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“The sooner I can get my old folks and aunties to sleep, the better it’ll be for me,” she explained.

Daisy raised her hands, stifling a laugh. “Whatever you say, Diana. We’ve got plenty of sleep aids for sale whenever you’re ready to get them.”

“Well, I’m curious,” Tessa said. “Any handsome relatives coming in?”

“Tessa!” Daisy chuckled with a shake of her head. “What if Maverick knew you were asking that?”

She waved an absentminded hand at her. “Not for me, silly.” Tessa held her ring finger up to Diana for her to see the sterling silver symbols etched on her golden band. “I meant for Daisy, of course.”

“Tess -”

“He has to be single, obviously,” she continued, her attention focused on Diana, “and older than thirty.”

Daisy’s eyes popped open wider. “ Thirty, Tess?”

“Alright, alright. Older than thirty-five.”

Diana laughed. “Well, I have a few cousins who -”

The doorbell chimed again as the mailman stepped inside the shop.

As the morning trudged on, more and more people would begin to filter onto Willowbrook’s streets.

Daisy stepped around the counter, leaving the gossiping pair behind her to greet the mailman.

He carried a package, simply taped and postaged.

“Daisy Fields?” he asked.

She nodded with a smile. “Package for me?”

“Exactly right.” The mailman held up a form. “Sign here, Mrs. Fields.”

Daisy pressed her lips together. “It’s ‘Ms.’ not ‘Mrs.’”

The mailman bowed his head. “Apologies, Ms. Fields.”

Taking the package from him, Daisy held the door for the mailman to leave before slowly walking back towards the counter. Diana and Tessa were talking lively about relationships and single men, not bothering to hold back even though they were mentioning Daisy as if she wasn’t there.

By that point, Tessa had been trying to set Daisy up for years.

But, as Tessa would so lovingly point out, trying to set up a widow with a handsome bachelor only became harder with every passing day.

Daisy didn’t need to be told that fact, as she knew it herself quite well, but she had no qualms with it.

Sure, she had gone on a date or two since she lost her husband at twenty-five, but she was over fifty, and she found more accomplishment in her brews and tonics than searching the streets of Willowbrook for an interested man.

Daisy stepped back behind the counter, setting the package down beside the register, while Diana was beginning to leave. She left a few cards on the counter, each with a different man’s name and number written on them. Diana gave Daisy a suggestive wink.

“I’ll see you two soon!” Diana called out over her shoulder before slipping out of Fields’ Herbals .

Tessa tucked the cards into Daisy’s breast pocket. “For safekeeping.”

“Very funny,” Daisy teased. “When will you give up on me?”

“I wouldn’t ever dare.”

“Not even when we’re both old and wrinkly? And I’ll be alone, of course, so you and Maverick will have to build me a room in your house.” Daisy smirked. “You wouldn’t give up on me then?”

“Of course not,” Tessa continued. “Maverick will just have to deal with two wives instead of one.”

Daisy burst into laughter.

The music turned back on with a wave of Tessa’s hand, and then they were back to dancing and cleaning the store. Tessa arranged the scarves once more, and Daisy dusted. They worked meticulously to prepare the shop for the busier days of the week that were to come.

When early afternoon came, they had finally finished. Tessa grabbed her coat and keys from the hooks behind the counter, and Daisy didn’t even need to ask to know where she was heading.

“I’ve been craving sandwiches from Ronald’s place down the block,” Tessa said as she neared the front door. “How does that sound for lunch?”

Daisy glanced at the clock, swiping a stray tear off of her cheek. “It’s still a little early.”

“The line stretches out as far as the CD shop,” Tessa replied. “Each time I’ve gone recently, I’ve waited for nearly an hour.”

“Smart thinking. I’ll be hungry by the time you get back.”

Tessa finger gunned her before slipping out the door, almost tripping on the threshold step on her way out.

Daisy ran her fingers over the package. Now that she looked at it closer, she couldn’t find a return address or any indication as to where it might’ve come from.

The box itself was neatly sealed, just a simple cardboard box.

She was moments away from lifting it and rattling the contents beside her ear like a child when movement out the window caught her eyes instead.

“By all that is good and holy,” Daisy muttered, her attention stuck on the man nearing the door.

