"Fine!"
She smiled, shaking her head as she took a deep breath before her chipped purple-painted fingers grasped the intricate antique doorknob and turned to open the door.
19. Love Spells
The door swung open with a flourish and frankly, with too much of it. Bess frowned at the old house as she tried to stop the door from slamming against the frame in its excitement.
The boy standing there looked up from where he had been staring at his shoes; expensive tennis shoes that an athlete would carefully pick out to wear when not on the field but still claiming their athleticism.
When his very clear blue eyes hit her, something dipped in her belly and a burst in her chest made her want to scream. His smile was charming, either practiced or careless, used on all of the girls in her class. Probably all of the girls above and below their class as well. And he was standing here, on The Lost Souls porch with that overused smile and handsome face, looking at her.
"Jeremy," she said his name with a caution that she felt and had felt ever since he started showing up at her locker at summer school.
"Hey, Bess. I went to your uncle's place first but you weren't there so I thought I would try here. I know you spend a lot of time here." He looked around taking in the antique lanterns and the settled-in porch. "I like this. It's," he thought for a moment then landed on, "restful."
She frowned.
He had two dimples.
Of course.
Then she pulled in a breath to hold it in her lungs before she made a decision and let it out, stepping out onto the porch closing the door behind her, motioning for him to follow her to the black wicker seating set.
He's seventeen years old. And he's tall, still lanky in that high school way that promises his muscles will fill out once the years settle more firmly against him. When he sits across from her, there isn't an ounce of nervousness as he watches her and it's enough to remind her what is going on.
"Jeremy, this has to stop."
"What?"
"You, coming around, acting like you like me."
His frown accompanied by a smile created a handsome, confused look. "You don't think I'm being genuine?"
She sighed. "I think that you ate peach shortcake at the July Festival and then you ran into me and those shortcakes were hexed, not by me or anyone here," she added hastily as she waved to the house. "And this," she then waved between him and her, "is not real. It's a product of magic; nothing else." She shrugged and looked down at her shoes. They were her favorite black boots paired with frayed jean shorts and a long-sleeved shirt that said, The Gulf of Mexico since 1672.
That handsome, confused look turned to one of placation. "Bess."
"You didn't even know my name before the festival!"
His dark eyebrows rose, disappearing under his messy hair but his smile was still there.
"Sure I did. I don't know you well, but you and I don't run in the same circles. So, I saw you at the festival, thought you were pretty, which you are, and now I want to get to know you." He shrugged. Like it was that simple.
And like she should accept it as that simple.
There was a part of her that wanted to. Jeremy Bracker, the most handsome guy in her class, had been finding her between classes whenever he got the chance since the festival - to talk to her, to ask if he could drive her home. He slipped her a note that she found between chemistry and geometry asking for her phone number. Which she did not give him.
"How did you get my phone number?"
"Why haven't you answered my texts?"
She leaned forward. "How did you get my number?"
He matched her by leaning forward, his eyes not wavering from hers. "I'll answer you by text once you text me back." And then he smirked again.
He then stood abruptly, looking down at her and she sat there craning her neck to look up at the class's most popular football player. "I don't believe in hexes, but I do believe in fate so running into you at the festival and noticing you and now being here, is what it is." He gave her that full smile that made her chest burst again and then he was walking across the porch and down the steps with his long legs before he turned and threw a smirk as he called, "Text me!" Then he was driving off in his SUV down the wooded way.
"Dammit," she whispered.
