“What’s super weird?” a male voice asked from the direction of the door that led to the kitchen at the back of the shop.
Cascade Springs Chief of Police David Rainwater stepped through the kitchen door. It was a miracle I didn’t swoon right there on the spot.
He was the handsomest man I had ever seen. I still pinched myself in disbelief that he was my soon-to-be husband. It was surreal. He was Native American and a member of the Seneca Nation that had lived in the Niagara region for hundreds of years. He had brown skin, chiseled features, and stunning amber eyes. If I didn’t know better, I would have said that the magic of the shop had somehow brought the two of us together because it seemed that only the mystical forces of the shop could have brought me such a man.
Rainwater walked further inside the room carrying two cardboard boxes. “Do you have somewhere to put these?”
I raised my brow. Rainwater was in the middle of moving into my apartment. It had been happening bit by bit over the last several weeks. Every time he showed up with another suitcase or cardboard box, he would assure me that he wasn’t bringing anything more, as the apartment had become a maze of boxes and suitcases.
“Maybe the storage room by the kitchen? Or if you think you can find room for them on the stack of boxes upstairs, have at it. We will find a place for everything after the honeymoon.” My plan was to get through this wedding and then focus on combining our households.
Rainwater grinned. “I’ll add them to the stack then. This is the last one.” He paused. “I think. My sister keeps finding other things she thinks I will need when I move. Truth be told, I think she’s just excited about the massive increase of closet space in the house. I saw her on Pinterest looking at closet organizing tips. She’s having the time of her life.” He chuckled. “So tell me about this weirdness. I have been packing and doing departmental paperwork all day and could use some interesting news.”
Sadie waved her hand as if Rainwater was a teacher and she was waiting to be called on. “A witch came into the shop and yelled at Violet.”
“That is interesting,” Rainwater said.
I appreciated the fact that he didn’t get all caught up in her use of the word “witch” or really react to the news that I had been yelled at. We had come a long way in our relationship. “Sadie, she was not a witch.”
“She looked like one. If she was in a lineup, I’d pick her as the witch any day, even if the whole cast of Harry Potter was in it.”
“Are there witches in Cascade Springs?” Chief Rainwater asked, sounding a bit concerned. He glanced at me as if he expected me to have the answer. I guessed he looked to me for answers because of the shop and the tree. He thought I would know about all magical and mystical things that might come up in the village.
In the middle of the shop was the birch tree that was over two hundred years old, at least one hundred years older than a birch tree should live. When my ancestress Rosalee, who was an herbal healer, moved to Cascade Spring and built her home around the birch tree, she discovered that if she watered the tree with mystic water from the natural springs that the village was named after, the tree would thrive. She was the first Caretaker of the tree. The role was passed down from mother to daughter through the generations after.
Over time, the mystic power infused itself beyond the tree into the house and bookstore. Through the books, it reveals messages to the Caretaker. Right now, the Caretaker was me.
When I told Rainwater the truth about the shop months ago, he was more accepting than I’d expected. The shop’s essence still caught him off guard from time to time, especially since he was over six feet tall and had to acquire the skill of dodging flying books. He was learning—he hadn’t been hit by a flying book in at least a week. That was a record.
“Not as far as I know,” I said, looping back to his first question about witches in Cascade Springs.
Sadie fluffed her skirt. “She did insult my outfit. How could she do that? I think it’s festive.”
“It’s very festive,” I said. “But Christmas is over two weeks away. I thought you would save an outfit like that for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.”
“This?” Sadie shook her head. “For real Christmas? No, thank you. This is just a warm-up outfit. I have things much more Christmasy to wear closer to the date.”
Rainwater’s brow went up, and I did my best to hide my smile. Fashion was as important to Sadie as books were to me. I wasn’t going to tease her about it, and truth be told, she looked adorable in anything she wore.
“I need to get back to my shop,” Sadie said. “I’ve left it too long. So many people are coming in looking for outfits for the wedding and for Christmas too.” She said Christmas like it was clearly a secondary event. “It’s going to be incredible. We have so many surprises in store for the two of you. Daisy and I are going to blow your socks off.”
When Sadie had left, Rainwater said, “Do you really think we want to have our socks blown off?”
“Hard to say.”
He laughed and enveloped me in a hug. Then, he looked around.
“There aren’t any customers here right now,” I said with a chuckle.
“Oh good,” he said and promptly planted a kiss on my lips.
“Get a room!” Faulkner cawed. He was no longer in the tree, but on his perch by the front window where he could glower at every passerby.
“Is the crow staying after the wedding?” Rainwater teased.
“Sure is. It’s a package deal, David. A wife, magical bookshop, sarcastic crow, and escape artist tuxedo cat. No backing out now.”
He grinned. “I guess I’m stuck then. Now tell me about the witch.” He followed me over to the two sofas in front of the fireplace. The flames snapped and crackled in the hearth. Emerson curled up in his cat bed in front of the fire, but he wasn’t asleep. He watched Rainwater and me so intently, I thought he could understand our conversation. There were times with Emerson and with Faulkner when I thought they understood every word I said. More than once, Emerson has helped Rainwater and me solve a murder case. The question was whether had he been part of it by chance or if the little tuxedo cat knew exactly what he was doing. I was already dealing with the shop’s mystical properties. I couldn’t really entertain the thought that I had a magical cat too.
