kept typing.

When she was done, she gave me a satisfied grin. ‘Her shift is over and she’s on her way.’

‘Why can I not get a moment’s peace in this freaking town?’

She followed me down the hall and up the back stairs to my place. After I threw open the door, I spun around to face her. ‘I’m jumping in the shower. Take Flora out and wait for Lia. You can grill me after I’ve had at least ten minutes’ peace standing under nearly scalding water.’