Page 11 of Brews and Banishments
Tessa squeezed her hands. “Daisy,” she said in a warning tone, “don’t you for a second start to give up hope. There isn’t a reality in the entireuniversewhere the shop doesn’t exist. And in no way do I see it leaving you now, okay?”
“How can you possibly know that?”
She hesitated, her eyes flickering away for a moment before the steady confidence returned. “I just know. And sometimes, it is as simple as that.”
Daisy drew in a shaky breath.
“Now,” Tessa said, “Why don’t we talk about something else, okay?”
“But -”
“There’s no need to wallow when we haven’t reached that point yet.”
Daisy hesitated for a moment. Perhaps there wasn’t a need to worry just then, but would she even be able to recognize the time when shewassupposed to worry? She shook her head till it felt like her bones were rattling. Tessa was right, and she couldn’t crumble before the world around her even started to grow dim.
Wrapping one arm around Tessa’s, Daisy pulled them back along their stroll towards their houses. Daisy happened to live beside Old Lady Witherford, and Tessa had a gorgeous house a block or two down.
“How about you tell me what in the world I’m supposed to wear on Friday?”
Tessa gaped. “How could I have forgotten about your date!” She almost jumped in place. “Do you still have that red dress?”
“Oh,” Daisy breathed, “I didn’t take it to be a red dress occasion.”
“If this isn’t a red dress moment, when will it be?”
Daisy laughed. “Alright, it’ll be a red dress kind of date,” she said. “I honestly still can’t believe this is where I’ve ended up. After all this time pining and longing and embarrassing myself, Ethan finally decided to ask me out? It feels almost…”
“Like a fairy tale!” Tessa interjected.
“I was gonna say more like an impractical joke,” Daisy said with a shrug, “but that works too.”
Tessa shook her head. “Don’t say that! Ethan finally realizing what a catch you are is real life, Daisy!”
“But it was so sudden,” Daisy muttered. “He camebackto the shop, just to ask me out on a date? What could’ve changed in such a short period of time?”
“Everything! Who can explain how a man’s mind works?”
Daisy giggled. “Says the woman with a husband!”
“And you’ll never catch me knowing what Steve is thinking,” Tessa mused with a shake of her head. “Besides, this is differentfrom Steve and I. Haven’t you and Ethan known each other since high school?”
Daisy felt the blush rise to her cheeks before she even spoke. “He never paid me any mind in school,” she admitted. “Not that it mattered. I was with Gary soon enough, and I never had eyes for anyone else.”
The mention of her late husband brought a somber mood to their walk home. Daisy was suddenly wistful with memories. Perhaps if she closed her eyes and focused hard enough, it would be thirty years ago, and she’d be walking down the street with her arm wrapped around Gary instead of Tessa. And, perhaps, there’d even be a roundness to her stomach, a darling creature growing deep within her womb.
Absentmindedly, Daisy reached and wrapped her arm across her stomach. The things she never had and the things she prayed every night for hung over her head like a rain cloud. Being a widow, she’d realized very early on, was one of the most solitary things a human could ever be. Even then, with her close friends all around her for support, Daisy couldn’t shake the feeling that remained. The question that she might never forget.
What would life be like if Gary had never passed?
If she’d carried her child through the entire term?
If -
Daisy shook her head. Now was certainlynotthe time for that.
“Do you know where Ethan is taking you yet?” Tessa asked. Even if everyone in Willowbrook teased Tessa for her cluelessness on occasion, Daisy couldn’t deny her growing skill as an empath. Tessa managed to feel the shift in the atmosphere rather quickly, changing the subject as soon as she could.
Daisy shrugged. “He said he’d call when -” She paused as she realized they were coming up to Old Lady Witherford’s house,right before her own. “We better nip this conversation in the bud.”