I sat in the sofa facing the front door, so I could jump into action if any customers came in. Even though it was Wednesday, I expected the shop to grow busy as the day went on since we were so close to Hanukkah and Christmas. Was there really a better holiday gift than a book? I certainly didn’t think so.
“She’s not a witch,” I said, repeating what I told him earlier. “At least, I don’t think so. She’s a book dealer, I imagine.”
“A book dealer? What’s so scary about that? You have book dealers come into the shop all the time. Why was Sadie’s dander up over it?”
“This one was different.” I went on to tell him about the Walden, maybe-signed first edition, and the price tag. “But if it’s real, it would be worth twice that. Maybe more. It’s rare to see a book that old in mint condition. To be honest, I could hardly believe my eyes. I wish she had stayed longer so I could have had a better look at it. Even more, I wish she’d let me call a rare book dealer to get their take. I know someone who has a shop in Camden.”
Camden was the next village over from Cascade Springs.
“Do you think she will come back?” he asked.
“My guess is yes. She really wanted me to buy the book.”
“Then next time she’s here, see if you can get a name or any personal information. I can look her up and make sure she’s not some kind of criminal.”
“Or witch?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Sorry. Law enforcement doesn’t have a database for witches.”
“Too bad.”
He shifted in his seat. “I know I said I don’t have any more boxes to bring over, but what about my recliner? Do we have the room? The only furniture you have to sit on in your living room is that horribly uncomfortable couch.”
I raised my brow. “It’s not that uncomfortable.”
“I had to see a chiropractor after taking a nap on it.” He folded his arms.
“We’ll find a place for your recliner.”
He grinned.
Rainwater would be moving into Charming Books with me and would rent his house to his sister Danielle and ten-year-old niece, Aster. His sister worked as a waitress at a local café and was a single mom. He was giving her a much better rental rate for a house in Cascade Springs than anyone else could or would in the village. Of course, he was right. And it was a bit of extra money coming in.
When we got engaged, where we would live involved many long conversations. Rainwater had been living in his house with his sister and niece for a few years. After a messy divorce, Danielle had moved to Cascade Springs three years ago to escape her ex-husband, and Rainwater wanted her to live with him so he could give his sister and niece extra protection. However, Danielle’s ex-husband was now completely out of the picture, and the whole family could breathe a sigh of relief.
Even so, he hadn’t wanted to ask Danielle and Aster to move. They were just beginning to find their place in Cascade Springs. Danielle was a waitress at Le Crepe Jolie, the best café in the village, owned by my high school friend Lacey and her husband Adrien, and Aster was thriving and making friends at school.
We considered me moving into that house with them, but the truth was I didn’t want to leave Charming Books. I was still getting used to being the Caretaker for the shop. There was so much more I needed to learn. Also, to be honest, as much as I loved Danielle and Aster, I didn’t want to start my married life living with my husband’s family looking over my shoulder. I just knew that that was a recipe for disaster.
Thankfully, Rainwater had understood how I felt and agreed to move to Charming Books. It was the perfect solution for now. I didn’t know if we would always live above the bookshop, but I wasn’t ready to leave yet. Now, I just had to find a place for his massive recliner, and married life would be just fine.
I held his hand. “We’ll find room for your stuff. Don’t worry. We have all January and February to get settled. It’s usually quieter around the shop at that time anyway. I don’t want you to worry about me making space for you here because I will. I want this to be your home just as much as it’s mine or Emerson’s or…” I looked at the perch in the window. Faulkner was glowering down at me. “Or Faulkner’s.”
The large crow smoothed his feathers. I didn’t think for a moment that I’d get away with not saying Charming Books was his home too.
Rainwater smiled and grabbed me around the waist, pulling me close. “I’m not worried. Things aren’t important.” He looked into my eyes. “And it already feels like home because you’re here. Wherever you are is home to me. You’re all I need. I’ve been waiting for this for so long.”
I smiled at him. He made it sound like he had been chasing me for ages, but Rainwater and I had only been seriously dating since January and we were marrying in December. To me, that was a whirlwind romance. However, I think we both wanted this to be the way our love story would go, even if it had taken me a bit longer to figure it out than him.
Rainwater was steady that way. I never for a moment wondered who he really was. He had no secrets from me. I was the one who had been holding back for all those months. I had secrets, and some of them were downright unbelievable. When he learned the truth about this shop and my part to play in it, he accepted it. He accepted me.
He proved to me I would be the Waverly woman to break the chain of unsuccessful romances. Every Caretaker before me, including my mother and my grandmother, had had a string of failed love affairs. I’d thought for a long time that would be my destiny too, but then I realized the difference was that none of these women had trusted the man they’d loved enough to let him in on their secret. When I’d told Rainwater the truth, I broke the cycle. I had to believe that. It was the only way forward for us. It was a way forward in trust and belief in our relationship. I think every Waverly woman before me had lost that trust somewhere along the way. I thought of my parents. They were no exception.
I pulled back from his embrace. “In any case, we have so much to do. I want to find this mystery woman. But I’ll wait until after the wedding to dig into it. I have a feeling that if she really wants to sell this book to me, she will be back. What’s a few days to wait?”
Just then, a book appeared on the coffee table in front of us. I would have sworn that a moment ago, the table was completely clear. I hadn’t yet picked the coffee table books that I wanted to display on it for the day.
“It’s Walden,” Rainwater said in a hushed tone.
The book fell open and its pages fluttered until it stopped on a particular page.
I rubbed the pressure point on the side of my temple. “Of course it is.”