Page 71 of The Magical Tea Shop

“I won’t. I swear. I just would really like you to try my new Magical tea blend.”

“Oh, what’s so magical about it?”

Ivy crossed her fingers. “It’s just what I’m calling it. It’s my signature blend.”

“Oh, because your tea shop is magical now?”

Ivy kept her fingers crossed.

“That’s it? You want me to try your tea blend?”

“I really want your impression of it.” Ivy was dying to see whether Holly liked it or hated it. Really, she almost couldn’t wait to find out. “It’s already super popular with my customer base.”

“Listen to you, trying to impress me by sounding like me.”

Ivy beamed. “See, I am learning from you. So, will you do it? Will you try my new signature tea blend after work today?” At Holly’s nod, she spun off with the tea tray to share the news with the Hazard Historical Society. They all loved her new blend and delighted in testing it out on others in the community.

“I love when you own up to your obligations, Ivy,” Holly called after her.

“You bet!”

Epilogue

And even when it does start out magical, the Hazard Blessing has itsownagenda…

Rebecca Whitaker hadn’tmeant to eavesdrop, but by paying attention she had learned something valuable at Cliffside Park. She couldn’t help but overhear what Ivy told Jaxon on the other side of the gazebo after the Kite Jubilee.

She peeked at the cookies tucked into her backpack. She’d come across the cookies at the Hazard Historical Society fundraiser. They had been stashed in the kitchen hutch in a plain white box, and she could swear they called to her.

She tried to ignore them. She knew they must belong to Ivy. They had that cute little green ribbon. She only took them out, so she could give them back to Ivy. She had borrowed her mom’s shopping basket and tucked them inside and brought them to the Kite Jubilee to do the right thing. She’d finally worked up her nerve and gone by Ivy’s vendor table, but Ivy took off to fly a kite and fell off a cliff and everything!

The worst part was, Becca didn’t reallywantto give them back. She wanted them for herself, really, really a lot.

She ran her fingers over the clear window of the box. The cookies shimmered and whispered to her, oh so, so yummy.

Now, she knew exactly what to do. She wouldn’t eat the cookies herself. She had a better plan. Now that she understood how the magic worked, she would sneak the cookies to the popular girls at school. She’d never been popular, and she wanted that. Because popular with her little brother’s friends didn’t count. She wanted to be popular like her mother. Her mother always talked about how great her high school years were. Becca wanted that. Since the cookies were hers now, all she had to do was share them with the popular girls and win their devotion.

Becca zipped up her backpack and ran her plan through her head as she walked to school. Today, she’d go to the student government assembly. She’d sit as close as she could to Jessica and Karysa and Marik with the open box and even inch it a tiny bit in their direction.

Because magic cookies were enthralling. How could they resist?

The End

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