‘Here.’ Finn wrapped his fingers around mine. I could feel the warm touch of his magic flowing across my skin, and the ring’s magical current subsided.
The bonfire rose and fell in the background, casting shadows across the beach, across the planes of his face.
‘How’s that?’ Finn asked momentarily, and I realized I’d been holding my breath.
Holding my breath because I’d been hoping that he might kiss me.
Chapter 11
DRESS TO BESPELL
‘But he didn’t, though,’ Lara was saying. In quite an affronted manner, it had to be said. ‘Finn doesn’t strike me as someone whowouldn’t.’
‘Maybe he’s a gentleman after all,’ I said, adding a dramatic squirt of whipped cream to Lara’s coffee.
She raised an eyebrow at me, and we both burst out laughing. No, Finn being a gentleman was definitely not it.
‘Perhaps it was the fact that Rosie was five feet away,’ Lara added over her shoulder as she carried her coffee over to the deep linen couch she liked to snuggle into. It sported a few cushions I didn’t recognize – Rosie had been on a sewing spree. ‘Maybe he gets performance anxiety in front of his mom.’
‘Wow, that’s … a dynamic I don’t really want to consider,’ I said, following after her with my own mug and a plate of cookies. I set both down on the coffee table, using a giant book about modern art as a coaster.
Lara had ditched poor Jack to help talk me through my Tucker-brother woes, something I appreciated very much. Hence the drinks I’d banged out using Rosie’s fancy espresso machine. I was pretty sure I’d ground the beans on the wrong setting and had messed up the extraction, but if you added enough syrup and cream you probably couldn’t tell. I hoped.
‘It’s something you’re going to have to think about if you move on one of the boys,’ Lara warned me with a grin. Devilthat she was, she was loving every second of this. ‘Or both of them. You’re all here, under the one roof. Which is convenient for making sneaky night-time visits. But also, potentially really awkward. Even if Rosie is cool with it. Which shemightbe. Or not. You never can tell where moms are concerned. Trust me, I’ve climbed out of enough windows to have some insight into the matter.’
‘Some of those windows were even my windows,’ I pointed out.
Lara grinned. ‘What can I say? I like a challenge. This coffee is awful, by the way. Even with all the cookie dunking I’ve been doing.’
‘Sorry. I should’ve just gone with tea.’
I sighed, thinking about last night.
‘So … as much as it pains me to say it, you’re right.’ I lowered my voice to barely a whisper. ‘There’s something going on. With both of them.’
‘Yes!’ hissed Lara in delight. She pumped her fists, cheerleader style. ‘Love triangle! Love triangle!’
I lobbed a cookie at her. ‘It’s going to be a loveline, thank you very much. I just have to figure out which direction that line is pointing in.’
‘Ah, like a human dowsing rod.’
Another cookie went flying. Lara grabbed it easily, shoving it in her mouth whole. ‘Keep them coming. I’m loving this delivery mechanism.’
I threatened her with a third, and she dissolved into giggles.
‘This one’s for me,’ I said, devouring a salted pecan one. It practically dissolved in my mouth. ‘Mm, ninety-nine per cent butter content. Perfection.’
When I’d washed it down with a sip of my awful drink, I waved my Heart Tree ring at her.
‘Remember this thing?’ I asked as the moonstones caught the sunlight. I frowned – now two of the moonstones were dark.
‘How could I forget. You pulled it out of the ground with a fork like some sort of cheapskate King Arthur.’
‘Okay, well, I’m pretty sure it’s hexed.’
‘Hexed? As incursed? You picked up a cursed ring and put it on?’
‘Youput it on,’ I reminded her.
