Page 48 of Home Is Where the Witch Is
“I will.” Maggie turned to her step-brother. “And you’re not getting any,” she added jokingly.
“I’ll have my own food,” Gabe retorted, studying the menu like a fast food connoisseur like he wasn’t just about to order a Granny Dog With Everything the same way he did every other time they came here.
Over at the counter, Granny was serving up rounds of her famous milkshakes. Maude was sitting there with Beckett, the two of them having an animated discussion about the best way to build The Dames a new coop. Elladine was sitting at a table by the door with some of the Mosswood old timers who usually frequented Nourish. They had a checker board spread across the table, and they seemed to be playing in teams somehow.
“How on earth are you copin’ with the night feedin’? I reckon we have it bad enough, and we’ve only got the one!”
“It’s fine, really. I just make sure I have two bottles ready to go before I go to bed, and then Declan and I take one each.”
“Smart. Prudence is so fussy that it always seems to take us forever to get her back down, and by then the whole house is exhausted no matter who got up to do the feeding!”
“Maggie was a little like that,” Rosie confessed, lowering her voice so her eldest daughter wouldn’t overhear. “Sounds terrible, but you might find that controlled crying helps—if you can stand it!”
“Oh I couldn’t. She really is the sweetest little pea in the pod. I couldn’t just let her cry.”
“I totally get that,” Rosie agreed. “Each to their own! At the end of the day, you have to do what’s the easiest for you and Myles.”
“We really are the luckiest women on earth, aren’t we?”
“The luckiest.”
Their waitress made her way around their tables, taking everyone’s order and repeating it all back to make sure everything was correct.
Myles and Declan were discussing the latest boxing match that local mechanic—and Declan’s familiar—Joey Copeland was scheduled for. Having made something of a comeback with his boxing career in recent years and settling down with Veronica, Mosswood’s vet, seemed to have been good for Joey. Matthew and Gabe had inserted themselves into the conversation, spouting facts they had Googled on their phones.
As he talked with his friend and their kids, Declan gestured animatedly with one hand while the other was curved around a pint of beer. When he caught Rosie looking at him, his sea-green eyes sparked with desire. A slow smile spread over his handsome face, almost as though he recognized the look of reciprocation in his wife’s expression. Rosie felt a thrill of excitement run through her and decided, right then and there, that if her husband played his cards right that night he might just get lucky later.
Life, she decided as she sat back to wait for her chicken burger, reallydidhave a crazy habit of working out just the way it should. And as she looked around at all the loved ones, friends, and locals gathered around her, Rosie knew her heart would have its home in Mosswood forever.
EPILOGUE
Six months later…
The family breakfastwas a whirl of juice and cereal and coffee, before the last few essential items in the fridge were packed in a cooler ready for transporting. Despite Declan’s insistence they could shrink all the furniture down and put it in a shoe box, Rosie had opted for hiring a moving company. Any neighborhood onlookers would see they were doing this the old-fashioned way, and hopefully glance past the fact that it was all happening sooner than it probably should have thanks to a little magic here and there in private.
Rosie sat on the porch, sipping the last cup of coffee she would ever drink as the lady of this home. Winter had settled in Mosswood like an old friend coming to stay, bringing cozy vibes and the gray days Rosie strangely seemed to love the best. She saw the glow of headlights coming up Oak Street before she saw the actual moving truck, which gave her time to poke her head through the front door.
“They’re here!”
A few hours later, the convoy of moving van, Declan’s truck, her Ford Focus and the little hatchback Gabe had just bought for himself as his first car were all heading through town. They passed the Kwik Kleen before turning onto Main Street, past the Town Hall, and the Sheriff's office. Past the Go-Go Mart, the Library, and the Elementary School. They chugged along the highway past the Vet Clinic and Granny’s before reaching the Beep ’n’ Sleep. And then they finally turned left at the Hayes Sugar and Syrup Mill and headed up The Ridge.
Before long, they were enveloped in Needlepoint Woods. The thickly knitted pine trees spread out like soldiers on either side of the road; silently standing sentinel as though providing a guard of honor. Dappled winter sunlight filtered through their canopies onto the road, until they turned off onto the long gravel drive she was so familiar with.
At first glance Fox Cottage looked the same as it had before. The color scheme had remained the same, but on closer inspection the quality was much higher than the original building had boasted. Even though the gardens around the place had been completely destroyed, Rosie was hopeful for the future. She and Declan had discussed doing the new beds in the spring to give the new plants the best possible chance to get established before they were blasted with another summer.
The truck pulled up and the movers started to take the last of their belongings into the 'new' old home. She knew it would take some time to get everything settled where they wanted it. Some things, too, would never be the same. She wouldn’t miss her old bed, or the slightly weird-smelling carpet. But the old vintage couch had character, and the original clawfoot tub had been divine for soaking in.
She’d been given the job of directing the ‘traffic’ into the house, such as it was. It involved unpacking things in the kitchen with the baby monitor clipped to the waistband of her jeans while the twins napped. In just a short period of time she’d dealt with all the cutlery and unwrapped and stacked all the dishes and glassware into their new homes. If nothing else, they’d be able to eat tonight without using cardboard bowls and disposable wooden utensils.
“Where is this goin’ love?” Declan held up two garbage bags full of towels and linen. But they were white towels, not teal, signifying they were for grown-ups and not kids.
“Ensuite,” she replied with a grateful smile.
“This?” Gabe asked, two steps behind his dad with a lamp that had a heavy brass base and a pretty leaf-patterned shade.
“Living room. Maggie—some of these lighter boxes are for the twins’ room. Can you please take them in?”
“Okay!” Maggie replied, stepping in to help as one of the moving guys came out of the hallway on his way back to the truck for another load.
