The Hidden Grimoire by Karla Brandenburg (pride and prejudice read TXT) 📕

I showered and dressed, and while I collected Ash, Kyle packed the food we’d bought for dinner and carried it across the street.

His house smelled of polyurethane, the hardwood floors gleaming a rich, reddish brown. I kicked off my shoes so as not to track any dirt across the clean surface. I let Ash out of her basket and she made herself at home on the velour sofa.

The living room, like mine, was small and led to a patio behind the house. The white French doors Kyle had installed brightened the room. Like my house, wooden beams lined the ceiling. Unlike my house, the dining area had its own nook, part of and yet separate from the living room. The kitchen was twice the size of mine, and he’d recently replaced the countertops with no-drip bullnose edges. They’d turned out well. Something to swap out in my kitchen?

While we unpacked the food, Kyle’s father knocked on the door. I stayed in the kitchen when Kyle went to let him in. Out of sight, out of mind—but not for long. Mr. Jakes sought me out within minutes.

He’d shaved his mottled beard since the last time I’d seen him, which made the few strands of brown left in his white hair more noticeable. His eyes, more gray than blue, settled on me. “Kyle tells me you two have decided on May for the wedding.”

With my back to the counter, I set my hands on the edges for support. My eyes were drawn, as they usually were, to the mole on his cheek. If we were going to be family, I could nudge him to have it checked, couldn’t I?

Not today.

“We have,” I replied.

He took a step toward me and hugged me. He’d never acknowledged my relationship with Kyle before, so I was caught off balance by his welcoming embrace. I hugged him back awkwardly.

“I hope you don’t mind turkey burgers and baked beans for dinner,” I said. “I did make a pumpkin pie for dessert, though.”

“Honey, I don’t care what you feed me. I’m as happy as a clam to be here,” he said. “I gotta tell you, though, one of my biggest regrets in life was letting Nora go. Might be this is the world giving me a piece of her with you as a daughter-in-law.”

Except he hadn’t let Nora go. She’d been the one to end things. This wasn’t the time to quibble over history. I wasn’t sure what to say.

“You’ll be good to my son?”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied.

He gave me a quick nod, grabbed hold of Kyle’s arm on his way out of the kitchen and the two of them did a tour of the house.

I rested a hand on my stomach, the nerves settling. The encounter might have been awkward, but it filled me with hope for the future.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Kyle and his father were boisterous while they watched football. Ash remained aloof. Kyle’s father hardly noticed her. Not the starter Kyle had hoped for in his campaign to talk his dad into getting a pet.

When we waved goodbye to his father, Kyle slid his arm around my waist. He might not have made progress with the pet, but his contented glow spoke to the success of the day.

The three of us were family.

Chapter 43

By Saturday, my life in Hillendale had become blissfully uneventful.

I mixed bath salts in the backroom for Sally Miller’s December B&B order while Cassandra sewed in the front window. Siri filled the shop with music, and two hours into our day, Cassandra checked on me to let me know she would pick up lunch for us. I set my work aside, and gave Ash a cursory pet. She rose and followed me to the front.

While I sat at the counter, I checked the computer for internet orders until the bell over the door announced a customer.

Sharon Clark walked in, a smile on her face. Before today, she’d been sad or angry on the occasions I’d spoken to her. The transformation was remarkable, and yet my nerves jumped. Had I lulled myself into a false sense of security?

I mustered as much civility as I could. “How can I help you today?”

She rushed toward me and drew me into a hug.

Stunned, I pushed back. “What’s this about?”

She glanced toward the door, then grinned at me. “Jason is divorcing LeAnne. He says he doesn’t know how it went on this long, or why he couldn’t see through her sooner.”

Did this mean he wanted to resume his relationship with Sharon? Congratulations didn’t seem appropriate, and yet she was clearly thrilled.

She took a step back. “I know you think I’m a lunatic, but you have to understand. Jason was going to propose to me until LeAnne showed up, and then suddenly he hardly remembered who I was, at least at first. When she was pregnant with Georgia, he seemed to come around a bit, but by then, he’d already married LeAnne, and he was determined to honor his commitment to her. I don’t know how you made him see through her, but I’m eternally grateful. He asked me to forgive him and to give us another try to see if we could work through all this.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I told her. “LeAnne brought it on herself.”

“But you were there. Jason told me you were.” She pursed her lips. “He said you’d gone to help her with the kids.”

“I did.”

“And then he said it was as if her mask had been ripped off and he saw her for who she truly was for the first time.”

Which was also true. Once LeAnne had lost her power, the spell she’d cast on him in order to father a superwitch was broken. I wanted to ask Sharon about the kids, but hesitated. I didn’t have a place in their lives. Any of them. I opened my mouth to speak, then stopped.

What was taking Cassandra so long with those