Page 57 of Hexed & Hazy

My eyes widen, just slightly. “Really?”

“Yeah, asshole.” She glares, but there’s something playful behind it. “Just not before I get to be happy. So don’t move on too fast.”

I shake my head. “I’ll try.”

“Doubt it.” She turns away. “Get out of my car. Talk to Rowan, or… whatever you have to do. Just go.”

Scarlet and I both have wounds that will take a little longer to heal, but when I get out of her car for the last time, I think we both feel a little closer to whole. She barely has time to drive away before there’s an interruption.

Laurel runs across the street. It’s like she appears out of nowhere—pretty typical for her—a flash of green hair and wide eyes as she stops in front of me.

“Slow down,” I say. “You’re going to slip.”

“What was she doing here?” She hits my chest, pinning me with an accusatory glare.

Right. It wouldn’t be the first time Scarlet and I hooked up after our breakup. I didn’t even think about her like that. I didn’t even look at her that way. It seems like I failed Scarlet’s final request—maybe I’ve already moved on.

Either way, this looks bad to Laurel.

“Just gave me a ride home.” I lift both hands. “Honest. We’re… we’re really over now. Have been for a while.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“Yeah, well… I mean it this time. She’s over me, too. I think.”

I know Scarlet. If she still wanted me, she would try to have me. She’s always been the type to go after exactly what she wanted. And I want her to be happy too, but it has to be with someone else—someone who can give her everything she needs. I was never that person.

“Good.” Laurel sniffs. “Let’s go inside. You’re going to catch a cold.”

She walks toward her house, and I know I’m supposed to follow, but I stay rooted.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

She turns back around. “Why not?”

“Rowan thinks there’s something going on with us.” I roll my eyes. “Like, you and me. I don’t know, she was being weird.”

She crosses her arms. “Don’t call my sister weird.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, but come on. Out of everyone, her accusing me of being in love with you⁠—”

“It’s not really about me, is it?”

Laurel is frustrating now that she’s a seer, speaking in half-truths and riddles, a faraway look in her eye as she gazes at me from the middle of the street.

I step closer. “What do you mean? Is it the hex?”

She shakes her head, pushing away the fuzzy gaze along with it. “Rowan is… I don’t want to talk about her feelings, but…”

“As if that’s ever stopped you before?”

“Touché.” She nods, biting her lower lip and slowly releasing it. “I don’t know everything that’s going on with her, but I know she’s insecure. She has four sisters, and she compares herself to all of us. Maybe she’s comparing our friendship now that you’re getting closer. You know?”

“I… I guess…”

But there’s something more. I don’t need magic or intuition to know there’s something just out of my reach—between the moments of our fingers brushing, our lips nearly touching, and⁠—

“You need to talk to her,” Laurel says bluntly.