Home for a Spell (3 page)

“Enchantments Antiques and Fine Gifts, Felicity Dow speaking. How can I be of service?” It was her usual greeting, nothing out of the ordinary. I went back to flicking my cloth unenthusiastically at the cash register. “Oh, hello, Dr. Tucker. So good to hear from you, as always. And how is that lovely fiancée of yours? How wonderful for you both. And when will that be? So soon. Well, we’ll miss you, of course, but of course we wish only the best for you both. You will know the best path for you both. Precisely that. Oh, good heavens, listen to me. Yes, of course, she’s right here.” She listened another moment, then laughed. “Yes, as a matter of fact, she is behaving herself today. I know. Yes, it is rather a rare occurrence.” Ignoring my tongue poking out at her, she handed the phone over to me with a wink.

I cleared my throat officiously. “Dr. Dan.”

“Miss O’Neill,” he said with an equal amount of tongue-in-cheek formality.

My heart was beating an anticipatory tempo for the words I had been waiting for. Something along the lines of,
Your bones look great. Fabulous! How
do
you do it?

“Sooo,” I said, “don’t keep me in suspense! How did the X-rays look?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. That should have been my first indication that what was coming would not be to my liking. “To be honest, Maggie”—and there it was, that was my second—“things aren’t quite where I would like to see them.”

Hm. Not quite the enthusiastic response I was looking for. “Oh?” My fingers tightened around the phone.

“No. Actually, I’m a little surprised. For a young woman of your age and health, by now I would expect to see the bony bridge of hard callus starting to form. We may want to consider leaving the cast on longer”—I groaned, so his voice grew louder to press the issue—“than previously anticipated. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but . . . honestly, it’s better to take your time with this, Maggie. Don’t rush things. Why don’t we give it another four weeks and then take some more pictures.”

“Four weeks! But—”

“The additional time is not out of the realm of normalcy for healing a broken bone. The time frame you were first given was a guideline more than a rule, so we’ll give it a few more weeks and then see where to go from there. You’re still taking the antibiotic?”

“Just finished up,” I said, trying not to sigh my disappointment too loudly.

“And the pain meds?”

“Don’t need ’em. I didn’t like how they made me feel, so after the first few days, I just stopped.” A pause, then quickly, “That’s okay, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah. More than okay. Most people take them to the end of the ’script without listening to the true needs of their bodies. All rightee, so, let’s go four weeks out, and then I’ll write up an order for another set of X-rays. Sound good?”

“When you say ‘Sound good?’ how literal do you want my response to be?”

I could almost see the smile on the other end. “Well, at least you haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

“Don’t be too sure about that,” I sniffed. “This is not the sound of a happy woman.”

“Better to heal in leisure now than repent in leisure later.”

“Now we’re mixing metaphors
and
proverbs?”

Dan laughed. “I’m a doctor, not a wordsmith. Four weeks, Maggie, then we’ll talk. Give that ankle as much rest as possible. Stay off of it, I mean it”—I blushed a little at that; good thing he couldn’t see me—“and call me if you have any problems. Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll see you around here and there with Steff.”

I set the cordless phone back on its charging base, unable to hide my disgust and dissent toward the prospect of another four weeks in the company of the incredibly weighty, incredibly yellow (
what was I thinking?
), incredibly glitter-fied, sparkle-fied, painfully
ugh
-ly Casted Wonder currently taking up real estate in the far southeasterly portions of my anatomy. I knew I should be more grateful to Dan for doing all of this gratis for me—and honestly I was, incredibly so—but disappointment was a sour medicine to swallow. So much for my hope that everything could magically be back to normal, thereby allowing Marcus to magically get on with his nonmagickal plans.

I couldn’t bear to tell Marcus yet. I knew what he’d say. That it was no big deal. That it was a good thing he was postponing going back to school. That it was the only logical decision.

“Bad news?”

I glanced up into Liss’s soft, empathetic gaze. “Very bad.”

