Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

" C ome on, honey. Let's go!" I call up the stairs to my ten-year-old daughter, Bella. We were going to be late—again.

"I can't find my shoes!" she says.

"They shouldn't be upstairs anyway!" I call back. "What's the rule? No shoes in the house." I put my purse and Bella's lunchbox on the floor as I pick through the pile of shoes that should be in the closet but only seem to make it there once a week. Okay, who am I kidding? It's like once a month that I actually bother to put them away. Of course, Bella should be putting away her own shoes, but I'm not the disciplinarian I should be, and we both know it.

Dash, our hyper Papillion dog, runs over and tries to lick my face.

"No, down, girl," I say, trying to shield myself.

Our fat cat, Mr. Darcy, joins in, crying to be fed even though I have already fed him and know his bowl is full of food.

"Bella!" I call out again after I find one of her shoes but not the other. "What are you doing up there? Hurry up. I found one shoe. Get down here and find the other."

Bella thumps down the stairs, one shoe on, dragging her backpack behind her. "I was trying to do a spell to make my shoe appear."

I groan. "Did you accidentally make it dis appear?"

"Oh," she says, her face dropping. "Maybe."

"Maybe that's why one is down here and one was up there?" I ask, holding out her shoe to her.

"I don't know," she says. "I'll have to ask Beverly."

My daughter is a budding witch, and I definitely am not, so I can't train her. My grandmother on my father's side was a witch, so I knew it was a possibility that she could be born a witch. Still, even growing up in Mystic Cove with lots of witch and werewolf friends, I was not prepared to raise a witch of my own, especially not alone.

"Look what I learned!" Bella says. She waves her hand and says a magical phrase and poor Dash starts levitating. Mr. Darcy hisses and runs away while Dash yelps in fear.

"Bella!" I say, jumping up and grabbing the poor pup. "Don't do that. She's scared."

"It's cool!" Bella says, finally putting her shoe on.

"Yes, but only to people and animals that actually want to fly, right?" I say. "How would you like it if you were suddenly flipped on your head? You can only do magic on other people if they consent, right? Remember how we talked about consent?"

"But she can't talk," Bella groans. "How can she consent? She will learn to like it, I'm sure."

I sigh as I grab my bag and Bella's lunchbox, remembering I left my water bottle on the counter. "Go to the car. I'll be right there."

"I thought you were ready," she says as she opens the door to go outside.

"Look out for the—" I grunt as I see Mr. Darcy bolt out the door. I grab my water and run out after him. I grab him, getting fur and now lawn clippings on my shirt as I take him back into the house and shut the door. I find my keys in my purse, miraculously, but realize I don't have my phone. I slip back inside, grab my phone, do a quick check to ensure I haven't forgotten anything else, and then slip back out the door, locking it behind me, and then rushing to the car. Bella is already in the back seat, buckled in.

I check the time on the dashboard as I start the car. "Dang it. You're going to be late. I'll have to go sign you in."

"Sorry," she says.

"It's fine," I say because it's annoying but nothing to fight over. At the light, I text my friend, Cora, and let her know I'll be late to the gym.

"I have a class with Beverly today," Bella reminds me.

"Yeah, I know," I say. "Tonight, we need to walk the dog, do your homework, do some gardening, have dinner, watch 90-Day Fiancé , and then go to bed, right?" I don't know why both of us love 90-Day Fiancé , but we do. I guess seeing people with much worse lives is comforting, somehow. Not that my life is terrible. It's just…not great. My guilt, sadness, and depression over the death of my husband just weigh on me, even after four years, and I know it means I'm not mentally and emotionally always there for Bella, and she carries her own grief around too. We are both in therapy, but I feel like we've hit a wall. Maybe we need to find new therapists. Get a fresh perspective. But living in a small town, we don't have a lot of options. And I can't get a therapist in another town or online because I need someone I can trust with the fact that Bella is a witch. It's a big part of our lives, so I don't think I could work with a therapist I have to keep that a secret from.

"Do you think Kim and Usman are going to get married this season?" she asks.

"I have no idea," I say, leaning over the steering wheel to make a turn.

"Maybe you should go on that show," she says.

"I'd have to have a fiancé first," I say.

"Seems pretty easy to get one online," she says.

"That's true," I say. "But how would I explain to him that my daughter is a witch?"

"Oh, right," she says. "You'd need to marry a local man, I guess. Can you meet a local man online?"

I had only been half listening to her as I drove. It suddenly dawns on me what she is saying. "You…want me to get married again?"

