Karma's Spell (Magical Midlife in Mystic Hollow Book 1)

by Lacey Carter Andersen

  “My mother’s locket.” Horror rose inside me. Pure shock that they could possibly be this cruel.

  My ex shrugged. “I own everything in this house anyway.”

  The fuck he did.

  Anger like nothing I’d ever felt in my life coursed through me. Breathing hard, I tried to calm myself, but it was as if white hot fire filled my lungs and the air warmed around me like the moment before a volcanic explosion. I even imagined the ground starting to shake. It had to be in my head, but it was all I could do to keep from clawing at this bitch with my good hand. I couldn’t attack her, though, because if she fought back I’d pass out from the pain in my arm.

  Lifting my good hand I pointed at them both. “Karma’s going to get you!” And I knew I sounded a little crazy, but then the toad on the ground croaked again, and I said the first thing that came to mind. “You—you’re both freaking toads!”

  From one blink of the eye to the next, they were gone.

  I stood, confused, when I heard a croak and slowly lowered my eyes. There, where they were standing, were two toads, and their clothes beneath them in piles. And one of the toads had my mother’s necklace lying over it.

  Slowly, I knelt down and picked up the locket.

  The toads gave me sad croaks as I blinked back down at them, and my legs shook as I slowly stood back up. Did I just turn them into toads? That was not possible. This was like the old lady and the car. I was having some kind of breakdown. I was losing my mind.

  I needed to get out of here. I raced inside and ignored the messy living room. Going to my room, I used one hand to pick out a shirt, pants, and a bra, and I dressed one-handed, finally giving in to the pain and screaming when I had to get my arm into the shirt. Then, fully dressed, I grabbed my keys and headed out the front door.

  There, parked in my driveway, was my ex’s car.

  My heart raced. I moved through the backyard like I was in a nightmare. The toads weren’t on the piles of clothes anymore, but I knelt down and found my ex’s wallet and keys in the pants.

  If this was some sort of breakdown, it was a good one.

  And if I really just turned them into toads, I needed to hide the evidence. I’d seen way too many detective shows. If they turned up missing, I was the first person anyone would look into. And if the police found their clothes and car here, I was in trouble.

  I didn’t know what I was doing when I grabbed their stuff with my good hand and ran back out front, but I threw their clothes into the passenger seat and put the keys in the ignition. The back seats were full of my ex’s stuff, and I saw my jewelry box on the floor.

  Gritting my teeth, I put the car in reverse and pulled out of my driveway. I was going to toss the clothes in a random dumpster, then leave the car at his new apartment complex. When I was done, I’d take a cab to the hospital near me and get my shoulder fixed.

  Oh, and I was going to take back my jewelry box.

  After that, I had no idea. But I had to figure out what the heck was going on.

  And get out of town until I got a grip. Fortunately for me, I knew just where I was going to go.

  Home.

  3

  Emma

  Mystic Hollow was the perfect little town, and as I drove down the coast, windows rolled down, I felt another wave of anger at my ex. I should’ve never left this town. The salty water, the white beaches, even the woods, they were all a part of me. I had all of my best memories in this place.

  It’d never stopped feeling like home.

  But he hadn’t wanted to move here. So, we didn’t. I resented him for that, but I resented myself even more. Because with each day that had passed since the Day of Strangeness, I’d started to realize how many times I’d given into Rick.

  I’d given in and given in until I was living a life I wasn’t happy in. And that was just as much on me as it was on him.

  I shifted my shoulder in the brace, and took the next one-handed curve in the road slowly. The urgent care doctors had said I’d probably bruised my bones, but they’d fixed the dislocated shoulder, so it wasn’t nearly as painful as before. Not that you’d know it from the gnarly bruise that had spread over my painfully white skin. Still, I was hurting as I came to this last stretch of the drive. A couple days in a car was already hard on my bum, back, and neck. The shoulder just added a whole other fun element to being crammed into a car all night.

