“If it’s enough to spook a Corbie, we’ll hear about it sooner or later,” Jack pointed out, nudging a fire truck back toward Edward with his foot. “Probably sooner.”

Charlie didn’t find that exactly reassuring and, from the way Joe’s brows nearly touched his nose, neither did he.

“They could have been lying about leaving,” Jack reminded them after a long moment where the only noise came from plastic wheels on worn hardwood.

“True enough.” Joe reached into the cash box and pulled out a twenty. Charlie wondered if it had been fairy gold the night before, changed to Canadian currency by Auntie Catherine’s charm on the cash box, or if it had come from the slightly less mythological community the store also serviced. It never ceased to amaze her how many people needed mismatched saucers. “And now you’ve reassured us, Highness, go get coffee. When you get back, I need you to sort through a couple of boxes of old magazines. Last time we put a box out without checking, there were three that hadn’t been published yet.”

“It’s like a bad episode of Warehouse 13 in here some days,” Jack sighed, waved the smoke away, and took the twenty. “Charlie, coffee?”

He said coffee. The subtext said, at least you’ll have to stick around long enough to drink it. Fort Minor’s “Where’d You Go” played in the background. She knew Jack didn’t understand why life couldn’t be a constant loop of that summer together down east, but the thought of sitting down and explaining things to him gave her hives. She valued their friendship even if a good part of it had become smoke and mirrors.

“Charlie?”

“Why not.” It wasn’t like she could leave before the aunties descended on Allie—not unless she wanted to find new living arrangements.

Over the next half hour, she drank a very good coffee and told her mother that, yes, she’d known Allie was expecting. Built a fairly decent reproduction of the Saddledome with the twins out of old wooden blocks while she told Auntie Meredith that, yes, she’d known Allie was expecting. Watched without watching the muscles in Jack’s back and arms shift as he lifted boxes of magazines up on the counter to be sorted while she told Auntie Esther that, yes, she’d known Allie was expecting. Dragged Evan out from under a set of shelves while telling Auntie Ruth that, yes, she’d known Allie was expecting. Rescued Edward from the top of a set of shelves while she told Auntie Trisha that, yes, she’d known Allie was expecting.

When she came back from cleaning the grime off both boys, Joe had sold a yoyo.

“Mama!”

Charlie turned from the ledger in time to see Allie enter the store and stagger slightly, tackled by her sons.