Page 96 of The Pumpkin Spice Spell
Then Ivy gasps. “Wait. What?”
“You heard me.” Donna’s eyes sparkle. “You never know when I’ll be inspired by someone I know. Especially when they act out a real-life love story right under my nose.”
She doesn’t even look at me, but I feel the heat crawl up my neck anyway.
“Oh my god,” Rowan groans. “If she writes you in, it’s happening. That’s the Wisteria Cove spell!”
“I don’t make the rules,” Donna says with a sip of her iced tea. “But I do write them.”
Ivy snorts and grins. “Does that mean if you write me in, I finally get a happy ending?”
Remy chokes on his soda.
Donna arches a brow. “I think you mean happily ever after, honey.”
Ivy flaps her napkin dramatically. “No comment!”
Rowan wiggles her eyebrows and murmurs. “Someone needs to get laid.”
“Rowan!”
“Oh please,” she says, waving a breadstick. “We’ve all seen the way Derek is. You need a real man.”
Tate leans into my ear again. “What the hell is happening?”
“Chaos,” I whisper back. “Absolute, beautiful chaos.”
The dinner winds down, plates scraped clean, dessert offered and declined only because no one can move. We bundle up and head into the night with takeout boxes and full hearts.
On the walk home, the town is quiet again. Leaves crunch under our boots, and the smell of wood smoke curls in from chimneys along the harbor.
It’s just me, Tate, Ivy, and Rowan now. The four of us in a loose row, full of carbs and chaos.
Donna peels off toward her house, calling, “Good night, darlings! Don’t do anything I would write about. Wait a minute, definitely do that!”
“Ivy,” Rowan says slyly. “Do you need a ride home? Or are you gonna sneak onto the tree farm and climb some trees?”
We all know she’s talking about Remy. The energy between those two has always had sparks. Ivy’s still with Derek, but they’re so on again, off again. We are all rooting for the off part. Derek doesn’t treat her right and never has. You won’t find him at these dinners because he doesn’t like any of us, and he doesn’tmind letting that be known. The last time he came to dinner he had so many digs about witches and how bad we all were. Ivy was so embarrassed, and he hasn’t been back since.
“I hate you,” Ivy mutters, but she’s smiling.
Tate wraps an arm around my waist as we climb the steps to the bookstore. “This town,” he says.
I smile. “I know.”
He leans down and kisses the top of my head. “Remind me never to leave it.”
“Deal.”
And just like that, we disappear inside, back into the glow of the bookstore’s light. Safe. Full. A little ridiculous. But entirely, wonderfully home.
Chapter 28
Tate
The next night we follow Remy and Junie out to the farm, and I head to the back of the property where the cabins are located.
“It’s so quiet and peaceful out here. I can see why Remy loves it out here,” Willa says softly as we wind down the side road to the cabins.
