“Louder! The magic can’t hear you!”
“I am a pretty, pretty unicorn, and I believe in magic!”
Archie beams. “Beautiful. Now turn the big cards around, Sparkle.”
I turn the giant deck to face me. Every single card now shows the seven of hearts.
I stare at them. I genuinely have no idea when he did this. The cards were blank thirty seconds ago, and I’ve been holding them the entire time.
The children erupt into excited squeals.
“Nice work, Sparkle,” Archie says in an undertone.
“You too, Captain Giggles.”
He flashes a grin at me, and it’s his real smile, not his Captain Giggles one.
I blink.
Fuck. For a second there, he almost had me believing in magic.
Chapter Ten
Archie
There’s glitter on Leo’s jaw.
He doesn’t know it’s there. It’s a fleck of silver catching the light every time he turns his head.
I should tell him.
Instead, I watch him move around the kitchen, opening the wrong cupboard for glasses, correcting himself, filling one with water, and bringing it to me without being asked.
Dammit.
“Thought you might want this,” he says, setting the glass on the coffee table within easy reach of where I’m sprawled on the sofa, leg elevated on the cushion he arranged earlier.
“Thanks,” I manage.
“You’re welcome.”
It’s such a small thing. A glass of water. But my brain can’t actually remember the last time someone noticed I was thirsty before I did.
I sip the water and try to summon the righteous indignation I’ve been nursing since I worked out that this whole mess began because he was trying to get revenge on my brother.
It’s getting harder.
I mean, I’m still angry. Obviously. The man broke my ankle. He ruined my birthday. He upended my entire life for the foreseeable future.
And he doesn’t even know that I know he did it deliberately. He thinks I believe the syrup was an accident, which means every time he helps me, every costume he puts on, he’s doing it because his conscience is eating him alive.
I guess I could at least tell him that I know it wasn’t an accident.
But why should I? My ankle is still broken. My ability to take on new customers and grow my business is hindered. And whatever Vaughn did to provoke a man like Leo into a restaurant-based condiment assault, Leo still chose to do it.
Although it’s difficult to maintain fury toward someone who spent two hours dressed as a sparkly unicorn named Sparkle McHornface and didn’t once threaten to murder me for it.
And believe me, I gave him plenty of reasons to.