"I don't know," she says, then she clams up. I'm not sure what to say to this. It's the most she has said to me on the subject since her dad died. And I'm not ready to get married again. I can't even imagine what that would look like. I'm a mess! Even now, I'm just waiting to get Bella into school so I can burst into tears. And I don't want to upset Bella before she goes to school. I want her to have a good day and be on her best behavior. When she gets upset, she tends to lash out, usually by using magic in ways she shouldn't.

I park the car in the drop-off line since no one else is here to drop off their kids since they should all be in school already and usher Bella inside.

"Hi, Cathy," I say to the school secretary. She looks over her glasses at me and gives me the sign-in sheet.

"Third time this month, Ms. Jones," she says, chewing her gum.

"Yeah, I know," I say as I scribble Bella's name down. Under "reason for tardiness," I just put "life." I know it's mainly my fault. I hit the snooze button four times instead of the usual three.

"And it's only the second week of the month," Cathy prods.

"Yeah…I know," I say, letting my annoyance show.

"One more tardy this month and it will count as an absence, young lady," she says to Bella.

"Hey," I say, putting myself between Cathy and Bella. "I know . It happens, alright?"

Cathy gives a little humph as she takes the sign-in sheet from me.

"Go on to class, okay?" I say to Bella. She starts to go, but I grab her and give her a hug, kissing her on the top of her head. "Have a great day, okay?"

"Yeah," she says a little glumly as she walks off without much pep in her step.

"Thanks," I say to Cathy as I leave, just because it's one of those things you are supposed to say to other people even if you don't really mean it. And I really don't mean it. I don't know who Cathy thinks she's helping by pointing out my parenting flaws, of which I am more than well aware.

When I get back to the car, I take a moment to cry. I know I don't have much reason to cry, but I just need to. I haven't cried in, like, three days, which is probably a record for me. I really don't want to go workout. But I know I need to. The endorphins and talking with a friend usually do make me feel better, more ready to face the day. Isn't that what a workout buddy is for, anyway?

I pull into the gym's parking lot and grab my water bottle. Cora is waiting for me in the lobby.

"Hey!" she says with a wave. "So, just ellipticals today?"

"Sure," I say.

"Are you okay?" she asks as we climb the stairs to the machine room.

"Oh, you know, life," I tell her.

"Don't I know it," she says. Cora and I met a few months ago at Jumpin' Beans coffee and pastry shop. She's a ghost. Or, well, she was a ghost. For like two hundred years! But something happened, some magic spell went awry, and now she's here. We sort of bonded over the fact that we both love Jumpin' Beans but weren't fans of our expanding hips, so we decided to work out together so we could eat more pastries and drink more coffee.

We both jump onto machines next to each other and set the timers for one hour. No more, no less.

"How did your weekend go?" I ask her.

"Pretty good," she says. "Beckett talked about introducing me to his family, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that."

"It's a big step," I say, remembering when I met Mark's family for the first time. They were…less than pleased. They were a very traditional family, especially his mother. She had wanted Mark to marry a nice Mexican Catholic girl from their community. Not a blonde pagan he met at college.

"I'm just not sure what to say when they ask about my past, my own family," Cora says. "What do I say when they ask if I have any children?"

I chuckle. "That's a tough one. I mean, I guess you just say no and don't go into the details."

"Yeah," she says. "I guess Beckett and I just need to sit down and agree on a backstory for me, then go over it a hundred times to make sure we don't mess it up."

"Could be a fun little project for you," I say.

"Yeah, I guess. So, how are you and Bella doing?"

"Alright," I say. "She's really enjoying her classes with Beverly."

"Yeah, I've noticed," she says. Cora usually works at The Book Coven while Beverly tutors Bella. Though we usually just spend the hour gabbing.

"She said something weird this morning," I say. "She said that I should go online and find a fiancé."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah."

"So…do you think she wants you to start dating again?"

"I don't know," I say, increasing my speed, which makes it a little harder to talk. "I couldn't get her to say any more on the subject. And I didn't really know what to say anyway."

"Well…how do you feel about it?"

I shake my head and take a few deep breaths. "I don't know," is all I manage to get out.

"You could talk to Beverly about it."

I cough out a laugh as I increase my speed even more. I suddenly wish I was running in the opposite way of this conversation. Beverly is a well-known matchmaker in our town. All of her matches eventually end up at the altar. It's how Cora hooked up with Beckett, sort of. I know that if I was really ready to meet someone, all I would have to do is let Beverly Barnes know. But I can't do that. I don't know if I can ever do that. When I think about being with someone, I immediately go back to that night. To that stupid fight. Why did I say those things? Why did he have to leave?

Why did he have to die?