Tani’s expression softened.“You’ll be back,” she said.“You and I still have things to discuss, Piper Wakefield.”
Not ominous at all.
I stepped out of the greenhouse, the heat hitting me in the face again.I jogged back inside the house long enough to grab my purse, then headed for Alice’s enormous Cadillac.It was the opposite of my usual sleek city aesthetic—boat-sized, beige, and deeply uncool—but the AC worked and it was mine.
I slid behind the wheel.“Well,” I muttered, turning the key, “at least I’ll never have to worry about carpooling.”
The engine rumbled to life, and I steered out onto the rural highway on muscle memory alone.Hickory Hollow might have shrunk in my rearview for ten years, but it was still mapped under my skin.
Town Hall Street came into view, with its neat line of brick storefronts and lampposts trying hard to look charming.The florist sat halfway down, big window boxes overflowing with blue roses in a shade not found in any garden or seed catalogue.The sign on the glass read Enchanted Blossoms in deep blue script.
As I parked, something prickled along my arms.Not nerves.Not exactly.More like static in the air, as if the world was holding its breath.
Great.Add “weird magical tingle” to my growing list of concerns.
I pushed open the shop door.The bell chimed, bright and oddly soothing.
Inside, a man at the counter turned toward me, a vase of flowers in his arms.Behind the register stood a girl with black lipstick, a streak of purple in her short black hair, and enough eyeliner to smudge into next week.Nose ring, choker, all-black clothes—goth chic in a town that still treated acid-washed jeans like a personality.
“That all, sir?”the girl asked, cracking her gum.
“Yes.Thank you.”He paid, nodded, and brushed past me on his way out, the bell chiming again as the door shut behind him.
Before I could figure out what to say, a familiar voice called my name.
“Piper Wakefield.”
I turned—and barely had time to register the voice before Halle Turner pulled me into a fierce, breath-stealing hug.
“Oh my God,” Halle said, laughing a little as she squeezed tighter.“You’re real.I was half afraid I imagined you.”
Halle smelled like vanilla and something expensive I vaguely recognized.She looked exactly the same—golden hair, green eyes, cheerleader smile—small-town beauty that came with a built-in spotlight.
“I heard you were back,” Halle said, pulling away enough to look me over.“You haven’t aged a day.”
“Liar,” I said, smiling despite the strange knot in my chest.“You look exactly like you did at prom.It’s suspicious.”
“I’m here picking up flowers for a client,” Halle said, then hesitated.“I saw you at the funeral, but… I don’t know.I chickened out.”
I blinked.That didn’t fit with the fearless girl who used to drag me onto any dance floor within a fifty-mile radius.
“Intimidated,” Halle admitted, cheeks pinking.“You looked so… New York.The magazine.The clothes.You got out.You did the thing.”
Yeah.About that.
My smile tightened.“It’s been… a ride.”
“I’m sorry about Alice,” Halle said, sincerity softening her voice.“She was wonderful.”
“She was,” I agreed, the ache flaring fresh and sharp.
“I should go—I’ve got a client waiting,” Halle said quickly.“But lunch this week?Please.We’ll do it right this time.”
She kissed my cheek, then scooped up the enormous vase on the counter, and disappeared out the door before I could find my footing again.
The silence that followed felt oddly loud.
“Awkward,” the goth girl behind the counter declared.
