Lu’s eyes narrowed at the honesty, though small. But Lu knew I wasn’t one to sugarcoat. “Where have you been?”
I took a deep breath. I should just come out with it right now and say it. Tell the entire thing. Instead, my mouth stuttered. “It’s a long story.”
“Will we hear it?”
I could only nod. If I could get it out by the end of the evening. “Soon.”
“Okay. You know you need to come by the apothecary. I’ve told you, you need to come by, and now, I feel like I’m nagging, so I’ll stop. I’m almost finished painting, and then it’s just set up to go. And I have something else I want to maybe run by you when you stop in. I need an opinion.”
“Sure. I have a lot of time, so …”
“I thought you were working all the extra shifts at the salon.”
I paused.
Lu didn’t make me think long. “Part of the story?”
“You got it.”
“Say no more. Do you want some tea?” Lu asked, raising her voice back to a normal volume.
Immediately, Essie raised her head, putting a fresh round of water on the stove as she tended to us.
Like mother, like daughter when it came to the kitchen-witch gene.
Faith ran through the door, letting it slam behind her nearly at the same time she swept through the kitchen. “I’m here! I told you that I’d make it.”
“Forgive us if we haven’t been counting on it recently,” Celeste said from across the room.
Faith pursed her lips, looking between all of us, though no one corrected the mother hen, knowing that Faith had taken her flakiness to new heights in the past few months. It appeared it wasn’t just me on the receiving end.
As I stood in the kitchen, watching their sad attempt at teasing compared to the insults Dom and I had slung at each other, I couldn’t even be focused enough to grab on to Faith’s one overall suspender and call her out about ditching me at pottery two weeks ago. I couldn’t do anything but stand there in the middle of the kitchen.
They were all here now. It was time to tell them.
I picked at my nails, which I hadn’t gotten done at my usual appointment. They’d grown out already, but like most things, they hadn’t been my priority recently.
Dom flashed through my mind.
I needed to do this. I needed to move forward and fix this somehow as I stood like a child, knowing my mother was somehow going to find out after school that I had been sent to the principal or held late after being too chatty in class.
I took a deep breath. “Now that everyone is here, I, um …”
“How is the shop coming along anyway?” Faith asked.
She, much like the rest of the group, hadn’t seemed to hear me. Or if they had, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to be cut off as Faith shimmied out of her peach-colored jean jacket with more than a few patches, including,A well-read woman is a dangerous creature, on one shoulder.
“Much more interesting things to talk about than me being late, thank you.”
She didn’t know the half of it.
I swallowed again, trying to find a way to say what I needed to. It was tricky to slip in the fact that I had made a mockery of the witchcraft faith I’d studied mainly under this house’s tutelage for years before nearly abandoning it for the past month.
“The shop is going really well,” Lu said. “I’m picking up the final bits of paint and then the furniture I need.”
“Furniture?” Celeste asked.
“I actually had a really good idea for the shop, but I need to talk it over with someone first.” Lu’s eyes flicked to me.