She waited for me to go on. That was the best thing about being so close to Liss. She was the kind of friend who was always there for you, ready and waiting to lend a sympathetic ear, a font of both earthly and unearthly wisdom at her beck and call. While Steff was my go-to girl whenever I wanted to rant and rave and needed my best girlfriend to have my back and even to head up my posse if necessary, it was Liss I went to when I needed solace and solutions. With both of them in my corner, I couldn’t go wrong.

“My ankle’s not healing. At least,” I amended when I saw the concern leap to her eyes, “it’s not making improvements with the speed Dan might expect or hope to see. I have to wear the cast for four more weeks.”

Her posture relaxed by the end of my short explanation. “Well. That isn’t the best news, but not so terrible, in the long run. I shouldn’t worry about it if I were you, ducks.”

“But . . .” To my horror, I found myself unable to speak. My lip quivered. I bit it to nip that nonsense in the bud.

Liss took a seat at the counter. “There’s something more to this story, I take it?” she suggested quietly.

Still no voice. I nodded.

Liss waited, but when it became apparent that I wasn’t quite functional yet, she leaned forward and whispered, “You know, it is much easier if I don’t have to guess each and every admission along the way, darling. Is it to do with your ankle?”

I shook my head.

“Very well. Marcus?”

I hesitated.

“Aha. Marcus, it is. Well, then, out with it, love. You’ll feel better. Shall I make you a cup of tea?”

I shook my head.

Liss waited, watching me as she sipped from her own cup, the quintessential personification of patience.

I took a deep breath. All of a sudden I found my voice, and it all came flooding out in a torrent, all of my newfound fears that I was holding Marcus back, that he was putting off his life because of me. There I was, staying with him at his house, intruding on his solitude, eating his food, sleeping in his bed, and he hadn’t asked for a dime from me. He drove me everywhere I needed to go, without a single complaint, rearranging his own schedule in order to do it. And yes, he had canceled out on at least two band rehearsals that I knew of. “So now, not only do I feel like I am I mooching off of him and taking advantage of his kindness, but he is also being forced to make choices that go against everything he wants, and I just know he will resent me for this,” I vented. “And I can’t say that I blame him. I mean, the whole situation is all about me and nothing about him, and now—
now!—
he is putting off going back to school, too? When he’s been talking about going back and getting his degree for months? Please tell me you see why I have a problem with all this.”

Liss had listened to my emotional explosion without a word. Now she cut to the chase with the unerring precision of someone who has had much practice. “Maggie, has Marcus ever indicated to you that he doesn’t want to do all of these things for you?”

I blinked as the interruption caught me off guard. “Well, no . . .”

“Then what makes you think that this isn’t exactly what he wants and intends to do?”

I shook my head, unable to conceive of that, as I went through the motions of making myself the cup of tea I had just told her I didn’t want. “He may want this right now . . . but what about later on? No, I have to come up with something to take the pressure off him. Something that will give him the freedom to keep moving along with his plans. Going back for his degree is so important. I don’t want to be the one to take that away.” A thought struck me just then about something she’d said to Danny before handing the receiver over to me, and I paused in midstream as I poured the hot water over the loose leaves in the tea strainer. “What was Danny telling you?”

“I’m sorry, dear, what was that?”

“When you said ‘We’ll miss you,’”I reminded her. “Why will we miss him, where is he going?”

“Oh, didn’t Dr. Tucker tell you? Evidently, once the dear doctor’s residency is completed, he anticipates having to move to another city in order to start his practice. I imagine that’s fairly standard for young doctors and their families these days. Perhaps he’ll head toward New England. I understand his people are there . . .”

In my mind, I’d been expecting news of a trip. A business conference, maybe, or even a spicy, sexy vacay to Aruba. I had
not
been expecting
that
. “Move? To another city?” My face fell.
Oh, but that would mean . . .
“That can’t be right. Steff would have told me.” Wouldn’t she? Maybe she did. I started to rack my brain for any hints, anything that might have been said that I hadn’t picked up on, but I was at a loss.

