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Chapter 1
Maggie looked at the clock and pursed her lips. Tardy people do not get rewarded with the prime spots, she thought as she deleted Vivi’s name from next Saturday’s schedule. Vivi was popular with the customers and good for the tip jar, but she was about as reliable as a six-year-old car battery in the middle of winter.
She set the spreadsheet aside. The owner of Brewster’s, Jack Brewster, didn’t trust all those apps and things in the cloud. It had taken her a year to convince him to move to a spreadsheet. Before that, it was a paper calendar in the back room and employees had to copy their schedule. At least now she could share it online with her team.
A group wandered in and ordered drinks. As the espresso dripped and she steamed the milk, they quizzed her about Cascade City and how they should spend tomorrow. Today they’d hiked to Bigger Falls and had then spent the afternoon poking around Old Town. “The outfitter in the Marketplace East Building rents bikes. There’s a path out of Old Town that follows the train tracks and another that leads into downtown. Both are easy and if you wanted to make a day of it, you could order a lunch basket from the cantina next to the outfitters.”
She handed them their change, which they dropped into the tip jar, and pointed them in the right direction. Old Town was the original downtown of Cascade City, but was now a major tourist site, primarily thanks to the renovations her parents had done after buying most of the buildings in the area. Maggie could drive a nail by the age of ten, and she’d been given free-range with the power tools by the age of twelve. All the Buchanan kids had. She could cut a perfect mitered corner for trim, but she struggled with her eyeliner, which is why she needed Vivi to get here. On time.
Maggie finally had a date. She didn’t have much hope it would pan out, but she missed being with people. People other than her staff or her family, those she got plenty of. And it wasn’t really a date date, since they’d be traveling in a pack like a bunch of middle-schoolers at the mall and she was related to half of them. But the other two? Her brother, Cal’s, roommates? They might be just the distraction she needed.
She eyed the growing tip jar and guessed its value. It was a game she played each day and since she was the one who always counted it, she was getting accurate in her guesstimates. Today’s haul would put her ahead of this week’s savings plan. If this kept up and she won the QV Flour and Milling baking contest, she’d be able to give Brewster a purchase offer by the end of the year.
She had so many plans for the business, ways to modernize it (hello scheduling and customer ordering apps) while keeping the charm, like their goofy coffee sleeves featuring a caricature of Brewster and a zingy quote. She eyed the pile of sleeves next to her and the one at the end of the counter near the cream and sugar, noting it was low. Maggie made a note to check the storage room tomorrow, because after working for Brewster for almost ten years, working her way up from barista to manager, she did everything. The only thing Jack was good for was taking the deposits to the bank and throwing a wrench into her well-oiled machine. I handle the money and you handle the people, had been the only training he’d given her. After running the coffee shop for thirty years, Jack was just as eager to retire as Maggie was to start.
She grabbed the dirty dish tray as Vivi slid through the front door and skidded to a halt in front of her. “I know I’m late,” Vivi said, gripping the counter and bending over as the breath whooshed in and out of her. She stood and clutched her chest. “The dryer took forever to finish and then I drove endless circles around the parking lot looking for an empty spot.”
“Vivi, we’ve been over this. Employees are not supposed to park in the public lot unless you’re opening or closing.”
“I know, but I was late.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re late. I went to a lot of effort to get the other businesses to agree to this safety measure. If we take advantage of it, they might change their minds.” Maggie untied her apron and resisted the urge to strangle Vivi with its long ties.
“I’m sorry, Maggie,” she whispered as her lower lip trembled. It would have been more believable if Maggie hadn’t seen Vivi do the same act on her boyfriend last week when he’d caught her overtly flirting with a customer. Maggie stared at her. If I wait, will she squeeze out a tear?
“Just don’t do it again, okay?” Maggie asked as she tucked her apron into its sacred spot under the counter.
“I’ll try not to,” Vivi said, sounding sincere. Maggie didn’t have the time to school her that try didn’t cut it and it wouldn’t cut it once she owned Brewster’s. Maggie handed her the short task list and told her to call if something came up they couldn’t solve. Vivi promised to get everything done, and Maggie thought she deserved an award for not rolling her eyes out of her head. Vivi always liked to leave something for the morning shift.