  Slowing down even more, I reached the road with all of the beautiful beach houses spread out, facing the ocean. If I stayed on this path, I’d come to the town of Mystic Hollow, and if I kept going, I’d find woods in every direction. This place was isolated.

  Which was exactly what I needed.

  I turned another curve and saw the spot where the road broke off. One way led to the quiet street with beach houses, and the other went into town. I took the quiet road, watching the ocean waves between the houses and tilting my face up to feel the sunlight on it. My gaze pulled from the ocean, and I looked ahead, waiting to catch sight of our house. But when it came into view, I was a little surprised. It was in rougher shape than I remembered.

  Pulling into the driveway, I killed the engine and climbed out. Outside, the scent of the ocean was even stronger, and the sound of the waves hitting the shore was like the sweetest music. Muscles I didn’t know were clenched relaxed, and I walked slowly to the porch.

  My brother rose from one of the two rocking chairs, and I froze. Was he taller than I remembered? Henry was always so tall and so thin. His dark hair, the same almost-black brown shade as my own, was still left long, like when he was a boy. And yet, he’d filled out a little. He even had some softness around his stomach.

  I smiled. “Henry!”

  He grinned and walked out to meet me. When we reached each other, he awkwardly leaned in and gave me a loose hug before he pulled back. “Welcome home.”

  “It looks the same,” I said.

  He shrugged.

  “Want to help me bring my bags in?”

  He nodded, and we went to the car and started unloading it. “What happened to your arm?”

  “Just a car accident.”

  He stood to his full height, loaded with my bags, and I closed the door. We went back up the path, climbed the patio stairs, and headed inside. The big living room, filled with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, made me catch my breath. I wandered to the windows and pressed a hand to the glass, staring out at the wild waters. How many times had I laid by these windows and read as a child? How many times did I sit out on that beach and let the waves wash over me?

  “Do you want to go in your old room or mom’s and dad’s?”

  I stiffened and looked back at him. “You’re not in the master?”

  He shook his head.

  “I guess—I guess their room.”

  He nodded and took off down the hall.

  I followed after him, through the big open kitchen, and passed my old bedroom, the bathroom we shared, and his room, before coming to the last room. The door was open, but I entered hesitantly. After my parents had died, we’d stayed in this house. After a time, I’d redone this room, erasing most of the memories that hurt to remember, but still it felt weird to be in here. He set the bags down on the bed and turned back to me.

  “My girlfriend and I have plans to play War Guild online.”

  I grinned. “So things are still going well with you and Alice?”

  He nodded. “She’s my girlfriend.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m fine. You go have fun.”

  He left, not looking back, and I couldn’t help but smile. He and Alice had been dating for ten years. She still lived with her parents. He still lived here. They both just liked their space, according to him, and they were both happy with things exactly the way they were. It was kind of strange to me. Everything about their relationship was unconventional. They just did what made them happy, and yet, I was the one getting a divorce.

  Maybe this time around I should just try to be happy too.

  I
slipped my phone from my pocket and sent Travis a quick text letting him know I’d made it to Mystic Hollow without any issues. He might have only just started college, but he had an old soul, and ever since Rick’s cheating had been outed, he’d worried about me like he was the mom instead of me.

  After a few minutes, I got a thumbs up back.

  So articulate.

  Touching my mother’s locket, I tried not to think about the toads in my garden, the clothes tossed behind a fast food restaurant not far from my house, or the car that I’d parked in his spot in his new apartment complex; or at least in the spot I thought was his. It wasn’t like I murdered them. It wasn’t like I did anything.

  But then again, I thought I turned them into toads, so who knew what I’d really done?

  I tossed the dusty sheets and blankets in the wash, unpacked, and went to get a snack. Every piece of food in the fridge was labeled with Henry’s name, all still on his half of the fridge, just like it had been when it was the two of us living together. I grinned and decided that it’d be better just to head to the store.

