Just then, Lily—who was sporting fire-engine-red hair today—walked in and came up short at the sight of a banged-up Amber behind the counter and an eager-looking Jack in front of it.
“Hey, Lily,” Amber said. “So I had a bit of an accident—I’m fine!—but I didn’t want to stick you with the afternoon shift all alone, so Jack has volunteered to help.”
Lily nodded. “Cool. Want me to show you the ropes?”
“Yes,” Jack said. “I need to see all of the ropes.”
As she watched Lily go over the basics, Amber was glad to see how competent Lily truly was. The store was in good hands with the Bowen sisters. After the mini-lesson, Lily went searching for something in storage, and Jack came back to check on Amber.
He stood in front of the counter and checked his watch. “Okay, five minutes until go time. Here’s the plan: you do not move from behind that counter unless you need to use the restroom. Ah! No arguments. You operate the cash register and tell me where to find stuff if Lily is busy. That’s it! And you need to keep your ankle elevated. Did you see the smaller stool with a pillow on it I put under the counter? Keep your foot on that. Let me know if you need something taller. Or ice. Got it?”
She wanted to hug him. “Got it.”
In a whisper, he added, “And you can use your magic at any point if it’ll help. Just … magically nudge my arm in the right direction of stuff customers are asking for if I can’t find it.”
“You’re really sure you want to do all this?” she asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.”
“No sweat.”
Poor Jack was then run ragged for the next three hours, doing his best to keep up with Lily. When there was finally a slight lull in the stream of customers, Jack staggered over and rested his folded arms on the counter. “I thought the morning rush at Purrcolate was bad,” he muttered.
She laughed. “The handful of weeks before the Here and Meow really turns this place into a madhouse.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been much help to Lily today without you here.”
“Happy I could help.” His cheeks flushed. “You know … I would like to hear how all this—” he gestured to her person in general, “happened. I was thinking maybe we could have dinner and you could tell me about it?”
She hesitated, mostly because Lily had heard that last part and was standing a few feet away, mouthing “Ooh la la!” while fanning herself with her hand.
“Sorry,” he said, standing straighter and shaking his head. “That was too much to ask. And you probably would rather decompress with Alley and Tom instead of entertaining someone. I shouldn’t have—”
“Jack!” she said, laughing, refocusing on him. “I was just going to say that I haven’t gone grocery shopping in like two weeks, so dinner sounds great, but maybe we could do takeout?”
He beamed. “Yeah. I … uh … do you like Chinese food?”
“Yes.”
“Okay!” he said. “After we close up, I’ll go get Chinese.”
She bit her bottom lip, doing her best to suppress her goofy grin. “Sounds great.”
The bell above the door jangled then, marking the arrival of another customer, and Jack and Lily were off again.
Call Aunt G, you stubborn Blackwood! replayed in her head on a loop for the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter 13
Immediately after closing, Lily said she “really needed to get home,” fanned herself with her hand again, and left, leaving Amber and Jack alone for the first time all day. Amber helped Jack tidy up a little, but after twenty minutes of her muttering curses under her breath and hobbling rather pathetically, he banished her back behind the counter. Once done with cleaning, he wrote out their Chinese food orders, promised to “be back in a jiff!” and darted out the door.
She supposed now was as good a time as any to call her aunt.
As she listened to the phone ring—her elbows propped on the wooden counter, and her bottom lip caught between her teeth—she wondered why she suddenly felt so nervous. Perhaps because she’d waited so long to call back, or because she worried she’d overreacted, or because she worried her aunt would be mad at her.
“Why, hello, little mouse,” Aunt Gretchen said.
Just the sound of her voice unfurled something tight in her chest. “Hey, Aunt G.”
They were silent a long moment before her aunt spoke. “Did I do something to upset you?”
Sitting up a little straighter, Amber asked, “Why didn’t you tell me the spell on Jack was temporary?”
