David picked up the manila envelope but didn’t open it. “What’s this?”

“Open it,” Jessie ordered, that self-satisfied smile back on his face.

David opened the envelope, slid a stack of papers out and leafed through them. There was a deed to a piece of property, another map of the town, and several letters that he didn’t take the time to read.

“I still don’t know what you’re trying to tell me,” he said. “What is all this?”

“That is the deed to the store, and several letters to the town council recommending that you become the interim sheriff and mayor until an election can be held,” Jessie said, then sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

“But that doesn’t make any sense. George owns the store,” he said, leafing through the pages again.

“Not anymore. He packed up and left town a few weeks ago,” Sophie said, “He left that behind and nothing else.”

David was shocked. “What? That’s not possible. I mean, where did he go?”

Jessie shrugged. “No one’s heard from him since he left,” he said, then gestured to the envelope again. “Look a little closer at those first few pages.”

David picked the stack of papers up off his lap and looked at the first page, surprised to see that it was the deed to the store and his name next to Jessie’s at the bottom. “Why is my name on here?”

“I can’t tell you why he did it, but George signed the store over to us,” Jessie said, grinning at David. “Now you can come back home and run it; you won’t have to work in Nashville anymore.”

“But why would he do that? That store has been in his family for generations,” David asked, still not able to believe what he was seeing.

“After you left the last time, word got out that George is my father and people kind of turned on him. A lot of people who had been willing to ignore his hatred of me found it hard to ignore it when they found out the truth.”

“So, he just left?” David asked, astonished that the town would turn on the man who’d led them for so long.

Jessie nodded. “There’s more; he was protecting the moonshine business on the mountain, ignoring what was going on. People didn’t like that much either, especially when we figured out that’s why people stopped coming to Gypsum Creek.”

David couldn’t quite see what Jessie was getting at. “I think I’m missing something.”

“Our esteemed mayor was working with the moonshiners; they blocked the trails that led to town, put up warning signs, and I’ve even heard a few stories about him personally scaring hikers off,” Sophie explained. “The store must have been nothing compared to what he was getting from the moonshiners to protect them.”

“And now that he’s gone?” David asked, beginning to understand where this was going.

“We’re going to bring the hikers back,” Jessie said, a huge grin on his face.

“And we’re hoping that you’ll help; it’s our only chance to save this town, to keep people here,” Sophie said.

“What is it that you want me to do?” David asked, his head swimming with all the possibilities.

“We want you to run the store and oversee all the construction around town,” Jessie said.

“Construction?” David asked.

Jessie handed him a map of the town, but it looked much different than the town he was sitting in right at that moment. “First, we’ll update the store, change the merchandise, possibly expand. We’re going to build a small hotel; we’ll have the boarding house, and maybe we’ll even be able to build a few more stores down the line.”

David studied the map some more. “You really think this will work?”

Jessie and Sophie both nodded. “People are behind this idea, and if we have your help, it could really happen,” Jessie said, but he could see that David wasn’t convinced. “Why don’t you go home and think it over? I’m sure your mom would love to see you.”

David walked out of the school, the manila envelope tucked under his arm, in shock. He got in his truck and headed for home, wondering if his mother was really considering this crazy idea. When he turned off the main road and saw the farmhouse through the trees, he felt a spark of hope for the first time in years.

The farm wasn’t in terrible shape, but the lack of funds since his father died was beginning to show. The house needed a fresh coat of paint, and the roof on the barn needed to be repaired, but it was still a beautiful place.

When he pulled up in front of the house, his mother came out to greet him. She gave him a big hug, then pulled back to look at him. “You’ve already talked to Jessie, I see,” she said. “Come inside, I’ll make you something to eat, and we can talk.”

David followed her inside and watched while she made him a sandwich, feeling all the while like he’d been ganged up on. When his sister Natalie came into the kitchen and quietly sat down next to him, he knew that he was outnumbered.

He was only halfway through his sandwich when he realized that he wasn’t going to be living in Nashville for very much longer. His mother was excited about Jessie’s plan, gushing about eco-tourism and switching to crops that they could sell at farmer’s markets and county fairs.

“Don’t you see, David? This is our chance to not only keep the farm but make a difference. Reach people who have lost touch with where their food comes from, people who don’t know what lies beyond the cities they live in,” she finished.

