Page 70 of A Touch of Spring Magic

“I have to go. The party.” She turned around to run but the heel of her sandal caught in the board of the teahouse and stuck.

Fabulous. She was channeling her inner Cinderella with thankfully no audience in sight. She kicked off her other shoe and ran over the large stones to the broken slate path that led to the brick one made from local bricks from one of her family’s old mills and then across the grass to the party.

*

“What happened toyour shoes?” Meghan asked her when Jessica returned to the lawn with the pretty pergola that would one day have grape vines twining through it.

“Don’t ask,” Jessica groaned.

“Sounds like a better story than sore toes.” She gave Jessica a lawyer look that meant more questions were coming, but likely she’d be ambushed.

“It’s not although, ugh, so mortifying. How did I have more poise in high school?”

“You were the shit in high school. Now it’s real life.”

“Don’t swear.” Jessica looked around, but no one was paying any attention to them.

The string quartet had packed up and Rustin and Lucas were bringing out the speakers and karaoke—not surprising since quite a few of the guests were singers in choirs or musicians or in bands. It was amazing the diverse crew of friends Chloe and Rustin had amassed, and then there were the longtime family friends.

Grandma Millie sat in a wingback chair that Rustin had brought out from the living room.

That was weird. Usually Grandma Millie was the life of the party, talking to everyone and offering more food and drink and bringing people together to connect.

Jessica turned to check on her when Meghan caught her arm.

“I wanted to talk to you later.”

She sounded unusually tense.

“Join the queue.” Jessica blew out a breath. “Storm wanted to talk too but I shut him down before he could make a fool of me and of himself.”

“What? What’s wrong with you? He’s crazy about you. Always has been.”

“No, it’s the dumb book. I made the Sweetheart’s Tryst tart but I thought I left out one of those suspicious non-sequitur recipe directions—stir up the filling and bake under an unbiased eye or something like that, and I felt so smug that I was alone—not that any of you are unbiased—but then this morning Chloe pointed out that I still had the dang fairy sitting in the windowsill watching everything.”

“And Storm confessed his love?” Meghan stared slack-jawed.

“No, he was leading up to it, at least I think so. I shut him down. I didn’t want to embarrass him.”

“Why would his feelings embarrass him?”

“Ahhh?”

“How do you feel about him? I know you were all down on the idea of hiring him, but I thought you two made a fabulous team.”

Her tummy hurt. She didn’t want to think about him no longer arriving every morning and they’d plan out the day or check in with each other before tackling their list of projects. She’d loved cooking for two and often more. She’d enjoyed the joking around, the music. It was going to be awfully quiet up here until she had a steady stream of customers although, with just her, she couldn’t really handle a steady stream. She would need some help.

She remembered how Storm had pitched early on the way they could team up, combine their businesses somewhat, which she’d shut down hard in her queen of prickly defensiveness mode, but now she could see all sorts of possibilities.

Dang.

She stilled. Maybe that was what he was trying to do—set up an appointment to talk possible business collaborations. Mortification was a sunburst punch. He’d been thinking work—like she kept telling herself to do—and she’d accused him of being in love with her because of the book.

“Oh, no.” She pressed her palms over her face just as the karaoke machine kicked on and Chloe grabbed the mic and started thanking everyone for coming. She waved a sign-up sheet, and then said since it was her party she was going first.

“Let the games begin,” Chloe called out.

“I am an idiot,” Jessica announced to no one.

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