4

The brilliant spring sun shone in Drew’s eyes as he walked up behind his wife and slipped his arms around her.

Noel jumped slightly as her phone slipped from her hand and landed in the dirt.

He chuckled and reached for it at the same time as she did. Their heads knocked together, and they both let out a cry of pain as they came up, each of them holding their noggins with one hand.

“Ouch,” Noel said, rubbing her head.

“Sorry about that.” Drew reached down and picked up her phone, noting it was yet another text from her assistant. “Is that work again?”

“It’s just Bianca letting me know that everything went smoothly this weekend,” Noel said, tucking the phone into her pocket.

“Everything except Friday night,” Drew said, sounding grumpy even to his own ears.

“Uh, right. How could I forget?” Noel flushed and glanced away, looking uneasy. “Besides that.”

Instantly, Drew felt terrible for bringing it up. Bianca was supposed to make Noel’s life less stressful. Noel certainly didn’t need his judgment when they were clearly still working through the kinks. Besides, he was sure they’d settle in soon enough and things would go smoother in the future. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he pointed to the area off to the right of the house, behind the garage. “Last chance for input on where the chicken coop should go. Lin and I were thinking that might be the best place.”

“That looks good to me.” She beamed up at him. “I can’t wait for the chicks to get old enough to get acquainted with their new home.”

On the way back into town the day before, Drew and Noel had stopped at the farm supply store and picked up the ready-to-build chicken coop. They’d also scooped up about a dozen chicks as well as everything they needed for their little flock to thrive. Now Drew, along with his father-in-law, was getting ready to build the coop, despite the fact the chicks would be living in their utility room for the next five to six weeks before they were ready to move out on their own.

“That will come soon enough.” Drew kissed his wife on the cheek before glancing at his watch. “Your dad will be here in about an hour. I’m going to get the kit laid out so we’re ready to go when he gets here.”

“Sounds good.” Noel smiled up at him, her eyes alight with happiness. “Let me know if you need help.”

“I’m helping Daddy,” Poppy said, appearing out of nowhere.

Drew glanced down at his youngest daughter. “Is that right?”

“Yep.” She held up her kid-sized pink hammer. After following Drew around while he fixed various things on the house, they’d gotten Poppy her own set of age-appropriate tools for Christmas the previous year, and she loved using them when she was helping Daddy.

“Excellent,” Drew said. “Come with me. I have just the job for you.”

Noel raised her eyebrows in question at him.

He just winked and took his daughter by the hand. She skipped along with him, swinging their hands wildly as she chattered about the twin fawns that had visited them earlier that morning.

“I wanted to name them Bambi and Thumper, but Daisy said we needed something more original. So I decided Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm was better.”

Drew chuckled, unsurprised by her choice. She’d recently found the old Flintstones cartoon on streaming and watched religiously every day after school. “Good choice.” They entered the small barn, and Drew led her to the workbench. “Do you want to help me nail these directional markers to this post?”

“Mommy and I painted these last week!” she said, beaming up at him. Noel had painted different destinations onto boards that had arrows at one end. There were two for other witchy towns. One read Befana Bay, WA, 590 miles and the other, Salem, MA, 3194 miles . And then there were ones that just listed the distance to other places in Keating Hollow, like Grandpa Lin’s, 1 mile and Incantation Café, 11 miles .

“Yep. Now we’re putting it together, and then we’ll find a place out front to hammer it into the ground,” he explained. “What do you say?”

She bounced up and down. “Do I get to hammer the nails?”

“Yep,” he said seriously as he grabbed a few nails and got one started. He held the nail with his thumb and forefinger. “Now go ahead, but be careful. Don’t hit Daddy’s fingers.”

“Okay.” Poppy bit down on her lip in concentration and carefully tapped at the nail.

“Try just a little bit harder,” Drew coaxed.

Poppy looked up at him with worry in her big blue eyes. “I don’t want to miss and hit your fingers.”

“I appreciate that,” he said, ruffling her hair affectionately. “But you’re going to need to give it a little more muscle or that nail isn’t going to move, and we’ll be here all day.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding skeptical. But she didn’t hesitate to wrap both hands around the handle of her hammer and then give it a good thwack. The nail moved about a half inch, causing her to squeal with delight. “I did it!”

“Great job!” He oversaw her hammering for the next few minutes until her interest waned, and then he finished the job himself while she wandered around the barn, testing out names for their new chicks.

“Layer Swift,” she said and giggled.

“That’s clever, Poppy,” Drew said, cleaning up the workstation.

“Oh, I like Little Red Riding Hen.” Poppy clapped her hands together and jumped up and down.

Drew couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s it! Princess Lay-a! Can we use that one, Daddy?”

