I shook my head.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” She came over and sat down beside me, tugging me over to rest my head on her shoulder. “You need to call Milo. He called me after he couldn’t get you.”
I fetched my cell and sat on the couch to call Milo.
“Where have you been?” he demanded when he answered. “I have news!”
“Sorry,” I said. “What news?”
I knew he was excited, but I couldn’t feel his excitement or generate any of my own.
“I heard from the Council about my multiplying charm. They want me to spend a week this summer studying in England! They started a new program to encourage more charms research. I get to go. Zoe, they want me!”
“Wow. That’s amazing. I’m happy for you.” I would be happy if I could feel anything. Finn’s doubt and the revelation about my family’s brush with insanity had left me numb.
Milo didn’t talk long. He’d probably picked up on my lack of enthusiasm. I hoped he’d forgive me, but I couldn’t do any better right now.
Mom made one of my favorite dinners, a chicken and vegetable casserole.
“Comfort food,” she said.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Did you call Grandma?”
“Yes,” Mom said. “I called but I didn’t tell her.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think she has any idea. I don’t want to break that kind of news over the phone.”
“How could she not know?”
“How could we not know?”
“Good point.”
When Finn and I finished on Saturday, we found my mother scowling down at the fancy invitation in her hand.
“Is that for your network Christmas party?” I asked. “I thought you liked going to those.”
Mom sighed. “Not this year. Mack’s replacement has been pretty obnoxious lately, and I’m not excited to spend four straight hours subjected to his attention.”
“That big muscly guy? I thought he was young.”
“He’s in his late twenties, but the steroids seem to have shrunk his brain and his manners.”
“When is the event?” Finn asked.
Mom looked up from the invitation with hope in her eyes. “Saturday, December nineteenth.”
“Oh dear,” Finn said. “I’m afraid I’m attending a chemistry symposium that week. I’ll be traveling back on the twentieth.”
Mom’s smile wavered. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“We could find someone else to accompany you,” Finn suggested. “If that would make you more comfortable.”
“It would, but I have thought about possibilities and come up empty.”
“Perhaps you could find a way to meet more people,” I said. “Maybe there is some kind of site for that on the internet.”
“Don’t get me started, Zoe,” Mom said. “It won’t go well for you.”
I tried to gauge her breaking point by examining the grip on the invite and the set of her jaw. Yeah. I shouldn’t push her.
“I can cut my trip short,” Finn said. “If you think my attendance would be of help.”
“No, Martin,” Mom said, “I don’t want you to do that. It isn’t necessary.”
Poor Mom, I thought to myself. Her best option for a date to the party was Finn, and honestly, she would draw some unwanted attention by taking somebody that young-looking with her.
Something’s up with your dad, Jake texted.
What do you mean?
Acting weird. Can’t talk now. Call you soon.
Well that was not helpful. Now I couldn’t think about anything but my dad and what “acting weird” might mean.
I was starting on problem seventeen, halfway through my algebra II homework, moving at a fraction of my usual pace, distracted, when Jake finally called.
“Finally! I was going nuts. What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure about this, Zoe. I have my suspicions. I think your father may be getting ready to propose to my mother.”
My dinner came up into my throat. Oh my God! “No! You have to be wrong.”
“I hope so, but it isn’t looking good.”
“Tell me,” I said and groaned. “What’s happening?”
“He’s been spending a lot of time talking about families and about having him around. It was subtle at first, but lately he’s been more direct. He’s always trying to ‘feel me out’ about him and Mom.”
I took a deep breath. “That doesn’t sound too bad. I mean he is living there, right?”
“He’s been here for a while, but I think he let his apartment go.”
Uh oh. That was serious. Dad actually lived there with Sheree and Jake.
“There’s, um, more.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a few seconds, hiding in the darkness, before opening them and saying, “Tell me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I snapped. “Tear off the Band-Aid already.”
“I saw your dad combing through my mother’s jewelry box.”
I blinked. “Like stealing her jewelry?”
“More like looking at her rings and trying them on his pinky to figure out what size she wears.”
“Maybe he wanted to steal them.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Maybe he’s gay,” I suggested, grasping at straws.
“I don’t think so.”
“So does a ring always mean a marriage proposal?” I asked.
“As far as I know.”
I couldn’t think of a single movie or television show where a ring from a man meant anything else. “This is a nightmare! We’ll be—”
“Stepbrother and stepsister.”
“Brother and sister!” I said.
“Not really though. Just steps.”
“Does it really matter?” I demanded. “For all practical purposes we’ll be siblings. Siblings who are dating each other.”
“Zoe, it’s not that bad.”
“And it means that this is going to last a lot longer than I thought. We’ve already put up with this for months, but now we’re looking at years.”
“Marriage is supposed to mean forever.”
“You aren’t helping, Jake.”
“Maybe he’s just toying with the idea of proposing. He probably isn’t planning to ask her any time soon.”
“He proposed to my mother after six weeks.”
“Yikes. I didn’t realize they got married that fast.”
“They didn’t. She said ‘no’ the first four times.”
“Oh,” he said, hope creeping into his voice. “Maybe she’ll say no. I didn’t think about that.”
“Maybe we should give her some reasons to say no.”
“I don’t think so, Zoe. I’m not going to mess with my mother’s life like that. If she wants John, then I’m not going to interfere.”
Goody two shoes. The truth was that I didn’t want Sheree getting hurt either. “You’re right. Besides, I need to focus on my mom.”
“Is she still mad about the website?”
“No, but that’s not the problem. She isn’t using the website, and she isn’t even trying to meet anybody.” I had checked her browser history to see if she’d ever looked into those four guys. “If Dad’s getting married, I want her to at least have a date. I don’t want her alone and lonely when she finds out about this.”
“You tried. She doesn’t want to date.”
She didn’t. It was so annoying. I had to change her situation before Dad proposed. She needed a date to that party anyway. Why not give it another shot? I had options that Jake didn’t know about. I had potions, and I could handle the repercussions if it meant helping my mother. “Maybe she does want to date. Maybe she just doesn’t want to admit it.”
“I don’t know, sis,” he said.
“Not funny!”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I realized that as soon as I said it.”
“Don’t ever say that again.”
&nbs