Baby Broom Read online

  Baby Broom

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  Chapter One

  “It’s a girl,” Brigid said. “She’s perfect.”

  Brigid laid my daughter on my chest, and I swear that my heart almost exploded. I’d never felt anything like it before. I wanted to laugh, cry, and sing with joy all at the same time.

  “She’s beautiful,” Remy said.

  He kissed our daughter’s forehead and then mine. That’s when I really did start to cry. I’d always wanted to be a mother, and it was a dream I’d thought would never come true. But there she was. My baby girl. My dream come true.

  Remy wiped my tears away and kissed me again. “Are you in pain?”

  “No,” I said. “I think I’m just so overwhelmed.”

  “You’ve done amazing,” Brigid said. “I’m going to finish healing you up, and then we can get your little one cleaned up a little more.”

  When it was all done, Brigid started to leave so she could tell everyone who was waiting downstairs in the living room the good news. Before she left, I stopped her.

  “Wait, I have a name for her,” I said. “You can tell them her name, if it’s all right with Remy.”

  “Whatever you want, my love. You did all of the hard work. I won’t stand in the way of you naming her whatever you want.”

  “Her name is Kinsley. Kinsley Marie Skeenbauer.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Brigid said.

  Brigid left the room, and my little family was alone for the first time. Alone except for a large black cat who sauntered out of one of his holes in the wall.

  Meri sat ten feet from the bed and just stared at us for a while. He looked as though he was trying to figure out what to think. After a couple of minutes, his tail began to swish back and forth over the floor.

  “I suppose this is fine,” he said. “She’s not the worst thing ever.”

  “Well, I’m glad you approve,” I said with a chuckle.

  “Hey, lady. I didn’t say I approved. I just said it was fine. I mean, what choice do I have?” Meri said before sashaying out of the room. “Somebody better have brought food,” he called back from the hallway.

  “He’ll adjust,” Remy said after Meri was gone.

  “I suppose I didn’t think about how a new baby would affect him,” I said. “I feel bad. I didn’t actually think he’d take it hard. I mean, he comes across as so tough.”

  “Well, I guess he’s a lot more sensitive than he lets on,” Remy said. “Just wait. They’ll be best friends eventually.”

  “So, Kinsley has met Meri, should we take her down to meet everyone else?” I asked.

  “Are you feeling up to that?”

  “Yeah, I actually feel pretty good. I’m a little tired, but I’m much better than I thought I’d be. I need to go get changed into something else, though,” I said and looked down at my pink nightgown with little sheep all over it.

  “Well, I’m sure I can manage Kinsley long enough for you to change your clothes,” Remy said.

  I went into the closet and slipped into a pair of jeans and my favorite sweater. It was black and white striped with a gray skull on the front over the stripes. I couldn’t believe that I just put on my old favorite jeans. Magic certainly did have its perks.

  When I stepped out of the closet and showed Remy, he whistled at me appreciatively. It made me laugh until I realized he wasn’t holding Kinsley.

  “Where’s the baby?” I asked as I scanned the room. My heart began to pound so loud that I could hear it in my ears, and a line of cold sweat dripped down my back. Not knowing where my baby was produced a dread in me like I’d never experienced before.

  “What do you mean, Brighton? She’s right here.”

  It was then that Remy looked down and realized for the first time that his hands were completely empty. The baby was gone, and he hadn’t noticed at all?

  “That’s not funny, Remy. Where is the baby?”

  Wild thoughts began to race through my mind. Had the entirety of our relationship since he had come back from his darkness been a lie? Was the Skeenbauer Coven so loving and attentive because they’d been plotting to take my baby? Had I been duped? They had been so interested in me having a baby, and I couldn’t stop thinking of nefarious reasons why.

  “Brighton, I don’t know what’s going on.”

  The fear in his voice was real. I could feel it coming off of him. I felt bad for thinking he could have done something to the baby, but I had to push that guilt aside. It was my maternal instincts acting as fast as they could. At that moment, I needed to focus them on figuring out what happened to my daughter.

