“What do you mean you look like youmight?”
Nora shrugged. “There’s a polyamory thing. They kind of have the look. I’m a septum piercing short. But that’s never been our thing. Maybe if he would’ve talked to me, I ...” She swallowed hard. “I wanted something normal. I wanted it to last.”
“Well, it still could. If you want to forgive him.”
“Oh no. Forgiveness is not my thing.” Nora looked back up at the candle. “My thing is revenge.”
Soraya would have said forgiveness was her thing, that she didn’t want revenge. That was before she had been hurt. That was before her husband had tricked her. Before he had turned her own children against her. “You know, Nora, I think we have a lot more in common than I realized.”
They looked at each other for a moment, and Nora smiled.
Chapter Fifteen
Nora
Sometimes a spell sees the greater purpose, even when the witch can’t.
—Rules for Witches
Nora really didn’t want to have to tell Sam he was right. But they were moving Soraya into her apartment, and she was in Sam’s truck, and the longer she didn’t talk about last night, about all the revelations, about her total implosion, about the revenge spell she had cast ...
It just started to feel silly. If not silly, then totally dishonest.
She already knew he’d just say that Ben was awful, and he’d known it all along. He wasn’t going to be sympathetic. He would tell her how the institution of marriage was a lie, and she had been stupid to ever believe in it. Or maybe that she was stupid to have ever believed a Ouija board when it told her she would find love.
Oh, the love spell. It waspainfulnow.
“So, Ben is cheating on me.” She rubbed her knuckles against the passenger-side window, because for some reason she thought that might break some of the tension.
“What?”
Sam slammed the brakes and cranked the wheel sharply, pulling the truck over to the side of the road. He looked at her, an expression on his face that wasn’t shock but was definitely fervent.
“Yeah, I did some digging around, starting from the Instagram you showed me.” It felt like the whole sky was bearing down on her head, collapsing beneath the weight of the truth. “And I was pretty suspicious, but then he butt-dialed me during the act.”
“What?”
She’d never seen Sam look so shocked before. If it weren’t about something so hideous, she might have enjoyed it.
She shook her head and closed her eyes, just for a second. Like it might disrupt some of the intensity of the moment. Of him being so close. Looking at her. Seeing this humiliation.
“Yeah. It was awful. Thank God I didn’t see anything, but ...” Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard in denial of the emotion. She didn’t want to be sad about it. She was angry, and she deserved to be angry.
“That’s really, really horrible, Nora. I’m sorry.”
Sam looked helpless. She’d rarely, if ever, seen Sam look helpless. Kids like them couldn’t afford helplessness, and even if they did feel lost, they rarely showed it. It was an inglorious honor to have a problem so big her friend seemed stumped by it.
He unbuckled his seat belt, and before she knew it, he was across the truck and had her pulled into his arms. It was more unexpected than the hug Soraya had given her last night. His arms held her tight, and she could feel his heart beating against her cheek, and she wanted to melt against him. They didn’t touch like this on a normal day. They didn’t touch at all. Nothing in their lives had added up to make them physically demonstrative people. He was doing this for her. To make her feel better. She took a deep breath that became more of a sob and turned her face against his neck, letting him hold her. Letting him take some of the pain away.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had done that, if ever. The last time she had let someone comfort her. Maybe she was a wall. Maybe she was every bit as difficult as Ben had said she was. Except ...
Sam was here with her. He had been here all this time. Soraya had given her a hug. Daisy was here for her.
She was letting them. She would continue to let them.
He was the one who shifted in the hug slightly, and then their faces were close.
She couldn’t breathe. He was right there, so close she could see all the colors of blue in his eyes.
