Page 69 of The Magical Tea Shop

Ivy put her finger over his lips. He stopped, eyes dancing, waiting for her to speak.

“I tricked you. Or tried to. I know how bad that is. How wrong.”

“Tricked me, how?” His arms moved around to hold her.

“I tried to trick you into loving me. I—oh, and this is the worst part—I baked magic cookies.”

Jaxon blinked. He nodded thoughtfully, lips pursed. “Okay, I wouldn’t have guessed that, but it’s probably better than believing you’re a kite.” He grinned.

“Stop. You aren’t taking me seriously. This is serious.”

He laughed. “No, it’s not. Your parents’ show aside, there is no such thing as magic. And, as much as I love everything you bake, there is certainly no such thing as magic”—he wiggled his fingers in the air—“cookies.”

“But there is. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. It’s a secret family recipe. It’s why my parents love each other so much after all these years.”

Jaxon was shaking his head. “I think they just love each other, Ivy.”

“But they bake the magic cookies every year, and they share them. I wanted that. I wanted what they have with each other.” She gazed into his eyes. “I wanted to have that with you, so I baked the cookies. I followed the recipe exactly right.” Remembering the added nutmeg, she crossed her fingers. “And I used the antique cookie press, so I could win the devotion of the recipient of the cookies, just like the legend says. And I”—she turned her gaze skyward before bringing it back to Jaxon’s face—“gave them to you hoping you would see me, really see me for who I am.”

Jaxon grinned “Really? Well, as flattering as that is…”

Ivy cut him off, “And then, you,” she poked him in the chest, “shared them with the Rebels baseball team, and they all became devoted to me and started coming into the tea shop.”

“That’s probably because your cookies are fabulous.”

“Because they’re magic.” At his skeptical laugh, she said, “You don’t believe me.”

He tilted his head. “Well, if your cookies are magical, so is your tea shop, but that’s only becauseyouare magic. You, Ivy, have brought the magic back into my life.”

“But it’s more than that.”

He kissed her quick on the lips, once, twice.

She kissed him back a third time and gave him a light push. “It gets worse. When it didn’t work the first time, I baked them again.”

His eyes were laughing at her, and she loved it, but she needed to make him understand. She refused to deceive him. From now on, they’d agreed to be honest with each other.

“What happened to the second batch, because I don’t remember getting any of these cookies. Wait, is that part of the magic?”

“No.” She shoved him. “Holly ate them and started acting nice to me.”

“Are you sure? Because that’s kind of out of character for Holly.”

“I told you, the magic is real.”

“I’m not so sure. Holly wasn’t very nice to you today.”

Ivy waved that away and held up the mug. “She gave me a hot mug of tea and tucked a blanket around me.”

“Yeah, but I think she also hid your scones under the vendor table to sell more doughnuts.”

“I knew it! But that’s not important, there’s more. When the first two batches didn’t work, I baked the magic cookies a third time.”

“Oh, and who ate those?”

“They went missing from Oleander House.”

He was grinning openly at her now, and she wanted to smack him and hug him all at the same time. When he finally settled down, he tucked her in close to him and said, “So let me get this straight. You use the cookie press, bake the magic cookies, and give them to someone, making them irrevocably charmed by you.”

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