  “Nobody came into the room?” I asked.

  “No,” Remy said, “I was just standing here alone. You were gone for less than five minutes. You were right there in the closet.”

  “We have to find her,” I said.

  “Where do we look? She could be anywhere,” Remy said.

  “Meri!” I called out.

  He came skittering into the bedroom a few seconds later. The fear in my voice must have tipped him off to it being serious. He was followed by the sound of everyone downstairs plowing up the stairs. Brigid made it to the top first and she came rushing into the room.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “Where is Kinsley?”

  “That’s what we don’t know,” I said. “I went into the closet to change and Remy was holding her. When I came out, she was gone. He didn’t even know she was gone until I said something.”

  “Then something magical has happened,” Annika said.

  “Should I call it in?” Gunner asked from the hallway.

  “No,” Amelda said as she pushed past everyone into the center of the room. “We don’t need to involve the human authorities. We can find her.”

  Suddenly, I heard her cry out from somewhere downstairs. “Kinsley,” I said and rushed past everyone so fast that I almost fell down the stairs.

  I practically leapt down the steps two at a time as the adrenaline surged again. Witch adrenaline was obviously nothing like human adrenaline. I almost felt like I could fly if I needed to. Whereas at the top of the steps I’d stumbled, I suddenly had the grace and agility of an elite athlete.

  Kinsley cried out again, and I instantly knew she was in the kitchen. I ran across the house, and found her, still in her blanket, in the kitchen sink.

  “What on earth?” I asked as I scooped her up and held her to my chest. “How did you get down here?”

  The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I looked around to see if there was someone in the kitchen with me. I didn’t know how someone could have snatched her from Remy’s arms without him noticing, but it was the most plausible explanation I could think of at the time.

  I checked the back door, and it was still deadbolted shut. No one had gone out that way. As I made my way back into the living room, everyone had come back downstairs.

  “Oh, gosh,” Remy said and rushed to my side. “She’s okay?”

  “She’s fine,” I said. “She was in the sink still in her blanket.”

  “Well, that settles it,” Amelda said.

  “Settles what?” I asked.

  Amelda walked over to us and pulled a small red thread out of her pocket. I looked closer, and it was actually a delicate braid of thin red silk strands. On the end was a charm in the shape of a hand with an eye in the center.

  “I’m going to tie this around her wrist. It should stop most of the shenanigans for the time being.”

  “Shenanigans?” I asked.

  “Some babies are born with their powers right away,” Amelda said. “It’s much safer and saner, for the parents anyway, if they develop them as they grow. But, I suspected that might not be the case for one as powerful as little Ki
nsley here. Which is why I have this ready,” she said as she tied it around Kinsley’s tiny wrist.

  “You mean she teleported down to the kitchen sink?” I asked. “Why?”

  “I’m sure she didn’t mean to, dear,” Amelda said just before giving Kinsley a kiss on her tiny hand. “She probably wasn’t even aware that her magic was about to go off. It was like a hiccup.”

  “That could be really dangerous,” I said.

  I tried to imagine the possibilities. If my daughter had the ability to teleport as a newborn, she wasn’t even an hour old, what could she do as she got older? If she had magical “hiccups” then my baby could end up across the country in someone else’s sink. Or worse.

  “That’s what the bracelet is for,” Amelda said.

  “It will keep her from disappearing again?” I asked.

  “It will keep her safe,” Amelda said. “We’ll take it off when she’s ready to control her powers.”

  The days after Kinsley were born were magically blissful. Even Meri seemed better after Remy started slipping him extra bacon and salmon while I was nearby taking care of Kinsley.

  Annika spent a lot of her free time at Hangman’s House helping me. She always brought Gerty with her. I was a little uneasy about that at first, but Gerty was a pig. What harm could she do?