“Ah,” her aunt said. “Has it already worn off, then? My, that was quick.”
Amber found some of her anger resurfacing. “You didn’t warn me. I felt like I got blindsided twice. Why didn’t you even talk to me about it?”
“Very few men have had the effect on you that Jack has,” Aunt Gretchen said plainly. “I know I don’t see you now as often as I did when you were a teenager, but there’s something special there with you and Jack, whether or not you see it. I couldn’t actually take that from you, little mouse. But emotions were so charged that night, and Jack was so worried for you … I knew he made his choice out of fear rather than any true desire. So I made a split-second decision.”
“And didn’t tell me.”
“In all honesty, I figured a few months were needed for you two to cool down and see how good you are for each other. I planned to tell you soon so you could formulate a way to deal with it,” her aunt said. “I just didn’t expect you two to share physical intimacy this quickly.”
Amber might have been a grown woman over thirty, but she still recoiled violently at her aunt saying “physical intimacy.” “Aunt G! We just touched hands. That’s it!”
“Oh, I figured,” she said, chuckling. “I just like how easy it is to make you squirm.”
Amber laughed, despite her warring emotions. Softly, she said, “He’s out getting us Chinese food.”
“Is he now?” Amber could practically hear her smug smile. “Don’t forget to thank me in your wedding vows.”
“Ha ha,” Amber said, feeling lighter than she had in weeks. “Oh, I wanted to ask you something else … have you heard of the Rockrose family? They’re witches.”
“I’ve heard of them but I don’t know much,” her aunt said. “There’s that myth about the Edgehill witches who up and vanished overnight—have you heard that one? I think the Rockroses were one of those families. Why?”
Amber gave her a condensed account of this afternoon’s events. As she did so, she managed to get her purse off the ground and rooted around for the spiral notebook. The Talk-Up Doll was still there, but the book wasn’t. “I think the guestbook was returned to Z.”
“I wonder if it would appear in the coffin of the owner if they’ve been buried,” Aunt Gretchen asked. “Goodness, what on earth happens if they’ve been cremated?”
“Morbid much?” Amber asked.
“You’re sounding more like your old self,” her aunt said after a moment. “It’s nice to hear.”
They slipped into a casual conversation about Amber’s shop and Aunt Gretchen’s new role in the garden club in her town. Amber wasn’t quite sure what a garden club was, but her aunt sounded excited about it.
When the bell above the door jangled, Aunt Gretchen stopped talking mid-sentence. “Ah, has the baker returned? I should let you go.”
“Thank you,” she said in a rush. “For intervening, I mean. I’m still sort of upset, but also … thank you. I love you, Aunt G.”
There was a hitch in her aunt’s voice as she said, “I love you too, little mouse.”
When she hung up, Jack’s brows were arched toward his hairline. He held a plastic bag stuffed with white Styrofoam containers. “Everything okay?”
“Did you get wonton soup?”
“The extra-large portion, yes.”
“Then everything is great.”
Amber
was so full of chicken chow fun and wonton soup that, between the pain in her too-full stomach, the pain in her propped-up swollen ankle, and the soreness in nearly every muscle in her body, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to move again.
Jack sat beside her on the couch, slumped similarly to herself, with his head on the back of the couch and his legs splayed wide before him. He had a hand on his stomach. “Normally I try to eat like a dainty flower when I’m on a date, but I just ate that broccoli beef like I hadn’t eaten in a year. I’m sorry you had to witness that.”
“I practically guzzled down that soup like it was water and I was dying of thirst in the desert,” she said. “I’ll keep your disgusting eating habits a secret if you promise to do the same.”
He laughed, then turned his head so his chin nearly rested against his shoulder. “Feeling any better? Need ice yet? I can get it for you, but it might take a while because I’ll have to roll there.”
She turned her head to look at him, too. “Yes, thanks. I’m a little concerned that I won’t be able to get down the stairs in the morning, but that’s a worry for another day.”
