Page 10 of Wishing for a Werewolf (Ferndale Falls Forever #2)
Autumn
“Wishes!” Babybelle headbutts my calf. “That’s another thing I helped with!”
I lean over to pull her onto my lap. “What do you mean?”
“I took you to the Wishing Well!”
“You swapped our wishes?”
“No, it’s your magic. You’re my witch.” She bumps my chin. “I just helped you find it.”
“The goat did this?” Rune leans closer, his eyes locked on Babybelle. He’s frowning, but his touch is gentle when he rubs her forehead.
“She says it’s my magic that did the wish swap,” I admit.
“I knew you cast a spell on me,” his deep voice rumbles. “I said as much.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get all the ‘I told you so’ out of your system, big guy.” I wag my finger back and forth between us. “Though technically, I cast a spell on both of us. And trust me when I say this is the last thing I wanted!”
“There has to be a way to fix it,” Hannah says. “To untangle your wishes.”
“I’ll order more books,” Skye adds. “Now that I know it’s wish magic, I can try to find something more specific.”
“I will check the library at the palace, but you should also ask Lukendevener for help,” Severin says. “The dragon is the foremost fae expert on human magicks, and his magical library is one of the most extensive in all the realms.”
Skye lets out a dreamy little sigh, and I bite at my lips to keep from grinning at her. I’m not sure who my bestie has more of a crush on, the dragon or his library.
“I’ll visit him in the morning.” Rune tips his head in agreement.
“That’s great and all, but we’re on a really tight timeline here.
” I stop Babybelle from nibbling on the corner of my phone case and check the pics again.
“It says here that we have to give Mrs. Greely our answers about the hay maze and pumpkin carving contest by Friday. That only gives us three days. We might not get things untangled in time.”
“What do you want to do?” Rune strokes Babybelle’s head. “Should we both say no?”
“The opposite,” I say. “If we have to, we both say yes. That’ll buy us more time to get things sorted.”
“And if we don’t get it ‘sorted’? If we’re still entangled?” His golden eyes meet mine. “I don’t know how to build a hay maze, nor do I have room for one. I purposefully bought heavily forested land.”
“Then we work together,” I say. “You hold the hay maze at my farm, and I’ll run the pumpkin carving contest, with you as my helper.”
“Agreed. This will give me many opportunities to become part of the community.”
“Okay, sounds like we’ve got a plan. Does everyone know what they’re doing?” I look around the room as everybody nods. “Operation Wish Swap is a go.”
“Are we living out your Mission Impossible dreams?” Hannah teases, knowing how much I like the movies.
“What is Mission Impossible?” Rune asks.
“Oh, boy.” I rub my hands together. “A Mission Impossible virgin. We need to park your butt in front of a TV pronto.”
“They’re Autumn’s favorite movies,” Skye says. “She likes to binge watch them.”
Instead of answering her directly, I stand and start scatting the theme song. “Doodle-ooo, doodle-ooo, doodle-ooo. Dun dun.”
Babybelle starts singing along, her little baas hitting the beats perfectly, and I’m laughing with my besties as we exit onto the sidewalk, while Severin and Rune watch us with bemused expressions.
Diamond, the gnome who runs Bling It On, tumbles out the front door of the jewelry store and does a series of front flips toward us.
She comes to a halt directly in front of Rune, her arms thrown wide like a gymnast sticking the landing.
Only two-feet tall, she has light green skin and white hair topped with a clump of green moss she wears like a cap.
“Wolf! I would like to purchase some of your spicy soap for the fall season.”
“Ha!” I jab a finger at him. “Told you!”
“Let me confer with my associate.” His lips twitch as he looks at me. “Do we have any spicy soap in stock?”
“We do!” I say. The pumpkin spice latte soap I just finished won’t have cured yet, but I made another batch a few weeks ago that’s ready. “I can bring some by your shop tomorrow, if that’s okay.”
Her eyes dart back and forth between me and Rune for a few moments before she nods. “If the werewolf will be there, too.”
“I will,” he says.
As Diamond cartwheels back down the sidewalk, our group splits up. Severin’s shadow wings emerge from his back, and he scoops Hannah into his arms and launches them up into the sky. Rune gives me a nod goodbye, then takes off running toward the forest behind Town Hall, Finn racing after him.
Soon, it’s just me and Babybelle and Skye. My friend walks us to Tank and gives me a hug goodbye. When we pull apart, her pretty face scrunches in thought. “The Wishing Well… it’s been a while, but doesn’t it grant three wishes instead of two?”