  One day, while I was changing Kinsley’s diaper, the doorbell rang. “I’m not expecting anyone,” I said.

  Annika was in the living room on the sofa. She’d been helping me fold laundry. There was what seemed like an endless mountain of it, but Annika waved her hand through the air and made quick work of each basket.

  “Thank you,” I said. “If it weren’t for the whole personal gain thing, I’d use magic to fold my own laundry.”

  “Not a problem at all. I’m glad I can help. I’ll get the door,” she said and stood up.

  “It’s okay, we can just ignore it,” I said. “I’m not expecting anyone.”

  “Don’t be mad,” she said.

  “Annika…”

  “Brighton, hear me out. You never got to have a baby shower because little Kinsley here came early. And actually, it was supposed to be today. All I did was just not cancel it,” she said. “Surprise.”

  “I wondered why you looked so nice today,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure I’ve been wearing these sweatpants for three days. There’s chili on them, and my hair looks like it could be featured on a nature documentary.”

  “So, we’ll consider this an intervention too,” she said with a laugh. “Go upstairs. Shower. Do something with your hair that involves a brush and throw on a nice dress. You’ll feel a million times better.”

  I started to protest, and she cut me off.

  “I can handle Kinsley while you shower and get dressed. Amelda, the Aunties, and I need a bit to get ready for your baby shower anyway. It’s fine. Go,” she said and pointed up the steps.

  Kinsley had already fallen back asleep in my arms after her diaper change, and I thought a shower sounded good. I laid her down in her bassinet and went upstairs.

  She slept through the commotion of whatever the Skeenbauer witches were doing downstairs. My first stop was in my closet to see if I could find a dress I wanted to wear to the baby shower. I knew one of the Aunties would take a ton of pictures.

  Hanging near the front was my favorite. The dress was gray knit with a pink flower pattern. I had a pink cardigan I could wear over it. Since it was still winter, I took a pair of black tights out of my dresser drawer to go underneath it all.

  When I walked out into the hall to go to the bathroom, Meri was sitting at the top of the stairs. I could hear the Aunties banging around downstairs and giggling.

  “I can’t believe she’s sleeping through that,” I said to Meri.

  “I sure wish I could,” Meri snarked.

  “Why don’t you go up to the attic and get some peace. Kinsley and I will be fine,” I said.

  “I wasn’t worried,” Meri countered.

  “Sure you weren’t,” I said with a smile. “That’s why you haven’t left our side since she was born.”

  “I’m going up to the attic,” he said with a swish of his tail.

  “Thank you for working so hard to protect my daughter,” I said.

  “Whatever.”

  With that, he took off for one of his holes in the wall. I was interested to see how long he would actually stay away from Kinsley. I wasn’t exaggerating. He hadn’t left her side since right after she was born. At first, he’d seemed super annoyed with his new charge, but he was super annoyed right by her side.

  After my shower, I was drying my hair when everything suddenly got very quiet downstairs. It startled me to hear the boisterous women grow so silent, and I was worried that something had happened to Kinsley.

  I put the blow dryer down and tied my hair up in a messy bun as I made my way down the hall. As I walked down the stairs, I could hear a couple of the Aunties whispering.

  “Brighton,” Annika said when I entered the living room.

  “What’s going on?”

  A couple of the Aunties stepped out of the way, and I saw a huge gift basket. It was at least three feet high and filled with baby gifts.

  “Oh, that’s beautiful,” I said and took a step forward.

  “No,” Annika said.

  “What’s wrong?” I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t fathom why they were all being so weird about a gift basket.

  Amelda handed me the card. I opened it, and I felt my blood turn to ice water. Congratulations on the new baby, sis. Love, Brody.

  I almost dropped the card. While I had no idea how Brody had found out about Kinsley, it didn’t matter. He knew, and he’d been on my front porch?

  “How is it possible that he left that here?” I asked. “He can’t come here.”

  “It could have been delivered or he could have sent someone,” Annika said.

