Page 62 of The Magical Tea Shop

She should go help. She started to, but stopped and drew farther back into the oleanders. She couldn’t bring herself to leave their shelter. They encircled her. She was safe here.

Usually she felt safe with Jaxon, but now? Now, she sought nature’s shelter, here in her family’s ancestral lands. Here, in the heart of Hazard’s countryside. Hazard was home, even here under the oleander bushes. Thick and towering, they protected her from the worst of the rain. She watched as the guests fled, running to cars, locks beeping open, windshield wipers pounding out the rhythm of the rain. Ivy began to hum the blessing. Peace fell over her like a blanket.

Even when she saw Holly pack up and drive away in the pink-and-white striped bakery van, casting one last glance around, calling on her cell phone, Ivy waited. Her cell was in the house, anyway. She couldn’t answer if she wanted to.

And she didn’t.

So she waited. She possessed no desire to drive off with Holly. Holly, who would lecture her likeshewas the one at fault, Holly who claimed she wanted to protect her but lied.

Ivy waited, even when it was Jaxon looking around, wondering where she had gone.

Let him wonder.

And when everyone had left but Malory, Ivy emerged from the bushes. The rain had stopped. The wind died down. She was damp but not dripping. Remarkable, really. She had always thought of oleanders as dangerous, poisonous plants, and they were, true, but they had sheltered her as their own.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

She made her way toward the house as a car drove up, splashing through puddles, gravel crunching. A white rental sedan from the look of it, both doors popped open and her parents spilled out looking travel-worn.

Her parents? Here, now, really?

“Oh, darling,” said her mother, as Ivy emerged from the bushes, twigs caught in her hair. “We came as soon as we could.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Malory served teato Ivy’s parents in the formal dining room while Ivy dried her hair upstairs in what was apparently the family suites. She had no idea this even existed, but apparently there was a third floor accessible only to family and, well, Malory, of course. Ivy realized she could live here if she wanted. Amazing. She could certainly hide out here, at least for now. Though she would need her car. She did need to open the shop on Tuesday. No long-term hiding. It wasn’t her style, anyway.

Ivy stepped down the grand staircase and listened outside the dining room while Malory told her parents about all the restoration done on Oleander House.

Ivy smoothed her dress and turned the corner. It had been months since she’d seen either of her parents. She noted her father’s gingery hair had more white now than the faded red brown she remembered, but her mother looked the same, blonde hair in riotous curls around her face as she sat in the high-backed chair sipping delicately from a china teacup and making eyes with Ivy’s father, who was smiling that smile he reserved only for her mother.

“Ah, there’s my clinging ivy.” Her father rose and opened his arms. Ivy gave both him and her mother a hug.

“We were just telling Malory how sorry we are to have missed the fundraiser. We’d hoped to make it on time.”

It was humbling to realize what her mother’s words meant. She hadn’t been trying to get to Ivy as soon as she could. Why would she? She had no idea what her youngest was going through. Still, her mother’s gaze on her was knowing, so perhaps she did sense something.

Her parents’ magic might be fake, but her mother’s intuition was unsurpassed.

Ivy basked in their presence and just sat, depleted, leaving Malory to clean up, who afterward handed off the keys to Ivy’s parents. Ivy could see her brief struggle relinquishing control and was proud of Malory for entrusting her parents with Oleander House.

“Don’t worry,” her mother said. “We’re magicians. We can fix anything.” She flashed a sassy smile, and Malory even cracked a sheepish one of her own.

She nodded and left Oleander House in their care.

Ivy’s mom shooed her dad upstairs and turned to her daughter. “Tell me.”

Ivy unloaded on her mom all about Jaxon preparing to move and not telling her. She shared how Holly kept it a secret, and even Aunt Lydia said nothing, when they both knew how she felt. The only one clueless about her feelings was Jaxon.

“Is he though?” asked her mother.

Ivy gave a bleak shrug.

“Well, no fussing about it now. Your father and I need to practice our magic show, and you get to help. We’re booked for next weekend at the Kite Jubilee. They decided to hold it again this year, what with all the wind we’ve been having. Marvelous, isn’t it? I’m quite excited to perform in Hazard. And, of course, your father and I will need a kitchen for our anniversary tomorrow to bake our Very Special Cookies. You have the antique cookie press tucked away, I assume.”

“It’s hanging in the shop. Whenever I use it, everything goes wrong.”

“Does it? I’m not sure that’s possible. You did add nutmeg, didn’t you, when you baked yours?”

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