Read The Secret Ingredient of Wishes Online
Authors: Susan Bishop Crispell
The Secret Ingredient of Wishes (36 page)
Rachel knocked the handle of the rolling pin. It rolled off the island and dropped to the floor with a thud. She stared at the puff of flour that danced in the air above it. Catch bent down to retrieve it. “Would that work? Is that my loophole?” Rachel asked.
“It's the only thing that I can think of that might do it,” Catch said.
“If I did that, he wouldn't know Ashe. Or you.”
“That's probably true. I guess he could find his way to us one day, but it would be different. He wouldn't be ours anymore, that's for sure.”
Rachel traced her finger through the flour on the counter and swiped her hand across it, erasing all traces of the name she had been writing. “I don't know that I can do that to Ashe.”
“Well, he wouldn't know any better, would he? If he never had a brother he wouldn't know that he missed him.” Catch removed the cup of bubbling butter from the microwave. She stirred in the white bubbles that floated on top with a fork.
“That feels ⦠awful.”
“That's life. Either way, somebody loses. Whether they know it or not. Ashe would lose his brother, you'd lose Mary Beth. You would never come to Nowhere to meet me or Ashe. Everything you've been building here would disappear. Now, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I just want to make sure you don't discount the things you might regret if you reset everything.”
Brush in hand, Rachel hesitated. Her fingers ached from gripping the rubber handle so tightly. It shook and dripped butter onto the counter. She wiped at it with her other hand. “Maybe I can word the wish so that we all still find each other?” she asked.
“Maybe you could, but it wouldn't be the same. For any of us. I've been around a while, and I've seen enough of life to know that you can't change one thing without everything else it touched being affected.”
“So, I have to choose.”
Catch patted her back. “Yes, you have to choose. But nobody said it's got to be right now.” She pivoted to grab the bowl of peaches and raspberries she'd set aside to soak in a dry sugar bath and left them on the counter by Rachel's hand.
Please forgive me.
Rachel splashed a hasty wish onto the crust. She took the fruit mixture and covered her yellow words before Catch could see what she'd done.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
The bottom of the pie dish was still warm when Rachel carried it through the backyard in her bare feet. Her footsteps were light on the grass, which was long enough to tickle her ankles. The dew made it wet, slippery. She concentrated on each step, one in front of the other, until she cleared the shadows of the trees. Streaks of red and pink peeked between the limbs. She kept both hands on the pie to keep them from shaking.
Ashe's lights were on, but she didn't knock. Her hands were sweaty under the pan. She set it on the railing where he'd be sure to see it when he looked out the door. Tucking the folds of the cloth underneath it, she whispered her wish for her brother.
I wish Scott lives a happy life.
The air swirled around her in a warm rush. It smelled like fruit and sugar and home.
She glanced back at the house when she heard laughter drift out the open window. Smiling, she tiptoed down the stairs.
A few steps from the trees, Lucy's quick, excited bark stopped her. Rachel turned as Ashe pushed through the door, nudging the dog with his leg to keep her inside the house. His eyes landed on the pie, then swiveled up to find Rachel as he walked farther onto the deck. Any lingering doubts she had about keeping Scott's identity a secret vanished when Ashe smiled at her.
Ashe deserved to be happy too. And she wanted to be the one to make it happen.
“You know,” he said, lifting the corner of the cloth and inhaling deeply, “when you bring someone a pie, the polite thing to do is stick around long enough for him to thank you.”
She laughed, enjoying the way her skin warmed at the sound of his voice. “I'll see you when you come over for breakfast. You can thank me then.” Without waiting for a response, she threw a wave over her shoulder and started back toward Catch's house.
“Yeah, but then I'd have to wait,” he said.
“Wait for what?” she called.
His footsteps sounded on the wood deck and then went quiet. A moment later, he wrapped his fingers around hers, spinning her back to face him. Rachel braced her other hand on his chest and pushed up on her toes to meet his lips. The kiss was long and sweet. A promise of everything yet to come.
When they finally released each other, the fruit trees shook in the breeze, their leaves releasing a contented sigh that carried across the yard. Their branches had stretched out to fill in the void from the tree Rachel had removed. She almost couldn't see the dark spot where the dirt had yet to dry from the remnant plum poison. It was the size of a pit now. Soon it would be nothing more than a story she told about how she got lost in Nowhere and found her way home.
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Susan Bishop Crispell
earned a BFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee, she now lives twenty minutes from the beach in North Carolina with her husband and their two literary-named cats. As you might expect, she is very fond of pie, and she is always on the lookout for hints of magic in the real world. You can sign up for email updates
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Contents
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these novels are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin's Press
THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF WISHES.
Copyright © 2016 by Susan Bishop Crispell. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Cover design by Danielle Christopher
Cover photograph © Francine Zaslow/Offset
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-08909-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-08910-6 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250089106
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First Edition: September 2016
