“No problem,” they reply.
“He’s a toddler,” Skye adds. “This won’t be the last time he breaks something.”
Ashley chuckles. “Very true. Gwyn, I need a babysitter on Monday afternoon. One of the grad students has to finish a paper. Are you available?”
“Sure,” I say, eyeing her son.
Tanner ambles back into the kitchen and a whiff of fresh bread trickles into the family room. Spence returns a couple of minutes later with a large cardboard box. Ronnie sets it on the floor. The rest of us observe her, perplexed, as she cuts square holes at random on the sides of it. She bends down next to the bored toddler.
“Hi, Aidan. I’m Ronnie. Would you like to play with a new toy?”
He stares at her for a moment, then replies, “Yes.”
“Great. Derek, lift Aidan and drop him in.”
“Are you sure?” he asks. “He’ll whine if we put him in there. It’ll be like prison.”
She cackles. “Yeah, but he won’t realize he’s in jail, because we’re gonna make a game out of it.”
“Do it,” Archie says. “She knows what she’s doing.”
Aidan whines as Derek transports him to the playbox, but giggles when he lands inside. He pokes fingers through the holes, and Ronnie shoves blocks through them, prompting the boy to do the same. They continue this back-and-forth for a few minutes. Then the young witches take over.
“Great idea,” I tell Ronnie. “You’re going to be a wonderful mom.”
Ashley grins at her giggling son. “Thank you so much. When you’ve had your baby, we should get together. Our children will only be two years apart. They could be great friends, eventually.”
“I’d love to set up play dates down the road,” Ronnie says.
“How did you come up with the idea?” Jeff asks.
“You have to think like a kid. Basically, I never grew up. So…” She laughs, and her crimson curls flop around.
“This is so much fun.” Spence shoves a block through a hole, prompting Ashley’s son to push it back through. “Right, Aidan?”
Ronnie snorts. “Need I say more?”
Tanner shouts from the dining room. “Dinner’s on the table!”
“Awesome.” Spence presses an eye against the box’s hole. “Hey, kid. You wanna eat?”
Aidan giggles as Spence lifts him out of the box. “You funny.”
“Very perceptive, young man,” Archie says, grinning.
We all crack up as we shuffle into the dining room. Ashley’s son acts sweet throughout dinner, sitting next to his new pal, Spence. We chat about everything from the abrupt change in the weather to Ashley’s fondness of Bearsden to Ronnie’s impending due date. But the conversation turns somber when Tanner brings up the most recent kidnapping and the city council’s ordinance vote.
“Play box?” Aidan asks, pointing to the family room.
Jeff pushes up from his chair. “I’ll take him.” He wipes Aidan’s hands and face off.
“You all continue chatting,” Ashley says. “I’ll play with him. He’s my son, after all.”
Ronnie wipes her mouth with a napkin, an anxious expression on her face. “Derek, why don’t we keep them company?”
“Sure, babe.” He follows them into the family room.
When they’ve left, we continue the discussion in lower voices.
“We should be careful around Ronnie and Ashley,” I say. “They’re both stressing about the kidnappings.”
Tanner leans on the table. “Has the Bearsden PD released any more information regarding the incidents? I haven’t read anything, but I follow local online news.”
“All the articles I’ve seen still report no leads,” Archie says. “Very concerning when you consider the lack of evidence.”
Skye leans on the table. “Except for the single sighting of a woman with long, blond hair.”
“Awesome.” Spence stuffs a cookie in his mouth. “That narrows the suspect down to about a thousand women.”
“Less than that, because not all blondes in Bearsden are witches,” Skye adds.
Zach’s brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
Spence grabs another cookie and gets up from his chair, turning toward the doorway.
“Dude?” Tanner asks. “Where are you going? We decided no food in the family room.”
“Aidan didn’t get one yet,” he replies. “Don’t make such a fuss. The crumbs will fall in the box. No big deal.”
