After the Summerland (The Witches of Spring Hill Book 1) (4 page)

Liam strongly protested
that last part, but in the end the story took on a life of its own with people
adding their own details here and there. The romantics at heart all hoped that
when the ‘niece’ returned for her babies, she would meet Liam and fall in love,
solving all of their problems. Others saw what a great father Liam was and
hoped the niece never returned — really, what kind of woman would abandon three
babies, anyway?

A letter was left for Liam
giving him power of attorney, along with the deed to the land with the guarantee that
he could live at the house on the hill while raising the children, until the
(nonexistent) niece came back for them. If the niece didn’t return, money would be
left in a trust for the three children, which they would receive upon their 18
^th
birthday, along with the deed to the property. At that point they could choose their own
paths. This answered any legal questions fully and since most people already
believed anything that Peter, Marcus, and Liam told them, no one really
challenged or questioned the story.

Some people whispered
about the strange circumstances, but having known Liam their whole lives, they
eventually let the story die out. Some were relieved that the three old women
were gone, along with the strange lights and sounds. But most people were sad to
see the Scotts go since they never really caused any trouble, gave the town
some good fodder for gossip, and of course, their leaving meant the end of 3
Sisters goods. That first season, Liam harvested everything in the garden and
brought it down to the market to sell, but no one was impressed and for the
first time anyone could remember
,
food went back up
the hill.

Everyone in town adored
the three Alexander triplets and they were spoiled from the moment Liam brought
them to town. The babies always seemed to be looking around with wondrous
expressions, and everyone commented on how they were so completely alert and curious
about their surroundings. After 16 years, no one has ever questioned why
neither the niece nor the three sisters ever returned.

Liam pulls up to the
school and pounds the fist of each of the kids as they hop out of the car.
Rowan rolls her eyes as usual, but Chloe and Kaiden both give him a big grin —
glad that their dad is somewhat cool. They head in the direction of their groups
of friends, who all appear to be waiting for their arrival. The Alexander kids are
popular, which brings Liam both pride and fear.

Liam watches as Rowan’s
friends immediately encircle her, excited that their fearless leader has
finally joined their ranks. At 5’6” with long auburn red hair and green eyes, she
stands out from the group of blondes and brunettes. She is always dressed in
the latest fashions, which today, thankfully, is jeans, a tank top, and a
hoodie.

Some days Liam cringes
at her choice of clothes and has to remind her that she is still in high
school. He is constantly watching to make sure what she is wearing is
appropriate and on more than one occasion he has sent her back upstairs to change
before going to school, which she hates. He is sure she will be the one who
takes being a witch the worst. All she seems to want is to fit in, and being a
witch is only going to make her stand out. Knowing her, she will try to
convince her friends to be witches — and they will try, just to please her.

Chloe makes her way to
her friends, the quirky kids who are both intelligent and cool at the same time.
They wave at Liam and aren’t at all embarrassed to do so. Chloe, at 5’5” fits
in well with her friends, with her long black hair, big blue eyes, black rimmed
glasses, and clothes she made herself. Today she is wearing a long skirt with
beads hand sewn on the bottom and a tank top she made from clothes she has
outgrown.

She is completely
self-sufficient and self-reliant, yet loves to be around people. Of the three,
she is the kindest, most grounded, and may have already started to recognize
her special gifts. She was the first one to wander the gardens with Liam and was
the first to start asking questions about her own abilities. She is wise beyond
her years, has an incredible amount of patience, is the first to laugh at a
joke, and is kind to everyone and everything.

Kaiden is, surprisingly,
just like Liam when he was in high school. He joins his jock friends who are no
doubt talking about last night’s basketball game. Kaiden is also tall for his
age at 5’11”, which is why he was asked to join the varsity basketball team
this year instead of junior varsity. He has an athletic build, dark brown hair,
hazel eyes and has an easy way about him. Like Chloe, he is nice to everyone
and exudes a crisp confidence that says, I know who I am and I am not changing
for anyone.

