Maggie Shayne - An Enchanted Season

“Of course we would. We love you. If this is that important to you, we’re willing to put up with a little commercialism. I’m sure Dad will be cool with it, too, though I can’t vouch for Mom.”

“Christmas doesn’t have to be about commercialism or giving tons of overpriced gifts. I just want to be together, and for once, I want you all to understand and appreciate what I like.” Everything was always about everyone else’s interests, never hers, and she was touched beyond belief that Bree and Abby were willing to suck it up and give her a traditional Christmas celebration. “You guys are awesome to do this. It means a lot to me.”

“I just have one small request in return,” Bree said, her green eyes lifting from her teacup.

Here it came. Charlotte braced herself. “What? You want me to go the Jules festival? Fine, I can do that.”

“No. I want you to admit you’re a witch. By casting a lust spell on Will.”

“WHAT? A LUST SPELL?” THAT WAS SO APPALLING, ON SOmany levels, she didn’t even know where to begin.

“Oh, now that’s an awesome idea,” Abby said, sitting up straighter and tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Who was this child? Charlotte glared at her baby sister. “No, it’s not. I’m not a witch, and even if I was, why would I want to force Will into feeling lust for me? That’s just…yucky.” Humiliating. Desperate. Pathetic.

“Will wants you, Charlotte. Trust me. He just needs a push.”

Did they have to keep making this harder for her? Every day she questioned, wondered, wished that Will could feel more for her than friendship, but he didn’t, and at the end of every day she counseled herself to be content with what she had. She really didn’t need them encouraging her futile dreams.

“He loves you. I can feel it.”

“Stop it!” Charlotte was tempted to cover her ears. Bree’s words seared into her heart, inciting the dull ache there to a painful throb.

“How long have you felt this way about him?” Bree asked, her voice gentle, hand sliding across the table to touch hers.

Even though she didn’t want to do this, even though she wanted to keep all her feelings neat and tidy locked away, even though she was embarrassed to realize how long she’d suffered in unrequited love, she also wanted the comfort her sister was offering. She wanted someone else to know how hard it had been, how unsure it had made her feel about herself, her future, wondering when she would ever give it up and move on.

“Remember when my dog died?”

“Trixie?” Abby’s eyes went wide. “That was a long time ago.”

“Yeah. Six years ago. And Will came over, and he said all the right things, and he took Trixie and buried her in the yard for me.” Charlotte swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “And I knew right then, that Will Thornton was a good guy, through and through, and that I loved him.”

Crap, she was going to cry. She wanted him so bad she could just about taste him. It was pitiful .

“Then all the more reason to do the lust spell. Don’t you want to know, once and for all, if there’s a chance for you as a couple?”

“You guys really would be a good couple, now that I think about it,” Abby said, dipping her finger into her tea and licking it. “You’re both like really nice and into hard work and justice and all that.”

Charlotte blinked. “Thanks, Abby. I think that was meant to be a compliment.” Then she sighed. “But yeah, I guess I do want to know once and for all. I mean, I already know he doesn’t feel that way about me, but I think I really need to see it in a totally obvious way. Maybe then I can figure out a way to move on, get over him. Because at this rate, I’m going to be ninety and still lusting after him.”

“Gross,” was Abby’s assessment.

“Seriously gross,” Charlotte agreed. For over five years she’d been holding her breath that someday Will would get married and start a family, and she needed to prepare herself for that inevitability.

Since she wasn’t a witch, a lust spell wasn’t going to work, and Will wasn’t going to respond to any sexual overtures without a spell. But if, for some strange reason, the zipper thing wasn’t a weird, crazy coincidence, and she did actually have some kind of magical talent, and a lust spell did work, she wasn’t sure she could resist the opportunity to just once see what sex with Will would be like. Think of it as her gift to herself as she entered a lifetime of celibacy. A girl needed something to hold on to. Sex with Will would be a memory definitely worth clinging to for the next fifty years.

“So, how exactly do I create a lust spell?” She wasn’t chanting naked in the woods in the snow. Her twin set stayed on, thank you very much. At least for the spell creation portion of the evening’s activities. After the spell went into affect on Will, well, she could only hope.

“It’s very simple, actually.” Bree leaned back in her chair, eyes narrowed. “I need to collect a few things. What are you doing tonight?”

“I have to work, then I’m going over to Will’s to help him put up his Christmas decorations. You know, his decorating is just pitiful. He doesn’t even have a full-size tree. It’s a tabletop tree.” It was probably a bachelor thing, but it made Charlotte nuts. How could he survive without a wreath on his door? A person needed priorities.

“That’s perfect. Okay, I’ll meet you at the coffee shop at nine. We’ll do the spell in the back room, then you can head over to his apartment.”

Charlotte felt a niggling of doubt about this whole plan. She was either going to get lucky or make a total ass out of herself. She’d never been much of a risk taker. “And if I do this, you’re going to let me do Christmas my way? And you’ll cooperate?”

“Absolutely.”

She was so not reassured.

BREE STEPPED INTO CARIBOU CARRYING THREE GIANT SHOPPINGbags, her nose running from the cold, as she searched the room for Charlotte. Abby was grumbling behind her, equally burdened.

“You know, it seems to me like we shouldn’t even be doing this,” Abby said, trying to shake her hair off her face without using her hands, since they were out of commission at the moment, busy holding all their purchases.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not supposed to do magic against someone’s free will.”

But that was the beauty of Bree’s plan. “But Will consented, remember? He said he loved Charlotte, said he would respond if she gave him a clear sign. Magic should be used for the purpose of good, and this is definitely a good thing.” She was quite proud of the way the whole thing was coming together. She was going to hook Will and Charlotte up if it killed her, because they truly were the perfect couple. If anyone should be married and popping out babies, it was those two. They were like Ward and June Cleaver for the twenty-first century.

“You’re an evil genius,” Abby told her.

“Thanks.” Bree noticed several people she knew, including one of her coworkers at the library, and Abby’s friend Brady Stritmeyer, who was sitting with the Tuckers—Danny; his wife, Amanda; and their daughter, Piper. There was another man with them, a stranger to Bree, and she didn’t like the look of him as she waved to the group on passing by their table.

The new guy looked pretentious and boring, wearing a pink dress shirt—Lord, what man wore a pink shirt in Cuttersville—and wire-rimmed glasses. An expensive-looking watch was on his wrist, and he had cuff links in his shirt, of all things. At Caribou on a Saturday night. Everything about him looked expensive and insufferable, and there were papers spread out in front of him, like he’d been working. He was the only one at the table who didn’t laugh or at least smile when Brady reached out and snatched Abby by the arm and pulled her down onto his lap.