Page 2 of Magical Melee (Stonewick Magical Midlife Witch Academy #1)

“Are you going to open it or just stare at it?” Skye teased as I set my empty cup on the table.

“Probably stare at it for a minute.” I grinned, shaking my head. “I’m just…confused.”

“Well, he’s certainly a tall drink of water,” Skye whispered, wiggling her brows. “You know, if you’re into the strong, gorgeous type.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Skye, you’re impossible. I’m barely divorced. I’m not looking. I wouldn’t know what to do in that kind of situation. We were kids when we last saw one another. I think he’s a few years older.”

Skye’s brows rose. “Not buying it at all. I helped you pack your lingerie drawer, Maeve. You are no prude.”

“It’s all locked away in storage. Just like my emotions.” I chuckled.

My cheeks flushed, but I wasn’t sure if it was from Skye or the tea.

I felt lighter and more peaceful since I’d finished the Calmora tea. Maybe it did its job.

She glanced at her phone and let out a sigh. “So, not to rush you…”

Skye’s eyes filled with wonder for the next Stonewick adventure, but all I had were questions.

My tea worked like a kaleidoscope.

A bulldog suddenly imprinted on me.

A long-lost childhood friend showed up unexpectedly and delivered something I was afraid to open.

And a woman who didn’t look a day over seventy was actually over a century old, running a tea shop with more spring in her step than I ever had.

To say I’d had my fill of oddities was putting it mildly.

I glanced at Stella busily helping the throng of customers who flooded the shop this Friday evening. As I studied her, something told me she had some answers.

“Two appointments are calling our names for a couple of good readings.” Skye tried again.

My brows furrowed as I rubbed my temples.

“As in tarot,” she continued. “Come on. Don’t tell me you’ve never done it before.”

I shook my head, glancing down at the envelope. “Nope.”

Skye caught my gaze and smiled.

“Your maiden name is gorgeous.”

Maeve Una Bellemore, where have you been?

Keeping my married name of Lovitt seemed easier to stay connected with Celeste, but seeing my birth name spelled out so beautifully made my stomach knot. I’d never felt like a Lovitt.

Lovitt.

Truth be told, I didn’t love anything about it .

Lovitt.

Alex Lovitt.

Ugh.

Maybe it was time for a switch back.

“Thank you. I always felt bad for letting it go,” I confided. “It was like the one thing that connected me to my dad.”

She nodded sympathetically. “Seriously. What kind of friend am I? We’ve been through thick and thin with each other for ten years, and I didn’t even think to ask about your maiden name.”

“Oh, please. Little details like that are irrelevant to the strength of a friendship. Think about it. I even had Alex’s social security number memorized. A lot of good it did me.” I snickered.

A hint of apprehension skirted her gaze. “You don’t know my maiden name, do you?”

I winked, waving the envelope at her. “Seymour, but I’m nosy like that. It’s what happens when you’re friends with someone your senior. We run background checks, hire PIs, the whole lot.”

She groaned, rolled her eyes, and laughed as I debated opening the envelope.

I smiled and eyed the envelope. I hadn’t seen Keegan since my dad’s death when I was a little girl. How he knew I was here made no sense. Why it mattered to him made even less. And him thinking I’d been here before absolutely baffled me.

Stella walked toward us with a smile. “Care for any more tea, dears?”

“No. I’m fine,” I said quickly, shaking my head.

Her eyes narrowed on mine before dropping to the envelope. “Everything okay, Maeve?”

“Maeve?” I shook my head, uncertain how she knew.

“It’s on the envelope, darling.” She smiled, cocking her head slightly. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Keegan. I know him. Does he live in this town?” The room started to spin slowly around me, but I refused to show any signs that I was about to lose it.

After all, wasn’t it normal to feel abnormal when you’ve lost your entire identity nearly overnight?

Married? Not any longer.

Homeowner? Probably never again.

Mom? Always, but only when phoned now.