  Well, it would have been if I wasn’t exhausted from driving most of the day with a braced shoulder.

  Take-out it was. The store could wait until tomorrow. It wasn’t like I needed breakfast to survive, and the take-out would get me through lunch if I managed to sleep in.

  Now the big question. Pizza or burgers?

  That may have been the big question, but the real question was whether or not I’d be able to stay awake long enough to actually eat it. I hadn’t realized how late it was or how tired I was.

  Outside once more, I took a deep breath of the late morning air, letting the salty scent fill my lungs before I drove the relaxing path to the closest store in town. There were only a few spots out front, but I managed to catch someone backing out. I turned on my blinker and waited, but when they pulled out, another car swooped in and took the spot.

  My mouth dropped open. I unrolled my other window and shouted, “I was waiting for that spot!”

  A lady with a bad perm turned around and grinned. “You don’t own a parking spot.”

  When she whirled away from me, I glared and narrowed my eyes.

  Suddenly, a loud sound, followed by three more big pops, made me jump. The woman turned back around, and we both stared at her four flat tires. Her jaw dropped. My jaw dropped. I stepped on the gas and decided to head for the other store in town.

  I was shaking a little when I reached the store a few minutes later and parked. Tires pop all the time. Right? It wasn’t because I was glaring at her. It wasn’t anything I did. No one could possibly blame me for it.

  Grabbing my purse, I awkwardly put it over one shoulder and headed inside. Pushing the darn cart ended up being harder than I thought as I tried to shop and do it one-handed. As I tried to push it unevenly through the people leaving, I ran into one person, who cast me a dirty look, and then another. When I turned to apologize to the second person, the front of my cart hit a pile of cans, and suddenly they were raining down on the ground like gunfire going off.

  When the last can rolled and stopped in front of my cart, I felt every eye in the place on me. Wincing, cheeks burning hot, I started trying to pick up the cans. Which was another thing that was surprisingly hard to do one-handed.

  “You need some help?”

  The man’s voice was deep and filled with amusement. Even before I looked up I was preparing myself for someone hot, but when my eyes met his deep green eyes, I wasn’t ready for what I saw. Since becoming single, I’d found that most of the men I saw out and about were either way too young for me, happily married, or looked like they were my ex. But this man? He was handsome, especially with his auburn hair that had grey peppered at his temples, and a slight scruff of beard with the same grey peppered in it. He was probably my age, but he didn’t have the same signs of flab that I had at my arms and belly, the flab I couldn’t seem to get rid of. Instead, he had big arms and the kind of hard chest and trim waist that made my mouth water.

  “You must be married.”

  The second the words left my lips, I winced and looked down at the cans, continuing to put them flat on their bottom, in a sad pile.

  I heard him laugh, and he had the sexiest laugh I’d ever heard. “Actually, no.”

  And then he knelt down beside me and started to add to my stack. Our hands brushed once, and I knew I had to be imagining the electricity that seemed to course between us.

  “I’m a widower,” he said. “Nearly ten years now.”

  Oh, damn. But I couldn’t help but wish Rick had died. Was that too mean of me?

  Meh, I didn’t care even if it was. He was a dick.

  “I’m Daniel,” he said. “Daniel Arthur. I’d shake your hand but you only seem to have one to use at the moment.”

  I laughed and looked at him again. “Oh, I know you. You went to Mystic Hollow High, right?”

  He grinned and picked up four cans in one hand with ease.

  Big hands, big heart. Yeah. Heart. That was the expression.

  “I did. Graduated in, ah.” He grinned guiltily. “I’d rather not say.”

  I snorted. “I know how that feels. I’m Emma. Emma Pierce. I used to be Emma Foxx, before I got married.”

  “You’re married?” he asked, and I might’ve imagined the shock and disappointment in his voice.

  Why was I so stupid? Man, I sucked at being single.