“So … uh … what were you and Edgar doing today?”
She launched into it, doing her best to explain Magic Cache, dead zones, the mysterious neighborhood on the edge of town, and the cache Edgar had found in the fountain.
“Can I see it?” he asked. “The Talk-Up Doll, I mean? My mom had one. I found it in a box of her stuff when Larry and I were kids. I’d make the doll scream stuff at Larry in the middle of the night. He hated that thing so much. Well, he hates dolls in general, but the ones that talk really freak him out.”
“As they should,” Amber said. “It’s in my purse,” she said, gesturing to the bag hanging off the back of one of her dining room chairs.
Jack groaned as he got up, fetched the bag, and then deposited it between them on the couch. He sat facing her now, one leg propped up on the cushions.
Amber fished out the bright-eyed doll and handed it to him.
Jack pulled the body away from the head.
“That’s quite a stretch!”
He cackled in much the same way Edgar had. Then he sobered. “So this thing existed in a memory and you pulled it into a time forty-nine years later? It looks brand-new.”
Amber nodded. “Something happened in that neighborhood that caused the magic to go haywire. Seems like the reason no one could find the cache was because it was stuck in the past. This,” she said, gesturing to herself, “is what happens when you time travel, apparently. It chews you up and spits you back out.”
“Hollywood has lied to me,” Jack said solemnly.
Amber’s story had wrapped up a little after nine in the evening, and she couldn’t stop yawning despite how much she was enjoying her time with Jack. After the tenth yawn in in five minutes, he chuckled.
“All right, time traveler,” he said. “You need to get some sleep and I’ve overstayed my welcome.”
He stood and Amber did the same, mostly to see what state her ankle was in. She’d been using icy air spells to help keep the swelling down, but it still hurt to walk on. Jack watched her, frowning as she hobble-walked to where he stood at the top of the staircase. Then he helped her down the steps, as she needed to lock the door behind him. She could, at least, stand on one end of the shop and lock the door with a flick of her wrist—she just needed the lock in her line of sight in order for it to work.
Once they’d gotten down the stairs, Amber rested against the doorjamb of the now-open “Employees Only” door. Her ankle throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” he asked, standing in front of her on the small landing. “I could crash on the couch and—”
“I’m sure,” she said, placing a hand on his chest to quiet him. “If I need anything, I promise I’ll call you. Thank you for everything.”
There’s something special there with you and Jack, whether or not you see it, Aunt G had said.
Oh, Amber saw it. It just scared the bejesus out of her.
Pushing away from the wall, Amber leaned forward to plant a platonic kiss on Jack’s cheek.
But he’d clearly sensed what she’d been about to do and made a choice of his own.
He angled his head so her lips met his instead of his cheek, both of his hands cupping her face. With half a step toward her, she was flat against the doorjamb again and she pulled him to her by his waist, kissing him back.
It only lasted a few seconds, but it left her feeling as dizzy has she had when she made contact with the magic coursing under the abandoned neighborhood earlier today. They held onto each other for a long few seconds, their breaths labored, before he took a step back. He kept his hands cupping her face and turned it up a fraction so he could look at her.
She half expected him to apologize for taking things too far again, just as he had when he invited himself to stay for dinner.
“I’m not saying sorry for that one,” he said softly. He leaned forward to place a kiss on her forehead, and Amber’s eyes slipped closed for a moment. Then he let her go. “Call me for anything, okay?”
Amber nodded, watching him go. The intensity of her desire to call out “Stay with me!” scared her more than she wanted to admit.
He flicked open the lock and pulled the door open. He stared at her for a moment, lightly hit his palm against the side of the door, then said, “Try to sleep. If you can’t, I’ll be up for a while if you want to talk or anything.”
“Okay,” she croaked out, then cleared her throat. “Have a good night, Jack.”
