Page 61 of All Dressed Up

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Rachel rocked on the porch chair, drinking the fresh lemonade she’d been given earlier. She stopped with her finger the condensation running down the glass. The last couple of nights had been unseasonably cool, but today was proving to be another hot one.

It’d been a busy weekend, which was good. It got her mind off Will.

When she’d gone over to his house Friday night, she’d wanted everything that happened between them to happen. When he’d scooped her up and led her to his bed, she thought it would be perfect.

And it almost was. The sex between them after all these months had been amazing. She’d felt how much he wanted her.

However, in the early hours lying next to him with his back to her, she knew what had happened between them hadn’t been exactly what she wanted.

It wasn’t enough. It never would be if she didn’t have his heart.

And that’s why she was here. She was all in to find it.

A black cat nudged up against her bare leg. She learned that the furry feline was Magic, Emma’s super fluffy cat who Sheila explained was now staying with her permanently due to Jason being highly allergic.

“He likes you,” Sheila said, rejoining Rachel on the deck and taking a seat on the rocker next to her.

“He’s sweet. I’ve often thought about getting a cat. Carter texts me pictures of those up for adoption all the time.” That much was true. She’d dated the town’s handsome veterinarian, Carter Manning, a couple of times last fall, but there had never been much of a spark. Rumor had it he might be leaving Buttermilk Falls soon.

She reached down to pet her new furry friend. Stopping by Sheila’s had been the first thing on her to-do list that morning. She needed to break the news that she’d hired Jesse before Sheila heard it from someone else. In this town, she was already running the risk that it had already happened.

So she told her that Jesse would be starting work at Buttermilk Blooms tomorrow.

Emma’s mom seemed to take the news okay, but minutes ago she’d sprung up without a word and disappeared into the house. Now, taking up most of her lap was what she’d retrieved—a big, brown book with an intricate gold carving on the cover.

“Sheila,” Rachel started, staring at the book. Was that a black crow wearing a witch’s hat on the cover? She had a feeling Sheila wasn’t about to show her what she was reading for the library’s weekly book club. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I can go to the Star Lite right now and see if Jesse’s there. I’ll tell him that it’s not going to work out.”

Sheila stopped rocking and pulled back the book’s cover, flipping through its pages. “It was so long ago. I didn’t have a choice but to make sure he could never come back. I did it with the help of this book.”

Did what?Rachel gulped, feeling all kinds of uncomfortable. Was it really her place to ask? Maybe Sheila needed someone neutral to get whatever was in that book off her chest. “Is that...” she started to ask.

“It was my mother’s, Gwendylyn Stevens’s, favorite spell book.” She thumbed through the pages, stopping midway through. “Jesse was an immature screwup I never should have married. Everyone in town warned me about his conceit and restlessness. He hightailed it out of town the minute he learned I was pregnant. Thought he was meant to do better things and didn’t want to be dragged down by a family. Said this wasn’t the life he wanted and that the marriage was a mistake.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you—and to Emma.” Rachel couldn’t imagine being newly married and pregnant and her husband walking away from his vows. She also couldn’t imagine her father not wanting her and Donovan.

“It was a lifetime ago. I never wanted to see him again.”

She didn’t blame her. Rachel thought back to the confrontation at Buttermilk Blooms. “Is that when you banished him?”

Sheila looked up from her book. “What did you say?”

“Um... I mean, I wouldn’t blame you if that’s what you did. He totally deserved it.” She really should stop talking. What happened between Sheila and Jesse was between them. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to pry. I heard you threaten him the other night that you’d banish him again.”

“I would.” Sheila propped the book up so Rachel could see it. “And many years ago, I did.”

Rachel stared at the page. The words “Banish Forever Spell” etched in cursive black ink at the very top caused a shiver down her spine. It was one thing to experience Mary, but this was witchcraft. “Is that...” she whispered.

“Yes. Casting a spell was my only option.” She closed her eyes for a beat, her wrinkled hand resting on the spell. “He’d left the first time on his own accord, but he’d come back briefly when Emma was in high school.”

“Oh,” was all Rachel could say.

Sheila continued, “He wanted to see her. Said he’d changed and he wanted to be in her life.” She sighed. “I almost fell for it and was planning for them to meet. It only took a week before I caught him stealing cash out of my register at the Sugar Spoon. He hadn’t changed, he’d just run out of options.

“I had to get rid of him for good, and there was only one way.” Sheila ran her hand across the spell. “Betty kept him preoccupied—she was working for me back then—while I snuck out the back of the bakery and did the spell on his station wagon, and then asked him to run an errand for me five miles away. Once he crossed the town line, he’d never be able to return no matter how hard he tried. He’d never be able to find us, as if Buttermilk Falls had disappeared. Emma was safe.”

Stunned, Rachel listened in silence. It was clear that Sheila would go to great lengths to protect Emma. There was one obvious question. “How did he come back now?”

---