Page 88 of Fairy Godmothers Aren't Cheap

And as usual, my mom was right. Char needed this.

As she sat again, my mom went into full bustle mode, chatting about what she was going to make.

“You okay?” I asked Char quietly when my mom disappeared to get something from the garage freezer.

She nodded, letting out a long exhale. She put an elbow on the table and dropped a cheek against her raised hand, chewing mindlessly on another cookie.

“You don’t deserve to be tied up in this,” she said. “You were just helping me with the park.” She muttered something about wishes under her breath again, eyes screwed tight, face pinched with what appeared to be concentration.

“I’m not tied up in it.” I tapped her hand to get her attention. She slowly focused on me. “They interviewed everyone, especially if they were in a position to offer tips to the thief or colluding.” I reached out, laying my hand over hers. “But really, it’s you who doesn’t deserve to be tied up in this. Not at all. You’re just a victim in this whole mess. Your warehouse was surely just an opportune place to hide the goods for a bit.”

Her smile was thankful and wobbly.

I tried for a joke, desperate to see a real smile so I’d know she was truly okay. “Maybe if they decide to put us under house arrest, we can ask to be together. Netflix all day!” I raised a hand for a high five.

She wasn’t enthusiastic, but she didn’t leave me hanging, her hand lifting to mine. The worry etching her face softened as our hands gently slapped each other’s. Progress.

“And maybe we can have my mom bring us cookies,” I added.

“What’s that?” my mom called, reentering the room with a bag of frozen veggies.

“Nothing.”

“You have this all planned out?” Char asked me, her eyes twinkling, and I knew she was going to be okay.

“With you, I think it could be a lot of fun.”

CHAPTER29

~ Estelle ~

“Report.” The head fairy was in pink again today, from her ballet flats to her hairband. Just like every day.

“Char is back to making wishes?—”

“Are you granting them?” Gram-Gram asked, eyes narrowed.

“No. Her amount owing is still above the threshold. But something has come up that I fear will interfere with her ability to repay her debts. I was wondering if I could request an exemption on her account, and grant her a wish or two in order to increase the likelihood of reclaiming some of the amount owed to us.”

“Sounds like a grey area.” Gram-Gram opened Char’s file. It appeared as though she was getting regular updates from Igor now, and I made a mental note to beware of how close I danced to the lines with my actions surrounding Char’s case. “What are the wishes you want to grant?”

I started with the more innocent of the two. “She would like to fix James’s life.”

“The man you sent into her arms?” The fairy was watching me, her delicately pointed chin still tipped down toward the file, her lavender eyes raised my way.

“Yes.”

Her slow blink of I-told-you-so shamed me, and my next words were embarrassing. “She’d like to remove him from her timeline in hopes of saving him.”

“Remove him?”

“Create distance.” Char had really done a good job of her wish. She’d calmed her mind and pictured James as the innocent man we all knew him to be, then made her plea. “She wished him away from her and requested he be protected.”

I wasn’t sure why she’d done it though, as it was clear he was innocent, and was going to be fine.

“Did she ever wish for him to love her?”

“There have been several romantic-themed wishes over the past few months, but none specifically for him to love her.”

---