Everyone likes Kaiden
as soon as they meet him and so he has many friends, both boys and girls. He is
extremely protective of his sisters, and Liam can’t help but smile as he
watches Kaiden make sure both of them are situated with their friends before he
can relax with his own. He gets good grades, plays sports year round, and like
the men before him wants to serve his community. Instead of being a
policeman, he wants to become a fireman as soon as he is done with school. Liam
worries that Kaiden will be disappointed in his new destiny, since just like
Liam at that age, he already seems to have his plans clearly mapped out ahead
of him.

Liam pulls out and heads
to the diner to meet his dad and granddad for coffee before going into work. He
knows what this morning’s conversation will be about since it has been the same
conversation they have been having for the past year. Today they will be
relieved when he finally agrees that it is time to tell them. Liam holds on to
the memories of his sweet kids throughout the years; but, inside, he knows the
time has come to let go.

Rowan sees the looks on
the faces of her friends as she approaches, and laughs inside at their
neediness. Everyone thinks she cares so much about what other people think, but
actually she couldn’t care less. Her favorite part of her day is the morning
when she gets to see how her ‘friends’ fawn all over her. Such a game, she
thinks, as she decides
who
she will sit next to at
lunch, who she will text after school, and who she will share her ‘secrets’
with. It’s not like she does it to be mean, she just likes to see how far she
can go. She likes to push limits and unfortunately for her ‘friends,’ they are
her pawns.

Today she really did
want to get to school early because she wants to be one of the first people to
see the new kids who are starting today — two boys and a girl. Triplets just
like her, Chloe, and Kaiden. It’s not everyday they meet others like them and she
can’t help but wonder if they are as different from each other as she, Kaiden,
and Chloe are.

“Ro? What are you
thinking about?” Kristen asks. Rowan hates when anyone other than her family
calls her “Ro” so she snubs Kristen and turns to Jessica and asks, “Did the new
kids get here yet?”

Jessica, pleased with
the attention, shakes her head and looks at her phone for the fifth time. “It’s
only 7:15 though, so they’ve got 10 minutes before the first bell rings.”

Rowan looks out to the parking
lot and watches a shiny, black SUV with tinted windows pull in. She rolls her
eyes knowing that it’s Tyler White, who will no doubt start bugging her about
going out on Friday night. She turns her head away so he doesn’t get the
impression that she cares. Tyler is a senior and really shouldn’t be pursuing
her as doggedly as he is. If her dad only knew how hard he was trying to get
her to go out with him, he would arrest him for disorderly conduct or
something.

Kristen, trying to get
back on Rowan’s good side says, “Rowan, Tyler is heading this way. Do you want
me to deflect him for you? I really don’t mind — I mean, the guy is fine.”

Rowan glares at Kristen
and says in her sweetest voice, “Kristen, he is only looking for a piece of
ass, so if you want to, um what was the word you used? Oh yes,
deflect
him — by all means go ahead.”
Kristen, realizing once again that she has failed Rowan, walks away from the
group without turning back.

As Tyler approaches,
Rowan notices a sleek white Mercedes pull up to the curb, completely out of
place in this town. Before Tyler can say anything, Rowan turns her back on him
and looks for both her brother and sister. Kaiden makes eye contact with Rowan
immediately and breaks away from his group just a little bit. Chloe, in the
middle of a conversation, stops abruptly, stands up and moves away from her
friends to make eye contact with both Rowan and Kaiden.

When the three
occupants slide out of the car, the hairs on Rowan’s, Kaiden’s, and Chloe’s
arms raise. Instinctively, they break completely away from their friends and
come together. The energy is electric and all three Alexanders are shocked that
other people don’t seem to notice it.

The first person to get
out of the car is a tall blonde girl with green eyes. She is wearing all black
except for her jewelry, all expensive looking, in various shades of green. She takes
in her surroundings and then makes eye contact with Kaiden. Kaiden can’t help but
smile at the girl, who smiles sweetly back at him.