David shook his head. “I think you’re all crazy, but I’ll call my boss and tell him I won’t be back,” he said.

Her parents stared at her in shock for a few minutes, but her mother was the first one to recover. “You’re going where, to do what?” she asked, rubbing her forehead with her fingers like she always did when she heard something she didn’t want to hear.

“I’m going to Gypsum Creek, Tennessee to write my master’s thesis,” Michelle said as calmly as she could, even though her heart was pounding in her chest.

“That was not part of our plan,” her mother said firmly, as if Michelle was a child and could be ordered around. “We all agreed that you’d give that up, that modeling was more important.”

“And let’s not forget the legacy you’ve inherited,” her father spoke up for the first time. “It’s time for a McIntyre to lead the coven again. Think how proud your grandmother would be.”

“But that’s not what I want. I want to get my master’s degree and teach,” Michelle said, trying to sound as sure of herself as she could.

Her mother actually shuddered. “That’s just not going to happen; we’ve invested too much time in your modeling career to give up now. Don’t you remember our dream?”

“That’s your dream, mother, not mine,” Michelle said, a little pleased with herself for standing up to her mother.

“You talk some sense into her, Walter. I told you letting her go to college was a mistake,” her mother said, leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest.

Michelle sighed; she knew how difficult her mother could be but wasn’t sure just how far her father would go to get what he wanted. “Darling, don’t you remember your grandmother? Don’t you remember how much she wanted you to embrace the magic inside you, how important it was to her that you represent the family? It’s your legacy to lead the coven. I can’t let you throw that away,” he said, shaking his head.

She stared at her father for a long time, remembering a time when he was embarrassed by her magic, a time when he wanted to hide her from the world. Even all these years later, the pain of being twelve and sent away to a grandmother she’d never met was there. She wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive her father for trying to throw her away that summer.

That terrible summer had started with a small act of teenaged defiance when she’d cut her long black hair with a pair of kitchen shears to get her mother to let her have a normal summer. They’d had a terrible fight, both screaming at each other, her mother finally slamming her bedroom door but sobbing loud enough that Michelle could hear her in her room.

She’d gone to bed only feeling slightly guilty but relieved that she’d found a way to put a stop to all the beauty pageants and modeling jobs her mother had planned for her. But it didn’t work; the next morning, her mother came in to wake her up, talking about setting new trends as she opened her curtains, making her want to scream.

When she finally sat up in bed, her mother gasped and ran over to the bed. “Oh, thank goodness, it was all a bad dream,” she said, hugging Michelle to her.

Michelle pulled away and went to the mirror, horrified to discover that her hair was just as long as it had been before she cut it the day before. She grabbed the scissors and began cutting it off in huge chunks again, running from her mother who was screaming at her to stop.

After she’d chopped off the last piece, she stood breathless in the center of the room, the floor littered with hunks of her long black hair. Her mother opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out except a small gasp, then she pointed to Michelle’s hair.

“Your hair, it’s growing,” she finally managed to say.

Michelle turned to the mirror and saw that her hair was growing, inch by inch, until it was down to her waist. Shocked, Michelle collapsed on the floor, unable to catch her breath as she watched her mother run from the room.

When her father came into the room only a few minutes later, he took one look at the bedroom floor and said, “She’s going to my mother’s in Tennessee; we can’t let anyone find out about this.”

Her life was never the same after that day, and it took years before her father was willing to accept who she was. If she was honest with herself, she thought as she stared at him, it wasn’t until he realized that he could benefit from her magic that he’d accepted it.

A little shocked by that thought, she said, “I don’t want to lead the coven. I just want to teach. Grandma wouldn’t have wanted me to do anything I didn’t want to do. She he taught me to use my magic, but we never talked about a legacy; that’s you, dad, not her.”

“What does Bryce have to say about this?” her mother asked.

“He wasn’t wild about the idea either,” Michelle said, wishing she didn’t have to tell them the rest.

“See, he knows what’s good for you, just like we do,” her father said, triumphantly.

“No, he doesn’t. He knows what is good for him, just like you do,” she said, suddenly not the least bit sorry to tell them the rest. “I broke off the engagement with him this afternoon.”

There was a long silence in the room, then her father banged his fist down on the table. “This is completely idiotic, and I’m not going to stand for any more of this. You are going to marry Bryce, take over the coven, and do your duty to your family,” he yelled, getting to his feet.