her legs and having to listen to her mother tell her “I told you so” couldn’t be easy. Maybe Isaac had been there to support his sister.
And maybe not. Mia sighed as she opened the door. The smell was back. She’d either missed a box of rotting potatoes or her magic spell had only located one problem. Which was the problem with magic. The more focused a spell, the better its chances of actually working. But, you also could miss things. Today she’d find the problem the old-fashioned way. By following her nose.
It only took thirty minutes for her to find, bag, and clean the offending rotting produce. By the time she’d returned from her last dumpster drop, Tasha had arrived and was working in the office. Mia poked her head inside. “Sorry about the smell. I thought I’d gotten everything cleaned up yesterday.”
“It seems to happen a lot in the summer. I should be more careful about keeping tabs on when donations come in.” Tasha sank into her leather chair with a squeak. “I didn’t know you were here already. I thought I’d forgotten to lock the doors again. I’m getting so scatterbrained.”
“Nope, it was just me.” Mia paused at the doorway, studying the pale and gaunt woman. “Are you okay? You don’t look well.”
“I’m afraid I’m pushing myself too fast after the surgery. I just wanted the food bank open before the start of school next week. Sometimes what I provide is all the food in these kids’ house.” Now Tasha did look worn out.
“I know. I do a lot of work with the local soup kitchen in Boise as well as the food bank, and it seems like the need goes up every year. And the number of kids going hungry has tripled.” Mia glanced at her watch. “My friend should be here by ten and I’m thinking we’ll make a big dent in this today.”
“I’ve got people from Mary Alice’s organization coming in later today to help you. I hate to see you working by yourself so much. You’re such a lovely young woman.” Tasha picked up a card. “Here it is. Kev from the Magic Springs Society for Magical Realism called and said he and his group of volunteers will be here right after lunch. My, that sounds like one of those groups that get together to play that role-playing game, Ditches and Dragons?”
“Yes, yes it does.” Mia grimaced. Better for Tasha to think it was just nerds looking for a way to give back than know that the Society was the local coven. Magic Springs might be more open and welcoming to differences than most Idaho small towns, but they were still in a conservative part of the country. Even though they were close to Sun Valley where the California celebrities liked to ski and buy winter ‘shacks.’ Witchcraft was just a little too different, even here. “My friend Christina should be here by then too.” That was if she got up in time to make the two-hour drive before noon.
“I love having young people around the warehouse. It makes the day go quickly. They are all so chatty and friendly.” Tasha glanced at the ringing phone. “I need to take this. We’ve got a lot of planning to do before the grand opening next week.”
“Go ahead. I was just checking in.” Mia propped the front door open with a rock, then went to the back door and did the same. Hopefully that would clear the smell out before anyone else arrived.
Two hours later, a horn blared in the front of the building. Mia hurried to the front hoping it wasn’t another delivery from the Lodge. Instead of finding a truck, she was shocked to see Isaac standing outside his convertible Mercedes, the horn still blaring.
“Okay Isaac, everyone knows you’re here. You can lay off the horn.” Mia stepped outside and saw Christina climb out of the passenger side of the car, her eyes as red as her hair was dyed. Apparently, it had been a long trip here. “I didn’t realize you were driving Christina here.”
“And how exactly did you expect her to arrive? Mom and Dad weren’t going to trust her with one of their vehicles. Especially not after that disaster in Vegas.” Isaac glared at Mia like his sister’s misbehavior was Mia’s fault. “I did have plans this week.”
“Oh? I didn’t see anything on the schedule.” Mia watched as he squirmed. Isaac seemed to be hiding something. She glanced at her watch. “You still have plenty of time to open the restaurant.”
“I know I do.” He snapped back at her. “I just meant with you out of town, I was going to hit the gym and do some errands.”
She thought she could see his eyes narrowing behind his Oakley sunglasses, a sure sign that he was lying. She pointed to her car parked by the building. “Christina? Put your bags in the back of my car. You’ve got a room at Grans’s with me.”
“Thanks Mia.” The words were a little muffled since she had her head in the trunk digging out a bag.
“I take it you can bring her back to Boise?” Isaac leaned on the car door, not moving closer to give her a hug or kiss or any other PDA that might tell anyone watching that they were freaking living together. She’d always been the one who’d had to make the first move. Today, she was tired of playing games.
“I’ll drop her off at your mother’s sometime on Monday. We’re staying for the grand opening on Saturday, then I’d like to spend some time with Grans before I come home.” Mia crossed her arms, watching her boyfriend climb back into his car before she was even finished talking. “Look, Isaac, I think we need to talk. About us. Are we okay?”
“Works for me. I’ll see you Monday night.” He turned up the music as if she hadn’t said anything at all. Then he started the car and watched for Christina to close the trunk. He didn’t even look at Mia as he backed out of the driveway and took off down the highway toward Boise.
Christina dragged a duffel bag with one hand and had a backpack on the other shoulder. “Man, he’s in a crappy mood. All he did the whole way up here was gripe at me for not going to college. According to him, I’ve broken my parents’ hearts. And I’ve almost killed them just because I wanted to try to live on my own.”
In Vegas. Mia added silently. She’d met Isaac’s parents a few times and their conservative background drove their children a little bit crazy. As a result, they both had rebelled. Isaac’s rebellion was just a little less noticeable than Christina’s. They’d wanted him to be a lawyer, rather than a chef. But since he ran the city’s best restaurant, they’d cut him a little slack lately. If they’d known that Mia was a practicing kitchen witch, they would have insisted he break their relationship off. Of course, Isaac didn’t believe in her powers anyway. He’d laughed when she’d tried to come clean early in their relationship. He thought her dabbling in magic was cool. He also didn’t believe anything she did made any difference. As far as he was concerned, her practice was more like yoga than actual magic. She didn’t know how to tell him she wasn’t dabbling. “Sorry, I know Isaac can be intense.”
Christina paused and studied her. “What’s going on between you two? When I asked how you were, he kind of grunted, then changed the subject back to my bad deeds.”
“Nothing’s going on.” She wasn’t going to talk about her crumbling relationship to his little sister. Mia and Isaac would sit down when she got home next week and have a heart to heart. “Go stash your stuff and we can start getting this place in shape. We’ve got some help coming in a couple hours and I’d like to get you up to speed so you can help direct the volunteers when they get here.”
“Cool. I love being in charge.” Christina hurried over to Mia’s car.
Mia paused a bit to watch the skyline in the direction Isaac had left. What was going on with him? She’d been busy working and remodeling the house