“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Maggie said as she rounded the counter. She stepped into the corridor and glanced back over her shoulder. Vivi smiled and gave her a big thumbs-up. Maggie ran to the stairs at the end of the hallway and up to her third-floor apartment. The elevator was notoriously slow and only useful when she had her arms full. Although the clients of the professional businesses on the second floor seemed to appreciate it.
George glared at her when she walked in. “You have food in your bowl, so don’t give me that attitude.” She scratched behind his ears, and he head-butted her hand, demanding more when she stopped. Maggie scooped him up and cuddled him against her chest as she walked to her bedroom.
Food bowl is the other way, he said.
I know, and I’ll feed you on my way out.
The problem with being a witch, or an energy shifter as she liked to think of it, was that she couldn’t control her gifts like her sisters, Harper and Penny, or Aunt Elspeth. Maggie’s skills were below average, which was why she couldn’t block George’s complaints. With practice she could improve, but she’d never had the desire or motivation.
Now would be better, he said.
A friendly, eager-to-please retriever would be better, too, she reminded him as she threw open the door to her closet and frowned. Lots of jeans, T-shirts, and sweaters for work, but nothing really summer-date appropriate. She hadn’t needed any after her winter boyfriend left to lead whitewater rafting adventures in Montana. He’d hinted at picking up where they’d left off if he returned with the snow, but Maggie wanted more. She liked people, but she wanted someone special. Someone all her own. George meowed loudly, saying, I’m special.
That’s one word for it. She set her one-eyed cat on the bed and dug through a few shelves, hoping for a miracle. Maggie flipped through the hangers. “I bet Penny had her outfit picked out this morning before she left for work,” Maggie told George, who wisely kept his mouth shut. He was used to Maggie’s complaints about her uber-organized, list-making (and completing), slightly older sister who lived across the hallway. It wasn’t so much complaining as envy. Penny got things done. Maggie did, too. But not as much, and she usually needed a gentle shove to get going.
“What about this?” she pulled out the tank dress and held it in front of her. He shook his head. “Or this?” It was a cute romper she’d bought on sale last year. George turned his back and settled into the middle of the bed. “Oh, that’s right. This gives me a perma-wedgie.” She tossed it on the chair in the corner. If it didn’t go back in her closet, she had a fighting chance of remembering to give it to Harper, the only regular-sized Buchanan woman.
At almost six feet tall (her dating profile listed her at five feet, ten inches), Maggie was the tallest. Penny was a few inches shorter, but she had a willowy, feminine build. Her sister was all long limbs and boobs, whereas Maggie was sturdy like an oak. Their oldest sibling, Harper, took after their mom’s normal-sized side of the family, but Maggie, Penny, and Cal were 100 percent Buchanan. The only similarity between the siblings was their red hair. Luckily, Cal had the brightest color and Maggie’s was a dark auburn. Penny was more of a strawberry blond, and Harper landed between her two sisters.
Maggie tossed off her work clothes and slipped the royal blue tank dress over her head. It skimmed over her and ended mid-thigh. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, either. Leave it to Cal to suggest a hiking date, but knowing Cal, he wasn’t even thinking of this as a date. But Maggie and Penny were. They wanted to make good impressions on Cal’s roommates for no other reason than they suspected both men would be taller than them. Maggie knew it didn’t matter, and usually it didn’t, but she hated being the tallest in the room. It was superficial and stupid, but she’d accepted it a long time ago.
“Okay, George, we’ve got two options. I can either wear some lace-trimmed biking shorts underneath, which would keep me from flashing the men but might look weird, or we can use a heavy dose of chub-rub to help with the inner thigh rubbing. Thoughts?” she asked, tossing the black shorts on the bed.
Dinner, George said before sitting on the shorts. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She tossed a toy mouse at George and grabbed the shorts as he pounced on the crinkly toy.
Maggie shimmied into the shorts and yelped when she saw the time on her alarm clock. She pulled her hair out of its messy bun as she dashed into the bathroom. Her makeup still looked good and if she added anything, it would look like she was trying too hard. She quickly brushed her teeth before applying the lip-plumping balm Harper had donated to her. Harper had loved the color, but not its tingly sensation. Maggie loved both.
She grabbed a black hair tie from the basket near the sink and told George to behave as she tossed her phone and driver’s license into her small crossbody bag. She grabbed some cash from her drawer, quickly counted it, and then put half of it back. “Can’t spend what I don’t have,” she reminded herself as she fastened her closed-toe, Vibram-soled sandals.