  “Sort of?”

  Daniel grabbed the last few cans and I tried to rise as gracefully as possible. Not one foot at a time, grasping the side of the buggy like I wanted to. When I was a teenager, I could stand up from sitting cross-legged on the floor without uncrossing my legs. I could just stand. Just like that.

  But oh, no. Not now. “Sort of, as in I’m in the middle of a divorce. To a toad.”

  I swallowed a panicked laugh cause I was literally married to a toad. I thought.

  This time, I glanced at him through my lashes but couldn't read anything from his expression. I’d definitely imagined him being disappointed that I was married. This wasn’t one of those perfect moments in movies where I meet the stud I was always supposed to be with. This was real life, and he was just being nice to a woman with an arm in a sling. That was it.

  “Let me push that for you,” Daniel offered.

  I nodded, and we started through the store together. It took a surprising amount of effort not to look at him, so I focused on everything I knew about him from long ago. Old memories from high school came pouring back like no time at all had passed. And there was Daniel in the heart of so many memories. Cute Daniel, who had no idea I even existed.

  Now that I recognized him, it made sense that I thought he was hot. I’d had a massive unrequited crush on him in high school. “Thank you. That’s so kind.” He picked an aisle and I grabbed all sorts of things, knowing my brother’s tics. I wouldn’t be able to use any of the food he had in the house. “So, what else have you been up to since high school?” I asked as I grabbed a package of flour.

  “Well, I was the sheriff of Mystic Hollow until my wife died, then I retired. I help with the youth programs in town now.”

  “That’s so nice. I mean, not the part about your wife dying, but the other stuff,” I said, wanting to smack myself upside the head for putting my foot in my mouth again, even though I genuinely meant it. Early retirement, though. We were hardly at a retiring age, and if his wife had died a decade before, he would’ve been in his thirties.

  “I still work part time.” He looked at the cereal, then selected a sugary brand and put it in the child-basket at the front of the cart. “Help out where I can.”

  There was a story there, but he was helping me push my buggy so I didn’t pry. “How about you?” he asked.

  “Um, I’m getting a divorce, so I came back home for the moment to escape the stress of it. That’s about all, at the moment. I helped run my husband’s company and turn it into a success, so I may look for something in management? I
’m not sure.”

  His eyes almost seemed to twinkle under the fluorescent lights. “Well, I have no doubt you’ll figure it out. You always had a good head on your shoulders.”

  I stiffened. Did he remember me? There was no way. He was captain of the football team, and I was learning to knit with my friends on the weekends, watching only romance movies.

  His phone beeped, and he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at it.

  “Problem?” I asked.

  His gaze met mine. “Just something I need to take care of.”

  “Well, I can manage my cart now, as long as I stay away from all the giant piles of cans.”

  He laughed. “You sure?”

  I nodded.

  He grinned and grabbed his cereal, then hesitated. “You don’t need me to grab anything heavy for you before I go?”

  I couldn’t take my gaze off of his teeth. They were perfectly white, and the front one had the tiniest chip in it. “No,” I said dreamily. “I’m good, but thank you so much.”

  He nodded at me again. “It was good running into you. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He walked toward the registers since we’d reached the front of the aisle. Since I wasn’t finished, I went on around to the next aisle. As I moved down it, I looked back to find him standing at the register but staring at me.

  I quickened my steps to get out of sight.

  Holy hot flash. I wasn’t in menopause yet, but I was having a hot flash right now.

  Geez. Daniel Arthur was everything Rick wasn’t. Maybe I was crazy, but having an almost random guy help me without needing to be asked felt like a treat. Rick had always been like a child I had to care for. Constantly needing attention. Whining that he couldn’t eat if I didn’t cook. Whining when he didn’t like what I did cook.

  Man, why had I put up with it?

  I thought of Daniel again. I bet he was never like that with his wife. He seemed like the kind of man who genuinely loved other people more than himself.