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“A kitchen witch never divulges her secrets,” Calvin remarked with a grin, and Chloe raised an eyebrow.
“Selena, I thought you said you were a hedgewitch.”
“Well, it’s all kind of loosely defined,” I said. “I love to cook and do things in the kitchen, but I’m also a solitary witch and self-taught, which is part of what defines a hedgewitch, so I suppose I’ve just sort of mashed everything together.”
Now it was Calvin’s turn for an eyebrow lift. “‘Solitary’?” he echoed. “After living with me for the past year and a half?”
About all I could do was grin. “Not that kind of solitary,” I told him. “It just means that I don’t practice with a coven.”
“Makes sense,” he said, and broke a muffin in half so he could spread some butter on it.
The baby kicked then and I started, then put a hand on my belly. So far he — or she — had been pretty quiescent today, but maybe the scent of chili and cornbread had been a kind of wake-up call.
“Evening gymnastics routine?” Calvin asked, and I nodded.
“Something like that. But I’d rather have it happen at dinner than 3 a.m.”
After hearing this exchange, Chloe said, “When are you due?”
“On the sixteenth,” I replied, and she relaxed almost imperceptibly. True, that was still not all that far off in the future, but I could tell she was glad I hadn’t said the baby was supposed to be here the day after tomorrow. “Speaking of which,” I went on, looking back over at Calvin, “Chloe and I were talking earlier, and she told me she’d like to help out at the store while I’m on leave.”
My husband, who’d been looking fairly relaxed up until then, at once sat up a little straighter in his chair. While he didn’t frown — he was far too polite to make such a show of disapproval in front of our guest — I could tell he wasn’t as thrilled as I’d hoped he would be at my revelation.
However, his tone was even enough as he said, “That’s really nice of you, Chloe. So, you’re planning on staying in town for a while?”
“That was my thought,” she said. A flicker that came and went in her eyes told me she’d picked up on his body language and wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. However, she still sounded upbeat and cheerful as she went on, “I always had this feeling that SoCal wasn’t going to be it for me, you know? And then when I found Selena in Globe, it felt as if the universe was guiding me here somehow. That probably sounds kind of crazy.”
A corner of his mouth lifted, and I knew he was thinking about the way I’d arrived in our small town, guided here by the cards as well. “Not as crazy as you might think,” he replied. “And I can see why getting out of L.A. might seem like a good idea. I’ve only been there once, but that was enough for me.”
“Calvin’s not a city boy,” I said, knowing my own mouth wore a similar smile. “And that’s fine — coming here to Globe was the right thing for me. L.A. is an amazing place, but it can really wear you out.”
Chloe broke off a piece of her cornbread muffin and spread a modest amount of butter on it. “That’s exactly it. I was just…tired. I knew I needed something different in my life.”
That comment might have caused just the slightest flicker of my husband’s eyes toward me, accompanied by a quirk of his lips that I doubted anyone else would have been able to detect. It was probably a bit difficult for him to believe that someone as young as Chloe Fairfield would already have been overcome by ennui at the prospect of spending the rest of her life in the big city, but at the same time, I’d grown up in the Valley as well and knew what it felt like to be overwhelmed by the crush of population in the greater Los Angeles area.
And that didn’t even take into account how the cost of living just kept going up and up. When I moved out when I was a little past nineteen, at least I’d been able to earn enough to pay for a modest studio apartment. These days, unless you were making six figures right out of school, you’d never be able to afford a place of your own in L.A.
No wonder Chloe had still been living at home…and no wonder she was looking forward to spending the next few weeks in Hazel’s darling vacation rental.
It wasn’t a permanent solution, but for now, I was just glad the place had been available at all. For a while, I’d thought that Sofia Barnes, one of the competitors in Josie’s brewing contest back in December, would settle into Hazel’s place, but it turned out that the old hardware store Sofia had bought for her brewpub start-up had an apartment space above it, and it just made sense for her to fix it up at the same time and be right where the action was, so to speak.
“And I made it to assistant manager at Chipotle while I was working my way through school,” Chloe went on. “So, while it’s not exactly the same as running a New Age shop, I’ve got lots of customer-facing experience and know how to handle the books at a store.”
Calvin gave a grave nod, although I could tell he was still inwardly amused. “This isn’t a job interview, Chloe,” he said. “If Selena believes you’re the right person to watch over the store while she’s out on leave, then I know it’s going to be fine. Her instincts are impeccable.”
I sent him a grateful smile, and my sister seemed to relax slightly, even as she looked a little wistful. Was she surprised that Calvin would be so openly supportive of my decision? Hard to say; I certainly didn’t know her very well yet, and I knew even less about her family dynamics, whether her parents were equal partners or whether my bio-dad took his role as man of the house seriously.
Which seemed as though it would be a complete about-face, considering he’d been a head-banging drummer in a metal band when he hooked up with my mother, but people often changed in strange and mysterious ways.
“So I think it’s settled,” I said, and sent an encouraging smile my little sister’s way. “Tomorrow, you can come with me to the store and get started.”
Chapter 4
SIBLING SORORITY
Any misgivings I might have had about installing Chloe as my replacement at the store were quickly erased the next morning. She was quick and eager to learn, and already knew a great deal about the various Tarot and oracle decks, telling me she was far more than a mere dabbler.
“Oh, I own about fifteen decks,” she said after she’d helped a pair of tourists from Phoenix choose a Moonology deck and some moonstone and amethyst pocket crystals to go with it. “I started using them in middle school.”