The second person to
step out of the vehicle is a tall boy with jet-black hair and eyes to match. He
is wearing dark blue jeans and a tight black shirt that shows how much time he
spends working out. He doesn’t bother taking in the surroundings and zeroes in
on Rowan. She gasps and the usually perfect Rowan staggers a little under his
scrutiny. For the first time in a long time, Rowan wonders how she looks to
someone else.

Finally, the third
person steps out of the car. Looking slightly disheveled with brown hair and piercing
blue eyes hidden behind glasses, wearing khaki shorts and a plaid shirt, he
looks around and settles his gaze on Chloe. Chloe feels her heart pound harder in
her chest and an unusual fluttering in her stomach that reminds her of the
butterflies that flit around the flowers in the garden. It feels as though time
has stood still until the door of the Mercedes slams shut, bringing everyone
back to their senses.

Although it seems like
time stood still, in reality, only a few moments has passed. As everyone else
gets back to whatever it was they were doing, it seems as if only the six of
them have connected. Rowan is the first to acknowledge what happened, “Did
anyone else feel that?” she whispers to her brother and sister. They both
acknowledge her question with a nod. “What the hell is
goin
’
on?” Kaiden asks.

Brianna, Xavier, and Cian
Silvan know all about the Alexander triplets. They have spent the last three
months learning the ins and outs of the town and more specifically, learning
about Peter, Marcus, Liam, and the triplets. They were not, however, prepared
for the intensity of the three’s gaze when they first laid eyes on them. How
appropriate that they would be together, front and center, in front of the
school upon their arrival on the first day of school. Most surprising is that
they were standing together. Their Aunt Selene told them that the Alexander
triplets never spend much time together, each being so very different from one
another, especially at school where they stick with their own groups of
friends, their own cliques.

It’s not that they
expected it to be easy to come between them, but they did not expect the trio
to put up such a strong front on the first day. Brianna nudges Cian
and says, “How come no one told me how cute Kaiden Alexander is in person?”

Xavier throws an
unexpected grin at his sister and replies “Probably for the same reason nobody
told me that Rowan looked like that — Aunt Selene doesn’t want us to be
distracted by how they look.”

Cian doesn’t say
anything because he already decided that he would be a voice of reason in all
matters related to the Alexanders. He would not, absolutely would not, do
anything to harm them, especially after seeing Chloe in person. He read the bio
that his aunt made up about her this morning at breakfast and can now sense
that Chloe is a gentle soul and he does not want to cause her any pain. No, he
will protect her and all the Alexanders — even if it means going against his
own family, especially his aunt and brother. He knows he can convince his
sister to stop this madness, but his brother will need persuading.

The Silvans moved to Spring
Hill from California. Selene Silvan sought custody of her niece and nephews after
their father, her brother, Michael, died a year ago. She had been living with
them since Amy, the kids’ mother, died more than five years ago. It was only
natural that she would take care of them when their dad died and she had no
difficulty getting custody. She collected the life insurance money, sold the
house, packed up her niece and nephews and set out to find a new place to live.
With the money from the life insurance, the huge profit from the sale of her
brother’s house, and even after most of the money went to the kids trust funds,
she became quite wealthy and chose a place far away from California and the
suspicions surrounding her.

Selene and Michael were
born and raised outside of Salem, Massachusetts. Their mother was a witch so
they were used to watching her use magic to manipulate people. Though Michael
was six years older than Selene, he didn’t have a lot of friends due to their
mom’s strange behavior so he spent a lot of time with his little sister.
Michael loved the outdoors and would take Selene out to explore around their
property whenever he could. They spent summers wandering Salem Woods until their
mom insisted it was time for Selene to start focusing solely on witchcraft.

Selene initially wanted
nothing to do with magic, instead preferring to spend her free time with her
brother, until her mother used her own powers of manipulation to force Selene
to comply. When that didn’t work, she locked her in her room until she broke.
Michael could only sit by and watch and although he wanted to help his sister,
he quickly learned that any attempt to help her would only lead to further
abuse. Their mother never raised a hand at Michael, instead focusing all of her
energy on Selene. Though Michael was saddened, the bond between him and Selene
eventually broke as she immersed herself in their mother’s craft.