“Oh dear. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything. I just assumed . . .”

At her crestfallen look, I rushed to reassure her. “No, it’s okay. Really.”

“No, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

I shrugged, miserable. “You couldn’t have known that I didn’t know. It only made sense.” Because Steff was my best friend. Why wouldn’t she have told me that she was going to be leaving me behind? Panic started to set in as I tried to remember when, specifically, Danny’s residency was officially over. Was it November? December? That was right around the corner. The first sunny days of September were already upon us. The next couple of months were bound to be a whirlwind for Steff, preparations for leaving, tying up loose ends.

I just hated the thought that I was another of those loose ends.

“Perhaps I shall just have to cast about the universe and call up some angels for you,” Liss mused, probably to distract me, “to summon a viable solution to your current problem. Not the ankle, though,” she said when she saw the sudden flare of hope in my eyes. “I’ve found it’s best to allow that sort of thing to heal with time.”

It didn’t appear I had any choice in the matter.

Heartsick, I found myself dialing Steff’s number when Liss took Minnie along with her to the office in back for some product surfing—aka scouting the web for new suppliers with a witchy background. Etsy had become her favorite source of the moment—boatload upon boatload of supremely talented artisans and crafters, the likes of which would never see the inside of a department store. All the better for boutiques like Enchantments and its dedicated clientele.

Steff’s number rang once, twice. “Hiya, chickie!” Her voice chirped in my ear, sweet and bright.

“How could you?” I wailed without preamble.

And because she was my lifelong BFF, no explanation was needed. She knew instantly what I was talking about. “Who told you?” she asked, then without waiting, continued, “Because if it was Danny, I’m going to kill him. I specifically told him that I have to be the one to break it to you. Aw, honey, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you. I did. But I wanted to tell you my way. You know. Ease you into it.”

Damn. That made me sound like I was, um, needy. “It’s not that you’re going so much”—okay, that was a lie, but she didn’t need to know that—“it’s more that I found out elsewhere. And no, it wasn’t Danny. Danny didn’t say a word to me.” I might be sad and pathetic, but that didn’t mean I was willing to rat Danny out. Besides, technically speaking, it was true.

“So. Yeah. We’re going to be moving. Wow, huh? And I have no idea where yet. And I’m a little freaked out about it. Say something, Mags?” she begged. “I need to know you’re going to be okay with this.
We’ll
be okay, won’t we?”

And that’s what did it. Her hopeful plea snapped me out of my sinkhole of self-pity faster than a thousand feel-good affirmations meant to bolster and uplift a sagging emotional state. “Well, of course we’ll be okay. I haven’t been your best friend for nineteen and a half years to lose you over something like this, silly. That’s what instant messaging is for, right? Have webcam, will chat?”

The relief in her voice was instantaneous and huge. “Oh. Honey. I’m so glad you understand. I’m going crazy trying to think about all the things that need to happen in the next three months!” Three. That was a relief; she must mean December. “I’ve got an ongoing list started in my phone, and it is getting longer and longer. And Danny’s crazy busy. I need you in my corner to keep my spirits up on those days when it feels like nothing is going right.”

“I’ll help with whatever I can. I would say ‘running errands and such,’ but, well, I’m not doing much running these days. And it doesn’t look like I will be for at least another four weeks.” I told her about Danny’s findings on the X-rays.

“I know you don’t want to hear this right now,” Steff said, “but it really is better to be safe than sorry.”

“I know, I know. I think I’ve gotten over the disappointment”—albeit barely—“but what I’m really worried about is how all of this affects Marcus. Steff, he’s put his whole life on hold for me, and I just found out he’s even putting off returning to college, and—”

“You’re feeling guilty for putting him in that position to begin with, and worried that he’ll hold you responsible if something goes wrong.”

“Exactly.”

Steff took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I see your point actually.”

“So I’m right to worry?”

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “I only said I see your point, and . . . I might feel the same way, were I in your position.”

Great. You know, sometimes solidarity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “What do you think I should do?”