“Ooh,” both Faith and Ana intoned as they watched his face flush an endearing red.
My lips curled up in the corners before I looked away from the scene of them all. Of him with his messy hair and bright eyes that were as stunning as a clear day.
I was getting ahead of myself.
I gave my hesitant smile to Gertie, who had been watching me closely. “I’ll be right back.”
Her hand reached out, drifting over my arm. “It’s getting dark. Be careful and don’t wander too close to the water.”
“I won’t.”
10
The sprinkle of impending rain tickled my shoulders. I stared into the flowing river. Tiny waves jumped over rocks. The bark of the tree that lived half in water and half on earth, unable to make up its mind, scratched against my back. I was feeling similarly as I glanced back toward the house through the thinning raspberry vines and sections of garden. I was one step into something. My other foot was ready to take me away and run from whatever it was happening inside.
A now familiar figure didn’t take long before they arrived next to me.
“Hey,” Ryan said softly, sticking his hands in his pockets.
“I’m sorry about all that.”
“About what?”
“Them,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if that was what I meant. “They are all slightly out of their minds. That’s why they’re calling you my boyfriend and everything.”
He shrugged, looking down at his shoes. “It’s all right.”
“It is not. You don’t have to say that.”
“I’m not just saying that,” Ryan insisted quietly. “There are a lot worse things to be called than your boyfriend.”
When I looked up, our eyes caught for a moment. I let mine linger there, looking at the deep-blue color his eyes turned in the darkness that was slowly drifting over the river. The river that I quickly turned my attention back to. “Oh.”
“It’s kind of nice actually,” said Ryan. “It’s nice here. I can see why you like it so much. The house. The people.”
I glanced at him, peering through my eyelashes.
“The feeling,” he added.
“The feeling?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “There are memories all over that place. There are pictures of you all on the fridge and old notes. It feels like a home. My home didn’t feel like that exactly. It was much more … clean. Less lived in.”
“That’s one thing that Gertie never held true to.”
They had spring cleaning, but Gertie never proclaimed her house was anything close to minimalist. The rocks Essie and Brenson used to collect and gift to her when they were little, which Celeste brought to all of the coven meetings years ago, still lined bookshelves and windowsills. Dozens of them.
“If you look in the living room, you’ll notice the dark ring from the time that Celeste’s son, Brenson, knocked some of the candles over around Yule when we were playing cards. They lit the carpet on fire.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope,” I said, remembering. “It’s a reason Gertie always has a bowl of water among the offerings as well. Still, he screamed like a little girl.”
After that, he rarely came back to any meetings of his own volition.
“Now I regret him not showing up,” said Ryan.
Maybe next time,I thought before I could stop myself.
