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We both became somber.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Kelley said.
“Officer Dash contacted me today,” I revealed. This would be the only part of my confession that was actually true, but I knew Kelley would need to hear this in order to move on. “Your dad wasn’t murdered, after all. He had a heart attack. The medical examiner who suggested he’d died by poison was fired for getting it so wrong.”
“I’m glad he wasn’t murdered,” Kelley said, “But I’m still so sad that he’s gone.”
She finished preparing our lattes and we relocated to the big corner booth. Of course, I still hadn’t revealed the biggest part of my plan but knew I couldn’t put it off much longer or I’d risk losing the nerve.
“So what’s next for you, Kelley? Will you be going back to Ohio with your mom?”
She shook her head. “No, definitely not. I mean, why would I do that when I now have my own business to run?”
“You mean…?”
“Yes! The coffee shop is mine. I’m going to be making some big changes to the menu and to the payroll… you should definitely be making more than you currently are… but I’m going to keep the name in honor of Dad.”
“That’s wonderful, Kelley. You’ll be a great boss, and I can’t wait to hear all your ideas!”
As it turned out, she couldn’t wait to share them with me. “I can go over some of them now if you’d like. To start, PSL is no longer a seasonal item. We’ll serve it all year round. And also—”
“I hate to interrupt, especially because I love that idea so much, but there’s something I need to say,” I said, my heart thumping hard in my chest.
Kelley looked at me with concern.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I promised.
“Then what’s going on?” she pressed.
I reached into my purse and took out an empty water bottle. Merlin had helped me prepare the potion I requested, even though he warned me against it more than once. Still, I knew I was making the right decision with this.
I uncapped the water bottle and set it in the middle of the table. Nothing happened. At least that’s how it looked to those who didn’t know it held an invisible form of magic.
“What’s with the empty bottle?” Kelley asked with one eyebrow raised.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said, waiting for her to shift her gaze back to me.
I didn’t continue until her eyes met mine. “This is kind of a weird question, but I want you to tell me the first answer that pops into your head. Okay?”
Kelley shrugged, but said, “Okay.”
“If you could wish for anything, anything in the whole wide world, what would you ask for?”
She snorted. “Like a fairy godmother kind of thing?”
“Something like that,” I answered with a secretive smile. “You don’t have to blurt it out. You can take a moment if you need to, but not much longer. So, tell me, what’s your one big wish?”
A smile blossomed from cheek to cheek. “Well, I guess I—”
“Wait,” I cried, reaching over to the bottle and giving it a good squeeze. “Take a deep breath first,” I instructed, wanting to be sure she breathed it all in.
I watched as Kelley sucked in the invisible gaseous potion, waiting nervously to hear what she would say next.
But she knew exactly what she wanted. “I want to honor my dad’s legacy by making Harold’s House of Coffee the most successful coffee shop this town has ever seen,” she said with a firm-set jaw.
“You will,” I promised her.
After all, I’d just passed on my ask-for-anything familiar spell. Merlin had told me I shouldn’t, because he wouldn’t be able to make another one. And, yeah, now I could never get to be Lady Gaga, or King Arthur, or someone else crazy famous…