“Of course, pumpkin.” He turned to eye his daughter. “Who helped you come up with those?”

She just stared back at him, an innocent look on her face.

He didn’t believe for one second that she’d pulled those puns out of nowhere, but he was willing to let her have her secrets. “Come on.” He held his hand out to her. “Let’s get this sign in the ground, and then Daddy has to get to work.”

“Okay.” She skipped alongside him, and after she approved the location for the sign, she stepped back and let him hammer it in the ground.

“Done,” Drew said. “What do you think?” He gestured to the wooden sign.

“Clara’s a good name,” she said, staring past him.

Drew spun, looking to see what she was looking at or who she was speaking to, but when he didn’t see anything but the driveway, he asked, “For a chicken? What about Amelia Egghart?”

“No, her name’s Clara,” she said, shaking her head and then rolling her eyes at him.

“Right. Well, I’m sure you can name one of them Clara if you want to.”

Poppy shrugged and followed him back to the house. She immediately ran into the living room, where her sister was playing with her dog, Buffy.

Drew walked over to his wife and gave her a kiss on the temple. “Our daughter has some good names picked out for the chicks. I’m guessing you two came up with Layer Swift together?”

Noel’s eyebrows shot up as she gave him a half smile and shook her head no. “Not me. Must’ve been Daisy.”

“Clever girls we’ve got there.”

Chuckling, Noel nodded and went back to working on lunch. “I’ll call you when this is ready.”

“Thanks.” Drew took off out to the barn and spent the next thirty minutes unloading the pieces of the chicken coop and laying them out in the section of the yard he and Lin had chosen. He was just about done when he walked back into the barn for a tool and was stopped in his tracks, as suddenly, what appeared to be an entire bag of seed was unceremoniously poured on his head.

He let out a startled cry of dismay and then just stood there, looking up at the loft just above him, trying to see the culprit. “Poppy? Daisy? Is that you?”

Silence.

He ground his teeth together and took a deep breath, trying to get his temper under control before he climbed the ladder to the loft. When he reached the top, he glanced around and spotted the culprit. “Poppy?” He glared at his youngest daughter, who was sitting against the wall, her eyes wide. “What do you think you’re doing?”

She shook her head, and her bottom lip trembled.

He stifled a sigh and held out his hand. “Come on. You know you’re not supposed to be up here.”

Without a word, she scrambled to the edge and let him help her down. Once they were on solid ground again, he turned to face her with his arms crossed over his chest. “Explain yourself, young lady.”

Poppy audibly swallowed. But she met his eyes and said, “Clara did it.”

“Clara?” he echoed, confused. “What do you mean? Who’s Clara?”

“The ghost. She did it, Daddy,” Poppy said.

“Don’t lie, Poppy,” Daisy said and clucked her tongue as she appeared in the doorway of the barn. She turned to look at Drew. “I was in my room and could see Poppy through the barn window. I don’t know why she did it, but she’s the one who poured that seed on you.”

Drew let out a long-suffering sigh. “Poppy, go inside and go to your room.”

“But—” his youngest child started.

He held his hand up. “We’ll talk about this later. Right now I have seed to clean up before your grandfather gets here.”

“Too late,” Lincoln Townsend said as he walked into the barn. He paused at the pile of grass seed, took one look at Drew, and had to stifle an amused smile.

Don’t even think about it , Drew thought as he stared down his father-in-law. If Poppy knew she’d tickled her grandfather’s funny bone, she’d only be more inclined to push the boundaries of what was acceptable behavior.

“Well, looks like you could use some help, so I’ll get on that.” Lincoln tipped his hat to Drew’s daughters and then went to get a shovel.

“Daisy, take your sister inside,” Drew said.

“Sure, Dad.”

Drew’s heart melted a little, just as it always did when she called him that. Technically, Daisy was his stepdaughter, but he’d never seen her that way. To him, she was just Daisy, and he was damned proud to be her parent. “But Daisy, leave the lectures to me and your mother, okay?”

Daisy’s smiled slipped slightly, and Drew knew she’d been looking forward to admonishing Poppy. It was what big sisters lived for. “Fine.”

Once the two girls were out of earshot, Lin started chuckling.

“Don’t you start,” Drew said, unable to keep his own lips from twitching with amusement.

“It’s never a dull moment with a house full of girls, is it?” Lincoln asked as he scooped up a pile of seed.

“No. But it’s not nice to make fun of your favorite son-in-law either. You know that, right?” Drew asked dryly.

“Oh? Was I making fun of Clay? I didn’t realize,” Lin said with a smirk.

“Ha-ha. Very funny.” Drew rolled his eyes but then started laughing as he got to work with Lincoln.