Page 59 of Justice & Liberty

epilogue

It turnsout there are kind of rules about what you can feed chickens. No raw meat, or potatoes, or avocados—not that those last were allowed in my kitchen. Flavorless green slime, yuck.

Either way, I gave them all the veggie scraps I could, as well as chicken feed, and then let them wander and make their own decisions every day. Laverne and Shirley were still on their own so far, but I fully expected that someday soon, they would have friends.

I wondered if lady chickens would be offended by being named Lenny or Squiggy. Or if I should buy roosters.

Eh.

I finished feeding the ladies, then headed for my—for Mom’s SUV. I still hadn’t sold my old car, but it turned out that Ryan was looking for a car to buy now that he had a job, so I thought I just might cut him a deal on it.

The neighbors were in their yard as I reached the car, all four of them. Gran and Ryan both waved to me, and I smiled and waved back. The husband, whose name I still didn’tknow, lifted his hand like he was going to wave too, smiling, but his wife slapped it down.

That woman had issues.

Hopefully she didn’t take them out on Ryan or her mother-in-law.

The cats were staying home, preferring to laze on the back porch on such a lovely day rather than deal with the inevitable business of the shop on a Saturday morning.

I’d added four hours on Saturdays, and an extra hour every weekday evening, because Tea, Book and Candle was constantly busy, and seemed to get busier every week. I’d pressed some extra bedtime tea on Mona Brighton the next time I’d seen her, and eventually she’d come back and declared it even better than my mother’s.

I was officially a hit.

I parked in my usual spot, tamped down the pang that rose on thinking that really, it was Mom’s parking spot, and headed toward the store.

Lucy Beasley, who had just come out of the coffee shop, crossed the street to avoid coming near me on the way back to her own store. I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the coffee shop, catching the eyes of Journey Joyce, who met my gaze and rolled her eyes in Lucy’s direction as she headed toward the museum for the day.

Sabrina was right back where she belonged, in The Unique Bean. She wasn’t behind the counter now, though. She was out chatting with customers. Walter was taking orders, and he looked up from the person he was talking to and nodded to me in acknowledgment, turning his head slightly to look at Rita, at the espresso machine, and said, “flat white and a pain au chocolat?—”

“For Jaycie,” Rita finished, turning to wink at me. “Sit down, chica, I’ll bring it over.”

So I did. I went and sat across from the hottest woman inall of Iowa, leaning over to press my lips to hers before taking my seat. “Hey gorgeous. What’s on the docket for today?”

She kissed me back, then grinned. “Thought I’d follow you over to the shop, so Pat might not find me to give me his usual speech today. Anything fun happening at the shop?”

I waved a hand airily. “You know how it is. Always magic to perform. Tea to make. Hot girlfriends to make out with.”

“Sounds like my kind of shop.”

“Mine too,” I agreed. “My kind of life.”

Because it was. Home, in a way I hadn’t even known.

It was the best place life had ever led me.

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