Page 52 of Can't Help Falling

He took a deep breath. He had instructions from his friends to be more Tyler around her. He wasn’t supposed to be guessing what a good parent would do. He was supposed to be responding to her the way he would to Matty.

“All right, kid.” Tyler leaned back in his chair. “One mediocre, unspecial, nondescript, totally forgettable Christmas coming right up.”

Kylie, apparently immune to the magnitude of the moment, simply rose up to clear her plate. “Perf. I’ve got homework.”

And then she was gone into her room. Tyler was halfway through the dishes when his phone rang. He wiped his hands on a dish towel and raised his eyebrows when he saw it was Fin calling him.

There was a time when he would have shaved his head bald to receive an unsolicited phone call from her. But now it merely perplexed him.

“Is this a butt dial?” he answered the phone.

“Do you always answer the phone using the word butt?” Her tone was flat but somehow still amused.

He laughed. “Whenever I can work it in, sure.”

“Why would you think I butt dialed you?” He could hear some small clinking noises on her end of the line, too light to be dishes.

He tried not to groan aloud at just how sagey and smoky her accent sounded over the phone. Not good for his morale. “Because I figured if you’re calling me, it had to be a mistake.”

“Actually, I’m not calling you. I wanted to talk to Kylie. See how work went, but I think her phone is off.”

He started walking down the hallway toward Kylie’s room. “I’m not sure I’m using your crystal right.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “It’s your crystal now.”

“Right. But, like, what am I supposed to be doing with it? I just mess around with it and then put it back in my pocket and forget about it.”

“That sounds about right. But listen, I forgot to tell you that you have to cleanse it.”

“With soap and water?”

She laughed, like he’d said something utterly ridiculous. He didn’t get the joke.

“No. Put it on a windowsill that gets moonlight. Or you can bury it in the soil of a houseplant for a night. Or drop it into some salt water. Noniodized.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What?” she asked.

“You’re asking me to do witchcraft on my crystal.”

“I’m not asking you to do witchcraft.”

“Moonlight? Dirt? Salt? That’s some witchy shit if I ever heard it.”

“Fine, then. Forget it and just use a dirty crystal, see if I care.”

There were more light clinking sounds on her end of the line. “What are you doing right now?”

“What’s it to you?”

“I’m settling a bet with myself.”

“What’s the bet?”

“That you’re doing witchcraft right this very second, on the phone with me. That you’re multitasking normal human stuff and witch stuff.”

“Will you stop calling me a witch?”

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