with me while I watched Chase. Hoping to pull her out of her funk, I continued with my uber cheery tone.
“Let’s do both.” I removed the plastic wrap from the popcorn, stuck it in the microwave, and set the timer for three minutes. Next, I took two large bowls out of the cabinet and finally answered her question. “My dad hired them to help with the doctor’s office, not his regular clients.”
“Since when does he work on a Saturday night?” With obvious boredom, she watched the bag of popcorn expand.
“Since the Osborns’ water heater sprung a leak.”
“I’m fine with Paige having to take freezing-cold showers.” Kaylee leaned against the counter, arms folded over her torso.
“Yeah, well, my dad wasn’t. Look, if you don’t want to be here, then go.” I ripped opened the bag of chips and dumped them into one of the bowls. Frustrated with her mood, I turned to leave, but she caught my arm.
“It’s not that,” she said.
“Then what is it, because you’re acting as if hanging out is ruining your night.”
“Madison, I’m sorry.” She snatched the chips out of my hand to get me to look at her. “Really, I am. It’s just that Josh was going to show me how to do more than just block a spell.”
Out of the four of us, Kaylee was the least experienced with the powers. And because she was also the only one who wasn’t a natural witch, last month Isaac and Josh had shared a small amount of their powers with her as a way to protect her from the influx of magic in Gloucester. We had shown her basic things like how to conjure a shield and deflect objects flung at her. Witch Defense 101 is what Josh called it.
“And instead you’re watching Lightning McQueen and Mater tip tractors,” I said, now able to understand her snarky tone.
“Yeah,” she replied, shoulders slumped forward. She lowered herself onto a chair.
The bell on the microwave went off. I grabbed the popcorn, poured it into the second bowl, and took a seat across from her.
“I’m sorry.” And I was. I’d been selfish to suggest we hang out at my place so I wouldn’t be stuck home with Chase while they were out having fun. “I didn’t know you wanted to learn to do more with the powers you were given.”
“Josh made me promise to get used to having them before I tried the fun stuff. I think he was afraid I’d find them seductive like Emma did or not be able to control them like Kevin.”
Emma had become so addicted to the powers that she’d been willing to kill for more. And Kevin had become a danger to everyone around him because his reluctance to embrace his powers meant he hadn’t known how to restrain them either.
“Like that would ever happen.” I ate a piece of popcorn. “What made him come around?”
“He said something about—” her voice changed to mock Josh’s “—if I was going to go to the dark side, I would have done it by now.”
“Kaylee, you don’t have a dark side. I think the guys worry too much, if you ask me.”
“How’s that?” she asked, elbow on the table and temple resting on her palm.
“The powers allow a person to do more; they don’t change who that person is. Emma was a manipulative bitch before she made the deal in exchange for becoming a witch, and Kevin only had problems because he didn’t know what was happening to him. If he’d had support from the beginning like you have, he would’ve been fine.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do you really think so?”
“Yes. Look at me.” She did. “I’m still the same loving person I was when school started last summer.”
She smiled a real smile this time.
I should have known my best friend wanted to learn more spells. I wasn’t sure when I’d stopped picking up on Kaylee’s needs before having to be told what they were, but I planned on paying closer attention in the future.
“What was Josh going to show you?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. The trick you do with fire, maybe? That would be cool.” She nibbled on a chip, a faraway look in her eyes. After a moment, she shrugged. “There’s always tomorrow, right?”
“I promise, if Josh doesn’t show you, I will.”
“Really?” She glanced out the doorway to the kitchen as if she hoped Josh hadn’t heard.
I wondered if he’d made her promise not to ask me to teach her magic until he said it was okay. The guys being cautious I totally got, but this was Kaylee we were talking about.
“Deal,” she said, beaming. Then she pointed with a chip to the fir and evergreen centerpiece in the middle of the table. “What’s with the pinecone-berry thingy?”
I raised my shoulders and let them fall. “I don’t know. I think one of Dad’s clients gave it to him. Smells nice.”
She leaned over the table and breathed in deeply. “Mmm, like Christmas.”
Josh poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, Chase wanted me to tell you you’re missing the best part of the movie.”
I laughed. “According to Chase, every part of that movie is the best.” Seriously, I could recite each line even with the sound off. We’d seen it that many times.
Kaylee and I rejoined the guys in the family room. Once everyone had enough to eat, we got comfortable. I sat on the couch, snuggled against Isaac’s chest with Chase snuggled against mine. Josh and Kaylee had made their own cozy spot on the floor with some throw pillows and a blanket.
“Kaylee seems like she’s in a better mood,” Isaac whispered.
“You noticed the acid tone?” I asked, not really surprised. She’d been snippy with all of us before our chat in the kitchen.
“It was hard to miss. You didn’t, you know…cast another calming spell. Did you?”
“No!” I lowered my voice even more. “She had other plans for tonight.”
Isaac nibbled my ear. “Fun plans?”
The comment along with the nuzzling had me picturing Kaylee and Josh in a way I really didn’t want to picture them. “There’s an image I didn’t want in my head.”
Besides, Kaylee knew how totally jealous I was that she didn’t have a problem pulling in her powers when she was intimate with Josh. Josh’s theory about why it was easy for them was that they’d already been a couple when Kaylee had been given powers. That meant there was less pressure about first kisses and whatnot when they were together.
Isaac’s reasoning was more scientific. He felt it made sense that Kaylee and Josh didn’t experience the same electrical jolt of powers colliding when they kissed that he and I did, because Josh’s magic coursed through her veins. That did seem logical. It wasn’t like Josh shocked himself when he touched his own arm.
“Josh was going to show her something new,” I said.
“Ew! Now that’s a picture I didn’t want in
I hit his thigh. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“Yours went there first,” he pointed out.
Josh pushed himself into a sitting position. “What are you guys discussing?” He waggled his eyebrows.
Isaac threw a pillow at his head. “Like I’d tell you.”
“Shh!” Chase hissed. “I can’t hear Mater.”
As if he couldn’t recite the entire movie too.
I dropped my voice to a murmur. “Josh was going to show her a spell.” That was all I had to tell Isaac for him to be in on the Kaylee Training Session.
Dad got home around eight. He announced he was going to take a quick shower and would then entertain Chase for us, but by the sound of the logs he sawed soon afterward, we guessed he had lain down and passed out instead. We tucked Chase in bed at nine. That left the four of us alone in the family room to do whatever we wanted.
I grabbed several thick pillar candles from the box in the hall closet. After moving the coffee table out of the way, we placed three of them on the floor and distributed the rest evenly around the room. We sat in our usual spots and built our circle.
“Madison, you want to show Kaylee this one?” Isaac asked.
