Page 65 of Practically Magic

Harry clears her throat and looks at us both. “Hey, Zach,” she says.

“Hey, Harry,” he says with a nod.

“We need to borrow a few things,” Harry tells him. “It’s urgent.”

“Right! Yes, urgent!” I say, looking around and trying to compose myself. I brush past Zach into the café. To Harry, I say, “Maybe a cake pop?”

“Those have apple in them?”

Zach walks over. “This for your recipe?”

I grab him, one hand on either side of his face. “Zach, I’m going to say this once. It’s not a recipe. It’s a spell. I’m a witch. The Headless Horseman is coming, and we need an apple to stop him.”

He stares at me. “Darn it. I was really hoping you were making some amazing apple pie.” He easily vaults over the counter, which he probably has done a million times, while Harry rolls her eyes and steps behind it by walking around. “What about apple cider donuts?”

“Zach Powell, I could kiss you,” I say, snatching the baked good from him.

“And the rope?” Harry reminds me.

Zach whips off his apron, extending it by the ties. “You can knot this.”

Well, it’ll have to work.

“Oh! And do you have a hammer?” Harry asks him.

“We need a hammer?” I ask, confused. I don’t remember a hammer being in any of the spells.

“For the monument,” Harry says, looking at me.

“Right!” I turn to Zach. “We also need a hammer.”

“O-kay,” Zach says slowly. “We’ve got a toolbox in the storage closet.” He points and I race over. “Should I ask what’s going on?”

“No,” Harry and I say in unison as we go running from the café.

I double back, just a few steps. “Stay inside, okay? The Horseman is coming with his undead army, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to try to kill us before we can send him back to his grave.”

Zach’s brow furrow worriedly, then it relaxes. “Let me know if you need another donut.”

I laugh. “That’s all you have to say? You’re not at all worried?”

“You’re the smartest person I know,” Zach tells me, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. “I’m sure you can handle it.”

I shake my head in amazement. “How come you understand me in a way no one else does?”

Zach stares at me seriously. “Because I know you.”

I hear Harry calling from the monument, holding a rectangular shape aloft. Beatrice’s spell book. She’s found it.

“Zach?” My stomach flutters as he looks over at me again. “Am I really the smartest person you know?”

“Well, yeah,” he says, blushing slightly. “You keep me on my toes, Hadley. And I know I give you a hard time about stuff, but you make me better at everything.”

I think about Zach, my sometimes cranky, competitive lab partner and academic rival who brings me candy pumpkins, doesn’t care that I have stuffed animals, and likes me just as I am. Maybe I have had a crush on him this whole time.

If only his feelings for me were real and not just a spell.

“I wish I could kiss you right now,” I say without thinking.