Page 21 of Ella and the Enchanted Bookshop

“Tomorrow,” I said. “It’ll be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at four.” Was she really giving up that easily? Casey liked to have her way. It wasn’t like her to just give up a battle.

But then again, having creepy guys on a ranch full of women probably wasn’t a winning fight.

“Hold on. Let me put this in my schedule so I don’t forget.” Casey pulled out her phone and began tapping away at it. “What’s the class called?”

I stared at her in surprise. She’d never been this interested in my classes before. “Um, Business Statistics. It’s an eight-week class.”

She nodded once, her curls bobbing as she put her phone away. “Look, I’m tired, and I’d like to go to bed. Where are the girls?”

“Jaelyne’s across the street at Mary’s house, and Harper left for class about three hours ago.” For a class that should have ended two hours ago. But I wasn’t about to pick another fight with my stepmother about my stepsister’s work ethic.

“Okay, good. Let them know I’m back when they get home. I’m taking some aspirin and heading to bed.”

As she walked away, I congratulated myself. Had she liked what I’d done? No. Was that the last time I would hear of this issue? Absolutely not. But she hadn’t convinced me to take Ron back as a student, and I hadn’t even been yelled at for it.

Unfortunately, I’d congratulated myself too soon. The next afternoon, when I walked into the classroom of our local community college, the professor–a thin woman in a fitted pencil skirt–asked me for my name.

“Ella Verre,” I said, going up to her desk.

She scanned the list in front of her, then frowned. “I’m sorry, Ella, but I don’t have you on my roster.”

My blood ran cold as I clutched my very expensive textbook to my chest. “I know I signed up… Sorry, give me just a minute.” With trembling hands, I put the book down and whipped out my phone. My hands were shaking so badly that I had a hard time pulling up my itinerary email. But just before I opened it, another, more recent email caught my eye. It was from the school.

You have successfully unenrolled from this course.

Immediately, my mind went back to the conversation I’d had with Casey the day before.

Her lack of anger.

Her question about the class time.

Her question about its name.

I closed my eyes and bit back a scream.

“Miss Verre?”

I opened my eyes to see the professor still watching me, looking somewhat concerned this time.

“It seems my stepmother unenrolled me,” I said, barely managing to control my voice. “I’m sorry to have taken up your time.”

And with that, I whirled around and marched out of the classroom.

By the time I got home, my blood was boiling. Harper was sitting on the couch with a textbook on her lap and her phone in her hand. She looked lazily up at me like usual, but I must have looked like a thunderstorm because she blinked, and her eyes grew wide.

“Who spit in your milkshake?”

“Where is your mother?” I snapped.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged before looking back down at her phone. “I dunno.”

“Harper!”

My voice was sharper than I’d ever used with her, and it made her flinch.

“I… think she’s out in the stable!” Her voice was petulant and defensive, but I didn’t care. This time, Casey had gone too far.

Casey was indeed in the barn. It was the first time I’d seen her in jeans and old work boots in a long time, and for once, she was cleaning out the stalls.