“Night, Amber,” he said, then closed the door behind him, hands shoved into his pockets. He looked back at the shop twice as he walked away, before he disappeared beyond the front of The Quirky Whisker.
She waited for a few moments, fingers pressed to her lips, as she waited to see if he’d come back. When he didn’t, she flicked her wrist and heard the lock engage.
It was slow going back up the stairs, yet she couldn’t get the smile off her face.
Today marked the first day both the Here and Meow and the Floral Frenzy Committees were going to join forces to work on the remainder of the floats for the parade. Amber’s ankle was still sore, she felt like she’d been hit by a semi, backed over, and then hit again, but she was going to power through it. If not for the sake of the committee, then for Kim.
Amber thought it was a little strange that she hadn’t gotten at least a few frantic calls or texts from Kim this morning about the floats, but she supposed that with Harlo becoming the new temporary ringleader of the Floral Frenemies, things weren’t as stressful.
It wasn’t until after a shower, feeding the cats, and drinking a full cup of coffee while lounging in the sunshine and warming her window bench seat, that Amber decided to give Kim a call. As it was, Amber didn’t think she could drive with her ankle in this condition.
And that was when she realized her cell phone had died; she’d forgotten—again—to charge it. Once it had a little juice, the thing lit up with missed calls and texts from Jack, Edgar, and Kim.
From Jack, at 11 p.m.: Are you sleeping?
At 11:30 p.m.: Hopefully you’re sleeping and not up thinking about me. I’m certainly not doing that. Thinking about you, I mean. Nope.
At 6:18 a.m.: I know I was all cool, calm, and collected last night, but I really hope I wasn’t too forward and that you’re now full of regret.
At 6:19 a.m.: I’m going to flush my phone down the toilet so I stop texting you like the weirdo I am.
Amber replied with: I slept for a total of ten hours. No regrets. About the sleeping or you. Passed out as soon as you left and forgot to charge my phone.
Then she opened the texts from Edgar.
At 5:12 a.m.: I slept! For twelve hours. I guess I need to go fountain diving in 1971 more often. We good?
Amber replied with: You beat me! I only got ten. And yeah, we’re good. Plus I have to go build floats today and I feel awful, so yo
u get out of Sunday breakfast.
He immediately replied with, Phew! Now I don’t have to put on pants today.
The last set of texts—nine of them—were from Kim. There were quite a few in all caps, and there was an excessive use of exclamation points, so Amber called her instead.
“Oh my God, Amber, hi!” Kim said, answering the phone so quickly Amber hadn’t even heard it ring. “Are you okay? I haven’t heard from you in ages! Are you coming to the float meeting? I’m so nervous. This whole thing is going to be so awkward! It’ll be like a family dinner at Thanksgiving where no one agrees on politics but worse.”
Amber laughed. “I’m going if you can pick me up. I sprained my ankle pretty bad yesterday.”
“Oh goodness! What on earth did you get up to? You shouldn’t have to suffer through this with a wonky ankle, though! You can skip if—”
“Jack kissed me last night.”
“Ohhh, girl! We’re getting breakfast. I’m picking up your wonky butt in twenty!”
The call disconnected.
On their way to the Catty Melt, Amber did her best to explain Magic Cache to Kim. After several minutes, Kim went, “Oh! It’s just a magical version of geocaching. Boring ol’ humans use longitude and latitude to find and hide little trinkets all over the place. There are apps and everything.”
“And you know about geocaching how?” Amber asked.
Kim sagged a little. “I went on a date with this guy who was super into it. He took me caching on our first—and only—date and we, I swear, hunted for like fifteen of the things before I asked him if we could take a break to get dinner. I was so hungry I was contemplating eating the bark straight off the trees. He got very offended and said I would have to love his passions as if they were my own if we had any chance at a relationship. He said my behavior was, and I quote, ‘both shameful and disrespectful.’”
“Oh no!” Amber said, stifling a laugh. “What’d you do?”
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