  “What if the pig is involved?” I said.

  Gerty, who had been sitting next to the sofa quietly munching on a plate of apple slices, looked up at me. “I’m just eating apples,” she said with a genuinely stricken look on her pink piggy face.

  “You wanted me and Kinsley dead before. You could have reached out to my brother somehow,” I said, but a lot of the wind had gone out of those sails.

  Gerty was magically bound to do us no harm, and Annika always kept an eye on her. It wasn’t like she’d even have the opportunity to collude with my brother.

  “I’m sorry,” Gerty said. “I’m not who I was before. I would never hurt you or the baby.”

  I decided to drop it. “I believe you,” I said with a sigh. “Either way, will someone get that basket out of here? Who knows how dangerous it is.”

  “I’ll handle it,” Amelda said.

  She took the basket and headed to the kitchen. I heard the back door open and then close. I could only assume that she’d taken it outside to destroy it.

  “Okay, then,” Annika said and clapped her hands. “Let’s get back to the party.”

  I wanted to protest that I wasn’t in the mood for a party, but when I finally looked around at everything Annika and the Aunties had done, I didn’t have the heart to spoil it.

  Hundreds of metallic pink star cutouts in all different sizes hung from the ceiling. Between those were a ton of pink balloons in every shade from baby to hot pink. There was a giant banner hung over the fireplace that said Welcome Home, Kinsley!

  Gerty was eating apple slices, but I could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen. Turned out that it was a lot of something delicious. There was an array of both hot and cold appetizers set up in the dining room. My stomach rumbled, and I couldn’t wait to try the mini eggrolls and crab Rangoons with purple plum sauce.

  There were also mini angus sliders, a mountain of waffle fries, hot dates, shrimp puffs, and an assortment of meats and cheeses with buns for sandwich making. I had no idea how we were going to eat it all, and then I remembered who I was with. Mere h
umans couldn’t have tackled such a spread, but the Skeenbauer witches would make light work of the scrumptious treats.

  And then it hit me. I didn’t think of myself as a witch who had married into the Skeenbauer family. I’d just thought of myself as a Skeenbauer witch.

  I was home.

  I would always carry some piece of my Tuttlesmith lineage with me, but I was a Skeenbauer. They had accepted me and taken me into their family.

  My daughter would bear the name Skeenbauer, and that made me proud. I stood there for a moment sobbing with joy, but when I looked up, Annika and my Aunties were surrounding me.

  They stood with me in silence until I felt the overwhelming emotion ebb away. “I’m hungry,” I finally said.

  “Then let’s eat,” Annika declared.

  Right on time, when the eating was ready to start, Meri reappeared. He may have said he wanted some peace and quiet, but he would never pass up a meal.

  Once we’d demolished the food, Annika said that I should grab Kinsley because it was time for the gifts. I looked around and I didn’t see any gifts, so I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

  Which was fine, because they’d already done so much. Remy and I had everything we needed and more. We weren’t expecting baby gifts.

  “You look confused,” Annika said. “Because there aren’t any packages, but I’m talking about different kinds of gifts. Grab little Kinsley and have a seat.”

  Someone had moved one of my wingback chairs to the center of the room. I took a seat, and everyone gathered around me in a circle. Kinsley barely stirred when I picked her up from her bassinet, and seconds after I was seated in the chair, she was asleep nuzzled against me again.

  “I think the guest of honor is going to snooze through the gifts,” I said.

  “That’s okay,” Annika said with a smile, “she doesn’t need to be awake to receive her gifts.”

  “What exactly is going on?” I asked.

  Amelda took a step forward. “Dear, we are each going to bestow a magical gift on Kinsley. Including you, there are thirteen of us here. Thirteen magical gifts for our little witch.”

  “I don’t know what I can give her,” I said and shook my head.

  “We’ll all go first. You’ll be the thirteenth and complete the circle. I’m sure you’ll think of something by then,” Annika said with a wink.