“Yep.” I climb into Tank and close the creaky door, using the seat belt to secure Babybelle on my lap.
When I go to turn the key, the meaning of her words hits me. I freeze, my eyes going so wide they feel as if they’ll pop out of my head like a cartoon character.
Oh, god. My third wish, the one of my heart eternal—it was for true love! What the hell will it mean if Rune gets that wish?
And what heart wish did he give me?
As soon as I finish making a large batch of lavender soap the next morning, I set up a hidden page on our store’s website for my pumpkin spice latte soap. It’ll also allow me to make in-person sales using an app on my phone.
Then I get back into my bright aqua dress, put on all my prettiest red coral and turquoise jewelry, and set up my outside filming location. If I have to cut the soap loaf that’s ready, I might as well use it to finish off that video for my YouTube channel.
Grinning into the camera, I click the remote to start filming.
“Welcome back to the Ferndale Falls Goat Farm, where the happy free-roaming animals produce the amazing milk that makes our soaps so luxurious. The pumpkin spice latte soap we made has finally set. For cold-processed soap softened with a rich emollient like goat’s milk, you want to allow a good week to make sure you can cleanly remove it from the mold.
” I tilt the pan so the top becomes visible.
“I’m using a silicone mold, which is one of the easiest to remove.
” Keeping the mold tilted so they can see what I’m doing, I pull away the corner.
“See how easily the silicone released from the soap? That means we’re ready to unmold.
If the silicone sticks to the soap, let it sit for another couple of days before trying again. ”
I peel the pale orange mold off the soap and talk my way through the next steps.
“You can cut your soap with a knife, but since I do this a lot, I use a cutting mold. Its wooden frame has evenly spaced slits that will guide the cutting blade and ensure each bar of soap is the same size. I’m using a wavy cutter to make a pretty pattern on the surface.
Once I’ve cut these, I’m going to let them finish curing for a few weeks so they don’t melt the moment they touch water. ”
After cutting a couple of bars, I stop and hold one up for the camera to show off the light-orange soap dotted with ground coffee and rich brown swirls of cinnamon and spice.
“Look how beautiful this is!” I take an audible inhale.
“And it smells exactly like your favorite coffee drink, too. This soap is perfect for when you want to squeeze oodles of fall coziness into your shower or bath time!”
Hidden by the table, I lift up the front of one foot and wave it back and forth in a pre-arranged signal.
Babybelle runs out from under the table and leaps onto the top with an adorable bah, “Me! Me! Me! Look at me!”
I laugh and look right at the camera. “Thank you for visiting with me here at Ferndale Falls Goat Farm. If you’d like your own bar of pumpkin spice latte soap handmade by me, I’ve put the link in the description. Until next time, I wish you happy goats and happy soaps!”
Babybelle prances and lets out another joyful bleat, and I click the remote to stop recording.
“Did I do good?” She bounces up and down on her front hooves. “Did I?”
“You were amazing!” I pick her up and kiss her little forehead. “Everyone’s going to love you.”
In fact, maybe I can make a go of an online store now that Babybelle’s my familiar and able to do skits with me. Though in my heart, I know I’d sell more if people could see and smell my soaps in person.
“Cookies! I get cookies!”
I laugh. “That you do. Come on.”
When we get back to my cottage, I change into yoga gear and twist my hair up into a messy bun to keep it out of my way. Then I poke holes in two butternut squash and put them in the oven to bake before spreading out my yoga mat in the living room.
“What are you doing?” Babybelle prances all around me as I take my first downward dog pose, her enthusiasm contagious.
“It’s called yoga.” Other people do goat yoga all the time and say it’s fun. Dropping down into cobra pose, I say, “Wanna walk on my back?”
“Sure!” She leaps on.
I have to admit imagining what we must look like does make me smile.
I find myself laughing as I work through a sequence of poses, with Babybelle hopping on and off as needed and making running commentary about what she thinks of each pose.
She even tries to mimic a few, her antics making me laugh.
By the time the oven timer goes off, I’m grinning and relaxed, and I roll up to sitting and pull her onto my lap for a cuddle.
She nuzzles her head under my chin, and I give her a kiss. “Ready to make cookies?”
“Yes!” She bounds for the kitchen.
I open the oven to the rich smell of baked butternut squash and pull them out to cool while I wash my face and drink some water.