Ethan Walker was the epitome of the boy next door, though Daisy hated that thought.

The both of them were well over forty years old, not at all near the age of the teenage heartthrobs who carried on and on about the handsome bachelor living beside them.

Even so, Daisy’s eyes widened as she watched him.

The sunlight shone down on him gracefully, lighting up his chestnut-colored eyes and hair that was speckled with streaks of silvery grey.

Ever since they were kids, Ethan’s skin had looked the same shade as the inside of a tree, rustic and deeply tanned.

He always tended to keep his hair on the longer side, pushing the strands behind his ears and down his neck.

The smile he wore could light up an entire room in the middle of the night, the same smile he graced his two children with.

Daisy knew Ethan very well, even if he didn’t remember her in the same fashion.

They had gone to school together, since they both grew up in Willowbrook, and they went their separate ways like most other teens did.

Eventually, he married. She married. And fate somehow left both of them alone.

Soon, they both found themselves living and working side by side, Ethan with his successful lawyer career and Daisy with her prominent store front.

She glanced at his hands as he reached for the front door of Fields’ Herbals .

Ethan, like many in Willowbrook, was a proficient warlock, capable of minor illusions and spells. Daisy hadn’t seen him in action often, but when she had, she was as starstruck as she was just then.

“Oh, sugar,” Daisy muttered when she finally realized he was seconds away from entering the shop. She fumbled, placing the package on the edge of the counter.

When was the last time she saw him in the shop?

Perhaps it was two days ago, or the week before.

Ethan tended to stop by in the mornings every now and then, but Daisy was embarrassed to admit she saw him plenty more than that.

While some - and by some she meant Tessa - might’ve called her obsessed, Daisy had a perfect view of his office from her window in the back of the shop.

As she brewed her potions and restocked her herbs, Daisy watched him from afar, her heart at ease.

The doorbell chimed as Ethan stepped inside.

“Morning,” Ethan called out as he pressed further into the shop. “I’m surprised you’re not packed full of people already.”

Daisy meant to laugh but the sound that came out of her resembled a balloon losing all of its air. She smiled instead. “Mondays,” she replied with a shrug.

Ethan nodded, lifting his head as he glanced around.

Looking away, Daisy bit down on the inside of her mouth, the embarrassment rising up her throat.

She caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror on the opposite wall.

Long brown hair hung wildly down her back, frizzy strands poking up every which way.

Every time she managed to look at her reflection, Daisy was surprised by how wide her eyes looked.

Most relatives and family friends went on to compliment her eyes, mentioning how much she looked like her mother and how she seemed to take everything in all the time.

Now, as Daisy peered back over the aisles at Ethan, she wished to look more normal, more like the average woman.

Ethan was about to step out from one of the narrow aisles when his broad shoulder bumped into a shelf, rattling the wood and the series of vials within.

He winced, jumping around to make sure nothing fell before knocking into the other shelf at the same time.

He went incredibly still, not moving till the shelves went still.

“Sorry,” he muttered, an awkward smile stretched across his face.

Daisy couldn’t help but focus in on the stubble growing along his jaw, hardly noticing the way he barely fit through the aisles. “I-I do it all the time,” she blurted. “Knock into things, I mean.”

He pressed his lips together while slowly approaching the counter. “Could I get a tea, Daisy?”

Heat rose to her face. All he did was say her name, but it sent her heart hammering ballistically against her chest. Daisy cleared her throat. “Of course,” she replied. “Any ailment?” She studied his face as she would with any customer. “You’ve got some bags.”

Ethan blinked. “Bags?”

“I-I mean -” She raised a finger, pointing to her own eyes. “Like below your eyes.”

He laughed lightly. “Right. I haven’t been sleeping the best.”

“Would you like an energy tonic in the tea?”

Ethan smiled broadly, showing pearly white teeth. “That would be perfect, Daisy.”

She flung around, taking a few steps to where a small hot plate sat on a short counter.

A tea set was beside it, with a few takeaway cups alongside it.

Daisy prepped the water, already making a mess, her hands trembling in a way they never had before.

Behind her, Ethan patiently waited, his attention pulled to the shelves rather than honing in on her.

She swallowed as heat engulfed her entire body as she tried to make the tea as calmly as possible.