Spells & Stitches by Barbara Bretton Read Free Book Online

disagreeable TV/electronics repair shop owner calling mommy before he made a wardrobe decision had the group of us giggling like schoolgirls.
    “Here’s my rule of thumb,” Verna Griggs said as she rounded the corner of her afghan. “The louder the husband, the more powerful the mother-in-law.”
    “Don’t let the quiet ones fool you,” Midge said. “My George makes our customers sound noisy, but when she was here, his mama ruled the roost.”
    “You’ve been lucky up until now,” Bettina said to me. “You and Luke have been living in fantasyland.”
    “We have a three-hundred-year-old houseguest who has been living with us since April. If that’s your idea of fantasyland—”
    “She’s not his mother,” Rosie said. “That makes all the difference.”
    “Remind me next time I bump into her in the hallway at three in the morning.”
    “What were you doing in the hallway at three in the morning?” Lynette asked.
    I pointed toward my belly. “Take a guess.”
    “Family changes everything,” Janice said. “Mostly in a good way, but it takes time to claim your turf and learn how to hold on to it. A man’s family is a force to be reckoned with.”
    “You make it sound like a war council,” I said, my knitting forgotten. “So maybe Bunny was pissed off with Luke for not telling her about the baby, but that’s understandable. She has every right to be pissed off. I would be, too.”
    “This is just the start,” Rosie predicted. “Mark my word, Bunny is setting her trap right this very minute.”
    “Totally,” Lynette agreed. “Before the weekend is over, Big Mama is going to call and invite you to a command performance.”
    “Attendance mandatory,” Janice confirmed.
    Attendance mandatory? Here I was, about to be handed the family I’d always wanted, and I felt like throwing up for the first time that trimester. “Maybe I should’ve watched less Cosby and more Desperate Housewives .”
    “Screw the housewives,” Janice said to general hilarity. “You need to borrow my copy of The Art of War .”
    “What I need is an unlisted phone number.” Evil Fae warriors, kidnapped souls, disappearing towns—those I could handle. But the thought of dealing with a real live human family instead of the fantasy one I’d imagined was enough to send me into a serious tailspin. “I don’t think I’m ready for all this drama.”
    A simple beginner’s spell and Bunny’s phone calls would go bouncing back like a boomerang. Luke had wanted to keep his family at a distance and this would be the perfect way to grant his heart’s desire a little while longer.
    But I couldn’t do it.
    “I’m disappointed in you, honey,” Midge said as I tamped down the magick. “You waited all your life to get your powers and really be one of us and now you’re siding with your human bloodline again.”
    “I’m not siding with the humans,” I protested, “I’m doing what’s right for my daughter.”
    “What’s right for your daughter is making sure the truth about Sugar Maple stays hidden.”
    “I know that.”
    “So why are you hesitating? Grandparents come for visits, Chloe. Long visits. Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
    “I’m not even ready for the baby,” I said in a surprising burst of candor. The past year had been one life-changing event after another. I was exhausted! “All I know is that the MacKenzies are her family and I’m not going to do anything that will keep her from knowing and loving them.”
    And although I didn’t say it out loud, maybe I wanted to get to know and love them, too. Although I had embraced my hard-won magick and all it entailed, my blood was still half human and that fact wouldn’t be denied.
    For all that I loved my adopted family of friends in Sugar Maple, there had always been an empty space inside me that they couldn’t fill. It wasn’t until I met Luke and found myself drawn to his very human warmth that I began to understand what was missing.
    I never