Stella’s brows curled as her mouth pursed together. “Live here? Ha! He basically runs the place. Keeps us in check. Makes sure both feet are on the ground for those who don’t think too much of law and order.”

“Oh, is he the mayor or sheriff…”I shook my head, and Frank snorted behind me.

For a bulldog, the creature was very stealthy.

The older woman chuckled. “He likes to think he’s all the above, but he owns the Stonewick Inn. He inherited it from his parents.” Her eyes landed on the envelope again, and my shoulders relaxed.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear of their passing.”

Stella shook her head. “No. They didn’t die. They just retired. Off in the Florida Keys. Hated the bitter cold here. But you couldn’t pay me to live there with the hurricanes.” She shivered. “I’ll take an occasional twenty below zero in Wisconsin anytime over that.”

The spins slowed down, and I let out a deep breath.

“Sure, you don’t want more tea?” she prompted.

Skye shook her head. “We’re running a little late for our readings.”

Stella’s gaze widened. “You’re really trying out all our little town has to offer.”

I glanced over at Skye. “Actually, do you mind if I meet you over there? I don’t want us to miss our appointments, but I have a few questions for Stella.”

Skye looked at the envelope clutched between my fingers and back to Stella before smiling at me. “Absolutely. The mystic said we couldn’t be in the room with each other anyway. Yours starts in forty minutes.” She looked out the window and pointed over my shoulder. “It’s across the street that way. The shop with the bright purple door.”

“Can’t miss it,” Stella assured me as I craned my neck to glimpse the storefront.

Skye stood and came around behind me, giving me a quick squeeze. “I’ll see you in a few. I hope I’m not about to discover triplets are in store for us.”

I chuckled, knowing Skye would be elated if that were the news delivered.

She bounded through the tea shop as Stella slowly sat down in her place. I looked at my empty teacup and suddenly felt foolish about what I wanted to bring up.

I was falling for the eerie trappings of this town and the season.

“Yes, dear?” Stella asked softly with a gentle smile.

She’d removed the lipstick on her teeth and put a fresh red coat on her thin lips. The longer I looked at her, the more I felt a closeness.

A familiarity.

“Everything okay with the tea?” she prompted.

I swallowed my uncertainty, straightened my spine, and breathed deeply. “My tea changed color multiple times. Skye couldn’t see it, but I did.” I cleared my throat. “ Several times.”

As if Stella didn’t get my point the first time.

Stella nodded. “Makes sense.”

I frowned. “What makes sense?”

“That you’d see the tea’s changes, but your friend wouldn’t.”

“So, it did change,” I stated as a matter of fact.

“If it’s meant to, it will.” She pursed her lips. “And it sounds like it was meant to, so it did.”

I let go of the envelope from my fingers, not realizing I’d never released it. “Hers didn’t change at all.”

Stella nodded in agreement. “No, it wouldn’t. She just ordered the Abracadabra tea. Nothing too magnificent about that other than it sells like hotcakes.”

I chewed my bottom lip briefly as I tried to rephrase my question for a more direct answer.

“Hocus Pocus is another humdinger. Tourists eat it up.” She slid her tongue along her crimson lip and let out a thoughtful sigh as I felt a sudden weight collapse on my toes.

A snort rattled from below.

“Frank?” Stella asked, tipping her head to look under the table. “Frank, you know the rules. No canoodling the customers.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “I don’t mind.”

She nodded, studying me with delight behind her gaze. “You’ve been through a lot.”

I narrowed my eyes on Stella. “How do you know?”

“Oh, I can’t read minds, dear. You mentioned the tea changed colors several times.” She smiled. “It’s just what that mix of herbs and florals does.”

Her observation cut the tension, and I laughed, feeling the ridiculousness of my worries drifting away.

It was a town built upon the idea of magic.

Nothing more.

“Granted, it only works on the gifted.” She grinned at me. “And the gifted generally are the only ones who choose it.”

