Given that she hadn’t so much as thought the name Ethan in days…He didn’t fit into a place with portals and cake and magic and a friendly winged lizard and an infuriatingly hot groundskeeper who may or may not have the answer to every question she wanted to ask. “Definitely yes.”
Melidor launched herself at Calisa and hugged her so tightly that it felt like being wrapped in vines. She then released herand scampered to the edge of the woods, where she began chewing on one of the downed logs, alongside a beaver.
“You’re good at this,” Jack said to Calisa.
She glanced at him, and he was smiling at her, his warm brown eyes like a mug of hot chocolate. She felt like she’d picked the right words, but it was tricky to give advice when you knew little about the person, their background, or their world. “I hope I said the right thing and didn’t get her in trouble with her family. Any idea what she meant by planting seedlings? Do you think they’re magic seedlings?”
“Highly likely.”
“Cool.”
Both of them watched Melidor chowing down on a log.
Waving at her, Calisa said, “It’s not just me who thinks that’s odd, right?”
“Not just you.”
“Mmm…” She watched Melidor spit out chunks of wood. There was a growing pile of wood chips beside each of the beavers. “Honestly, it’s making me hungry.”
“Chocolate cake?” Jack said hopefully.
Calisa headed for the inn. “Lunch.”
Above, the lizard launched himself off the porch roof, circled once, and then landed neatly on Calisa’s shoulder. She carried him inside, while Jack trotted after her. Behind them, Melidor and the beavers continued to gnaw and chomp.
Chapter Fifteen
Sitting on a stool in the kitchen, Calisa flipped through the cake recipes in the cookbook while Jack pulled out a loaf of bread, two jars of peanut butter, and several jars of jam. On the wall, the clock with the carved birds watched them.
“Crunchy or creamy?” he asked.
“Creamy. Crunchy is just incomplete peanut butter. Like someone forgot halfway through that they were supposed to be mashing it.” She studied the ingredients in a lemon drizzle cake and wondered if there was any cake that a beaver wouldlike.
I said the right thing to Melidor,she reassured herself. She was mostly certain about that. The inn was a refuge for the dryad, just like it was for Calisa. Everyone needed an escape, and this place…It fills a need. An important need.
The more she thought about it, the more she was convincedthere was no reason for the inn to only have a handful of guests. Human, dryad, whatever—the need for an occasional escape was universal.
“Raspberry, strawberry, rhubarb-strawberry, or orange,” Jack offered. “Orange-lime? That does not sound like it would go well with peanut butter, but whatever you want, I’ll make.”
On the kitchen counter, Steve stretched, then settled his wings. “Raspberry would be great,” Calisa said. “Maybe Steve wants some?”
Calisa returned to the cookbook while Jack offered the lizard a variety of treats: a bit of bread, a spoonful of orange-lime jam, a grape. He accepted the grape and swallowed it whole, before hopping back outside to lie in the sun on the window ledge.
“Once we’re finished fixing up the inn, we should have a grand reopening,” Calisa said. “Invite back all the prior guests.” There was absolutely no reason that the bed-and-breakfast couldn’t be full for the rest of the season.
As soon as she said it out loud, she felt excitement bubble inside like just-opened soda. She’d already transformed thesitting room, and she was confident that with a couple more weeks of work, they could have the grounds looking less like an exploded salad and more like someone cared. Maybe it wouldn’t be fit for royalty, but it could be ready for an influx of guests.
“Do you think we could do it?” Jack asked.
Sure, yes, absolutely. Probably. It just needed—
Entering the kitchen behind her, Auntie Zee said, “Foolishness.” She crossed to the stove and turned on the kettle, whichseemed a redundant thing to do with an enchanted teapot in the other room, but Calisa was too distracted by her abrupt dismissal to comment on it. After a quick glance to make sure Calisa wasn’t watching (which Calisa saw and pretended she didn’t), Auntie Zee grabbed a handful of breadcrumbs and dumped them on the clock. The carved birds began to peck the crumbs while the minute hand ticked enthusiastically forward.
“We’ve already made a lot of progress,” Jack said stoutly, as if he hadn’t just been questioning whether it was possible two seconds earlier.
“You know nothing about running a bed-and-breakfast,” Auntie Zee said.
A lot of it seemed obvious: keep everything clean, make everyone comfortable, and offer breakfast. For the rest, she could ask Jack. He’d devoted his entire life to this place. Or…a novel thought…perhaps Auntie Zee herself could help. At least she could give them some direction. Advice. Instructions. She’d been running this place for years; she knew what had to be done. For example, she knew that the wooden birds on the clock ate bread. Calisa wouldn’t have guessed that. “Don’t you want this place to succeed?”
