Page 15 of Ella and the Enchanted Bookshop

“I know,” I sighed. “I just… I don’t want to make a bad decision because I’m lonely.”

Amanda shrugged. “Well, at least you’re admitting that you’re lonely.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Look, I want to tell you all about the insanity that was my day, so before we run out of time, I will say this once, and I want you to listen to me carefully.”

I let out a huff, but knew better than to interrupt her. She would never shut up if I did.

“You hardly ever date because you’re always at the ranch. The ranch will survive now and then without you.”

“But–” I said, but she kept going.

“It’s not a sin to respond when a man makes his interest known. And this man is definitely making his interest known. As far as we’re aware, he’s not into anything illicit. He’s a nice churchgoing man, and he’s not turned off by your obsession with taking care of your stepmother’s horses for her.”

“They were my horses first,” I grumbled, glaring down at my soup.

“Now that we’ve established that,” Amanda said, sitting back and grinning at me, “I need to tell you what happened in the office today!”

When I got home that afternoon, I found Jaelyne staring out the front window with a frown.

“What’s up, babe?” I asked her. “What are you looking at?”

“It’s that man again,” she said. “The one you don’t like. He says he’s here for his lesson, but I didn’t tell him when you’d be back.”

I hurried to the window to look at the man she was staring at on the porch. And immediately whipped out my phone and dialed Casey’s number.

No answer.

Annoyed, I called her back again.

Casey answered on my third call.

“I’m at a business luncheon!” she hissed. “What is wrong?”

“I want to know what Ron Kostman is doing on our back porch,” I snapped. “Because after our last lesson, I told you that I wasn’t going to do any more sessions with him!”

Casey huffed. “Ella, it’s one hour–”

“No.” I looked up at the ceiling and let out my own huff. “He’s rude, doesn’t listen, and he has a dirty mouth. We discussed this, and you promised that if he signed up for any more lessons, you would give them to him!”

“And I will!” she said, her voice sounding slightly more shrill. “But if you haven’t noticed, I’m not available to give any lessons at the moment. If you just take this one–”

“No.” I shook my head, fully aware that my younger stepsister was watching me with wide, curious eyes. “I’ll tell him that there was some confusion with the scheduling, and that you’ll be here next week to teach him.” And before she could respond, I hung up.

“Wow!” Jaelyne breathed, her eyes sparkling. “Mom’s going to be mad when she gets back!”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “Why? Do you think I should go out there and teach him?”

“Ugh! No, he’s gross.” She made a face. “I just hope I get to see Mom’s face when she gets home!” And with that, she scampered off to her room, already typing something out a million miles a minute on her phone, no doubt sharing the drama on her newest social media app, which she was way too young to be enjoying.

With a long sigh and a prayer, I went outside, wishing very much that Derrick had been scheduled for that day. He wouldn’t have had any issues sending Ron on his way. But he wasn’t on duty, and I certainly wasn’t sending Jaelyne or even Harper to talk to him. Which meant it was up to me to get rid of him.

“It’s about time,” Ron called as soon as I stepped outside. “I’ve been waiting ten minutes for my lesson to begin.” His words were impatient, but the way his eyes gleamed as he spoke told me everything I needed to know about his intentions. He wanted to ruffle me. He liked playing those kinds of games, which was one of the reasons I’d refused to ever teach him again.

Now I forced a smile. “Sorry, Ron. Casey made a mistake with the scheduling today. But I just called her, and she says she can reschedule you for next week when she’s free.”

His smile disappeared. “I thought you were going to be my teacher.”