My brows raised in surprise. “Gifted?”

“You know, the magical folk.”

I smiled and nodded. “Oh, right. The magical folk.”

“What colors did your tea turn, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Unease crept through me as my gaze fell to my maiden name.

“More like, what colors didn’t it turn?” I laughed nervously. “Orange, crimson, turquoise…”

Stella grinned and let out a little chortle. “Whewee. That’s quite a combination.”

“Are you trying to say that those colors actually mean something?”

Stella frowned. “Of course, they mean something. There isn’t one thing about life and living that doesn’t mean something. We live in a world full of wonder and magic if you’re willing to open your eyes to it and, better yet, your heart.”

I sat confused and, oddly, calm. The steady rhythm of my heart matched Frank’s snorts, and I suddenly craved more of this.

More of Stella and her lipstick teeth.

Frank, the winking bulldog.

A cozy tea shop that filled people with the idea of magic.

And, more importantly, hope…

Because I’d lost that somewhere along the way. My divorce stole everything I’d held close and believed in.

No, it wasn’t the divorce. It was my ex-husband. The divorce was my freedom.

Yet something about this quaint little shop spun my mind into overdrive, imagining a new way to exist.

I suppose it was what my dad called the magic of the moment. He also always told me to be the magic rather than wait for the magic. It was usually when I clutched my Barbie as a little girl, willing the doll to move by herself and being sorely disappointed.

But there were a couple of times I swore she walked to the dollhouse herself.

Creepy now? Yes.

Magical at the time? Absolutely.

Had it been my dad moving her when I didn’t notice? Probably.

As I got older, I realized I had the power to shift my mood without waiting for anyone else. If that meant imagining my ex in precarious situations, so be it. That was my magic at this particular time.

A little ache buried in my chest at the thought of my dad not being here. He’d passed away so long ago, but I remembered every little thing about him, even the way he winked at me when I stumbled because he knew I’d get back up again.

All on my own.

But this morning had felt like more than a stumble. When I stared at the sea of boxes in the home I’d raised my daughter in, I wanted nothing more than to give up. Just hang out in the bedroom, sheets over my head, and potato chips next to me. It felt like, at any moment, I was about to fall off a cliff or be clobbered by an avalanche. I hadn’t picked which one I preferred yet.

Coming into this shop changed that. Even if it were for only an hour, I let myself believe in something out of my control.

“Your tea tells me that you’ve been through one hell of a year, Maeve. The crimson and orange are fighting with the turquoise. Passion, fire, and anger are pitting against a sea of calm and beauty within your soul. Be the magic, Maeve.”

My breath hitched when I heard my dad’s words tumble out of this stranger’s mouth.

“Be the magic,” I whispered, shaking my head. “I can’t be anything other than what I am, and it’s certainly not magical, or I would have seen that my husband was a lying, cheating son of a bitch.”

Stella laughed and shook her head. “That’s not what magic is all about. If we could always see into our future, there would be a bunch of fruitcakes like me dancing around with no care in the world, existing in a perfect bubble of bliss while zapping those who wronged us with a fancy little wand.”

I chuckled and adjusted my foot under Frank. “Doesn’t sound half bad to me.”

“Oh, it would be a boring existence,” Stella said softly. “Imagine if you sat at your crystal ball the morning of your wedding and saw that your dirtbag of a husband would cheat on you in your marriage, so you up and left him before you said I do .” Her eyes focused sharply on mine, and her voice lowered. “What would you be missing?”

My heart stopped. “Celeste.”

Stella’s lip curled slightly. “Magic is a potent weapon of surprise, but it’s not meant to live by. Life is magic in itself.”

I studied the old woman before me, wishing I even had an ounce of belief like she did. “You believe in magic.”

Stella smiled wryly and tucked a stray silver hair behind her ear. “I believe in myself, and that is quite enough magic for me, dear.”