Karma's Spell (Magical Midlife in Mystic Hollow Book 1), Lacey Andersen [best book club books .txt] 📗

they got him into the right therapists and with the right teachers. Now it wasn’t as obvious as when he was little that he was autisitic, but although he had his job and lived on his own in our parent’s old house, he still had me handle things like the bills, setting up doctor’s appointments, and all of those kinds of things. When I’d left our home town, it’d been the hardest thing either of us had to do since our parents died.

I swallowed the lump at the back of my throat as I remembered the night of the car crash. After all this time, the memories didn’t hurt as much, but they still made my heart ache from the loss. Like the pain in my neck that was better now, but still twinged, still reminded me that Henry and I hadn’t walked away from that crash without a scratch.

Grabbing an armful of trash, I managed to get out the front door. The garbage can was still at the curb, something I was used to Rick taking care of, so I awkwardly made my way down to the street. The entire time I found myself glaring at the black bin. Rick had one chore around the house, one, but it still irritated me that now I had to do that. Now I had to do everything, because I no longer had a partner.

Stupid trashcan. And stupid trash human being.

I was about to awkwardly try to open the bin when a sound made me lift my head. My teeth grit together. The neighbor’s kid loved to fly around the corner like it was his own personal mission in life to come up the hill of our street and go airborne. I’d talked to his parents more times than I could count, but they didn’t care. Said something about being an internet “personality” and that his car videos always got a lot of likes.

I’d added them to my list of people who needed karma’s big boot to kick their asses.

I was about to toss the trash in the can when I saw a woman starting to walk across the road just at the top of the hill. My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew that from the time I heard the idiot kid’s car and him getting to the top of the hill was no time at all. Any minute he’d come flying at her.

“Hey!”

The older woman continued limping across the road.

“Hey,” I shouted again, dropping the trash on the ground.

I didn’t know what I was doing when I started running. I was sure the neighbors were going to look out of their windows at any second and see me racing along, barefoot, in stained pajamas, braless boobs flopping, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I couldn’t get there in time something bad was going to happen.

I’d nearly reached her when I heard the car’s engine at the bottom of the hill. Everything inside of me said not to step into that street. Not to run right to the place I knew a car was about to be, but the woman was there. A woman who would die if I wasn’t fast enough.

My hands stretched out as I saw a flash of the kid’s car and I shoved the older woman, trying not to slow down as I did. Something hit my shoulder, hard, and then I was on the pavement panting, pain radiating through my arm as I stared at the early morning sky.

A groan exploded from my lips, but the squeal of tires drowned it out. I rolled onto my good side and saw the idiot kid’s car, the mirror lying broken on the ground. His door opened. He stepped out, eyes wide, swore, and got back into his car and drove off.

“Little idiot is going to get a beating from karma when I--” I was still gasping for air as I tried to struggle to my feet.

“Karma will get him, don’t you worry,”

I stiffened and looked in the direction of the voice.

The older woman stared down at me, and I was stunned into silence for a minute. She had a strange elegance about her, like royalty. Her hair was pure white and mostly concealed beneath a pale pink hat with a flower, and she wore a matching pink suit with a skirt. Her hands were folded over a cane, and she looked at me with amusement.

I climbed to my feet, gripping my shoulder, my teeth clenching together so I didn’t cry out in pain. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “But you’re not okay.”

“I think it’s just dislocated,” I said, but the truth was I had no idea. I just knew it hurt so much I was about to vomit. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

That smile of hers didn’t change. “Your husband is an asshole. You never have any fun. And you wish your life was completely different.”

After a second, I realized my mouth was hanging open.

“Oh, and you’re giving and kind, and threw yourself in front of a car for a stranger.”

I forced my mouth to work. “How do-- how is--?”

“Not to worry. But believe me, karma’s coming for that boy, and karma’s coming for you.”

I frowned and looked back in the direction the car had gone, then back to the lady. But she was gone.

Which was impossible.

Staggering off the road, I gave in to the heaving in my stomach and hurled into Mrs. Wilders’s prized roses, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, then headed for my house. I ignored the wine bottles scattered by the curb, the empty pizza box, bags of chips, and ice cream carton, and stumbled into my house, locking the door behind me. Breathing hard, I went to the couch and fell onto it.

Darkness swallowed me, but my last thought was that I was probably losing my mind. That there was never any old woman. That maybe there wasn’t even a car.

I could handle losing my husband. I couldn’t