“Oh, no. Oh, no. Seriously.” I put out a hand to stop all of this before it gets started. I can see how pale Lindy is out of the corner of my eye. “We came here for advice on what to do to break the curse. We admit we might be soulmates because no one else has ever made the thing glow, but we still plan on going our separate ways. Today. After today, we won’t see each other again.”
“I’ll probably move to Australia,” Lindy says dryly.
“Really?” I whip around. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, it seems like a cool place to live.”
“No way,” Leandra says and shivers. “There are way too many spiders there. And snakes. And other insects that I’m pretty sure are the sizes of small dogs.”
“Good point,” Lindy mutters. “Maybe Switzerland then.”
“Switzerland would be nice,” Toren agrees.
“Yeah, nothing wrong with that place,” Taylen seconds.
“They have really good spots for skiing,” Luna points out.
I really, really freaking don’t want Lindy to move to Switzerland. In fact, I want to prohibit her from moving anywhere, which surprises me because I have no idea where this random protective instinct is coming from. I just know I’d miss her, which should be an impossibility given that she’s practically a stranger. You can’t miss a stranger, can you?
“But if she leaves, and you both really are soulmates, wouldn’t that be like, you know, always missing something?” Ellis asks.
She’s still standing, but her arms have fallen back to her side, and she’s looking pretty crestfallen now about not getting a new member to welcome to the family. Ellis is now hardcore all about the family—this from a woman who thought all Cromwells were assholes before she got to know Ash. Ash shoots me a filthy look like it’s entirely my fault that I called this meeting to discuss how to get out of this curse business, and now I’ve disappointed Ellis by not wanting to be cursed, even though she knew it’s what we were here for. It’s like I’m the biggest asshole on the planet. Ash stands too and wraps an arm around Ellis’ waist, shooting me another dirty look.
Jesus. I don’t think I’ll ever understand people who are in love. It’s likely why I’ve never wanted to be in love myself.
Count them out for help.
“I make jewelry,” Luna says, getting off the couch and walking over. “Maybe I could take a look at it.”
“No way!” Granny jumps up and powerwalks her pink-clad granny bottom over to us. She crosses her arms and juts out her chin. “You’re not messing with the necklace. Do you want to unleash all hell on us? Who knows, it might be like opening up the gates of hell or Pandora’s Box, or—”
“Thank you so much for that mental picture,” I say dryly. “And so much for the curse in the first place, Granny. Thank you so very much.” I add sarcastically.
She looks right pleased with herself. “So you’re admitting you’re soulmates then? That I was right about my hunch?”
All I can do is gape at her. How on earth would she have a hunch about where to find my soulmate? I thought she just looked up someone who was single and good at hacking. I will never understand the mysterious workings of my grandmother’s mind. Make that any woman’s mind for the matter.
Toren walks up behind Luna and sets his hands on her shoulders. “That was a nice offer,” he assures her. “Thank you for wanting to help.”
Taylen and Leandra jump up together. They, at least, are coming over to defend us. I can see the determined look on their faces. Leandra goes first. “They should be allowed to be apart if they want. The curse is supposed to lead us to our soulmates, but there’s nothing that says we can’t be apart from them.”
“Just because the necklace glows doesn’t mean you’re soulmates,” Taylen argues. He’s been the most skeptical of this whole thing the entire time. He was the one who proposed the pact, actually, now that I think about it. We all followed suit because the curse creeped us out, and we didn’t want to live our lives under the funky cloud of it.
“Maybe we should put our heads together and talk it out,” Leandra says. “That includes you, Granny.” She smiles down at Milo, who looks intrigued by all this talk of curses. It’s probably all fascinating and mystical when you’re four. Or five. God, I’m bad at keeping track of the ages of kids.
Granny hoots and slaps her thigh. “Oh boy, I think we can come up with some wonderful scenarios to help you out.”
“Great,” I groan.
“You’re kind of quiet,” Ash says. He knows me best. “Normally, you’re cracking snarky jokes like Taylen, and we can always count on both of you for the humor. But right now, you’re more of the strong silent type, like Toren. Are you feeling okay?”