Page 52 of Hexed & Hazy

“This is for me too,” he says. “I’ve been in your car an awful lot lately and… that stack of papers in the back. Ro⁠—”

“You didn’t.” My eyebrows draw down. Sure, I forgot about the paperwork I’d thrown back there, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to throw it away. I glance at the trash bag, considering rummaging through it.

He steps out of the car, shuts the door, and holds out a dark blue folder with color-coded labels. My favorite color, and he went through the trouble of organizing everything by category.

“Don’t worry. I kept everything right here.”

“Oh.” I bite my lower lip. “Thank you.”

Seth has been in charge of his family since his mother’s illness made her incapable of taking care of day-to-day chores, and I know how much he has to do. Cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and paying the bills. But he wasn’t naturally organized or on top of those things until he had to be.

He did this for me, and he understands how important this is. No matter how cluttered my car is, I don’t want it to be that way. It makes my head swim to be in such a chaotic environment, though I don’t have the energy to take care of it myself.

And now, I don’t have to.

“I don’t know what to say,” I whisper.

Why am I getting worked up over something so small?

“You don’t have to say anything.” He slings the little plastic bag over his shoulder. “I just wanted to take one thing off your plate… show you that you can come to me for help. You know that, don’t you?”

I nod silently.

But it’s hard to accept. Help from anyone is difficult, and Seth has so much else to worry about, including his hex. The hex I’ve failed at breaking.

There’s something in me that wants to let him in when he smiles at me, as warm as the sun even in the dead of night. He knocks his shoulder against mine as he passes by.

“Go back to sleep,” he says. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Chapter 18

Seth

Scarlet is impossible to reach.

Rowan doesn’t have her number, and Scarlet doesn’t answer any of my calls anymore. There’s even a chance she blocked me by now. So, when Rowan meets up with me to get started on our next task—our last task—I grimace at her.

“No luck?” she asks evenly.

“She won’t answer me. She hasn’t for a while now.”

Scarlet and I used to try staying friends between breakups… and that always ended with us falling right back together. It’s good that she won’t talk to me now. She’s moving on. I am too, and I would happily respect her boundaries if that were an option.

The situation has me torn. If there’s one of my exes who would hex me, most people would think it’s her… but I don’t want to believe that.

There’s nowhere else to look. This is my last shot before I have to give up and wait it out. That’s always been hard for me. Patience.

Rowan doesn’t look as exhausted anymore, but I know she’s been tired, and it’s my fault. Either it’s because she’s working so hard to get rid of this hex, or my hex is rubbing off on her. Rowan would probably deny it, and maybe I’m letting my ideas run wild, but it feels true. The more time we spend together, even though we’re just friends, the worse her luck is going to get. I have to put an end to it.

Which means doing the thing I most want to avoid: talking to Scarlet.

Rowan sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Then I guess we’ll have to resort to desperate measures?”

“What? What’s that?”

It turns out desperate measures mean visiting Scarlet at her workplace: the only, lonely mechanic shop in all of Starbrook. I used to visit her here, back when she wanted me around, and it feels like I’m tainting those memories now.

“This is a bad idea,” I mutter, more to myself than Rowan.