I wanted to tell her. Needed to tell someone, but she was the wrong choice. The best I could do was to confirm my future wasn’t with Kyle. “I can’t be who Kyle wants me to be,” I said.
Ian would understand my gifts. I didn’t have to worry about him walking in on a spell, or questioning the things I could do.
I didn’t know Ian.
The doorbell rang. Grateful for the interruption, I grabbed some money, opened the door and paid for the pizza.
Time to redirect the conversation.
“How far along are you?” I asked. “Do you know yet if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Lisa’s smile turned sad. “We don’t have to talk about the baby.”
More pity over my inability to conceive? “We most certainly do. I want to know everything. Are you having morning sickness? Do your clothes still fit?”
She bounced in her chair again, brimming with excitement. “I throw up every morning.” As if that was something to be excited about. “I’m actually losing weight. The doctor says I’m about eight weeks along.”
“And I’m just finding out about this now?” I asked.
“They say you shouldn’t tell people until after the first trimester, in case something goes wrong, so technically I shouldn’t have told you now.”
I grinned and shook my head. “When is the little bundle due to arrive?”
“March 15.”
“Beware the Ides of March,” I quoted in a theatrical voice.
Lisa laughed. “No one ever delivers on their due date. It would be so cool if we were going through this together.”
Which would have required me to actually sleep with Kyle, and that hadn’t happened in months.
I’d slept with Ian. If, by some stretch of fate, Ian had gotten me pregnant, I’d be due two months after Lisa, in May.
As if.
Chapter 14
After Lisa left, I retreated to my workroom to bottle essential oils and prepare whatever special orders the grimoires called out. When I’d finished, I reached for the light switch when I saw the package of fenugreek beside the potion I’d mixed for Daria. A flush of lust coursed through me, again followed by a prickle of guilt, which I hastily dismissed.
Kyle had removed all his things from my house, and he’d made his intentions clear. I had nothing to feel guilty about.
Which brought me to what had happened with Ian. I’d never slept with anyone on a first date—much less the first time I’d met them. Was it the influence of the fenugreek leaves? I hadn’t smelled the tell-tale maple scent in the market. Or, as Ian had said, had the magic brought us together?
I took my phone from my pocket and stared at his name and number.
Don’t wait too long, I want you again already.
What did I know about this man?
As he’d said, I felt as if we’d known each other forever. We’d shared incredible chemistry. He was like me.
I shot a glance out the window, at Kyle’s house across the street. No lights on. He was certainly in bed by now.
No. I couldn’t call Ian, and yet my body ached for the way he’d touched me, kissed me. I didn’t trust myself not to invite him over and pick up where we’d left off.
I’d learned the art of astral projection when I’d met my niece. I could visit Ian’s dreams without corporeal distractions. I nodded to myself, happy I’d come up with a benign solution.
With one last look across the street, I flipped off the lights and headed to my bedroom. Cross-legged on my bed, I closed my eyes, and whispered the spell.
My consciousness took me outside, beside Nora’s enchanted beech tree in the woods. Had I recited the spell incorrectly? I was alone. Maybe I’d mistaken what I’d seen in Ian’s eyes.
The bracelet my mother had given me warmed my wrist, and Ian materialized a moment later, like a hologram, surveying the area until his gaze landed on me.
“Clever,” he said. “And nicer than a phone call, although I’d much rather be able to touch you.”
Then he hadn’t forgotten me. My mouth went dry. I cleared my throat. “I thought we might get to know one another without the physical distractions. I’m still not sure you haven’t bewitched me.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’d thought the same of you, but I think we both know that isn’t true.” He surveyed the woods, his gaze landing on the enchanted tree. “A sacred place?”
I nodded.
“If we were bewitched, we wouldn’t be here now. We would be either at your home or mine—in person.” He parted the tree’s weeping branches but didn’t walk under their umbrella. “This is a lovely place. Tell me who you are, Brynn.”
I’d visited his dreams to discover who he was. “You first. All I know is you’re a frequent customer at Gupta’s.”
“I am, but not you. You told me you grow your own herbs, something I’d like to be able to do eventually.” He glanced around the woods. “Would you like to walk?”
“Yes.”
He waved me forward to lead the way. “How long have you been using your talents?”
“Five years, give or take.”
Ian nodded. “Then you’re a late bloomer.”
“No,” I told him as we reached the footpath. “I cast my first spell when I was thirteen—unintentionally—but I didn’t know about my gifts at the time. My parents died when I was young and my guardians chose to ignore what they didn’t want to know. When I left their home, I stumbled onto the aunt I share my legacy with.”
“You cast your first spell when you were thirteen? How did you not know?”
I wasn’t ready to share the disastrous results. “I had no one to tell me I could cast a spell. I lived in denial when things didn’t go as planned. What about you?”
He looked up into the dark foliage overarching us. “I visited my uncle every summer, starting in high school, learning the old ways. I couldn’t say when I began mixing things for my friends or for strangers who seemed to recognize I could help them.” He graced me with a
