Welcome back to Tuesday Tales!  This weeks prompt is to be inspired by the word Summer.

Well, The Wolf is done, and while I must work on Witch Way, this weeks word prompt just didn’t fit. It also didn’t fit into Natural Selection. So this week I’m starting a new story. I believe it’ll be fantasy, but I haven’t figured it out completely yet.

This week’s prompt fell into my current WIP for the Holidays in Lake Point series, Witch Way. Felicity and Craig have been having a hot and heavy few meet and greets. Felicity is in it for a fling with a hot fireman, but she gets some advice from a trusted source:

Felicity dropped her bag in the mud room and kicked off her shoes. Before she even made it to the door she stripped out of her jacket and skirt. The moment her shirt hit the floor, a dress flew her way. She caught it on and slipped the simple black dress over her head. “Thanks, Patty. One more minute in that suit and I was going to burst.”

“You’re home late.” Near the window, Patty rearranged the plants for better light. The woman could have been Felicity’s mother, they looked so similar, with the exception of the grey streak at the front of her black locks, which were cut short in a cute bob as opposed to Felicity’s own long locks. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with that McAlister boy, would it?”

“Has the all-knowing Patty been peeking into her crystal ball again?” Felicity couldn’t quite keep the sardonic tone from her voice, but Patty only chuckled in response.

“Don’t be silly. I saw you on the square today. I told you that boy would grow up into a handsome young man.”

“Yes, he did. However, it’s just a fling, like all the others.”

“Oh, I doubt that.”

Felicity tensed a few feet behind Patty. She’d been about to give her aunt a hello kiss, but Patty’s knowing tone gave her pause. “Why do you say that?”

“I pulled the cards soon as I got home.”

“You promise you wouldn’t do that to me.” Felicity sighed and bypassed her aunt to perch on the counter. She popped a couple of grapes off the stem in the nearby fruit bowl. “You’re too close to do an accurate reading. Your feelings on the matter influence the cards.”

“No, not always. In this situation I wasn’t sure how to feel. After all, he wasn’t exactly the nicest boy when you were younger. I was worried for you, the cards eased my mind.”

“Because you wanted them to.” Felicity would never dismiss a good tarot reading, and Patty was the best, but Patty had also been the one that taught her how your own feelings could influence a reading.

“Would it make a difference if I told you I called Celeste as well?”

“Unfortunately, it would.”

“She got the exact same reading as I did. Card for card. Craig is a good man, and he’s meant to be around for a while.”

“Once the fling is flung he’ll be gone as the summer.”

“The summer does not depart until tomorrow, and Craig won’t pass with it.”

Felicity groaned and dropped her head into her hands. “I wanted a fling, Patty.”

“You’re getting a little old to be flinging yourself around.”

“No woman in our family has ever maintained a relationship with a man. Ever.”

“No woman has ever been like you, my darling girl.” Patty smoothed her hands over Felicity’s hair, pulling the ends over her shoulders. “Look at me.”

“I’m just like you, and you’ve said I’m just like my mother. My father left her soon as he heard about me and she up and died during childbirth.”

“And you, Felicity. You are more than either of us either were. You have managed to find the balance we never could. I am all crazy witch lady, your mother went straight normal, even faking church-going to soothe your father’s mind. When he found out the truth, thanks to Samhain, that’s when he left. It wasn’t about you.”

“And yet, it was.”

“He didn’t know. He never knew. I tried to contact him, but he refused to listen to me. Your mother blamed herself. None of that matters now. What matters now is who you are. I think you are the one that can keep a man, and keep your balance.”

“I don’t want to.” Felicity clasped her aunt’s hands in her own. “All of this feels like a curse. A hex on our family.”

“There is no such thing, we just suck at relationships.” Patty smiled. “You should give this a good chance before you dismiss it.”

“I just don’t know.” Truthfully, relationships scared her. Probably because no one ever stook around all that long. Plus, Craig hadn’t been too far off. Old teasing and taunts had followed her through childhood into her adult years.

“Have you told him the truth?”

“No. He can’t even say the word witch in my presence. He couldn’t handle it.”

“I think you should try.”

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