“Where’s Gideon?”
“He wanted to check on things at The Den.”God. My cheeks heated as the memory of his mouth pressed to mine rocketed through me again.
Elwood’s eyes twinkled as he checked out my face, which was really hot now. “It’s going that well, is it?”
“Oh, hush, old man,” I said. “He’s just being friendly.”
“Hmmm… is that what they call it nowadays?”
“Come on,” I said, ignoring him. “This is the perfect festival for your store. It’s a huge opportunity, but only if you use it.”
Elwood rolled his eyes. “You sound like your father.”
“Well, he can be right sometimes,” I said.
For most of my life, I’d believed my dad was right about everything. I hadn’t gone through that awkward teenage stage where I didn’t like my parents, like most of my friends had. I enjoyed spending time with my parents. I trusted them. That was one of the reasons I’d ended up in advertising. Even when I hadn’t enjoyed my career, I’d still believed my parents only wanted the best for me, and I valued their opinions.
But now that I knew about magic, I wondered if my dad wasn’t as infallible as I’d always thought. What if he’d been wrong about me opening a bakery? What if that was what I was meant to do?
As we packed up some of Elwood’s inventory, I imagined what it would be like to have my own shop, too. I’d had the same dream for so long that I could easily picture it. For one of myclass assignments in university, I’d even designed a website and a marketing plan for a small bakery. Just because.
The color scheme would be duck egg blue and rich cream with charcoal accents. The glass display cabinets would be filled with mouthwatering treats all in neat little rows. But I also wanted cake stands with multi-tiered cakes dressed in fluffy icing and three-tier tray stands filled with gorgeous and tempting pastries. I wanted decadence and vintage charm and yumminess all wrapped up together.
And the kitchen… oh, the kitchen. I could spend a fortune on ovens, coolers, and other equipment. I’d drooled over industrial kitchen websites for years, checking out all the latest products was my guilty pleasure. The only thing I hadn’t quite figured out was whether I’d have a place for people to sit and eat. It made sense. Sort of. But then I’d need coffee makers and wait staff and… well, I wasn’t sure I wanted that. I liked to bake, but I didn’t necessarily want all the restaurant-ish stuff, too.
A small town like Ravenstone didn’t really need yet another place to sit down and eat. It already had Lily’s coffee place, Rue’s café, Gideon’s pub, and a few other places, too. Besides, if I supplied Rue with baked goods, I wouldn’t want to compete with her, too.
Ha!It was like I was actually considering this crazy idea.
“Are you almost ready?” Elwood asked.
I glanced down at the box I’d been filling. I tossed in a few extra decks of angel reading cards and taped it closed.
“Yep. Let’s go.”
When we arrived at the festival grounds, it was even busier than it had been in the morning. Earlier, I hadn’t seen many overtly magical displays and booths, but there were more now. We passed several tents decorated with fairy lights and wispy-looking fabrics that boasted how the vendors hadpowerfully accurate tarotreadingsor couldfind solutions to all yourproblems with palm readings,and so much more. It was hard to keep track of all the signs and promises.
Even the regular Ravenstone vendors had added more magical messaging to their booths in the few hours since I’d been gone. Avery had good luck wreaths now, whatever those were. Mei’s banner said,weaving love into everything you make is like magic. The quilt lady said her blankets had feelings sewn right in. I had to do a double-take on that one. Was she suggesting the blanket could make someone feel happy? For real? I didn’t understand how they could fulfil a promise like that. Then again… it could be magic. A couple of days ago, I would’ve dismissed that as impossible, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“Where’s your table?” I asked as I dodged people. I was glad Elwood had a cart we could stack several boxes on at once so we wouldn’t have to navigate these congested paths too many times.
Elwood kept walking, so I followed. He didn’t stop until we arrived at a booth close to the stage that Jim had been building earlier. I didn’t see Jim or his crew around now, but they were probably busy in other areas of the park.
“Hey, I was thinking…” I said as we rearranged the orientation of the table under the tent to suit Elwood’s preference. “The festival doesn’t start until tomorrow, right? Does that mean we have to haul all this stuff back to the shop tonight?”
Elwood shook his head. “There are both human security guards and magical wards active at night. It’ll be fine.”
I was curious about what magical wards entailed, but standing in the middle of the festival grounds didn’t seem like the best place to ask for details. What if a non-magical person overheard us?
We’d just started unloading the boxes when Leon scuttled over. His face was red, as was the top of his shiny bald head. He’d need to put some aloe on that tonight, or he’d never survivethe weekend. He should think about leaving the sweater vest at home, too, or he’d drop from heat exhaustion.
Leon glared at me for a moment, and I half-expected him to complain to Elwood about our conversation the day before, even though he’s the one who tried to get Elwood thrown in jail. But instead, he straightened his shoulders and adjusted his sweater vest before angling his body away from me and toward Elwood.
“We have an empty table,” Leon said, motioning to the empty stall beside us. “We can’t have an empty table.”
Elwood blinked at Leon like he didn’t understand why Leon was talking to him about the problem.
When Elwood didn’t say anything, Leon inched closer. “Because of Winston…” he whispered. “He was supposed to have a display with some of the wines he was going to carry in his store.”
