She’d never met any of her grandparents. Junie had been disowned before Leanne was born, so she’d never known the witch side of her family, and Junie had said her biological father was some random mundane, a man she couldn’t track down if she tried. Since that was just classic Junie, she’d never questioned it. But over the past few months, she’d come to view Hazel as a surrogate grandma, and the altercation with Rutherford underscored how precious this woman was. While she seemed grumpy as hell on the surface, she was lonely deep down and longing to feel necessary and be included.

“Bring it in,” said Hazel, her round face creasing in a bright smile.

Smiling, Leanne hugged her and patted her back. “I’m completely out of corn muffins, you know.”

“You ate the lot already?” Beaming, Hazel gave Leanne another squeeze. “I’ll make a double batch this time, and you can put some in the freezer. They microwave real nice.”

“Thanks, you’re the best.”

“You never make me corn muffins,” Howard complained.

“That’s because you’re not in my book club.” Hazel tossed her dandelion perm and then patted the curls with a superior sniff.

Before, she’d wondered why Clem bothered attending these meetings, and while she’d started with an ulterior motive, Leanne genuinely liked these seniors now, all of them, not just Ethel and Gladys, who had always been cool witches in her book. With another wave, she rushed out, as she’d spent more time chatting than she planned.

The rest of the morning, she visited businesses downtown and did her nutshell pitch without taking up too much time. By lunchtime, she was exhausted, but she kept working at headquarters even as she ate, reaching out to community groups like the Kiwanis and the VFW via email, along with youth organizations, agricultural foundations, and a variety of other special interest groups that might make good allies.

Volunteers trickled in, and to her surprise, some of the retirees had high school–age grandchildren with them today. Leanne immediately put the Zoomers in charge of social media outreach, after showing them some of Trev’s efforts. Speaking of which…

Normally, he’d arrived before now. She checked her phone, but she didn’t have any messages from him. Well, maybe he’s researching classes? Mentally, she shrugged and dove back into work, scheduling six more meetings or speaking engagements for the following week. Ideally, she’d have a professional manager to do this, but she was running this thing on a shoestring, having given up her stable and reliable future for one in which she theoretically could make a difference.

“How’re you doing?” Ethel asked, squeezing the back of her neck gently.

The sudden touch made her jump and belatedly realize how tense she was. “I feel like I ran at this too suddenly. I should’ve been making plans to do this for years, but…”