Unbound by April Vine Read Free Book Online

dear, Aunt Surtie. Start talking, now.”
    “The phone.” Aunt Surtie whisked to the phone. A message on the answering machine echoed across the kitchen.
    “Hmmm…hi…Misses Stein…all the Misses. Steins. This is ahh…Bruno. I wanted to let you know I kinda didn’t make my date with…with…with Michelle. My father had a slight accident and I had to take care of the butchery. Nothing serious, but I’m in the hospital right now. Hmm…I’m hoping I might…get another chance…”
    “Oh dear,” Aunt Surtie garbled.
    “Who’s Bruno?” Sebastian pushed off the frame of the arch and strode toward her.
    “You set me up with Bruno?” Michelle could not believe her ears. “Wait, the fact that you set me up like that in the first place is deplorable. I could have…I could have…”
    “Oh, Bruno is a lovely boy in the meat industry. Gives us the best prime rib. Very shy and very quiet. We thought he’d be perfect for Michelle.” Aunt Lindie offered Sebastian an explanation.
    “To take advantage of.” Michelle cringed thinking of the trauma she might have inflicted on the poor man. He barely greeted her without blushing.
    “We thought one stone and all.” A weak smile played across Aunt Esmie’s mouth. “We know he’s so shy and Michelle is such an ice princess and we thought—”
    “You weren’t thinking at all. I could have…”
    “Yes, child, you could have. Instead you did Sebastian.” Aunt Surtie clarified what didn’t need clarification.
    “I didn’t do Sebastian, he walked into my shop. That doesn’t matter. What does is that you rid me of the hex right now.”
    “We did relieve you of the spell.”
    “No, Aunt Surtie, you didn’t because clearly I still don’t feel like my whole self.”
    “Yes, but we did,” Aunt Esmie agreed with her sister. “We put it in a timeframe of an hour. From three o’clock to four o’clock. We appointed Bruno to surprise you with strawberries and champagne and promised him you would be eager to see him, as you would have been, given the spell. You were supposed to seduce him, have your man-fun for an hour. We did a reparation spell at exactly four on the dot.” Aunt Esmie filled her in on their modus operandi. Lovely, just lovely.
    “Well, then you’ll have to do another reparation spell.”
    “It doesn’t work that way, child. A reparation spell can only be done once and it’s flop proof.” Aunt Lindie’s words echoed in her head.
    “It flopped now. So do it again.”
    “No. I think I know why it didn’t work.” Aunt Surtie chewed her lip.
    “Good. If you know the problem, that’s half the battle won to finding a solution. So find it and do it.”
    “Oh dear, Surtie, I think I know why too.”
    “What are you saying, Aunt Esmie?”
    “She’s saying there was repression involved,” Aunt Surtie said
    “But why didn’t we think of it before, sisters mine?”
    “Because we weren’t paying attention. But this is the match of the millennium. We are geniuses, sisters mine. Geniuses.”
    “No, you all are crazy. Tell me what is going on.”
    “Michelle, oh dear child.” Aunt Esmie’s warm hands curled around her arms. “You repressed the spell.”
    “No, I didn’t.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t.”
    “You did.”
    “What does that even mean?” she begged.
    “It means you blocked the repair.” Aunt Lindie approached, cocooning Michelle in her embrace.
    “I don’t understand. Why would I do that?” She would never willingly mess with a reparation spell. For starters, she had no idea how the heck anyone messed with a reparation spell, let alone what the procedure of a reparation spell contained in the first place.
    Aunt Surtie came to her with her arms opened wide. “Why?” She echoed Michelle’s question, gently touching Michelle’s cheek with a single finger while she tilted her head in Sebastian’s direction. “It’s because of him. Your aura overpowered the spell, Michelle.” She chose her words